Dragon Age: Last Flight Deluxe Edition

Dragon Age fans will love the subject material in this. Don't be deterred that it's written by a non-BW writer! It's very good! Do you remember your Barkspawn (or however you named your mabari from Origins)? Imagine they got the Taint again and you couldn't find the cure. You went on a long quest to find a cure, but couldn't. They die. Oops, there goes my feels... You've heard about the stories of griffons and lack of them in Origins; heroic tales of Garahel, hero of the Fourth Blight, and his victory at Ayesleigh; how the denial of acknowledging the Fifth Blight as a Blight is due to, compared to what happened in the Fourth Blight, underwhelming. [Last Flight] wonderfully paints how dire the Fourth Blight was in episodic fashion by time jumping, just like Dragon Age II did. And most importantly, the narrative heavily features griffons. Whether you've played Origins or not, the griffons and what happens to them is how the narrative does a wonderful job on showing how time has changed, how horrible a Blight is on land and its inhabitants, and what the current age of Dragon Age has lost by driving the species to extinction. The story is carried superbly by characters, each with a sense of uniqueness, that also adds to existing lore of Dragon Age. The novel is split into two different timelines: the Exalted Age (ie the Fourth Blight) and the Dragon Age (ie by time the Inquisition officially forms and start to gain its power). However, Inquisition is never mentioned; the problems that happen in-game is hardly mentioned; there are no cameos from previous games (maybe slight winks and references), other tie-in novels, or comic books. It stands on its own in Maker-forsaken land of Anderfels. That's why this tie-in novel works so well and very strong beside what the author produced: the fans never have to worry about how this will affect their game. The novel stands up all on its own by how it uses up the rich world of Thedas, and how it adds to what the game never gave to the players. I feel like this is how tie-in novels should be, especially ones relating to video games. [Last Flight] elaborates about Wardens up in Anderfels, how living in Anderfels is like, how horrible the Fourth Blight was, who was Garahel, and what it was like to have griffons around. I don't know how this will affect DA4, but for now, the content of the story elaborates on existing rich lore of DA. And I really liked how the author painted the Fourth Blight. Pace is fast; you can finish this within a few days. Characters are not boring and well written. Some of the battle scenes were actually good and exciting (felt nostalgic to my first play of the last fight in Origins in some chapters *sniffles* ). I highly recommend this to any DA fans, whether you've played all three or just Inquisition. One personal nitpit is just maybe, juuuuuust maybe, the word "maybe" might be overused ;D

The title of this review probably says it all, and was probably the only reason I chose to write this review :). Last flight is fifth book set in BioWare's Dragon Age "Expanded Universe", and also the second book "not written by David Gaider". As such, I would not recommend it to readers who are completely unfamiliar with the story setting, as most of the factions, and systems of the world are not that well explained. But, for someone familiar with Thedas, it is a very good read. Book is split into two timelines. First, taking place during 41st and 42nd year of the Dragon, 4 years after the ending of Dragon Age 2, and (so far) unspecified time before the events of upcoming Dragon Age Inquisition. The second, more important part, takes place during the 12 years of Fourth Blight. In the "present day" timeline, readers are introduced to a group of mages from city of Hossberg, who fled to Weisshaput, fortress of Grey Wardens, to seek refuge before Templars, who, after their alliance with the Chantry was annulled, hunt mages relentlessly, instead of protecting them. While waiting to become Wardens, the mages earn their keep by assisting in research in the library, one of these mages, Valya, discoveres journal of Warden Mage Isseya, who lived during the Fourth Blight. This journal open up the main part of the book, which is the second timeline I mentioned. Readers follow Isseya, who is, sadly, very "flat" character, showing very little to no emotion, except in the final years, where ramifications of her actions during the Blight hit her, and she starts to regret them and tries to undo them. Other characters, like her brother, are written as more of a "people", but they do not receive that much time in the book. However, while the characters may seem difficult to relate with, the rest of the book is very well written. Griffons, legendary flying mounts of the Wardens, are very well described, and reading the aerial combat scenes is a pleasure, with bolts of arcane energy flying left and right, while griffons perform daring maneuvers against darkspawn or even the mighty Archdemon itself. If you are a fan of the Dragon Age setting, I would certainly recommend the book. Otherwise, it is a nicely written fantasy, but it skips nearly every piece of world building, assuming that readers simply know what is what.

I love the videogames and I love the book series. But, you don't really need to buy the videogames to enjoy the books, because they are quite good all on their own.

A great book bringing with it a deeper understanding of the world of Dragon Age. Captivating, exciting, and moving book!

I am in the middle of Dragon Age Veilguard, and I found this book provided necessary backstory to ....(spoiler alert!). It was written well and I enjoyed the characters. And who doesn't love cat-bird creatures? Great addition to anyone interested in Dragon Age lore.

Aucune dommage et tout semble en ordre.

This book doesn't add much to the current dragon age lore and isn't directly related to the main storyline of any games. Its like a side story but its a very good story...one that I enjoyed after reading all the other books and comics. If you're a hardcore fan of dragon age and especially the grey wardens then you'll enjoy this book. Otherwise it's not that important.