Dragon Age: The Calling

As an avid gamer, I tend to want more once the game is done. There are many games that have tie-in books, however most are terrible, I plod my way through them and eventually give up. This one, however, pulled me in and kept me. I am NOT saying this book is without fault! It has some places throughout that are slow. It has some flaws. All things considered, I still feel like this is a book. It has a story of it's own, it has an end that feels good...etc. This is why I give it 5 stars, because it is a wonderful book, not just a "game tie-in" It explains much of the in universe lore for those who have never played the game! (My Mother even enjoyed this and that's a miracle and a half!!) For those who have played the game it gives some back story on in game characters. Overall a great read! I have the paperback copies as well as the audiobook. Since there were no reviews of the audio version and Amazon won't let me review them separately I will add the other here as well. **** I only give four stars for the Audio (MP3) CD version for the following reasons: The Audio CD as I discovered to my dismay Is 12 CDs so I bought the MP3 version. To start off, it is a DATA CD so it does NOT play in all CD players! Buyer Beware! It is also on 2 (two) CDs while I know (and own) Many longer books on a REAL MP3 CD (not the data variety) That are only 1 (one) disc and play in all CD players I could get my hands on! So this one is a terrible disappointment! Furthermore, the reader misses whole lines in some places and will sometime read "14 years" or "12 Years" when the book clearly says "8 years" jumping around when discussing the same event!! I realized I should add the Kindle version as well. It has some serious misspelling and poor grammar! I grew up in a country were they don't teach us how to spell and they were bad even to me! Also, the cost of the kindle version seems high compared to others. Hope this helps!!

This book is a story about the Calling, a little known aspect of the Grey Wardens of Dragon Age fame. (Please see the attached photos.) I will be honest in saying that I am not a fanatic Dragon Age fan. I became interested when Amazon suggested a video with Felicia Day in it a couple of years back. Then, I got one of the games for the PS4, and have been buying a few guidebooks, etc. since then. The world is interesting, and, while constructed using traditional post-Tolkein fantasy elements, the stories, plots, and predicaments faced by the heroes of the story tend to have a very current day feel to them. The Calling is very well done. I thought that it was going to be a graphic novel given the price and the advertisement, but David Gaider has put together a full fledged fantasy novel at graphic novel price. Well done Sir! Based on the Calling, I will buy more Dragon Age literature. The Calling has engaging characters with real issues (both internal and external), and the characters grow throughout the novel and deal with the challenges in reasonable ways. Yes, this is a young adult novel, and there are fantasy novel cliches/troupes. For example, there is a stern, adult figure. There is a plucky, reckless juvenile figure (who does in fact save the day through reckless action). There are pets, and, in keeping with the Dragon Age formula, there are some very modern/progressive relationships and very progressive views of those relationships by the medieval crowd. I will not add a spoilers section because one aspect of the book that will be the big draw for hardcore Dragon Age fans will be in understanding what the Calling is and what its effects are. All in all, it is well constructed with some troupes that will be appreciated by the target audience. Well done!

I've read quite a few novels based on video game adaptations, prequels, sequels, and spin-offs. I've heard the Halo novels, the Mass Effect novels, and several others. I can say with confidence that David Gaider is a not only a great video game writer, but a fantastic novelist in his own right. The characters in both this book and his previous work are so alive and so human that I honestly missed them when I finished reading. Gaider's first novel, " Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne , felt a little abrupt and could have easily been double the length. The Calling suffers from none of that problem, which makes it a far better book. The most attractive part of the novel are, as I mentioned previously, its characters. Each of the Grey Wardens feel like they have their own extensive history. They honestly feel as if they've been together for years and experienced plenty of their own ups and downs. They interact with one-another in a very human way, and each of them are expertly written by Gaider. This novel is a must-read for fans of the game who wish to play the expansion Dragon Age: Origins Awakening . This book is a direct prequel to that game, as " Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne was to the main video game Dragon Age: Origins . Being a fan of the video game, however, is not a requirement to enjoy this novel. Gaider's print works are excellent and are more than worthy of standing on their own accord as novels rather than as supplemental reading for video game fans like so many other game adapted works out there. If you're a fan of fantasy, Gaider's Dragon Age works are simply not to be missed.

