You want a review? Okay, well...
For starters, as a tie-in to Dragon Age, it's a definite go-to and should be read. I suspect we'll see the situation with the Wardens tying into Inquisition, and the ending will more than likely tie in to later games, assuming this book is made canon.
As far as just a book to pick up and read, though... I found it "okay." It's most likely not a novel I'd re-read unless I just wanted to go poke around for lore bits that I missed.
In more detail:
Characterization:
Isseya and to a lesser extent Valya were well-written characters, well-rounded, and experienced character growth. While Garahel also experienced some growth, he seemed a bit too "good," by which I mean he succeeded at absolutely everything he did, he was spectacularly charismatic, very attractive... To me, he's basically a Gary Stu.
Now, to be fair to the novelist and the novel, the primary story is set in the Fourth Blight and the source of the information is a diary. That said, whether in the Fourth Blight or post Fifth Blight, I found overall characterization for anyone who wasn't the protagonist to be a bit lacking. The characters are often interesting, in terms of social status versus what they are doing, but there's not enough interaction shown for me to really get a decent "feel" for them. That reminds me very much of Dragon Age 2, where I also felt I'd missed out on many of the interactions that might have given me more appreciation for the characters. Some of this is due to massive time gaps. Some of it is due to characters randomly showing up close to the end, or only briefly.
And, in terms of the Post Fifth Blight story within which the other story is framed, I definitely think that more time could have been invested into these characters than there was, or else, as others have suggested, this part of the story should maybe have been eliminated entirely in favor of the story about the Fourth Blight.
In regard to Lisme: I understand this character is apparently gender-fluid, but that seems to be his/her primary defining trait, aside from the one choice made later on and magical ability. When you are dealing with a character who is likely meant to represent some actual real-world people, wouldn't it be better for this character to have a defined personality beyond flamboyantly playing with gender expectations? I think more could have been done with this character, and he/she would have felt more interesting and more REAL for it.
Regarding Griffins:
I noted several inconsistencies, the most glaring of which described all the griffins in a scene fighting darkspawn with their beaks after being told a few pages before that they're specifically trained not to do so--later it's clarified that only one did so, but the picture painted by the words was broad, not restricted to just one griffin.
Griffin intelligence level and social behavior was portrayed inconsistently. They understand self-sacrifice--no wait they don't. They can take the initiative to go out of their way to rescue their riders - but oh wait they don't really consider the rider's safety during the "rescue." They are territorial and solitary but apparently they play with each other/tolerate each other's presence and only males fight when there's a female in heat.
I also noted several cases where the author didn't seem know a whole lot about birds beyond terminology. The actual function and anatomy of birds, where griffins are concerned, had some problems--I won't go into detail here, since most people wouldn't have noticed and it'd just seem nitpicky and make this post much longer.
World Building:
I think this is actually where the novel does best. The characters may not be particularly well fleshed out, especially compared to those in Masked Empire or Asunder, but I had a very good sense of the setting and the world. In some ways, I think it was better at portraying the horrors of a Blight than Dragon Age: Origins. It also builds on some things we learned about the darkspawn taint in The Calling.
I remember a recent comment or tweet, too, wherein a developer said blood magic is basically evil no matter how you slice it. I think this novel managed to portray that well, even if some disagree with it/think blood magic is actually okay because of Merrill/their Warden/etc. I'm recalling the developer said they wouldn't do blood magic for the PC in the game again until they could better portray how horrible it actually is. Personally, I think the novels have proven to be the best platform for showing us the horrors of blood magic, since there are aspects of it (i.e. greasy feeling) we can't experience in-game, unless they suddenly decide to add narration flavor text like an old text-based adventure game.
In terms of the griffins, I think there are still quite a few questions left unanswered--their origins, whether there were any wild ones during the Fourth Blight, or if they were magically created for the Wardens, etc.
Plot:
It may only be me, but I found the plot to be rather predictable, in terms of the Fourth Blight. I didn't foresee all of the steps along the way, no, but I did guess generally at what had happened and what the outcome would be.
I didn't expect the ending we got for the Post Fifth Blight setting, but in all honesty either this framework story needed to be a bigger plot, with more fleshing out, or cut entirely. Yes, I feel it will influence later games/DLCs if the story is considered canon to the games' plot. Maybe we won't see anything from it in Inquisition. In fact, probably we won't, unless it's a DLC. Still, with so little time devoted to the characters and the plot of the "present day Thedas" story, it feels less relevant. I can see why the frame story is there, though - giving the character motivation to become the one to resolve the plot thread of the Fourth Blight story. But, that could have also been handled with an epilogue.
Overall Impression:
As I said, novel-wise, this one's "okay." Not great, but not bad either.
I was impressed that this is a novel with two different female protagonists in two different timeframes with totally different goals, and yet there was no romance plot involved. Where I am concerned, that's a good thing. It's not that I'm anti-romance (I enjoy romantic side plots in books, games, etc), but it's refreshing that a female character can be given a personality that puts duty or personal responsibility before love, passion, sex, etc, as opposed to assuming that because she is female she MUST want nothing more than to fall in love.
The biggest thing I feel the novel needed was more time, and maybe more page space. When timeskips etc. were used, both in the Dragon Age vs. Fourth Blight storylines, I felt that sizeable chunks of what made the characters who they were, were missing. I felt that we didn't get to know characters we were introduced to as well as we should have, if they were meant to have an impact on the reader in some way. I don't always think a novel benefits from extra length, but I think this one would have. If it had been a brick-sized novel like some I've read, I think the author would have had more opportunity to flesh out characters via further personal interactions with Isseya and Valya, thereby giving the reader more stock in the outcomes for those characters.
But, in terms of a tie-in that will probably be relevant either in the next game or upcoming DLCs (or both), I think it's something fans will probably want to read. For me, it was worth reading - I've read better and I've read worse, but for the tie in to Dragon Age, it was worth it. (Also because I like griffins.)
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