Dragon Age: The Calling

Fans of 'The Stolen Throne' expecting more of the same may be disappointed by 'The Calling,' the structure and plot of which exacerbate what were minor weaknesses in 'Stolen Throne.' The narrower scope of this novel doesn't give Gaider the opportunity to show some of his strengths that were more visible in the first book.

The overriding feel of this book is that it reads like Gaider is narrating a D&D campaign. The epic scale of 'Stolen Throne' is gone, as 'The Calling' follows King Maric and several Gray Wardens underground on a fairly vague, if urgent-sounding mission. It seems as though much of the story is meant to introduce you to the Gray Wardens, a central group in the 'Origins' video game so prominently featured on the book's cover. The Calling does succeed at that, as the various wardens and their diverse backgrounds and feelings about their duty give a far more thorough telling of who and what the Wardens are than does the game.

Unfortunately, this pre-game exposition comes at the cost of The Calling's viability as a standalone story. The plot is contrived; the presence of Maric (the only character from 'Stolen Throne' to make anything more than a token appearance) is explained away with the flimsiest of excuses, and just about every character in the book has a sense of 'what are we doing here?' which they even go so far as to voice aloud on more than one occasion. The story and its consequences have few repercussions on the Dragon Age world, and very little of value of learned about anything or anyone. It's a dungeon crawl: expect many, many paragraphs devoted to 'and she laid down a healing spell' or alternative descriptions of stabbing things. Even an arbitrary battle with a dragon fails to capture much urgency, as one of the characters rightly identifies at the time that there is no reason at all for them to be fighting it.

Stolen Throne was excellent in its introduction to a new, well-designed fantasy world on a properly epic scale. If anything, it suffered from aiming to high, and trying to do too much with too few pages. The Calling has the opposite problem: it does very little in the same number of pages. So many characters and potential loose ends were introduced in Stolen Throne that focusing on a few of them for a new novel shouldn't have been difficult to do; instead, we get all new characters and the one hold-over who needed more story far less than some of the others.

On the positive side, Gaider's style and characterization can sometimes surprise you with sudden, brief moments in which a character will say or do something poignant or insightful. These 'show me rather than tell me' moments are where his characters succeed, though some work better than others or are redundant, as Maric's years-later agonizing over a dalliance with and betrayal by a character from 'Stolen Throne' will show.

Ultimately, the central conflict in The Calling is a weak one, and some of the characters are cliche dungeon-crawl-party fare, a trap Gaider deftly escaped in 'Stolen Throne' but one he willingly dives into here.

Dragon Age Universe is fresh. David Gaider is a good writer. Considering this is his 2nd novel, he really improved a lot. However, in my opinion, his game script writing skill is much better than his novel writing. A must read especially for Dragon Age gamers.

While the story seems simple enough for a fantasy novel, David Gaider's excellent writing style pulls the book through. Character interactions and an extensive lore are appearing as major strengths in his writing. I would heartily recommend reading this to anyone, not just fans of Dragon Age: Origins.

David Gaider did a tremendous job on this story, surpassing The Stolen Throne in all respects. The storyline will engross you and make you want to keep reading, and you find yourself truly wondering about what you really know about this world, the darkspawn, and the Grey Wardens. It should be required reading before playing Dragon Age, and also stands on its own as a worthy novel for those who enjoy adventure. Highly recommended.

Review for the Audio version.

Tantor media delivers with a good narrator and a fluid, interesting reading. For battles, he reads faster, and assigns different voices for characters.

In my review of the Stolen Throne, I felt Graider didn't do particularly well with character development. The Calling shows growth in writing style. I honestly felt like there was improvement, and the characters had description and more substance.

The plot was not particularly strong. You probably won't find yourself thinking: "Wow, I never would have seen that coming!" but it is entertaining. It's classic with the Dungeons and Dragons feel, all the way down to the monk, the thief, the barbarian, the wizard, and the warrior creating an adventuring party. All they were missing was a Cleric, so there was a king and dog thrown in. Even the hound was better developed than the last batch.

I will never forget Bram Stoker's love affair with a single word in Dracula. Mr. Stoker had a fond fascination for "voluptuous." It felt like every time you turned the page, you would run into it. Mr. Graider has a similar fascination with "ichor." It's a fantastic word and very descriptive. However, a little less ichor and a little more thesaurus might have been wise.

