Dragon Age - The Stolen Throne Novel Announced

BioWare has announced a Dragon Age novel titled The Stolen Throne, penned by lead writer David Gaider. The book will be available in early March but you can download the first chapter in .pdf format now - presumably this might give some insight into the game and the quality of writing, so let us know what you think in the comments:

Tor Books, the largest publisher of science fiction in the world, and BioWare, are proud to announce the upcoming release of the novel Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne, the thrilling prequel to Dragon Age: Origins. This gripping novel written by veteran video game developer and writer, David Gaider, will introduce the reader to the world of Dragon Age: Origins. Available in stores March 3rd 2009.
When the beloved rebel queen is murdered, her son Maric sets out on a mission of vengeance against the faithless lords who were responsible for his mother's untimely death. The nation of Ferelden that once prospered under his family's reign now suffers under the cruel hands of the invading Orlesians. His countrymen now live in fear and no one is to be trusted.
Maric soon becomes the leader of a rebel army hell-bent on retaking Ferelden from the control of a foreign tyrant. With only two true allies by his side, the brash outlaw Loghain and the beautiful warrior maiden Rowan, Maric and his trusted band must outwit spies and traitors as they try to reclaim the stolen throne.
The entire first chapter of the novel is also now available for download.

More information.

I won't have time to read it this week, but I'll probably get to it next week.

comment: cliche much?

Originally Posted by screeg
comment: cliche much?

There is little in fantasy writing ( and maybe writing in general) that isn't cliche in some ways. More important is wether it gives them cliches an interesting twist and can keep interest by solid language and pacing. There really isn't much in this first chapter to tell either way.

Originally Posted by GhanBuriGhan
There is little in fantasy writing ( and maybe writing in general) that isn't cliche in some ways. More important is wether it gives them cliches an interesting twist and can keep interest by solid language and pacing. There really isn't much in this first chapter to tell either way.

Sure there is. What I can tell is that this is right down there with Eragon: unremarkably mediocre.

You can argue until you're blue in the face that everything's been done befoooore, how dare you have the temerity to point out when something's cliche-ridden and overdone, but the fact is that it's possible to write fantasy without plonking down every single trope in the book. Oh look, it's a king-to-be who will be accompanied by a bashful young man and a "beautiful warrior maiden" in his quest to claim his rightful throne. Please. And Gaider doesn't have anything approaching amazingly incandescent prose or wonderfully witty dialogue to redeem it, either.

Urk. Dragon Age interest level down 300 points on open.

Not quite Eragon-level IMO, but still embarrassingly bad. Oh well, perhaps the game has a good character development system. Or something…

Well, maybe it will have good combat. I mean, Bioware's games always offer great tactical--

Oh wait.

Tactical indeed, I remember. When was that again? Year 2000? Ah, I remember it like it was yesterday. I had a… uhm. Wait, a bit foggy.

Boy do you guys get more and more bitter every day. I am actually looking forward to the game. Will I read the novel? not likely, how many game novels do you know of that are good?

Originally Posted by rune_74
Boy do you guys get more and more bitter every day.

Why do you suppose that is?

The important thing to remember is that Gaider and Bioware are answering a call for the DA fans that would like to see a cool book - just like the one Drew Karpyshyn wrote for Mass Effect.

It isn't meant to be great literature - like Ulysses or Tolstoy or Hemingway. Its meant to be a nice read for fans of DA: Origins. And maybe it will get people to read who don't read as much or not at all. As as teacher, I'm happy about this.

Originally Posted by quasimodo
Why do you suppose that is?

Because it's the easy thing to do. Easy to complain about what is wrong with things. It takes very little effort to say what is wrong with something(in your eyes) and to complain about the industry in general. It takes a hell of a lot more effort to do something about, ie make your own game. It is very easy to be an armchair critic.

Originally Posted by Dhruin
This gripping novel…

I'll probably eventually take a look but when I see that quote I immediately know that AT BEST it will be mediocre. Every mediocre-to-bad novel ever written says that about itself.

And I should add that says nothing about the game. Plenty of good games have had bad novels attached.

Originally Posted by Essaliad
Sure there is. What I can tell is that this is right down there with Eragon: unremarkably mediocre.

You can argue until you're blue in the face that everything's been done befoooore, how dare you have the temerity to point out when something's cliche-ridden and overdone, but the fact is that it's possible to write fantasy without plonking down every single trope in the book. Oh look, it's a king-to-be who will be accompanied by a bashful young man and a "beautiful warrior maiden" in his quest to claim his rightful throne. Please. And Gaider doesn't have anything approaching amazingly incandescent prose or wonderfully witty dialogue to redeem it, either.

