338 réponses à ce sujet

[Ralsar]

I loved Stolen Throne, but Borders didn't have The Calling when I went. Going to check again later. I will read it soon though.

[NewYears1978]

Ralsar, same here, None of the local bookstores here had the book on release..and online showed the same...so I just broke down and ordered it on Amazon..hopfully get it tommorrow.



Really excited to read the book before the game comes out.

[LdyShayna]

I enjoyed The Stolen Throne and am enjoying The Calling as well. Unfortunately, I caught a nasty cold right after I got it, and every time I have quiet time to sit down and read, my body insists I do something silly like sleep. I blame the Nyquil, as I'm blaming Nyquil for any strange thing I do this week.

[Arttis]

LdyShayna wrote...

I enjoyed The Stolen Throne and am enjoying The Calling as well. Unfortunately, I caught a nasty cold right after I got it, and every time I have quiet time to sit down and read, my body insists I do something silly like sleep. I blame the Nyquil, as I'm blaming Nyquil for any strange thing I do this week.

blame it for the swine flu also

[ForsakenSon]

I can't wait to start reading it. I picked it up today, but I'm still reading Salvatore's The Ghost King, so I hope I can finish up them both before Dragon Age comes out.

[Puppy Love]

It was an amazing book, especially for only his second one. His writing has definately improved. Though I enjoyed the plot of the first book more as it was more my style.

[hooligan402]

I'm a little more than halfway through the book right now (totally slacked off at work today ).  But a couple of questions pop into my mind.

1.  It seems to me that ichor is going to spraying everywhere in the game.   How is this going to affect your party (mainly Rabbit)?  Will Rabbit be "Grey Warden-ish" ala Hafter?  Or will those vials that King Maric received from the Circle of Magi be an inventory item to prevent poisoning?

2.  Are dragonbone weapons going to be in the game?  That would be sweeeeeeeeeeeet!

3.  Tres is spanish for three.

Excellent book thus far, Mr Gaider.  Please continue these!!!!

[grregg]

imported_beer wrote...

(...)

Totally. However, If I hadn't liked the book, it would not have been worth the effort for me personally to write that gushing review.

I am still interested in hearing what you didn't like about the book though.

Since you asked...

First, to clarify, all the stuff below is "in my opinion"

What I don't like about The Calling is that the writing itself is, for a lack of a better word, clumsy. It's not consistently like that, there are parts that really enjoyed, and these are generally the scenes that are dominated by conversations between the characters, but some parts are (for me) grating.

I think descriptions of fights are one of the best examples here. Fights feel... remote. They are described in a "turn-based" fashion that, for me, totally does not convey the rush and the urgency of combat. I guess The Stolen Throne was similar in that respect, but its fight scenes were large battles when the "slow" approach works better.

For a small scale combat present in The Calling, it does not work.

I can provide specific examples if you wish, but in general they're plentiful. Maric and Duncan are making all kinds of observations while in combat, various characters have conversations, etc. In itself this is not necessarily bad, but it just slows things down. Imagine if you will that you are a director filming the fight scene and your pen is your camera. Every sentence that you spend on random observations causes the camera to pan away from the action towards other things. The result would likely be jarring and that's exactly how I find it.

And that leads to another thing that I dislike about writing in The Calling and that's the amount of explaining that Mr. Gaider does. If memory serves, in the final combat, we are reminded several times that the spell currently cast is the same that hit Genevieve. From time to time, it makes the novel feel like a script for the animation team. In a technical specification, repeating things is great, in a novel, well, not necessarily.

Even outside of combat, there are many examples where The Calling abandons the good old "show, don't tell" principle. I mean this is a guideline, not a law and you don't get hauled away to writers' jail if you violate it, but breaking it should be done carefully.

Imagine that I tell you that I am a very nice guy. Even if you do believe it, you are likely to be less convinced of that if you actually saw me acting nice and came to the same conclusion, am I right? So when Mr. Gaider tells me something instead of showing it, I tend to get engaged less, and as a result, care less about the characters. And then the whole thing unravels since a dungeon romp with characters I don't really feel connected to is a bit pointless.

If you would like me to provide examples, let me know, I don't have the book here.

Modifié par grregg, 15 octobre 2009 - 06:38 .

