• Blackstaff Tower

  • Forgotten Realms: Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep, Book 1
  • By: Steven E. Schend
  • Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
  • Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (185 ratings)

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Blackstaff Tower  By  cover art

Blackstaff Tower

By: Steven E. Schend
Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
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Publisher's summary

A Call for Heroes!

A young group of friends stumble across a terrifying conspiracy that holds the heir to the Blackstaff, the defender of the city of Waterdeep, in terrible danger. These friends must search deep within themselves to become the heroes their city needs to save its champion from those who would see both brought low.

Ed Greenwood, beloved author and creator of the Forgotten Realms, presents the first book in a brand-new series dedicated to showcasing both the City of Splendors and our most talented up-and-coming authors. A series of stand-alone adventurers, this book and the series to which it belongs were written specifically for those readers with no prior knowledge of the Forgotten Realms, making it an excellent entry point for new readers.

©2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Blackstaff Tower

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Hard to Listen to

The Narrator made a number of questionable decisions, including voicing one of the main characters as a dumbed down Kermit the Frog. Overall his performance made this the first audio book on Audible that I just couldn't finish. The story is so-so, but entertaining enough that a good performance would have allowed me to see it through to the end.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Bullwinkle the god damned moose.

This is one of the more bland and pointless d&d books ive had in a while. The characters are flat and lifeless, the setting is just thrown at you with no real explaination or introduction, which is not a good idea for a series done to get people interested.

Worst, the worst, is the narrator. Seriously. He voices the big badass barbarian as bullwinkle the moose. He does it with several characters. The rest all have this bland lifeless tone that just blends together so you have no idea who is who.

The final deathstroke for the book is the "witty" halfling thief whom the writer is obviously proud of, but just comes off as that one annoying asshole at the game table everybody just wishes to throw out.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Skip this series.

The narrator is awful. The writing is plodding and nonsensical it's just heavy handed throughout.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

I liked the goofy narrator voices.

I grabbed this one because the blurb said it was written for people who were new to Forgotten Realms and was showcasing Waterdeep. It fails utterly.

It constantly references things that you'd need to be quite familiar with Forgotten Realms to understand, and up to date with it's constantly evolving story line. It showcases WaterDeep in much the same way that a really great performance of one of Shakespeare's plays showcases the excellent carpentry of the stage being performed on.

The narrator does numerous voices, mostly intensely silly. They meld a bit later, as three characters seem to use the same "Big, dopey guy" voice.


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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The story keeps your attention.

I am along time lover of forgotten realms novels, as well as a tabletop gamer. This book does not dissapoint. Good action and dramatic tension overall.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Zero Tension

It kept putting the characters in positions to learn and grow, then they would just solve the puzzles or defeat the enemy with little to no effort.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Terrible narration

Really takes away from the story. Really disappointing. The breathing is distracting and takes away from an interesting story

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Muy disfrutable promedio

El narrador es mediocre, si bien agradable la mayoría del tiempo. Usa tonos poco naturales en algunos diálogos y uno de los protagonistas, cierto mercenario, tiene una vez exagerada que parece una sátira más que una voz real, y corta un poco la inmersión. De un modo u otro, si como yo buscas una historia de intriga clásica de reinos olvidados, o ahondar en la gran ciudad de Aguas Profundas, no te defraudará

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A great listen(read).

The narrator's style of delivery took a few minutes for me to get used to. Once I accepted that the rest of the book was fantastic for me. Which is not surprising, being a DM from1980-1993, I am an avid follower of forgotten realms lore. I have read almost every book in forgotten realms and won't stop til I have finished them all.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Fine for a college writing assignment but not published

This is mediocre fan fiction. Characters are flat and story seems forced but that wasn’t the worst of it. The characters, both hero and villain, explain what they did after the author describes the scene. They explain their powers, share their motivations, tell their opponents how they could have done better etc. it is unbearable.

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