I played the hit console/PC title "DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS" before having read either this book or the first one (The Stolen Throne). I will write one review assessing both books. Sure, the game has an amazingly rich and immersing plot in itself, with an amazing backstory... but I often found myself wondering about "Alistair's Dad" (Maric), or wishing to know more about Duncan, who you barely even get to know in-game before (spoiler) he dies (end spoiler). Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne In reading "The Stolen Throne", I learned a lot about "Terrible Teyrn Loghain Mac Tir", as well as learning a lot of the basics about "Rebel Prince/King Maric". In the game, Loghain is a real piece of work one can easily begin to hate. The book, however, paints quite the different picture about him. The Calling (Dragon Age) In reading "The Calling" we learn many more truths about this "King Maric" (Alistair's and Cailan's father).... but we learn masses of things about DUNCAN. Duncan was one of the most influential characters in the game, even though he was there for what seems to be the least amount of time. (Once one reads "The Calling", and they have played the game, they can find it almost ironic that as much as Duncan (***SPOILER***) despised his commander and hated the Wardens, he ended up becoming the commander of the Ferelden Grey Wardens, just like Genevieve (his commander) was leader of the Orlesian Grey Wardens... Also ironic that he was an Riviani in Orlais who went to Ferelden, lol) (***END SPOILER***)

An engrossing novel set in the Dragon Age universe that both adds to and enhances the story of the video game. Dragon Age: The Calling picks up several years after the events of Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne and answers several questions that were left at the conclusion of the previous novel. The characters that are present in the original novel are given more depth and further fleshed out as "living" people with flaws and triumphs. I will say that this is a story written entirely for fans of the universe. If you did not enjoy Dragon Age: Origins the game or Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne (novel) this book is unlikely to please you. While the story does a good job of introducing each new character it has little in the way of inviting new readers, so, if you want to read this book either read the first one or play the game (preferably both!!!...book first though). All in all this is an exciting book about a dark fantasy world known as Thedas and is set primarily in a barbarian country known as Ferelden, which fans of D&D type storylines should enjoy.

I really love Dragon Age, and must have played through Dragon Age Origins so many times I lost count it was just that good of a game. Dragon Age 2 on the other hand...well let us not go there but its OK for what it is. The Calling by David Gaider is a prequel to the game Dragon Age Origins, and details certain events that happened about 20-25 years before Origins began. I had a hard time rating this book, mainly because I felt it is worth about 3.5 stars. I put it at the higher end though mostly because Gaider does an excellent job in describing the world around him in excellent detail. Although we really don't get much of a sense or clear picture of the main characters, environments are laid out so well I could really see myself being there. The reason for the 3 stars I was leaning for is mostly due to the complete lack of character development. The story introduces the Grey Wardens, the characters that are played in the game Origins. The Wardens in Origins were heroes, and were described and told as such, and when you played through the game you really did feel like you were the one deciding Fereldans fate. In this book however, the Wardens are a bunch of one dimensional almost card board like individuals with little to no minds of their own. Half the time the characters are blindly following their leader on a fool's errand quest, that they don't even really state why they are deciding to go along with it. It seemed to me like the characters were drones, and this is surprising because even a young Duncan who was so well made in Origins (Although obviously older in the game), just seemed to be a stereotypical thief in this story. His character was so alien in this book I had a very hard time even believing it was the same Duncan from Origins. The Duncan in Origins was solemn yet strongly dedicated to the Warden cause. This younger Duncan seemed to question and even hated being in the Wardens, in fact...the entire cast of characters on the exception of their leader all hated being in the Wardens which made it hard to feel any form of sympathy for them when they were being overrun by darkspawn. In a sense, it made the Wardens look like a bunch of cruel heartless individuals who didn't care what it took to get things done. The book features King Maric, who is a main character from the previous Dragon Age book Stolen Throne. Maric seems to be a bumbling idiot, and I was amazed that this man was put on the throne at all. I was pleased to see Loghain in the book, but he really didn't get much screen time which was a shame, since I think this book could have been so much better with Loghain following the Wardens into the Deep Roads then Maric, who I really didn't like because he was just seemed a little spineless to me. Also he just up and leaves to follow the Wardens blindly, not even giving much regard he was leaving behind a kingdom and a young son. It just made him out to be selfish and cowardly, and couldn't help but agree with Loghain when he chastised Maric for wanting to along with the Wardens. This felt really strange considering Loghain was the hated enemy of the Wardens in Origins. A lot of the book has the companions trudging through the Deep Road looking for the brother of their leader Geneieve. I won't give away more beyond that due to spoilers, but the plot really didn't pick up until towards the end, and even then, it seemed the conclusion was rushed. I felt like if Gaider didn't focus so much on telling page after page about the companions moving through tunnels that all looked alike practically, and actually focused on plot developments, this could have been a real winner. Instead, this is just an adequate fantasy book and may or may not be well liked by Dragon Age fans.

