Venom in Her Veins

By: Tim Pratt

Narrated by: T. David Rutherford

Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's Summary

Child of prophecy? Harbinger of Doom?

Zaltys is a girl like any other to grow up ranging the jungles of the Southern Lluirwood. She’s a crack shot with a bow and no stranger to the dangers that lurk beneath the deep forest canopy.

On expedition with her family to harvest the forbidden terazul flower, a powerful drug that has gathered many a dreamer into its narcotic embrace, Zaltys is about to unearth a truth long buried by the feculent loam of deception. As the veil is lifted on the world Zaltys thought she knew, a pathway to the Underdark promises the answers her family never gave. Venturing forth in search of truth, Zaltys finds betrayal to be a much easier quarry. But it will take more than a lode of lies to quell the venom in her veins.

©2012 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Good Stroy

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

The story is good, but the performance, well... Since it is about a girl, I would have enjoyed the performance better if a woman read this story. I felt the reader rushed through the book so I found it hard to relax and listen. If I was listening to this while I was running instead of to relax after work maybe I would have liked the performance better..

Simple and straight forward.

'Venom in Her Veins' is pretty much a classic D&D adventure; it is a short journey into danger for reasons simple and noble. People won't get anything special from this book other than a minour look into the life of a region rarely visited in the Forgotten Realms, but that is also enough. The book's main draw is its charismatic and unique characters and how they deal with issues. Overall, this book isn't a masterpiece, but neither is there anything wrong with it. It is simply offering simple fun and adventure. Absolutely worth a listen if you simple want something light and easy to listen to for some hours of enjoyment.

Lacking

The book had great potential. It has unique characters, a great structure for the family it's centered around, and a little comic relief. But as a whole this book seemed more like an introduction to a bigger story. But as I understand it, it's a stand alone novel.

Great Story

I had a great time with this story. The only drawback was the narration. At times he rushed through the whole story. He didn't really have any inflection while narrating the story which I think took a lot away from the great scenes dispersed through out the book. He had no emotion in his narrative at all, it was very brisk and business-like. Almost like he just narrated for the cash, not so much for the performance. Just download the book. It's a better experience. I would like to see a series made out of the heroine's travels. Is there more to this story?

Voice acting is terrible...

Would you try another book from Tim Pratt and/or T. David Rutherford?

T. David Rutherford voice is WAY TOO fast...it's awful without much variation. Better to read the book. The story is good, inventive.

Arggggg!

Any additional comments?

I've looked for hours in this new Audible D&D section to find a book that is NOT the romance and/or psychiatrist-notes-collected-on-the-neurotics (er, I mean, characters) stuff that nearly all Fantasy (Middle Ages tech/culture/myths) novels seem to have been warped into lately.

Nearly all I’ve found so far seemed likely to be the above, or else in the right ballpark but SO HEAVY and WEIGHTY. The kingdom will fall, all magic everywhere will die, the world (and universe) is gonna DIE unless this band of heros –yada yada yada.

I was kind of hoping this new D&D subgenera had escaped the plague. It seems to me that D&D novels should be more like what we had in mind when playing it, if we did. A story about a band of adventurers, operating entrepreneurially, who sometimes also take up a mission if the pay is right or a partner is captured. Movies like Conan the Barbarian, Pirates, or in SCI-FI, Serenity (before the crew gets caught up the govt and zombies thing). Or like the TV series Highlander, Hercules, or Zina. Or even the ancient Jason and the Argonauts from Greek times. Like that in scope and feel. Not HUGE and WEIGHTY and so VERY IMPORTANT TO ALL EVERYWHERE.

The only one like that I’d found so far is Prince of Ravens and the narrator performed it just right for the story. Highly recommend that one and, please Audible, more of Jack Ravenwild with the same narrator. This is the scope and feel a D&D novel should be.

I thought I had found another with this Venom, and maybe the writing is there but I don’t know. The narrator’s voice(s) seems good but he is speed-reading it. From chapter 3 forward it’s like one long fast sentence (probably 3-5) untill he finally has to inhale for 1/4 second and then keeps rushing to the end. Arghhh! What I think I heard (could absorb going that fast) seems to be right. I pushed to bear it an hour but I have to give up. Entertainment is not supposed to be annoying and hard, it is supposed to be entertaining. Please have this one redone. It could even be the same narrator but just have the guy slow the heck down.

Potentially a great novel, let down by narrator.

I was excited to listen to this book as many folk in the Forgotten Realms community spoke highly of it, often claiming the book deserved to be a trilogy.

Unfortunately the narration made it impossible to care about any of the characters, because none of them seemed to care about what was happening in the story. And so what potentially could have been a great story was somewhat ruined.

The narrator seemed to be trying to get through the book as quickly as possible, often not taking a breathe between sentences, even when two different characters were speaking. It made it difficult to follow what has happening at times, and as every character now has the same Texan accent, it was hard to know who was speaking sometimes too. You do eventually get used to the voice, but overall, not great.

None of the characters were portrayed with any emotion other than aloofness, which I don’t think was the author’s intent. I found myself often repeating sentences in my head with how I thought the character would be talking.

The story itself was quite interesting, and has given me some great ideas for my own D&D campaign. If you’re looking for something a little out of the box for your typical Forgotten Realms novel, this is a good option. It features many under-utilised races and a whole host of cool and exciting magical items - it actually feels somewhat like a D&D campaign, whereas other FR novels often feel like they could be any generic fantasy novel.

Overall I’d say the book is worth your time, but I’d look for the actual book/e-book if you have the time to read it.