The Godborn

Forgotten Realms: The Sundering, Book II

By: Paul S. Kemp

Narrated by: John Pruden

Length: 14 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

In the 2nd book of the multi-author Sundering series launched by New York Times best-selling author R.A. Salvatore, the shadow legacy of Erevis Cale lives on even as his old foe Mephistopheles seeks to stamp it out at any cost. Cale’s son Vasen - unmoored in time by the god Mask - has thus far been shielded from the archdevil’s dark schemes, alone among the servants of the Lord of Light who have raised him since birth.

Living in a remote abbey nestled among the Thunder Peaks of Sembia, Vasen is haunted by dreams of his father, trapped in the frozen hell of Cania. He knows the day will come when he must assume his role in the divine drama unfolding across Faern. But Vasen knows not what that role should be...or whether he is ready to take it on. He only knows what his father tells him in dreams - that he must not fail.

Enter Drasek Riven, a former compatriot of Erevis Cale, now near divine and haunted by dreams of his own - he too knows the time to act is near. Shar, the great goddess of darkness, looks to cast her shadow on the world forever. Riven has glimpsed the cycle of night she hopes to complete, and he knows she must be stopped.

At the crossroads of divine intrigue and mortal destiny, unlikely heroes unite to thwart the powers of shadow and hell, and the sundering of worlds is set on its course.

©2013 Wizards of the Coast LLC (P)2013 Audible Inc.

Atmospheric and Engrossing

I really struggle to find Forgotten Realms books I like after reading "Brimstone Angels." This is the first book since then I've happy gotten all the way through. Less of an endless stream of "and this happened and then this happened" which is how I found "The Companions" to be.

Author wonderfully describes how things look, the environment and creatures. Fantastically grotesque and creepy. I could do with more female characters and less disparaging descriptions of "dusky skin," but what can you do.

Narrator was excellent! Good pace, I like his deep voice, and he does the right amount and frequency of character voices, only doing it where it really counts for humor or creepiness.

Meh.

Writing was only OK. The action scenes were decent paced however. Voice acting was kinda stiff in most parts and I wasn't a fan.

inconsistent

far too inconsistent story.. 1 minute Riven has rapiers the next sabres.. talking about the world of toril/abir but people are transporting to earth.

Adds to the overall

Has some really good dark story sections that make you really hate certain characters, but they deserve it. Narrator is a bit monotone, but he does a good job later as the book nears the end.

Superb.

Possibly my favorite Forgotten Realms book from definitely my favorite author. Even better the second time.
First time listening to the story, narrator did a rock solid job.

worth the wait

I listened to the cale series many times and I didn't know about this book until this year and it was finally the ending to the story that it was lacking, great book and a great narrator

Not Drizzt

I thought this was the next in the series of our dark elf, but I got confused. The Companions,”The Sundering” apparently leads into “Companions Codex “. Sundering was great, brought our favorite characters back to life in a brilliant way.
I guess R A got bored here for after 27+- years of writing this saga let his publisher tie in other story lines from some of his drinking buddies to explore the background story of the gods and how they manipulated their chosen ones. Brilliant marketing strategy. I am not familiar with this authors story line or characters so it is a bit tedious catching up on their past, and not much action until 3/4 through. Pretty well written and I may go back to some of his early works
Performance was week and reading was halting as he seemed to struggle with some of the names and story line
Not Victor Bevine quality

Decent

If you could sum up The Godborn in three words, what would they be?

Well Paced

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The voices sounded blurred together. Every character sounded like the others way too often. Stick to one style per character and quit mixing them up.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Yes, the author used the word, said, way too often. He needs to mix it up with replied, and other such words.

"the sky is cloudy," guy 1 said.

"yes it's getting dark," other guy said.

"I think it might rain," guy 1 said.

COME ON, said said said said TOO DANG MUCH!

This book starts off SLOW, but..

The book starts off slow and keeps going that pace for a while. It took me some time to get through it, but it did pick up. The characters seem a bit odd, but things finally fall in place towards the end. All in all and looking back, I really did like it.

Not a follow up to The Companions.

Jumped into the series for Drizzt and the Companions, this book follows a whole new group of much less interesting people in a very high concept yet boring story.