I've read numerous fantasy novels over the years, and have written one. As such, I know just how hard it is to write a dungeon crawl story. It gets monotonous; same enemies, same surroundings until the boss fight. Maybe some romantic frottage. What have you. But this was just... meh. Don't get me wrong, I loved Dragon Age Origins. I loved Duncan, despite his rather precipitous entry and exit. I loved the lore of the Grey Wardens. And I loved seeing all the medieval organisations, such as the Templars, come to life with the gameplay. I sympathised with the mages, but I also loved Cullen. This, however, falls flat, and the flow of time is extremely hard to grasp. Usually I'm good at it, but unfortunately, this one baffled me; you'd think a week had gone by, only to be defeated by a "it had only been a day since..." and then you shake your head, wondering if you missed some major action. Or pages. The interpersonal relationships were very shallow, even vapid at times, and you could not really tell what the characters were going through. This, generally, leads to the overuse of adverbs, which Gaider falls into quite often. This could have been a good book, a memorable one, with the depth of each character and their growth and their internal struggles. After all, we are not reading to see "Character X hacked enemy Y with Z"; we are trying to see the lore, the characters, their evolution and their struggles. In this arena, Gaider got KO'd. The only memorable one is Duncan, and that's only because we get to see the final product in the game. Since the DAO had such depth with characters to the point you could almost hear their voices, it makes me wonder if Gaider was in a writing slump... or he just can't write novels. The obligatory sex was rather sudden and left me behind, going "eh, what just happened...?!" and then suddenly it was battle again. There were some contrived scenes as well. Overall, three stars. Readable, but not worth re-reading.

While A Stolen Throne was nothing if not unremarkable, The Calling came in as a fantastic fantasy novel. While it suffers from the limitations of all fantasy novels (reasonably predictable characters), we not only get to see some deep insight into the icons of the Dragon Age universe (Fiona, Duncan, The Architect), and we get to connect with them on a pretty personal level. The character development for Non Player Characters in the video games aside, we get to see a sullen King Maric again, as well as a typically pissy Loghain before we delve deep into the action. While A Stolen Throne was an 'origins' story for King Maric and the Ferelden world we know, The Calling doesn't waste any time introducing us to the universe or its characters, but instead builds the world as it was meant to be built: Massive and foreboding. In particular, we gain a lot of insight into the way the blight operates, how the taint the Gray Wardens consume during The Joining leads them to nearly become Darkspawn themselves, and we finally get a feel for The Deep Roads. Unfortunately, in both A Stolen Throne and all three installments of Dragon Age video games, the Deep Roads never comes off as a war torn environment. Sure, there are bad things down there, and we get a few glimpses of the haste in which the dwarves left their kingdom, but it never really sinks in. David's writing here really strikes those points home. Maric's (et al) journey into the Deep Roads is done with apprehension (not profit, as was the case in Dragon Age II) and the reader is left with nothing but a sense of fear, dread, and impending doom. We truly get to see the Darkspawn for what they are: The stuff of nightmares. Not the inconvenient things you kill to get a few silvers. This atmosphere is built throughout the entire novel as David captures the essence of Dragon Age better than many parts of the game franchise.