Rating: 
Summary: Waste of paper!
Review: unlike the original RPG this book is extremely lame and boring. The characters are flat and unreal. I was very dissapointed.
Rating: 
Summary: funny, fun, fast, and furious
Review: If you're looking for a fun, entertaining fantasy book thatdoesn't babble on and on about background and blah blah blah mythologythis and that, but gewts going right away, maintains a fast pace, andends the second it should this is well worth the short time it'll take to read this quirky book. Novelizations of computer games are destined to be bad -- based on stories written by computer programmers -- but this book actually has fun with its own flaws. The people who have flamed it ... were obviuosly expecting some Robert Jordan epic or something ... whatever it was they WAY missed the point. I'll buy the sequel!
Rating:
Summary: Simply awful.
Review: Having read most of the Forgotten Realms series, I can honestly say that this is one of the worst (second only to Once Around the Realms). I found two redeeming qualities of note: first, the scene with the spiders is decent, and second, because it is one of the shorter novels, the torture of reading it doesn't last so long. I really wish someone else had written this book. The storyline is chopped up to get from one battle scene to the next. There is absolutely no suspense. The supposed protagonists go from seeing enemies in the distance immediately to the end of a fight scene. Am I supposed to be impressed? Time and again, you hear the lines "Abdel wasn't stupid enough to stand there and..." But he is. He makes your typically dense barbarian seem like a genius. Am I supposed to feel sympathy and root for this dull-witted character who used to beat up on the kids he grew up with? I don't think so. Just because a person has an inherently evil and violent nature doesn't mean he/she can't be likeable (i.e. Elaith Craulnober or Liriel Baenre). My advise: don't buy it, don't read it. And to the publishers, how can you even think about putting out a sequel?
Rating:
Summary: A Stinker
Review: I can't believe how rotten this book was. The characters were flat, the dialogue was stuttering and just plain stupid, especially all the "Abdel, I'm..." from Jahiera throughout the whole book. It takes almost the whole book for her to finish that sentence! Call me crazy, but those unfinished sentences seems like page filler to me. The story just stumbled all over the place, sudden jumps from sitting around a fire making plans, to gruesome battle scenes in the matter of a few sentences. These cuts from one place to another aren't smooth at all and make no sense in some places. And the ending....oh my what an ending. "Bad guy dead. The End.", except there's no "The End". It just stops right there, with all the loose ends blowing in the breeze. It feels unfinished in more ways than one. I've played some of the game, and even though the game has a slow start to it, it isn't anywhere near to being this bad.
Rating: 
Summary: A risky plan Phillips had here...
Review: What can I say? It was diffrent, yet dull. The book did manage to explain in detail how gruesome mid-eviel weapons can be, which, in my opinion, most fanasty novels fail to mention. (this is expecialy true in the Forgotten Realms books)The BG novel is more action based instead of the 'frolic in the medows' type of deal, like in most of the FR novels. All though this is a intresting change, this book does not feel at all like a Forgotten Reals book....And thats a bad thing. The book is diffrent, and has some intresting points (expecialy to those who have played the PC game) but for some reason Phillips picks out the dullest charecters in the game. Not only that, theres not much overall detail in anything. Basicly if your looking for a action packed gore fest, that goes 'bam-bam-bam yer done' deal, then this book is for you.
Rating:
Summary: I didn't realize writing got this bad...
Review: Reading this was, to put it politely, an near-dental ordeal. It was only true to the superlative computer RPG in that it used some of the game's dullest characters--and it ruined the ones chosen. The protagonist is wooden. The emotions are not credible. The storyline meanders rather than flows. I don't enjoy saying these things, but honesty compels: I don't see how it got into print. Someone has sacked out on the job.It looks even weaker by comparison to the rest of the Forgotten Realms series. If you want to see how good FR fantasy can be, check out R.A. Salvatore's work. According to Amazon, it seems Mr. Athans plans to reoffend by novelizing the sequel to BG. Happily, there's still time to reconsider and for wiser heads to prevail. In the meantime, you can make the sensible and positive choice to spend your money on just about anything else in print.
Rating: 
Summary: Typical TSR book!
Review: This fictional novelization on the hit computer game "Baldur's Gate" is a typical TSR book-short on plot and character development BUT heavy on the action. Do not expect the same reading experience like "Azure Bonds" series, "Dragonlance" series, or "Exiled/Drow" series gave you. Do expect a fun novel with very amusing moments and even some disgusting sections (Especially the spider section and ghoul sections...you know what I mean when you get there). The book centers around a sword-for-hire named Abdel who encounters many strange and wonderful people in his adventures to discover who he really is. Like I said a typical TSR hack. If you like the video game you may be disapointed in some ways BUT it's neat to see the game's NPC's in print. If you are an avid TSR reader (and could care less if it was a game) I recommend you read it!
Rating:
Summary: so it's not a video game
Review: I had a great time reading Baldur's Gate. I guess I had one advantage over some of the angry people who've posted below. I'm not a video game fanatic, so I wasn't expecting some rehash of the game. I thought the writing was clean and the book was definitely action-packed. Anyone who calls this book "dismal" or "depressing" obviously didn't read past the first few chapters. I liked the way Abdel starts out as kind of a violent thug, but is influenced in a positive way by Jaheira. I had a ball reading it, and hope for a sequel.
Rating:
Summary: No more, mr. Athans.
Review: This book was the worst book i have ever read. The characters were unfinished - more like name and a short dialogue by that name between constant and mindless battles. There were no descriptions about anything - the city was just a city and differed from another city only by a name. The author has managed to ruin a good adventure and good theme by his unskilled and strongly boring writing. I truly hope, that this will be his last book.
Rating:
Summary: Phil Athans should really stay away from writing
Review: I feel sorry saying this, but I really hate this book. Athans has thrown out all the interesting parts of the story line and made the less-intereting ones even more boring. Almost all the NPCs are dull and vague. The only good ones die early in the book. The story is like the rambling of a madman who can't remember what he did just a few minutes ago. And finally, the descriptions are either unnecessarily long (the battle scenes usually) or depressingly short (anything worth describing is given one to three sentences). If you've got a fiver burning in your pocket, give it to your local bum. No need to waste it on this book.
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