{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review:
Astarion (Baldur's Gate III)
by T. Kingfisher
by Karen S. Wiesner
My mother taught me that, if I can't say something nice, then don't say anything at all. This philosophy has always been my guideline in reviewing. Only infrequently have I posted a review that wasn't basically positive. For that reason, I wasn't going to review Astarion after I read it. However, I was specifically asked to provide my perspective on the novel given my passing familiarity with Baldur's Gate as well as the Dungeons & Dragons/Forgotten Realms franchise. That said, I advise that everyone take what I say here with a grain of salt and to be aware that I don't believe Astarion was poorly written in the least. It simply wasn't something I enjoyed (others have and will appreciate it in varying degrees). Throughout this overview, combined with my review of the novel, I'll explain why I personally felt so let-down by Kingfisher's prequel novelization that includes the character Astarion's backstory.
To start with, I'll say that I read Astarion for two reasons: 1) I read everything T. Kingfisher writes, so this was a given, and 2) because I have some experience with playing the Baldur's Gate videogame series (though I will say I probably wouldn't have read the book at all if it hadn't been written by this particular author).
My first true foray into this universe was R. A. Salvatore's The Dark Elf Trilogy (read my review here: https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2023/07/book-review-dark-elf-trilogy-by-ra.html) which featured the dark drow character of Drizzt Do'Urden and the Underdark setting in Menzoberranzan. In this place, cunning, scheming, and unscrupulous politics are the order of the day. There is no room for honor, love, or even friendship. Drizzt was born into this horrible (though fascinating) place. One of the biggest reasons I was so amazed by this trilogy was that, in normal stories, good characters are in a place where basically good is done and expected by all, and then a villain enters and disrupts that equilibrium. But, in The Dark Elf Trilogy, we have a good character surrounded by the worst kind of evil, in a location where all of society and its attitude is centered on cut-throat survival of the fittest. Drizzt is different. He's selfless and heroic. I've read several other miniseries under the Drizzt umbrella, but nothing else that topped it when it comes to utterly captivating me.
Beyond that, my daughter bought me a copy of both Baldur's Gate I and II Enhanced in one physical package in 2020, I think. At that time, through tenacity, I was able to play both of these games back-to-back. I remember enjoying them very much, though at this time I recall little or nothing about them beyond that the gameplay was incredibly convoluted and not in the least intuitive. I powered through, nevertheless, because I was very interested in the setting they took place in after having read The Dark Elf Trilogy. Also, I fell into a rhythm that allowed me to be able to flourish in completing the games. However, when I attempted to return for a second play-through about a year later, I couldn't get the hang of the weird gameplay, and therefore wasn't able to play them again. (I'm not alone in this situation. Others I've talked to have also said that they always forget how to play the game between playthroughs.)
Fast-forward several years later. My nephew learned I'd played the first two games, so upon its release he secured a deluxe edition of Balder's Gate III that came with a physical copy of the game and double soundtrack (which is absolutely stunning and made the shocking price for this edition well-worth it), posters and miscellaneous memorabilia. [Note for those unfamiliar with the series or videogames that BG III is the one that the character Astarion made his first appearance in.]
I started the videogame with high hopes, but I instantly disliked many things about it. I don't know how else to describe this, but the game is presented in a "fish-eyed" manner with oddball control schemes and camera angles. Everything is almost microscopically tiny, and you're viewing a massive setting through miniscule eyes, causing you as the main character to feel off-balanced, dizzy, and almost ludicrously small. All this makes it almost impossible to see anything with any degree of clarity in this fishbowl of a world. Also, the subtitles were clearly intended for people who can read smaller-than-normal print, and therefore I wasn't able to catch contextual clues without having my face pressed up against the TV monitor at all times. If you've played the game and haven't experienced this, I expect it's because you're young and have good eyesight. Additionally, the combat style in III is the old, horrible kind that's turn-based, dice-roll determination--you know, how battles were fought before videogames got really good, fun, and easy to play, especially for older people like me! Before and during my initial time playing this videogame, I read multiple game guides and searched online for some clue how to do anything by way of engaging in battle. I didn't understand the mechanics, nor did anyone want to explain it. In lieu of direction, I was invariably treated to barely veiled, contemptuous implications that I was a moron because I didn't get it and they wouldn't lower themselves by explaining it.