[Anderielle]

It usually takes me awhile to make it through a book I am not a fast reader and english is my second language.But I have to say I read both of his books in a couple of days,which is astounding for me.Very easy to read and loved the Story and I cried because of Hafter.

[Napoleon1853]

I may have to pick up these books sometime.

[Bob the Insane]

At the very least the two books do an excellent job of introducing the world and the prevailing attitudes of the residents...

[Mister-Wizard]

Just finished Stolen Throne about 2 hours ago! Starting "The Calling" tomorrow night! =)

[Kranis]

I found the calling to be a great read, so good that I've read it twice now. I think anyone who picks it up will enjoy it quite a bit personally. For this being only his second book, he has improved by leaps and bounds and I think DG has a great future ahead of him if he decides to write more books.

[Leo X Pont Max]

grregg wrote...

imported_beer wrote...

(...)

Totally. However, If I hadn't liked the book, it would not have been worth the effort for me personally to write that gushing review.

I am still interested in hearing what you didn't like about the book though.

Since you asked...

First, to clarify, all the stuff below is "in my opinion"

What I don't like about The Calling is that the writing itself is, for a lack of a better word, clumsy. It's not consistently like that, there are parts that really enjoyed, and these are generally the scenes that are dominated by conversations between the characters, but some parts are (for me) grating.

I think descriptions of fights are one of the best examples here. Fights feel... remote. They are described in a "turn-based" fashion that, for me, totally does not convey the rush and the urgency of combat. I guess The Stolen Throne was similar in that respect, but its fight scenes were large battles when the "slow" approach works better.

For a small scale combat present in The Calling, it does not work.

I can provide specific examples if you wish, but in general they're plentiful. Maric and Duncan are making all kids of observations while in combat, various characters have conversations, etc. In itself this is not necessarily bad, but it just slows things down. Imagine if you will that you are a director filming the fight scene and your pen is your camera. Every sentence that you spend on random observations causes the camera to pan away from the action towards other things. The result would likely be jarring and that's exactly how I find it.

And that leads to another thing that I dislike about writing in The Calling and that's the amount of explaining that Mr. Gaider does. If memory serves, in the final combat, we are reminded several times that the spell currently cast is the same that hit Genevieve. From time to time, it makes the novel feel like a script for the animation team. In a technical specification, repeating things is great, in a novel, well, not necessarily.

Even outside of combat, there are many examples where The Calling abandons the good old "show, don't tell" principle. I mean this is a guideline, not a law and you don't get hauled away to writers' jail if you violate it, but breaking it should be done carefully.

Imagine that I tell you that I am a very nice guy. Even if you do believe it, you are likely to be less convinced of that if you actually saw me acting nice and came to the same conclusion, am I right? So when Mr. Gaider tells me something instead of showing it, I tend to get engaged less, and as a result, care less about the characters. And then the whole thing unravels since the dungeon romp with characters I don't really feel connected to is a bit pointless.

If you would like me to provide examples, let me know, I don't have the book here.

I agree with this post.

My foremost discrepancy with the books are how some lines break the despairity of many of the characters, which was was very endearing, such as when Duncan said "I'm a better Grey Warden than you'll ever be."

[deltaxsi]

What, the hell, was/is the Architect up too?  Could someone with better reading comprehension than I explain it to me please?

I get that he's an emmisary. I get that he's different.  He can choose to ignore the calling of the taint.  As a caster, he can also freely wander the fade, interact with other casters there, and even influence grey wardens into making some terrible decisions.

But what is his goal and how does he plan to get there? He wants to bring a lasting peace between darkspawn and humanity by tainting all of humanity?  After killing the old gods and eliminating the call, this will allow the darkspawn to somehow control their taint since they won't have any other targets of 'light' and they can start their 'new beginnings'?  The architect can plan all of this out without understanding that when humans are tainted and it advances to it's completion, they're not human anymore.   How did Bregan put it?  He's so full of hate, anger, and regret that it become all he knows, and seems like that's all he's ever known.

How does the architect plan for this ultimately lead to any sort of lasting peace?

[Leman]

I would say it is the same philosophy behind the Prothian civilization. When we are all one race, connected, there would be peace and prosperity. So by turning all humanity into darkspawns there would be peace.



