Are there any novels about the Baldur's Gate series?
johntyl
Member Posts: 400
I just finished Durlag's Tower and I really enjoyed the plot and background story of Durlag: the kind of intricate and complex storylines that games nowadays are lacking (i.e. Diablo 3, etc.).
Therefore, I was wondering if there are any novels or stories out there (besides the in-game books) that provide a full and comprehensive story of the world of Baldur's gate? I would love to get my hands on one of them.
P.S. Apparently, the one novel entitled 'Baldur's Gate: A Novelization' by Philip Athans is horribly rated. Are there better ones out there?
Therefore, I was wondering if there are any novels or stories out there (besides the in-game books) that provide a full and comprehensive story of the world of Baldur's gate? I would love to get my hands on one of them.
P.S. Apparently, the one novel entitled 'Baldur's Gate: A Novelization' by Philip Athans is horribly rated. Are there better ones out there?
3
Comments
As for finding out more about things in Baldur's Gate, it's mostly relegated to characters that made cameos or have small roles. There is a extensive series about the Harpers, many of Elminster, and a metric ton about Drizzt.
But there are plenty of Forgotten Realms novels out there. R.A. Salvatore is an especially popular author and famous for his Drizzt books.
As for the Baldur's Gate games themselves, there's several fan-written novelization attempts on the interwebs, some even on this forum! @Blackraven, @rufus_hobart, @Moczo, and @BladeDancer have all written stories for Baldur's Gate. (Along with...ahem...yours truly.) You can find their stories here, here, and here, and here's a link to BladeDancer's story on fanfiction.net: here! His is the longest, having gone through all of BG1 and well into BG2.
(And, uh... H-Here's mine too... *insert shameless self-promotion here*)
Also don't forget to check out the official Baldur's Gate EE short stories written for Dorn, Rasaad, and Neera. You can find the link in this thread: http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/37847/bg-ee-official-short-stories#latest
Although, the first book is depressingly flat, but things improve in the second and third books.
and
http://www.candlekeep.com/
are good sources of information about the Forgotten Realms.
As for novels, in addition to R.A. Salvatore I'd suggest Elaine Cunningham, Paul S. Kemp, Richard Lee Byers, and Erin Evans. They have all produced some very interesting characters and stories.
I'm also not entirely sure what @lroumen is talking about in that spoiler, unless it's something that happens after book 15, since that was the last one I read.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9316156/1/BG-EE-Adventures-In-The-Sword-Coast
While speaking about fanfiction, I find a link in this tweet to be relevant:
I personally detested the Moonshae trilogy, but its got serious Bhaal(s), so you might find it interesting. I found the Avatar trilogy, and more so the follow ups about Cyric to be among the best overall. The RA Salvatore Drizzt stuff varies, and is often aimed at a less well read demographic, but let me say if you ARE in the target demographic, those books are ****ing catnip. You'll devour them all and bask in the buzz, just like I once did. They're fun books imo, which is great if that's what you're looking for. Very cinematic writing style, which makes them easy to visualize. He's certainly not one of the worse fantasy authors, even if people complain about his action scenes.
But the actual BG novelizations are as noted not worth the trouble of digging around for. If they literally jump into your hands, you might read them, but they won't add too much to your appreciation of the series I think.
If you've read more books, look for something that has more depth, IE the odd really good Ravenloft book, or the Thieves' World series, or Tolkien if you want something more mythological. There are lots of better books out there than the BG novels, which is why I say you might as well look elsewhere unless you have a reason to read them.
The others are alright at best. If you need to read them wait for a sale on amazon.
The novels didn't have too much appeal to the community, and probably even less to the larger readership of FR novels. Pools of Radiance was a decent novel I know.
- The Bhaalspawn, Abdel Adrian, is a thuggish mercenary who already has ample experience as a fighter at the start of the story.
- There is a completely gratuitous scene where Gorion's body is devoured by ghouls and Abdel kills them, complete with descriptions of Gorion's various body parts (such as his eyeballs) falling out as he disembowels them.
- Khalid is some slimy lech who has already cheated on Jaheira once before.
- Jaheira is much more helpless in the novel. At one point, a spider crawls into her clothes, and Abdel ends up ripping off her shirt.
- Minsc is some red-haired idiot working at the Copper Coronet. He has no further relevance to the plot.
- During the sojourn through the Underdark, Imoen sleeps with Phaere and discovers she is a lesbian.
- Abdel ends up sleeping with Bodhi, despite having Jaheira as his love interest.
As for RAS' Drizzt novels, I can't help but feel as if they're out of step with modern tastes in fantasy. I might be wrong, but it feels as though people these days prefer darker and edgier fantasy stories with "morally ambiguous" characters (such as works by GRRM, Joe Abercrombie, Richard Morgan, Glen Cook, etc.)
That, and RAS is quite terrible at coming up with names; suffice it to say, someone named "Matron Malice" is probably not going to be someone to invite over for dinner.
And there's a villain named "Roddy McGristle." Make of that what you will.
