The Blight, that dark cancerous army created by an old god, The Archdemon, spreads across the land of Thedas every one hundred years. Men have, and do, stand against this tide, but it falls to the Wardens and their magic to take the brunt of the fight. In 9:41 the magi Valya finds herself fleeing from a Templar pogrom. Finding safety with The Grey Wardens, she is set a task investigating the old records from the fourth blight. In her investigations she discovers the true history of Isseya and of Garahel , whose sacrifice ended the fourth Blight and the long extinct Griffons which they rode...

Dragon Age: Last Flight (2014, 297 pages) is a novel which ties into the Bioware game, written by Liane Merciel, who is better known for her Ithelas fantasy books. It is one of the strengths of Last Flight that it is written by an already established and published author.

I have read most of the previous novels and generally they are superior to the normal tie-in fare offered up, possibly because the game has a rich history that allows the authors some artistic freedom along with the usual restrictions of not being able to change events already explored in the game and not killing off certain characters.

The book is told from two perspectives, the first from Valya's, in what could be seen as contemporary to the game's timeline and also from Isseya's, which forms the bulk of the book and explains some of the events of the fourth Blight and the eventual disappearance of the Griffons. As they do not appear in the contemporary world, it’s a fair guess that it does not end well for them.

Not to be too down on the novel, but with the imposed restrictions this was never going to be a deep book, but it does provide an interesting adventure in which to absorb yourself. Merciel constructs her plot well and the characters have enough flaws to make them feel a little more real, so you don’t feel that you’re reading a novelised version of the game.

For fans of the series, Merciel brings some more exploration of the rich myths and legends contained in Dragon Age, but the book works well as a standalone story. Non-fans may miss the more complex political connections, which form the background of the story, but these are quickly skirted over to concentrate on the central mystery: What happened to the Griffons?

Out of the two halves, Isseya’s story is probably the more compelling; it is also the one with the most action. That said, Merciel has a nicely uncluttered prose style which keeps the whole thing moving forward at a brisk pace.

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Charles Packer