Dragon Age: The Calling

Greetings, Dragon Age: The Calling is a book written by David Gaider and is a sequel to his other novel, The Stolen Throne, as well as being a prequel to Dragon Age: Origins. It expands on a few characters from the video game such as Duncan who was a character that was used to introduce the world of Thedas in Origins to the player. Another is a darkspawn emissary by the name of the Architect who came from the Dragon Age expansion pack. The book delves deeper into his plan for ensuring peace between the darkspawn and the other species on the planet through destructive mean as well as revealing a little about his past but mostly keeping it shrouded in mystery.

It is set several years after the events of the first book with King Maric having returned to his throne and ruling Ferelden after he had reclaimed it from the Orlesian Empire through military force. A group of Grey Wardens, which includes the newly recruited Duncan, is led by an experienced veteran known as Genevieve ask Maric for his help to lead them through the Deep Roads. They want the king to direct them towards an abandoned Dwarven city called Ortan Thaigh which Maric had travelled to several years previously when he attempted to oust the Orsleians during his adventures in the first novel. It had been revealed to Genevieve in a dream that her brother Bregan, an important figure in the Grey Wardens, had been kidnapped by the darkspawn and was being held underground in the Deep Roads.

It is an unusual action by the creatures as they normally kill rather than take prisoners and is made even more unnerving as Bregan was one of the few in order who knew of the location of the Old Gods. The Old Gods are what the darkspawn strive to find and awaken so they can rise to the surface in a bloody event known as a Blight and physically corrupt the world with their presence. As such it is important that the Grey Wardens find Bregan and rescue him before he reveals the coordinates under interrogation. Maric agrees to aid them in their quest. Meanwhile, in the Deep Roads Bregan meets the Architect while imprisoned and is slowly convinced to help him in a risky as well as lethal plan to achieve peace between the darkspawn and the other creatures in Thedas.

While I mostly enjoyed the book I felt it was a little lacking in story which Gaider tried to fill with a few unnecessary battle scenes in order to kill off a few main characters. An additional villain was also created and reviled shortly towards the end of the book and could have expanded upon during the plot but he received little attention until the novel was almost over. There is also a romantic subplot near the end of the book that is almost identical to one in the first novel that involved one of the same characters and as such felt a little too familiar. Another issue I had with it was that several characters from across the Dragon Age media have a very similar personality such as Maric, a young version of Duncan and Alistar who is a main character from the original videogame. Despite this I still enjoyed the experience and look forward to his next novel Dragon Age: Asunder.

Plot=7/10

Characters=7/10

Wording=8/10

Overall=7/10

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