Sounds good and all... but I don't want to be an ugly darkspawn.

[ezek01]

deltaxsi wrote...

What, the hell, was/is the Architect up too?  Could someone with better reading comprehension than I explain it to me please?

I get that he's an emmisary. I get that he's different.  He can choose to ignore the calling of the taint.  As a caster, he can also freely wander the fade, interact with other casters there, and even influence grey wardens into making some terrible decisions.

But what is his goal and how does he plan to get there? He wants to bring a lasting peace between darkspawn and humanity by tainting all of humanity?  After killing the old gods and eliminating the call, this will allow the darkspawn to somehow control their taint since they won't have any other targets of 'light' and they can start their 'new beginnings'?  The architect can plan all of this out without understanding that when humans are tainted and it advances to it's completion, they're not human anymore.   How did Bregan put it?  He's so full of hate, anger, and regret that it become all he knows, and seems like that's all he's ever known.

How does the architect plan for this ultimately lead to any sort of lasting peace?

This is how I saw it (and of course I could be wrong!)

The architect plans to turn all humans into beings like Bregan/Geneveve etc. that are not quite human and not quite darkspawn.  The reason he wants this is that the darkspawn will ignore these half humans and not attack them on sight (as they would a regular human).  That is why he calls it the "middle ground" where both species can exist in peace.

The sacrifice made by the humans is that:
1. They would have to be corrupted to the point in which they were no longer human.
2. Many humans would die in the process of being tainted.
The sacrifice made bt the darkspawn is that:
1. The old gods must die.
2. They will most likely turn on each other until they learn to control themselves and develop into a more civilized being.

Again this was just my understanding of what I read.

[Invict]

A few notes:



Personally if I was in Bregan's position I would have killed the Old Gods and then killed the Architect. Of course it was pretty much impossible with the First Enchanter's involvement.



Even if the Architect was right, he didn't know human nature fully. You know humanity would never except the taint unless it was forced unto them. Bregan noted that after being transformed he felt nothing but hatred and rage. Because of that I think humanity would doom itself were it to accept the taint.



The Architect said that just killing the Old Gods wouldn't be enough because the darkspawn would turn on each other and then eventually rise up against humanity. But without an Archdemon to back them up, I doubt the Blight would be as successful. There's also always the possibility that the Architect is wrong. I think he was wrong about the 'middle ground', as well. Like I said earlier, those converted lost part of their humanity and became more 'demonlike' not only physically but mentally, too.



Several times the author noted that there were areas in the Deep Roads completely void of the taint. I thought this was interesting. Maybe there is something that strongly repels the taint, other than Maric's sword. Also, the elf's taint was completely reversed and in her word's it seemed like she had obtained 'complete' immunity (not ever having to undergo the Calling again). I wonder what this will hold later on , if anything.



Also we still don't know how Maric dies I think? I'm going to assume it will be Loghain but I still can't figure out why he would betray Maric, other than the fact that it will happen. I guess this will be explained in the game.

[ezek01]

Invict wrote...

Even if the Architect was right, he didn't know human nature fully. You know humanity would never except the taint unless it was forced unto them. Bregan noted that after being transformed he felt nothing but hatred and rage. Because of that I think humanity would doom itself were it to accept the taint.

Personally I think that the main reason Bregan felt only hatred and rage is that his life was filled with it (i.e. the argument that causes him and his sister to attack each other was based on previous built up hatred which was not related to the corruption). Obviously I don't think that people would be super excited about the idea of being corrupted in such a manner, but I do not think that everyone would have the same reaction as Bregan.  Look at Utha, for example, while she had only been corrupted for a short period of time (compared to Bregan) she had no overt signs of being filled with hate.

Also as far as I understood it people would'nt necissarily be aware that they were being corrupted since it would be done magically in large chunks.  I don't have the book with me to look at the quote, but I think that the mages role in the plan was to create devices and put them in the major cities so that humanity could be slowly corrupted from within (if that makes sense...) 

[Isaantia]

Ok so I just finished this book. WTF is up with Maric and his thing for elf women ... in taint-filled tunnels? lol

Surely that new son of his is going to pose a problem at some point in the future. I feel really bad for Cailan.



Also the Architect is awfully naive. I feel kinda bad for him in a way.