1: Abdel is already a seasoned adventurer by the start of the novels, and hasn't set foot nor has he spoken to Gorion in years.
2: It's a random band of mercenaries that attack and kill Gorion, not Saravok.
3: The Harpers are planning to use Abdel to somehow expand their power. How exactly, it's not explained.
4: Khalid is from Amn and is frightened of Abdel the moment he meets him, as is every man that looks at him
4: Jaheira immediately wants to sleep with Abdel, as does every woman he comes into contact with.
5: Imoen is nowhere in the first novel, and only appears in the second for Abdel to immediately talk down to.
6: Abdel claims that Bodhi forced him to sleep with her, and Jaheira's okay with this.
7: Irenicus is trying to create an army of Slayers so that he can attack Suldanessellar and become a god.
8: Abdel dies, but comes back thanks to Jaheira and Imoen screaming his name loud enough that he claws out of the Hells and his own grave.
9: Everyone dies in obscenely graphic ways. Abdel of course, is the only survivor, because he gains the power of regeneration and can take whatever you throat at him.
10: Abdel assaults Balthazar's monastery in the nude, and everyone is too terrified of the sight to properly fight back.
The progression of insanity held within that series is truly something to behold. Thankfully, the rest of the Forgotten Realms novels are decent reads at their worst. Salvatore and Ed Greenwood's works really do stand out from all the rest though, with Ed being the creator of the Forgotten Realms, his books have the best feel to them in my opinion, he puts a lot of loving detail into them and you can just tell that FR is his baby just with the way he writes it.
While there are several other authors that have books in the same setting and many of them are highly enjoyable, Salvatore and Greenwood are the true standouts of the bunch.
There was an interview with RA somewhere linked in this forum in which he explains it all. If anyone can link that...
BG novels are bad, though. If you like cheesy B-movie titles, it may be an interesting read to see how they butcher and destroy every npc and character from the series. Fun to see how horrible it gets. Spoiler:Jaheira is a weak girl who screams for help at every opportunity, Minsc is a red haired bartender, Imoen sleeps with the drow woman and is murdered viciously later on. Actually, nearly all characters suffer horrible, excruciating deaths in full detail, further making the novels more alike b-movies.
" R.A. Salvatore: I knew from the moment I left the meeting where Wizards told me about Fourth Edition and the changes to the Realms that we would, in the not-too-distant-future, be scrambling to revert the world to the freshness and feel of Ed Greenwood’s creation. I left that meeting plotting out how I was going to play my role in that rebirth of the Realms, and so did Ed. I didn’t realize it would happen so quickly! " (source: http://whatculture.com/offbeat/interview-with-r-a-salvatore-author-of-the-companions.php)
I apologise for the crappy editing, I'm on my phone and don't really feel like wrestlig with that right now.
In the first novel, when Abby finds Gorion's note in Candlekeep confirming that he is a Bhaalspawn (Xzar somehow knew he was), Gorion didn't personally rescue Abdel, and he never had a near personal relationship with his mother, he never even personally knew Abdel's mother, instead, a paladin (no name given) who is a friend of Gorion rescued Abby and brought him to Gorion in Candlekeep, and unlike in the game, the authorities of Baldur's Gate never learned of Abdel's Bhaalspawn heritage after he defeated Sarevok, otherwise they would not have welcomed him as a Duke of Baldur's Gate afterwards and become a beloved Duke in Murder in Baldur's Gate. The same can't be said for the game protagonist since they found out his/her heritage, and that is one of the reasons why he/she left the Sword Coast.
In Shadows of Amn, Irenicus doesn't seem interested in "torturing" Abdel himself, instead, he gets the Shadow Thieves's torturer, Booter, to do the job, and it is revealed that the Shadow Thieves, for some reason, are interested in Abdel and hired Irenicus to capture him, but they attack his hideout because they are mad at how he is treating Abdel. Why do they care?! And why are they mad at him when it is their dungeon keeper and torturer Booter who is "torturing" him, claiming he works for the Shadow Thieves when Abdel asked him who is his boss? Don't ask, it gets very confusing. Plus, there is no guild war.
Also, in the Throne of Bhaal novel, Sarevok's past is in no way connected to Abdel's, unlike in the game, the Solar never revealed to Abdel events of his childhood that he forgot about that tie in to his heritage, and not once is Abdel referred to as the Bhaalspawn known as Gorion's Ward mentioned in the Bhaalspawn prophecy, in fact, there is no prophecy in the novels at all, he was just reluctantly dragged into this conflict.
In my fan fiction, I made Abdel and Gorion's Ward two different characters, Gorion raised three children of Bhaal instead of two, Abdel being older than my OC and Imoen, he left Candlekeep to become a mercenary years before 1368 DR, and in my BG2 fan fiction, my OC and Imoen reunite with Abdel in Irenicus's dungeon in the beginning, and later he becomes one of the traveling companions for my OC.
On the other hand, I read my copies with a morbid sense of curiosity - I regretted buying them (I have two of the three) but after I started reading, I just had to continue to see how bad they could be.
It could be that the only purpose of some books is to serve as a warning to others how not to write.