Review,  Writing Resources

Dragon Age – The Stolen Throne

Dragon Age – The Stolen Throne
by David Gaider

Disclaimer: I worked with David Gaider at BioWare for ten years

This is David’s first novel but he has been writing for over a decade on BioWare’s award-winning, dialog filled roleplaying games.

This book is a prequel to the events of Dragon Age: Origins (which is now available in stores). We follow the story of Maric, upon whose shoulders falls the responsibility of ousting an oppressive conqueror from Ferelden. Maric, by blood, is the rightful ruler of Ferelden and he and Rowan (his betrothed) and the outlaw Loghain have several adventures across Ferelden.

Overall I enjoyed the book, despite already being very familiar with the setting and the history. As always David is strong at writing convincing, entertaining dialog and there are loads of that in the book. The setting, especially the cultural interactions between humans and elves is interesting. There are strong action scenes, and enjoyable moments throughout. I would have liked to see some exploration of the more unique elements of this fantasy world but these were likely avoided to prevent spoiling any moments in the game. If I have one complaint it is that the editing pass could have used some work, I haven’t seen this many errors in a novel in quite some time and it surprised me.

If you’re a fan of Dragon Age (or plan on being one) or you are looking for another fantasy series to sink your teeth into, check out the Stolen Throne.

Former lead designer at BioWare (Dragon Age: Origins, Neverwinter Nights). Creator of Raiders of the Serpent Sea.

2 Comments

  • Cal

    I also read the book when it came out and my review was similar – great writing, with some obvious gaps that must have been due to spoiler advoidance, and terrible editing. I also then assumed that it was TOR promising to provide an editor but not actually following through.

    I still don’t know if these kinds of novelization dealies are initiated by the IP owners or the big book conglomerates looking for ideas.

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