Duncan, OTOH, is amazingly awesome and I am about to fangirl all over him. For reals. I cannot wait to meet him in game.

[nisallik]

If Duncan is killed in DA:O, there better be an option for a cinematic body-shield before he is killed. I would gladly take a game over than to see Duncan die. ;p

[Puppy Love]

Isaantia wrote...

Ok so I just finished this book. WTF is up with Maric and his thing for elf women ... in taint-filled tunnels? lol
Surely that new son of his is going to pose a problem at some point in the future. I feel really bad for Cailan.

Also the Architect is awfully naive. I feel kinda bad for him in a way.

Duncan, OTOH, is amazingly awesome and I am about to fangirl all over him. For reals. I cannot wait to meet him in game.

Really?  You liked Duncan?

So far Duncan for me, even after reading the calling is just well, I don't like him.  I will certainly not be fangirling him.  When/If he dies I'll gladly take over for him and show him how it's done.  As for his "I'm a better Greywarden" comment, I'll take that as a comparitive piece, but it doesn't make him a good one.  A good greywarden doesn't go sneaking around a place they were invited and steal stuff.  He's a petty thief that's good with daggers and very occasionally has a moral thought.

I do however like Meric, I'm not sure why everyone hates him so much.  Yeah he makes mistakes, but he's genuinly a good person, he doesn't fake much, and very little is a mask.  He treats people well and with respect.  He tries to do the right thing, but like most people that are genuinly good, he's often overwhelmed with depression that can lead to self hate.  He feels guilt quite strongly.  He feels stronger than I'd say most of the other characters.  In fact I'd say that's his best and worst trait.  He's got strong emotions which means when he feels something it's almost overwhelmingly so.  Fortunately he's got a strong tendancy towards the more positive emotions.  Hate, rage and anger are very rare for him, whereas love, concern, compassion are common for him.  When Rowan died those overwhelming emotions of his gave away to despair and he fell apart.  It's not that he didn't want to do well by Cailin, it's just that he was quite literally clinically depressed by this point.  Since anti-dressents don't exist in Dragon Age and his only support was Loghain who must be one of the worst equipped people to deal with others depression, Meric was pretty much screwed until something Jarred him out of it.  I could go on but oh well Is getting long already.

Basic point is I  Meric cause we're a lot alike and I understand what it's like dealing with the kind of emotional termoil he does.  Only thing that seperates me and Meric is gender and confidence.  He has confidence, I lack it almost completely.

[Bob the Insane]

I got the impression that Bregan was basically turning into a Horlock. He still had the ability to focus and contcentrate and had not completely lost his own personality. However it may have only been a matter of time until he he was fully darkspawn...

Is it feasible that the darkspawn are those humans (and elves and dwarves) strong enought to survive the taint? That to only difference between a Grey Warden and a Darkspawn is just time (something in the ritual greatly slows down the effects of the taint)? This way the Grey Wardens would not so much be immune to the taint but simply be already infected.

Thus the Architect coud have been going for the double win of freeing the darkspawn from the old gods and turning everyone into darkpawn (or killing them) without battle. Viewed from this perspective he was, while potentially unique (difficult to say as the book did not intorduce any other emissaries for comparison), acting in the interests of the Darkspawn.

I believe the First Enchanter was looking to take advantage of the situation to weaken other nations and enemies within the empire but had no intention of assisting the Darkspawn any further in their plan with the old gods. I don't believe the thought they would create a blight this way...

This introduces some nice concepts.

1. the Darkspawn are not just an unthinking horror
2. reinforces the sacrifice involved in becoming a Grey Warden
3. mages are powerful but limited
4. there are magic objects that can ward off the taint
5. only the dwarves can make dragon bone stuff
6. the taint normally kills humans
7. the taint seems to prefer manufactured architecture to spread

A couple of questions from the story,

If in spreading the taint to a large group means most will die but some will become darkspawn (half-darkspawn?) then what is special about the Grey Warden cerimony? Is it like a taint vacine?

Why did the taint not appear to spread into natural caverns?

If the Grey Wardens are effected by the taint can they pass it on? Are they carriers?

Modifié par Bob the Insane, 16 octobre 2009 - 02:28 .

[rodelbjerg]

I finally got the book in my hands... Finally!

I'm off to read now.