Dungeons & Dragons: Ravenloft: Heir of Strahd Hardcover – May 13, 2025

I was not familiar with the author, but love the Raveloft setting. Having the original books in the Ravenloft universe, I was excited to give this a go. This book was fantastic. Characters were fun and unique, dialog was entertaining, and the story really captured the feel of 5th edition Curse of Strahd. I hope the author writes more books in the Ravenloft setting, she nailed it in my opinion.

No Spoilers: As a new DM who is currently running the Curse of Strahd campaign as my first full campaign, I was pleased to find a recent book published in the setting of Barovia.The book had me surprised at several twists from the very start. While using a familiar and common hook, the mists, to bring the characters to Barovia, that was about all that felt the same. Several elements beyond the player’s handbook, including a new (to me) player species and a new class, a different first encounter in Barovia, and the route of the party—it all felt very “off script” from the way I have run the first 20 sessions of my campaign.The first four hours of the audiobook had me very unsure if I wanted to continue listening. I didn’t like any of the characters, and there was no real character development. But patience was rewarded as each character deepened into a likable character as the adventure took another surprising turn.The depiction of Strahd was thoughtful. While this depiction was not exactly who I had in my mind, it gave me a reference point from which to craft my own version of the character in my campaign.It was also interesting to be introduced to several characters I had not yet met, though I knew about them from the CoS DM manual. I thought their depictions were, if anything, even better than Strahd’s.In the hard detour mid to late story, I felt very outside of my realm of experience, though I felt more immersed in the characters and the story. I felt more invested in the characters’ success, which is to say that I started to enjoy the book more.The ending was interesting. Satisfying in ways, and not in others. It gave me some ideas about how to wrap up my own campaign, and also, some ideas that I would not want to keep.I was surprised by how short the book was. Having played 20 sessions at 2-3 hours each, I had figured it would take much longer for the characters to level up. The leveling progression felt sudden, as if milestones had clustered together toward the end.While I appreciated the effort that the author (not to mention the exceptionally talented voice actor!) put into the setting and the story, I think perhaps that her style of storytelling is not what I am looking for in a story. I don’t think I would read another book by her, which is a shame, because understand she has written several Star Wars books, which is a fandom I enjoy and am even more familiar with than D&D.Since I have also played 200+ hours of Baldur’s Gate 3, I would say that the world will feel somewhat familiar and accessible to BG3 players as well, from the spells to the species to the classes to the geographical references—to a degree.I don’t regret listening to the book, but I was left wanting. Perhaps there is just a different level of depth that an author can achieve in such a short period of time as an 11 hour audiobook, so that the pacing had to feel rushed. This could have been a 24-30 hour story, and I have the feeling I might have enjoyed it more if it was, because I could have learned more about and experienced more of Barovia.One of my favorite parts of the book was the implication that this book occurs after the Curse of Strahd campaign. I enjoyed that and thought it was a creative twist. By the end, I liked most of the characters and would be interested to hear a story about them, if perhaps written by a different author.As with any good book, I found this one easy to finish and hard to “put down.” I just wish it was a little more satisfying, which to me as person who usually rolls wizards as my player characters, I think the power leveling could have felt more seamless and the narrative gaps could have been tightened.This book does a nice job of bringing the reader into the classic gothic horror context that is consistent with the actual Curse of Strahd campaign. With a combination of new characters (who take a bit too long in their character development) and familiar characters, it makes for a fun story.While I would not recommend anyone listen to this book, to a D&D fan who likes intrigue, plot twists, humor, action, and novelty, it will check most of your boxes. I was left wanting at the end of the book, and yet if the right kind of sequel were written, perhaps by another author whose narrative style matches more my preference, I would enjoy continuing on the journey with the same party for their next adventure.TLDR: 4 out of 5 stars: a good story and experience, but I wished for something longer, deeper, cleverer, more thoughtful, and a bit more familiar.

Enjoyable read

Decently written, but with a very disappointing story. Unlike the Ravenloft novels of past (such as I, Strahd: Memoirs of a Vampire, The War Against Azalin, and Vampire of the Mists for example), this is just a regurgitation of a "Curse of Strahd" campaign. There is no meanful expansion of the lore or exploration of the mechanics of the demiplanes. It's just the campaign. I'll keep it for my Ravenloft collection, but dang... I am deeply disappointed.If you're new to Ravenloft and never plan to run the campaign, it's a nice weekend read. If you're a hardcore Ravenloft junkie, this is going to taste like rice cakes- plain rice cakes. Not ranch.I hope future books within the setting do more with it, because I can meet four of my friends in a tavern and roll some dice, if I want to run the campaign again. That's sorta how campaigns are supposed to be experienced.

Fell in love pretty easily with this book, I hope these characters continue in the future. They were delightful and fun. And what a great ending.

Awesome adventure. Gives you a great taste of Ravenloft. Incredible ending. Congrats Mrs Dawson on an excellent book.

Another book written as someone's dnd campaign first and a novel second. It manages to fail at doing justice to Forgotten Realms and Ravenloft at the same time too. It is slightly worse than mediocre.

Great story on this adventure