Thanks to Panguin Random House and Edelweiss for the eARC!

This novel tie-in was a nearly impossible challenge: write a compelling prequel novel about the most popular (and most divisive) character from a smash hit video game. Said character also happens to already have the most detailed backstory of any of the companion characters in the game. Oh, and it’s set in the Forgotten Realms, so you also have to play ball with Wizards of the Coast. Like, just kill me now. I could never.

But apparently T. Kingfisher relishes a challenge, and she took it on with the same wit, rich world-building, and heart that she puts into her original books. This book is equal parts a Baldur’s Gate book, and a T. Kingfisher book, and those things only occasionally clash. There is an underground death cult in the sewer, but there is also a paladin with a heart of gold and more looks than brains. There are seedy maritime taverns, but there’s also Astarion’s sneering judgment of Cazador’s nouveau riche taste in decor. There are unceasing horrors in Szar palace, but there is also a talking seagull with a taste for chip sauce.

I think the weird contrasts work in the book's favor though. The tonal shifts offer a bit of an emotional release valve because if this book had been 200+ pages of torture porn in the palace, I could not have finished it. I don’t think many people would.

Plus, anyone who has played a Dungeons and Dragons campaign knows how wildly the tone of an adventure can swing on the roll of a dice. One minute you’re running for your life from a rampaging red dragon and the next, you’re pratfalling and your bard is trying to cast Otto’s Irresistible Dance on the thing. BG3 also has wild tonal shifts as well. You can move from an ominous and heavy conversation between Raphael and Astarion regarding the scarification on Astarion’s back, to greeting a hairless cat named His Majesty. It’s a charm that is deeply embedded in the source material and I think Kingfisher’s unique voice aligns well with that seesaw tone.

I think Kingfisher also did a solid job of capturing pre-game Astarion’s voice. He’s an asshole and very self-centered. Some of that is natural, especially his snobbishness, but it’s exasperated by his deplorable circumstances. He’s a thief, a compulsive liar, and a manipulative son of a bitch. But the person he lies to the most is himself. He has managed to hide the soft, sensitive man who loves beautiful things and being held gently by someone who doesn’t want anything from him but his presence. It’s that tension that I have always found most compelling about Astarion as a character.

What is probably most challenging about a project like this is that you can’t really have a satisfying arc for your main character. In an unplanned tie-in prequel such as this, your main goal is to make sure you leave the character in the same mindset they’re in when we meet them in the source material. It’s like writing comics where you create an illusion of change but then have to find a way to revert back to the status quo by the end. It’s a nearly impossible task, and while I don’t think Kingfisher perfectly stuck the landing, she didn’t fall on her face either.

Is this the greatest tie-in novel ever written? No. Is this the best book T. Kingfisher has ever written. Absolutely not! Was it a fairly satisfying and entertaining book about a character and world that I enjoy quite a lot? Yes. It’s at points funny, exciting, and horrific. The characterization is solid. It’s chock full of little Forgotten Realms lore bits that longtime fans of Dungeons and Dragons are sure to enjoy. Overall it was a well executed tie-in novel that fans of both Baldur’s Gate and T. Kingfisher are bound to enjoy.