Really more of a 2.5 star review for me. I thought, having played all the games, that I would have enjoyed the book more. It wasn't awful, but there was just something about it that made it hard for me to connect with the characters. It made it much more difficult for me to engage with the books than I hoped. This tells the story of Maric Theirin and Teryn Loghain in their youth. Both play influential roles in the video game Dragon Age: Origins, though only Loghain has an active role in the game itself. I'm keeping it on my shelf as more of a reference book, but it isn't something I think I'll find myself rereading any time soon. (Especially not looking at the backlog of books I haven't read yet.)

It was so good to read it as well as this book really drag you in to the story and it was fascinating how good this is written and how it really brings you into the story and the world and I definitely recommend it to anyone who loves fantasy world/adventure

4.25/5 “Sometimes that which is most precious can be found where you would least expect to.” Wow. I remember liking it, but I don't remember it being so tragic. Gaider, damn you, were the games not enough?! But I'm obviously joking, it seemed fitting if a bit (or a lot) sad. The book itself is quite gripping, every time I sat down and read a bit it inspired me to get to know the world better, even if I've played the games multiple times by now. I love the characters in here, I especially loved their development. And even though I usually don't enjoy angst, I did in this one. I thought it was very nicely done and shown. And I enjoyed the complicated relationships between our characters, plus there were things I've forgotten, so I was surprised on several occasions. Because of all this, Maric, Loghain and Rowan change a lot, do all kinds of wrong things, but they also do the right thing ultimately. And I love how, knowing the story from DAO you can just see how things with Loghain(view spoiler)[ went south. Like, you can see he's a hard man and I assume he didn't like Cailan very much, being in love with Rowan and being apart from her. You can also see his hatred towards Orlesians. (hide spoiler)] I hope we'll see him and others in the next book. The story might not be the most original one (but I can't say the games are more original), but it's a good, solid story. Yes, a lot of tropes we all know. But we also love them! I think the books should be read by the fans of the games, but I also feel like this book might make you wanna play a game if you haven't? Idk, I'm biased here, I already love the games. But at least give it a try!