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historysoverture's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.0
If we don't get griffons in Dreadwolf...
eggbois_gf's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I wish I could go back and read this again for the first time. I adored it.
massxcolie's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
thesupermassive's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
snowbenton's review against another edition
4.0
A fascinating look at the Grey Wardens of old and their griffons.
This starts around the end of Dragon Age 2. I don't think I ever realized that a full on mage templar war started. Oops.
This alternates between that "modern" day that we are familiar with and the fourth blight about 400 years ago. I loved how dark that timeline was.
Highly recommend for fans of the game. Fingers crossed DA4 gives us griffons.
This starts around the end of Dragon Age 2. I don't think I ever realized that a full on mage templar war started. Oops.
This alternates between that "modern" day that we are familiar with and the fourth blight about 400 years ago. I loved how dark that timeline was.
Highly recommend for fans of the game. Fingers crossed DA4 gives us griffons.
burs's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
katd88's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
khaos1785's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
jnikolova's review against another edition
3.0
Also available on the WondrousBooks blog.
This book had the potential to be my favourite from the series, seeing how it's entirely focused on the Grey Wardens, whom I love dearly. I was pretty excited to see what was going on in the background during the set up of the events with the Wardens in Dragon Age: Inquisition.
The story in itself was interesting enough, it was cool to learn more about Weisshaupt, the Grey Wardens and what they do when there's no Blight (remember, in DAO there's not much about the Wardens as an organization, considering most of them are dead in Ferelden), and also to go to the past and see the Fourth Blight and the last of the griffon-riding Wardens.
Unfortunately, I felt like the writing was the downfall of the book. It was definitely the most poorly written novel out of all five of them, and from what I've seen after finishing the book, it seems the author was not one of the writers of the games, so that might have been a big red flag when starting the book - I might have lowered my expectations proportionally to my enthusiasm for a Grey Warden novel.
The characterization was pretty weak, a fact most noticeable in Garahel's personality: a big hero who rang completely hollow, had ten lines of text in the whole book and made no sense at all. Everyone loved him for reasons unknown, except perhaps that he was a pretty elf, and everyone was ready to follow him into battle and die for his cause, because... he was a pretty elf? And then the whole book we followed his sister, saw everything from her perspective, got no chance to actually get to know Garahel, and when he became a hero, it felt flat - who IS this guy and why do we even care?
While Isseya was strange and a bit self-contradictory in her beliefs and her actions, I at least appreciated the fact that her story was not sugarcoated. I wouldn't have liked it if by the end of the book she had turned into a fairytale princess, so at least that part was consistent, her path did not drastically change direction to please and soothe the reader.
The biggest hallmark of a poor writer, though, is if they fill page after page of the exact same descriptions just to add content. And Merciel did just that. The book went something like this: battle - griffin nest/fly with my griffin - battle - griffin - battle - griffin. Even the most exciting of authors sometimes repeat themselves, but when you read about the leonine smell that a griffin emits about 70 times in a 298 page book, you know something's up. Additionally, the author seemed to forget that she was writing medieval fantasy at times and we got funky fresh lines such as Henrik Ibsen's early 1900's quote "A picture is worth a thousand words." and how characters "had to slalom frantically" - slalom, a Norwegian word which came into English in the 1920's. I'm not super petty and particular about these things, mind, but they just stood out so much and were so out of place in this book and setting that it just irked me.
This book had the potential to be my favourite from the series, seeing how it's entirely focused on the Grey Wardens, whom I love dearly. I was pretty excited to see what was going on in the background during the set up of the events with the Wardens in Dragon Age: Inquisition.
The story in itself was interesting enough, it was cool to learn more about Weisshaupt, the Grey Wardens and what they do when there's no Blight (remember, in DAO there's not much about the Wardens as an organization, considering most of them are dead in Ferelden), and also to go to the past and see the Fourth Blight and the last of the griffon-riding Wardens.
Unfortunately, I felt like the writing was the downfall of the book. It was definitely the most poorly written novel out of all five of them, and from what I've seen after finishing the book, it seems the author was not one of the writers of the games, so that might have been a big red flag when starting the book - I might have lowered my expectations proportionally to my enthusiasm for a Grey Warden novel.
The characterization was pretty weak, a fact most noticeable in Garahel's personality: a big hero who rang completely hollow, had ten lines of text in the whole book and made no sense at all. Everyone loved him for reasons unknown, except perhaps that he was a pretty elf, and everyone was ready to follow him into battle and die for his cause, because... he was a pretty elf? And then the whole book we followed his sister, saw everything from her perspective, got no chance to actually get to know Garahel, and when he became a hero, it felt flat - who IS this guy and why do we even care?
While Isseya was strange and a bit self-contradictory in her beliefs and her actions, I at least appreciated the fact that her story was not sugarcoated. I wouldn't have liked it if by the end of the book she had turned into a fairytale princess, so at least that part was consistent, her path did not drastically change direction to please and soothe the reader.
The biggest hallmark of a poor writer, though, is if they fill page after page of the exact same descriptions just to add content. And Merciel did just that. The book went something like this: battle - griffin nest/fly with my griffin - battle - griffin - battle - griffin. Even the most exciting of authors sometimes repeat themselves, but when you read about the leonine smell that a griffin emits about 70 times in a 298 page book, you know something's up. Additionally, the author seemed to forget that she was writing medieval fantasy at times and we got funky fresh lines such as Henrik Ibsen's early 1900's quote "A picture is worth a thousand words." and how characters "had to slalom frantically" - slalom, a Norwegian word which came into English in the 1920's. I'm not super petty and particular about these things, mind, but they just stood out so much and were so out of place in this book and setting that it just irked me.
magpiemakingdo's review against another edition
5.0
The best Dragon Age novel I've read so far. The distance from the events of the games allow this novel to take on a tone and life of its own while expanding the lore of the DA universe. Read my full review here: https://magpiemakingdo.wordpress.com/2017/02/07/book-review-dragon-age-last-flight-by-laine-merciel/