The next stop on my cavalcade of book reviews is a little indulgent and appeals to the gamer in me as well as the lover of high fantasy. Being a big fan of the Dragon Age series of games I have never really felt tempted to look too far into the impressive back story as a great deal of it is information I gleaned from the games themselves. In the end though I decided to give The Stolen Throne a go which proved itself to be an interesting if occasionally inconsistent piece of fiction.
The story is one that lovers of the original Dragon Age: Origins will know all about. Maric is the heir to the throne of Ferelden a mystical nation that has been subverted by the neighbouring Orlesian Empire. The rebels under the command of Maric’s mother had resisted but now the rebel queen has been betrayed and Maric is alone, hunted by his enemies and forced to take on the mantle of command far sooner than he wanted. Thankfully Maric, with the assistance of his new friend Loghain and his old comrade Rowan, is readying the rebels of Ferelden to retake their ancestral home and banish the Orlesian ususpers once and for all.
When you get right down to it The Stolen Throne has a great lead in and an interesting enough premise, albeit one which could hardly be called original. Maric’s role is very much one of the reluctant hero making good, usually with the help of his often more talented friends and advisors. That is not to say that Maric is a wholly unoriginal character, indeed there are times where he exudes an easy charm which is very much palpable both to the other characters in the story as well as to the reader themselves. Indeed it might even be fair to say that there were times where I was beginning to struggle with the overarching narrative where I found myself pulled through by wanting to see what happens to Maric next. There are other characters that do make for interesting reading, however many of them seemed to be cut from similar moulds which made them largely interchangeable. Almost everyone else exuded a sense of dour almost miserable melancholy which, while keeping with the events of the story, made it feel as though we were trudging through a lot of rather grim storyline in order to find someone of interest.
The pacing to The Stolen Throne is definitely an area that Gaider should have worked on a bit more cleverly. The passage of time from one setting to the next is inconsistent to say the least with some chapters taking place over the same space of time only to suddenly jump years and months ahead in the course of a few sentences. This is especially glaring near the story’s conclusion which felt overly rushed and lacking in punch as a result. This also applies to some of the interactions between the characters, with some of them acting as though they have known each other for years when in the story it had only been days and vice versa. This left it very difficult for me to immerse myself in the narrative and it was a shame to see since I wanted to enjoy the book a lot more than I did.
That is not to say that Gaider’s book is a total disappointment as it did have it’s moments which really stood out, particularly when characters I knew from the game series such as the mysterious witch of the wilds Flemeth. This is where we come to the fundamental issue of The Stolen Throne, in that it relies too heavily on the source material from which it is derived. While Dragon Age possesses a vast codex of information and lore about it’s history and supporting characters we are only focusing on a relatively short period of time in a specific setting which means the challenge was on Gaider to make something special using the information at his disposal. The general effect though is weak at times and if you were to take away the links to the game then you would be left with a fantasy adventure by the numbers which is so dry it occasionally left a bad taste in my mouth.
Looking at the story as a whole I have to concede that there are a few good points that stand out, but it is not enough to really save The Stolen Throne from being a very ordinary jaunt through a fantasy kingdom. While I am a big fan of Dragon Age I would certainly think twice before I drop my hard earned cash on another book when the games are mostly superior in every way. I would love to say this is one for the fans, I am not entirely sure that the fans would find this book all that diverting.
Rating: 2 out of 5
The Stolen Throne by David Gaider is available for purchase from Amazon and the iBooks Store
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