Reviews with content warning for Rape - The Stolen Throne

The structure of this book is lacking heavily. The ending was a big build up for no pay off for example, and some of the scene to scene moments were clunky. It reads in some ways like a list of notes of "how the story is gonna go" and then some filled in scenes, like a very very loose rough draft.
Also the characters leave a ton to be desired. Maric is at best boring and a sort of retread (pretread) Alistair which makes little sense to me, Katriel is essentially a plot device in spite of being clearly meant as a compelling love story (falls flat), Rowan is a not like other girls turned perfect wife (and her romances are even more boring than Katriel's), Loghain is the only one with credible motivations who acts like a person and he does several things that made me hate him. At least he felt real.
As for connections to existing dragon age Lore, this is clearly working with some Lore that was never re-established in the series proper. It also is like required to really understand the context of the first game, which is frustrating as it is not great.
As far as representation went, the women are at best fun props and at worse awful ones. There are 3 nonwhite people ever mentioned at all and they are all 1. Evil 2. Power hungry 3. All of them but the last are also lecherous creeps (and only two are named). On multiple ocassions they sre described as "swarthy". Honorable mention to the only guy described as "olive skinned" being the comically evil puppet king who's power hungry and tortures people for fun.
Even the in universe marginalized groups are presented in a very negative light, having the only mages be evil and against our team or evil and with our team. The elves are generally treated as the stereotypes describe them (either sexy props, dangerous servants or dangerous "savage" stereotypes). They even have a human create an all elven military force despite having no real serious communication with elves, no understanding or care for their history and culture, and never actually showing any of them interact with each other in any meaningful way.
There is also rape or sexual assault mentioned with extremely casually and suddenly even with very little reason or relevance to the story. I can think of 1 instance that was necessary- and it was of course only necessary for a male characters development. The other instances are all from a "Good male" character perspective as well, and the overall impact on the women involved is non existent (except for one notable instance when a lady who is a soldier and kills people all the time is more hung up on having killed the guy who assaulted her than the assault itself).
(Heavy Spoiler territory)
Additionally one of the main ladies is fridged- by being murdered violently by her love interest in a fit of rage no less.
On top of all of that some of the most intriguing moments for a person who has played the first dragon age game "how exactly did Loghain become the Hero of River Dane" "how did Maric take the throne back" are largely skipped over in favor of a quick summary in the epilogue. Even the epilogue is questionable, as it implies that the whole book was a woman telling the young son of one of the characters all the details- missing the epic battles and instead focusing on how many people his parents cheated with each other on. A baffling ending in every respect.
I read it bc I wanted the details of before the game to be more clear. Now I just wish the details were less bullshit.

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ophycore's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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seraphina2000's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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futureofmydays's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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necrxpolis's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

this book is amazing either as an introduction of the Dragon Age world to newcomers or a bit more lore for the people that have been following the game since origins but in my opinion it the fridging of it's female characters are it's biggest flaw.

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