My subjective opinion was that the characters were not heroes, and I enjoy a book with a strong protagonist. While I don't look for a character to be perfect, I prefer someone who is a lighter shade of grey. When I plugged in the Dragon Age game the very first time and heard the voice of Duncan filling my headphones saying "... and then the Grey Wardens came..." it gave me pleasant chills. I wanted to play a Grey Warden!

Most of these aren't that kind of Warden. They're spineless in some cases, cowards in others, or just insane. Young Duncan was a clone of Daveth. The decision of the dwarven woman at the end struck me as making no sense what-so-ever. I would have thought having her family slaughtered by the ancient enemies of her race in front of her would have prompted her to fight against them, not sign up for their cause.

As a fantasy novel, I would say it's certainly worth a read, but the author needs to stretch his wings a bit more before he's ready to run with the giants of this genera.

Now from the viewpoint of someone who has completed 97% of the game and been through it 9 times. Minor spoilers below.

Don't expect the game universe and the novel universe to line up. Dwarven monks? It's hinted in the book that the Shaperate is able to work magic, but the game leads to believe that's impossible. Perhaps that's not the case and they merely use magical tools. I can easily let that slide. These are small things, but the largest problem is the suggestion of Alistair's heritage.

Perhaps the child at the end isn't Alistair at all, but it's strongly hinted that he is. This creates some major conflicts with the game universe. When you have Loghain in your party, he tells the Warden Maric knew about Alistair. He didn't acknowledge the illegitimate boy because it would have broken Rowan's heart. Rowen had passed away by the time the child in the Calling was conceived. There's also Goldanna, and where I could dismiss the charge of non-consent as a bitter, angry woman, she tells Alistair she knew about him at birth. Even if Goldanna wasn't related to him at all, things simply fall apart if you try to merge the novel and the game on that topic.

Perhaps some day Graider or Bioware will come out and say "we decided it's this way" and that will be an end to it. For now, I'd suggest treating them as two different entities much as a book and a movie. There's no reason not to enjoy them both independently.

I've never been so conflicted while reading a book. On the one hand, this is one of the most tedious things I've ever read, but on the other, it's given me a greater understanding of the lore of Dragon Age. And it's made me appreciate the game a lot more, as well. I feel satisfied, frustrated, happy, sad. I love and hate this book.

As a brief intro: THE CALLING is a novel based in the Dragon Age RPG setting created by the fine folks at BioWare. This is also the second novel in a series: a series primarily created to complement the video game. Because this book draws so heavily upon its prequel, and even more so upon the video game, there is almost no chance that someone who isn't a fan could pick up this book and know exactly what is going on. This book occupies a very limited niche.

But onto the story itself. It chronicles the return of the Grey Wardens to Ferelden, after the Orlesians were forced out of the country over a decade ago. We're introduced to a young Duncan (who fans of the game will definitely remember), his commander, and a few others who comprise the group. Their purpose in returning to Ferelden is to ask King Maric's assistance in tracking down one of their order, who was captured in the Deep Roads. Maric agrees to help them out, since it's possible they could put a stop to a Blight in the process. So, the group ventures into the Deep Roads, where they run into darkspawn aplenty, and a few mysteries that will definitely leave fans intrigued.

I would call myself a hardcore fan of the Dragon Age property. The game is one of my favorites, and the world (while derivative in some regards) is well thought out with a rich history to it. I read Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne and liked it. THE CALLING nearly made me rip the book in half, thereby separating the tedious part from the intriguing part.

The first half of the book is bad to the point of hilarity. The setup for everything is so forced that I couldn't believe it was happening. The Grey Wardens need Maric or Loghain to lead them through the Deep Roads. Never mind the fact that it's been fourteen years since they rather hastily made their way through the ruins. The Wardens need them, even if they don't remember anything. They make that resoundingly clear. And Maric actually agrees to this?

Combined with how Duncan - the stoic, noble and steadfast leader from the game - is set up as the book's comedy relief (which I did NOT see coming), that most of the first 200 of the 400 pages of the book are spent retelling events from the last book, and that most of the characters are hardly even provided personality...I was ready to put the book down.

I've said it once and I'll say it again: David Gaider is a great writer. While being the Lead Writer of two games back-to-back, and then writing two novels on top of that, he puts out fine work each time. But the main problem with this book (to me), like the last one, is that he spends far too much time laying on the exposition. The book jumps the story ahead by days at a time, but then goes about recapping those missed days anyway. Backstories are added in at random intervals. And the characters spend many pages thinking about things when the mood is supposed to be tense. All of the recapping, history lessons, and the lengthy internal narrative really broke up the action.

