This had a classic fantasy novel feel while still having enough twists to be different! I think I'd only recommend this if you like the Dragon Age series though, bc the first part of the book drags. This is the second time I actually attempted to read it. But once you meet all the main characters things get going. There's blood, battle, an evil king to defeat, extremely good Dwarves....it's good fun for the most part! The ending was a little disappointing bc you miss the final confrontation and instead get to hear about it in an epilogue that a side character tells to

Maric and Rowan's son.

I was a Loghain hater when I played Origins originally but now I understand where he's coming from a little better.

A prequel novel to Dragon Age: Origins, explores the battles to freedom for the kingdom of Ferelden over the westward country of Orlais. Overall a great story and a great choice for my first time using an audio book.  

this book falls off so hard
i like loghain and maric’s dynamic but everything else is terrible. the women are written horriblyyy

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book, but I’m glad I enjoyed it. I’m a big fan of Dragon Age, so it was nice to be able to enjoy more of the franchise’s extra content.

To start, I really liked Maric’s journey across the book. Especially how his relationship with his closest friend, Loghain, played into it. He goes from a whiny and naïve boy to a hardened king, willing to do what’s necessary. It’s not fully framed as good either, even more so when taking his relationship with Loghain into the mix. They’re two friends who clearly love and are devoted to each other, yet still hurt each other.

I also thought the book’s description’s were well done. I had a solid pictures of characters and locations, but also the action and feelings in the moment. The combat is the best example of this. They felt visceral and fast-moving. Keeping that quick pace is something I see books struggle with a lot, so this was nice to see.

I also think the characters were largely compelling. While there was one I couldn’t really get behind, I think most were allowed a lot of depth and complexity. Even characters now handled well had it to an extent. I really felt like that the main cast were a group of young people that were suffering the consequences of growing up in a war.

However, the book has its flaws as well.

The most obvious issue was how women were written. Despite a level of complexity all characters had, the women felt a little flat. While Rowen had moments of a lot of depth, overall she and the other leading woman were largely objects. They became items for Maric and Loghain to fight and have conflict over, instead of being fully people. It was disappointing.

I also think the book’s pacing was off. I felt like some important moments were glossed over, meanwhile other moments were dragged out. This was even more obvious at the end of the book. The climax felt off and dissatisfying. While the epilogue was solid, I ended the book feeling like I’d been denied something.

Overall I really enjoyed the book. I had fun reading it, but I’d hesitate to recommend it to anyone that isn’t already a fan of Dragon Age.

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.