Sure its possible, but I wouldn't look to a game-accompanying book for that wonderful read. And while unremarkable is also exactly how I would describe this, I have leafed through fantasy at the bookstore that was plain and painfully bad often enough. Also, I guess Eragon has plenty of fans, and the comparison would probably be rather flattering to Gaider. Come on, we are talking about a piece of game fiction here. If ots an entertaining light read, thats already more than can be expected.

Bio seems to be obsessed, and really the only people interested, in this universe of their's. I suppose you have to in order to generate interest but they've constrained themselves by making it a marketing decision to keep it familiar in order to continue to sell to their base of D&D fans.

As for there being nothing new under the sun, I think Robert Jordan proved that fantasy can get a good kick in the pants every once in awhile, even if WoT is a random jigsaw puzzles of historical events and mythologies.

But the game itself has never interested me, I've been more interested in the toolset from the start. Unfortunately, they've decided to remove a good chunk of the flexibility that NWN had such as designing unique levels and they've removed multiplayer.

I myself am not bitter about it just not as interested anymore.

Originally Posted by rune_74
Because it's the easy thing to do. Easy to complain about what is wrong with things. It takes very little effort to say what is wrong with something(in your eyes) and to complain about the industry in general. It takes a hell of a lot more effort to do something about, ie make your own game. It is very easy to be an armchair critic.

Dude, crap writing is crap writing. We were specifically invited to comment on what we thought of the writing. I think it is crap. I could wax poetic on all the many splendored ways it is crap, but I'm not bitter enough.

Originally Posted by screeg
Dude, crap writing is crap writing. We were specifically invited to comment on what we thought of the writing. I think it is crap. I could wax poetic on all the many splendored ways it is crap, but I'm not bitter enough.

You'd expect a little more substance to critique on your own writing, wouldn't you? or did the praise you receive on your cyclopean stuff get to your head already? I think from one game designer to another, so to speak, you should be a little more careful there.

Why is this a thread for critiquing Gaider's borefest all of a sudden? Useful critiques are nice, but they assume that the writer is reading and heeding them. I doubt either holds true here.

And game designers shouldn't be held back from speaking their minds due to bullshit industry politics.

Originally Posted by aries100
It isn't meant to be great literature - like Ulysses or Tolstoy or Hemingway. Its meant to be a nice read for fans of DA: Origins. And maybe it will get people to read who don't read as much or not at all. As as teacher, I'm happy about this.

As a teacher, shouldn't you know better than to make false dichotomies? Books aren't divided into "SERIOUS BUSINESS HIGHBROW LITERATURE" and "GENERIC GARBAGE." Fantasy can be entertaining and well-written enough not to be embarrassing, but without aspiring to zomg!literashure seriousness. From what I've seen of this thing, it's not even entertaining. It's just boring, overdone, been-there-done-that. It's probably entertaining only to people who haven't read very much and to whom elves, dragons and a lost king are terribly, terribly original. And to people who are subliterate enough to think that Gaider's level of writing is anything but cringe-worthy. You know, "Kiss me, you fool!" level of cringe-worthy. This level of cringe-worthy.

Look, I don't feel like defending Gaider, I did not particularly like this sample chapter. But neither did I find it cringeworthy, nor did I find it overly generic. I.e. actually NO elves and dragons and bearded dwarves so far… And wether Mr. Gaider reads here or not is beside the point. if you want to slam something, give your reasons, and if you are yourself a writer, or claim to be one (and obviously think you can do better in this case like screeg here) a bit more than a oneliner might be especially appropriate if you don't simply want to come across as an arrogant prick.

Yes, as a teacher, I encourage my students to read anything that interest them. And i agree that fantasy can be well written. However, if one of my students would want to read a novel that I thought was written in a boring style, I wouldn't stop him or her. Nor would I stop him or her reading a book about a subject I had no interest in myself. I always recommend the books of Ursula Le Guin or my fellow Dane, Lene Kaaberbol. It may not be high literature, but they are well-written with good plots; not so in Gaider's case.

I agree that his style is boring and he has forgotten the 'show, don't tell rule'. He has talking more than showing. In one instance he is talking about a guy who in times of need thinks that 'the Lord has never abandoned him'. When I read that, I was like -meh- and thought to myself what didn't he just say something like 'his heart beating in fear, he knelt down and prayed…'

The point about Hemingway, Tolstoy and Shakespeare perhaps is that these guys have survived the test of time; there must be some quality in them, meaning that we, even in modern times, see something of ourselves in them. The novel for DA: Origins written by David Gaider will probably be forgotten during the next 10 year or so.

The point is also this:
It is written because the fans of DA: Origins from the Bioware boards wanted a cool book just like the ones Mass Effect had. (and btw, I don't think Drew's that's great a writer, either…)