"Dragon Age: Asunder"

Dragon Age: Asunder (David Gaider)

This is one of the most dreaded works out there: A video game tie in (bum bum bummmm). The three Mass Effect novels were alright (I'm not sure in retrospect they quite reached that A- I gave out), but this novel is a cut above those, and the only thing that holds it back from being an easy recommend is that it's absolutely steeped in Dragon Age lore. If you haven't played both games you'll probably be pretty lost, and even someone like me who's not just played but also read most of the optional material in those games had no idea who someone from one of the previous Dragon Age novels was when she showed up.
If you can surmount that formidable barrier to entry, though, there's a great story in here packed full of the kind of interesting, fleshed-out characters that you probably wouldn't expect from a video game tie-in novel. My only nitpick is that the villain comes off as a bit of a mustache-twirling cartoon bad guy - the author does attempt to give him some depth and motivation for his actions, but this comes as too little, too late to make him into a believable person at cross-purposes with our hero instead of a naughty antagonist for our heroes to look good fighting. This is the only thing I can complain about, though, and if you know enough about the setting to consider buying this, I highly recommend it.

Grade: A-