The Calling (Dragon Age #2)

Regular followers of my reviews will already know that I'm a huge Dragon Age fan, and specifically for the lore, which I love unpicking with my fellow fans. The Calling by David Gaider follows on from The Stolen Throne, though I suspect anyone who picks up these books will at least be conversant with the games so many of the characters will be familiar to them.

I'm no huge fan of Gaider's fiction. His writing is what I'll term is adequate, and he most certainly is in need of a developmental editor to help with characterisation and polishing up his writing. The Calling certainly flows a bit better than The Stolen Throne, and it was a more interesting read in terms of lore, but that's where it stops for me. I read this for the lore. And because I am interested in Fiona, as well as Alastair's back story.

Maric is still an idiot. Well meaning, bumbling, but an idiot. It's great seeing a little from Duncan's perspective, though here he's painted out as an irresponsible youth who's prone to childish fits of pique. And at one point of the story, I completely felt that he landed into the TSTL category. While I enjoyed this story a lot more than I did the first instalment, there were still aspects of it that made me say, "But why, mummy, why did they do this?" So, yeah, I'd liked to have seen better expression of character motivations so that I could at least understand why they responded the way they did under certain circumstances.

I will, however, recommend this one to die-hard Dragon Age fans who want that little bit of dishing out of extra lore – which is helpful, especially to those of us who write fics set in the world. But I do feel Gaider should stick to writing games and leave the fiction to those who have the feel for it.