I enjoyed reading the first Dragon Age book, which was The Stolen Throne. It did a great job of beginning to introduce the background which eventually would lead to the Dragon Age: Origins game. The characters were well-developed, and felt like they belonged in the book. However, I did not get the same vibe from The Calling.
The term “The Calling” refers to the fact that, when a Grey Warden ages enough, he/she journey to the Deep Roads so that they can die valiantly fighting darkspawn. In the book, a Grey Warden goes off on his Calling. However, his sister (who is also a Grey Warden) has a vision in that her brother did not die, and instead was captured, which is an odd thing for darkspawn. So a group of Grey Wardens (including the rookie Grey Warden Duncan, who makes an appearance in Dragon Age: Origins) approach King Maric and ask him to guide them through the Deep Roads. Thus, the book follows the adventure of Maric, Duncan, and several other Grey Wardens as they journey through the Deep Roads in search of the imprisoned darkspawn.
The book is basically divided into two stories. The first is of Maric and his companions as they make their way through the Deep Roads. The second story running through the book focuses on the captured Grey Warden and his captor, the Architect. While the Architect does not appear in Dragon Age: Origins, he will appear in Dragon Age Origins: Awakening, as the main antagonist. The Architect is a darkspawn emissary (mage), that is unique to other darkspawn in that it is intelligent. The Architect devises a plan that will end the Blights, which will require a large human sacrifice. He eventually convinces several Grey Wardens to go along with the plan, and its up to Maric and Duncan to stop them. The Architect proves to be an interesting villain, and I am looking forward to interacting with him personally in Awakenings.
As cool as the Architect was, there was still a few things holding this book back from being as sweet as the first one. For starters, I was extremely disappointed with the character of Duncan. In Dragon Age: Origins, he is a cool, collected, intelligent, revered, mature, calculating Grey Warden. He is somewhat the mentor to the player’s created character. However, he does not appear in this way in the book. In The Calling, Duncan is a young, rookie Grey Warden who hates the order and does not exactly enjoy being a Warden. He is also a thief, and continues to steal throughout the book while he is a Grey Warden. I guess my problem is that this young Duncan is not a representation of the Duncan from the game. In The Stolen Throne, I was pleased with how Loghain was portrayed, and felt that his young character definitely built him up to be who he was in the game. I did not feel the same way about Duncan.
My other issue with the book was that it took an adventure from the game and placed it in the book. In Dragon Age: Origins, when the player goes to the Circle of Magi to eliminate the Blood Mages, he/she encounters a sloth demon, which is demon that puts people into a deep sleep and then controls them in their dreams. Your character must break out of their dream, then run around the Fade (spirit/demon/dream world), enter into their allies dreams, and bring them back. This was probably the worst part of the game for me, and I found it pretty lame and boring. So when Maric and his allies encounter a sloth demon in the Deep Roads and fall into the Fade, I was not looking forward to reading the next pages. It was basically as lame as it was in the game, with Maric running around and going into each of his allies dreams, trying to convince them they were in a dream and not real life.
For some reason, I struggled through the book compared to the first. With The Stolen Throne, I got fully immersed and rocked through the book within three days. It took me over a week to read this one, and I just didnt feel like it was as good. However, despite my complaints I still enjoyed it. It did offer some additional lore and info, particularly in explaining a lot about Grey Wardens and darkspawn. So I guess that the lack of Grey Wardens in The Stolen Throne was made up for in The Calling. The book is definitely a must-read if you’re a fan of the Dragon Age series, and is probably going to prove to be essential to getting more out of Awakenings when it comes out.
