The Calling

[alaterdate]

The Calling is the second of the Dragon Age novels. It follows a group of Wardens as they traverse the Deep Roads in search of one of their own. Maric, from the first book, is now King of Ferelden, but tired of his life he agrees to accompany the Wardens on this dangerous mission as a guide. These events occur about 19 years before the game starts, but have direct consequences on the rest of the series. Including re-introduction of key characters from this book in the Awakening expansion for Dragon Age Origins.

Like The Stolen Throne before it, this book was written by David Gaider. Unlike The Stolen Throne it's actually good.

Gaider's writing improved tremendously here. Which is kind of bonkers because it was published only 7 months later. I don't know if he got a different editor or a ghostwriter or something, but it's vastly more enjoyable than its predecessor. I'd have to say that the only things I disliked about it were Gaider's usual YIKESness and that too many things happened for no reason. I get that he wanted to put the backstories of all the Wardens in there, but the Fade chapter was sooooooooooo unnecessary. Fought a dragon AND got trapped in the Fade by a demon AND fought a Darkspawn magister AND the Circle faced a coup, c'mon now. The same stuff happened in Origins so it was kind of just hitting the same points. Like that's all that's cool that can happen in Thedas? MEH

Gaider's strong point is characters and BOY did he deliver here. Now, I did like Loghain off and on and off again in The Stolen Throne so that book has it's points (even though Loghain was just about the only interesting character in that whole book and I STILL came out hating him lol). The Calling though? SO MANY GOOD ONES.

First of all. Duncan. I love Duncan so much. So much more! He's just a boy in this 😭 but also an incredibly talented rogue and I love him to bits. So glad that half (or a 1/3rd if you count the little bit of Fiona chapters) were through his POV. I could not have read this book if it were all Maric.

Because speaking of Maric? I hate him. There's something about him that I just do. not. like. And he doesn't make it any better by leaving his fucking second son to be raised by dogs omfg (Eamon is a SHITHEAD). (I get that Maric was whisked away by a witch or w/e but STILL, you couldn't have done better for Alistair than leaving him with fucking EAMON??? YOU DIDNT EVEN REALLY KNOW EAMON DID YOU MARIC?). Bruh there's a part in the nightmare/Fade chapter where Katriel appears in his nightmare and she's basically like "Yeah, Rowan died bc u fucking suck. She would have lived if she were married to Loghain ya dumb fucker." God, I hate Maric. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Yes, he is VERY nice and sympathetic and I guess brave, but he's way too much of a bumbler. Oh my god, he's a Gary Stu............ Everyone loves him for like no reason, he wins over people who don't like him at first, he's clumsy, but incredibly lucky 😨 And so, even though Alistair is quite like him, Alistair actually has depth to him and not everyone likes him and he can very much lose at the end of Origins. I spent so much time wondering how I could love Alistair, but hate Maric when they have a similar personality and I finally figured it out. Also only two fucked up things happened to Maric and he was like "weh being King is so hard, I'll just go die," Alistair lived with dogs bro, Alistair was forced to join the Chantry where they attempted to addict him to lyrium, Alistair became a Warden, and then lost the only person who actually cared about him. PHEW anyway, this isn't about that lol

Back to the topic! next is Fiona. No media after this did her any damn justice. What a rock. They would have died without her and not just because she was the party healer. I wish wish wish that Alistair had got to know her and didn't think some rando maid was his mother for the rest of his life. Fiona, they did you so dirty girl.

The other Wardens were excellent characters as well. Even though we didn't get much from Julian and Nicholas, oh break my heart. Even though Gaider buried his gays, it was so damn sad and I'm very glad they were included. Kell and his dog Hafter were AWESOME. I liked him even before the nightmare/Fade part that explained his backstory (it really didn't do much to add to his coolness either. I really feel the chapter was kind of meh). Then Genevieve and Bregan? OH, the sibling angst was so delicious. I liked Bregan a lot in the beginning when he first met the Architect, but then as he swayed more to the Darkspawn's side I was like bro, no. Genevieve, such a Warden through and through and hung up with so much guilt over her whole life, good stuff.

I loved learning a lot more about the Wardens and being validated on how shitty the organization actually is lmao. I liked learning more about the Architect too, and also reaffirming my distaste for him lol. All in all, I enjoyed the book a lot.

Would I recommend it to someone who hasn't played the games? Not really. I'm not sure it hold ups as a standalone when it comes to worldbuilding. I don't think it really explains anything on that front lol 😂 As a Dragon Age fan, yeah it's a good read if you have interest in the Wardens and the Architect from Awakening.