As a heads-up, my review is completely biased. I'm a huge Dragon Age fan and my enjoyment of this novel is largely based on the fact it gives coherent context to the events of Dragon Age: Origins, an RPG released by Bioware back in 2009. 
 However, I doubt many people are here who haven't heard of Dragon Age, so... 
 I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of writing from Gaider here. I don't expect much from 'flavour' books added to a series (Hello, the majority of the Star Wars novels) but right from the first page he grabbed my attention and kept it throughout the twists and turns of introducing the cast and establishing the era. Seeing familiar names was exciting rather than feeling like cheap name drops for the fans. The story itself did drag at times, an issue with pacing rearing its head around 60% in, but it wasn't overly painful and it wrapped up with an appropriately heartstring-pulling ending. As for character development, it felt nuanced and even realistic most of the time, with the heroes not always acting like heroes and not automatically winning because of their golden halo effect. With that said, the antagonistic force was represented as completely stupid-evil and it lost me around that point. I felt very uninterested and even put off by the chapters set from the perspective of the enemy. 
 (view spoiler)[I will dedicate a part of this to Katriel. I was actually really surprised a character like Katriel existed, as she was such an embodiment of one of the women in refrigerators that it at times was quite jarring next to characters like Loghain and Rowan. There could have been much more to her characterization, given her importance, and I feel this is one of the book's most gaping flaws. (hide spoiler)] 
 I did enjoy the majority of the book aside from those aspects though, so it's recommended from me if anyone is looking for more depth to their Origins lore. 3/5.