But things really started to pick up in the last half, when there was a little less conversation and a little more action. The book stopped trying to make me privy to all of the innumerable relevant details (most of which I had already known) and just tells the story. Characters begin interacting, the story speeds up from a crawl to a sprint, and the lore is expanded upon massively. I actually had some emotional investment in some of the characters in the end, which I didn't have in the first half.

And the epilogue will have fans of the game grinning, I can almost guarantee it.

So, I think I can safely recommend this book to fans of the game, but that's about it. There are some heartfelt moments, genuine tear-jerking scenes, and some times where the book really captured the spirit of the game. It gets three stars for me, because no book should take 200 pages to hook a reader, but when it finally did, it felt like it was worth the wait.

The Good: The Calling is purely epic and perfectly written, likable characters

The Bad: It ends

The Calling is wonderfully written and feels more like the game than The Stolen Throne does. With the whole book being set in the Deep Roads you really get to know what these people feel when traveling this dangerous road. Gaider does an excellent job of making you feel claustrophobic, helpless, and glad that you are not with these guys. Every page is filled with tense dread and the psychological torment these people must go through to get to their destination. On another note you also follow the Grey Warden who has joined the Darkspawn. However, we finally get to know about an intelligent Darkspawn who is very mysterious and may have different intentions.

The Calling has a great cast of characters that you really feel for and the book is very hard to put down. There never once was a dull moment and this book really lets you get even closer to the dark atmosphere of the game. This book is my favorite out of the two and deserves a read by fans.

This book in the Dragon Age world provides a really interesting background to Duncan and the Gray Wardens, and it also helps explain a few things about Awakenings. For people who haven't played the games, I think it's possible to enjoy this book but it might be a little confusing on its own, compared with some of the other books in the book series.

It's a prequel, it provides backstory and flavor for a fantastic video games series. It provides greater insight to the Grey Wardens and it further shows that while they fight the monsters to protect humanity they may be as bad as the monsters they fight. Also, it is the full backstory of Alister and how he came to live at Redcliff.

I read The Calling before starting to play Dragon Age which is an RPG I am enjoying quite a bit. The book is fun to read in its own right, but makes the game more fun by providing context to some of the characters, settings, and cultures. If you like the genre or the game, I'ld recommend it.

This book in the Dragon Age world provides a really interesting background to Duncan and the Gray Wardens, and it also helps explain a few things about Awakenings. For people who haven't played the games, I think it's possible to enjoy this book but it might be a little confusing on its own, compared with some of the other books in the book series.

It's a prequel, it provides backstory and flavor for a fantastic video games series. It provides greater insight to the Grey Wardens and it further shows that while they fight the monsters to protect humanity they may be as bad as the monsters they fight. Also, it is the full backstory of Alister and how he came to live at Redcliff.

I read The Calling before starting to play Dragon Age which is an RPG I am enjoying quite a bit. The book is fun to read in its own right, but makes the game more fun by providing context to some of the characters, settings, and cultures. If you like the genre or the game, I'ld recommend it.

Let me begin with a disclaimer. I have played Dragon Age Origins twice, gotten 92% completion in the game, and have become utterly bedazzled by the world of Thedas.
Despite all of this, David Gaider's, "The Calling" is a book that ultimately let me down. Its cup brimmmeth over with interesting ideas and character development, but Gaider's feeble capacity as an author ultimately bears his story to the ground and tears out its throat. This linguistic carnage has no greater avatar than the following sentence:
"Fiona was glad to be getting out of there finally." (This is a faithful transcription)
Upon encountering this narrative, I was so infuriated that I flung the book across the room, called my girlfriend and broke up with her, and ran my dog over with a truck... twice. After calming down, adopting another dog (the third this year), and taking the weeping girlfriend out to an extremely expensive dinner, I retrieved my copy of "The Calling" from its crash site by the Kitchen Aid and finished the novel in a single go. I liked the plot of the story and I feel as though Gaider is taking his creation in a good direction, but his lackluster ability to effectively translate his vision into a body of text that is both lucid and engrossing crippled the work so thoroughly that I can't bring myself to give it a favorable review. A good effort perhaps, but no student of mine has ever received a passing grade for effort. Neither will Mr. Gaider.

Two stars. Skip it.