Baldur's Gate: the novel - a guide

[morningglory]

If anyone is wondering how this particular author could get such a poor representation of BGII published, please read this excerpt from the 'author's' bio web page.. Phil Athans...

 

 

".....When that job moved west to Seattle in 1997, Phil moved with it and eventually became Managing Editor for Wizards of the Coast Book Publishing, where he’s spent most of his time as the Forgotten Realms novel line editor. He’s edited over seventy novels for TSR and Wizards of the Coast, and helped launch the Greyhawk®, Dark Matter®, Star*Drive®, and Dungeons & Dragons® novel lines while making time to write books, the occasional short story, and even a screenplay or two."

 

 

Hmmmm..... It seems to add a whole new dimension to the expression "conflict of interest."

 

MG

[Drew]

Aside from all the internal story inconsistency with BG2 (I'd hate to see what the hell will happen with the story there) you'd think that there would be editors to catch this kind of thing. Obviously no one cared very much about the construction of this... book.

Funny you mention Editors.....the Author is an editor.

 

EDIT: Morning Glory beat me to it. I guess great minds think alike.

[Grunker]

Imagine if some newcomer suggested making a TC that converted the Baldur's Gate Series into the exact story of the books. The blood, the carnage, the horror he would be exposed to

[morningglory]

Aside from all the internal story inconsistency with BG2 (I'd hate to see what the hell will happen with the story there) you'd think that there would be editors to catch this kind of thing. Obviously no one cared very much about the construction of this... book.

Funny you mention Editors.....the Author is an editor.

 

EDIT: Morning Glory beat me to it. I guess great minds think alike.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I feel sorry for the ppl who worked for Athans at the time.. Imagine your boss, who is managing editor (more or less) for the entire book line, coming in one day and saying, "I've just finished a book for BG that we can publish. Want to give it a once-over before I send it to press? You know -- check for spelling and whatnot?"

 

(@Drew: Great minds in the same channel. However, we don't have the same taste in lingerie. )

[BevH]

I feel sorry for the ppl who worked for Athans at the time..  Imagine your boss, who is managing editor (more or less) for the entire book line, coming in one day and saying, "I've just finished a book for BG that we can publish.  Want to give it a once-over before I send it to press?  You know -- check for spelling and whatnot?" 

 

(@Drew:  Great minds in the same channel.  However, we don't have the same taste in lingerie.  )

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ummm... they check for spelling errors?!?!?

[Sorrow]

I love Baldur's Gate, I used to read them to boost my self esteem when I was in severe depression.

Besides that, those books are really sick and this is why I love them !

 

7) Abdel is absolutely petrified of gibberlings.  Admittedly when he first encounters them, it was pitch black and there were several hundred of them.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's because gibberlings are unaccurately shown in game. They usually come in hordes of several hundreds.

There's nothing wrong in being afraid of a horde of wild, murderous creatures.

 

Imagine if some newcomer suggested making a TC that converted the Baldur's Gate Series into the exact story of the books. The blood, the carnage, the horror he would be exposed to

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think that it's a great idea !

I wonder doing such mod would be possible...

[the bigg]

4) Tamoko is a exceptionally skilled assassin from Kozakura.  And Sarevok's sexual slave.

 

[...]

 

24) Abdel and Jaheira can barely keep their hands off each other.  It's usually him who pushes her away.

 

[...]

 

26) Apparently Jaheira has "modest but well-rounded cleavage", which Abdel gets to see after a spider goes down there and she rips off all her clothes trying to get rid of it.  As you do.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wow, I'm sure that Ggib_Eht would do a port of the book to the game, if only he had the time, the book and BG1

[neriana]

26) Apparently Jaheira has "modest but well-rounded cleavage", which Abdel gets to see after a spider goes down there and she rips off all her clothes trying to get rid of it.  As you do.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How does one have well-rounded CLEAVAGE? That's the area between the breasts, not the breasts themselves. Rounded? Eeeewww.

[BigRob]

Possibly it is spatial distortion from the author's apparent focus on that area.

 

 

 

 

And this twit edited FR books? Stick to the role of mobile spellchecker, my lad, and let people with talent do the writing.

[Noctalys]

*sniff* They killed Xan... *sniff*

 

I truly believe that a lobotomized troll wearing a ring of stupidity backwards while simultaneously having his knees bitten off by angry midgets and using a deformed pencil to write could produce better prose than this....this drivel.

 

Oh, and said troll had stumps instead of hands. And he had to write while he was covered in killer bees. And he had never seen a pencil before in his life. And he was blind.

 

 

I never did see Jaheira to be the kind of woman to just get naked around others she wasn't romantically involved with. I especially don't see her getting naked in order to remove your average joe-spider from said 'rounded' cleavage. This author needs to be stabbed in the face with impunity.

[devSin]

I enjoyed your synopsis, thanks. Be sure to do another if you read any other BG-based novel.

[Grunker]

Start: Action.

 

Action: Flame.

 

Target: Sorrow.

 

Sorrow: Flamed

[Simbriant]

Oh how you have suffered. You have my deepest sympathies.

 

When I first saw the original Baldur's Gate novel I was like "Cool!" Everything went downhill from there. I stopped reading the book when I reached the point where Khalid was killed with the acid. I felt ripped off. The money I spent on the novel was an utter waste. The writing is very dry. Reading through everything to even that point was a struggle. I don't know how he keeps his job after writing garbage like that.

 

One of the oddest things I remember about the book (it has been a few years so forgive me if I am a bit off on it) is that there was a scene between Jah and Abdel alone in a room. I think Abdel said something akin to, "There is a voice in my head telling me to take you, Jah." All through that scene my mind was screaming "What voice? This whole stupid story has been from your POV and you haven't once mentioned a voice!"

 

I wanted to burn the book at that point. Instead, I gave it to a friend that read it...and then burned the book. He agreed. The book blows.

 

I had to find something good to read after that. Fortunately, I had a Terry Goodkind novel on hand.

 

On an unrelated note, a novel based on a game that is decent in its own right is Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor by Carrie Bebris. I say that it is decent in its own right meaning that I have not played the game so I can't compare its accuracy. But as a stand alone novel, it is interesting.

[Grunker]

I have not played the game

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Obviously

 

I think Ruins of Myth Drannor is one of the worst "roleplaying" experiences I've ever had. The game just outright sucks. You can't move you screen away from the characters, and on top of that your characters walk with a speed resembling that of Zombie.

[Sorrow]

Start: Action.

 

Action: Flame.

 

Target: Sorrow.

 

Sorrow: Flamed

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Why?