After countless, needless deaths, I turned to my husband, who tried to fight the battle for me but gave up almost immediately. You know a videogame is too hard and complicated when you're only in the first few minutes of gameplay, you're playing on story mode (which is easier than easy), and yet you can't win a battle to save your life. Weeks or months later, I can't remember, my daughter (who considers the combat in this game boring) played some of it and got me a little further along in the battle, but I still wasn't able to complete it on my own. At last another nephew finished that combat for me, but I was exhausted trying to learn that much and felt defeated. That final time, I actually escaped the ship and was in the wider world with my new companions that I'd rescued from the mind flayer's ship (picking up Astarion just after the getaway). I couldn't go any further. I was too discouraged by how hard this initial portion of the game was to want to induce more trauma on myself. That's as far as I ever got in BG III. I do want to try again in the future because I believe the story might be rewarding enough to put up with the stupidity of the difficult gameplay and visuals. I'm not optimistic that it'll go any better, but we'll see.
Note that BG I and II are connected--you play as the same character with many of the same companions. Shortly after the events of I, II begins. Novelizations of the games were also made available by various authors, including Drew Karpyshyn, who was involved in my favorite franchise Mass Effect. Game I included much less complex characters and conflicts than game II, with developers taking into account the "constructive criticism" of I's players. III takes place a hundred years after the events of II and features more complicated characters and conflicts. In the opening scene, the primary character you play as is imprisoned on board an illithid (mind flayer) ship, which crashes, and you're intended to rescue several prisoners who become recruitable companions, depending on dialogue and actions. All have been infected with a parasite. Without a cure, transformation into a mind flayer is certain. That's the gist of the game. Almost all the infected characters want to be rid of "the tadpole", but Astarion is the exception to this for complicated reasons that are discovered during the course of gameplay.
High Elf Astarion Ancunin can either be a protagonist or a recruitable party member in the game, as the player sees fit. He's a rogue and a vampire spawn--not a full vampire, since in this fictional world, vampires are very powerful and this didn't fit his character development, according to the senior writer, Stephen Rooney, who created him. Before being made into a vampire spawn by Cazador Szarr, Astarion was a magistrate who loved decadence and was an unrepentant hedonist. While he might consider himself just, the fact was, he was manipulative and dedicated to his own aims. Always. His own pleasure and advancement are at the core of his being. Becoming a vampire thrall didn't change him so much as refine his original modus operandi of being free and answerable only to himself. Morality isn't a goal or even of any interest to him within Astarion the novel--and everything I've read leads me to suspect it isn't in the BG III videogame either. However, the basis of most modern videogames is, of course, that your choices influence the character you're controlling as well as your party members. So it is entirely possible that Astarion could be persuaded to redeem himself if your decisions resonate with him throughout the game. That said, everything I've read, including the 400-page official game guide, convinces me that true morality isn't something he'll ever achieve, nor will he desire to.
T. Kingfisher's prequel to Astarion's character has the story shifting between Astarion's early days as a working-class boy taken in by rich relatives to his present life as Cazador's slave. While it's true that Astarion (along with many other unfortunates) has endured centuries of mental and physical torture at the hands of a cruel master and the reader isn't immune to feeling shocked and horrified, Astarion is portrayed as possessing with little by way of squeamishness let alone true deep trauma. Kingfisher's infatuation with the character simply won't allow that. As such, he has no trouble performing whatever acts Szarr requires of him, though he'd clearly rather be off doing life on his own terms. Who Astarion was all through his youth and into adulthood, as well as into his thrawn years, isn't all that much different…save for the fact that he isn't his own master and he's forced to do things that aren't his choice. He would have been the same person regardless of what direction his life might have taken him. It's who he is and, even being under the relentless and bottomless abuse of an evil master doesn't and can't change him. His quest in this book is undertaken solely as an attempt to free himself and become his own boss. Not unexpected or even uncommon. But I wanted more--much more altruism, loads less self-centeredness.
From start to finish, Astarion might be seen as a charming rogue, but he wasn't one who drew my sympathy or, more importantly, my respect at any point. As such, readers are shown almost no true character growth in Kingfisher's story as a direct result of the author having her hands tied. She agreed to that. She eagerly undertook the project, being a massive fan of BG III, which she's played many times and feels she knows the characters and world extremely well, certainly enough to undertake a prequel of one of its most lauded characters. She was given direction by the Wizards of the Coast developmental team as well as others associated with this character, but ultimately she had to play in their sandbox and follow the canon as she was directed to. The result of that situation means that, in Astarion's precursor story, his growth and arc, including the resolution, could never come to fruition, as all of those things are developed and concluded in the BG III game. In other words, anything that comes before BG III had to fit into the mold of the future events in the videogame. Kingfisher is brave and bold to do this, and (my dislike of the book notwithstanding) I believe she was the perfect person to write the story. Her The World of the White Rat stories all align very closely to this and D&D in general. Unfortunately for me, anything she did with this story would have had to be disappointing to me because I need authentic character arc progression and a satisfactory redemption resolution. In reading the basics of Astarion's within the videogame, I've discovered there are two outcomes for him in BG III--power that turns him into an unredeemable monster or love (with the character you're playing as) allowing him to go along with your decisions but never actually bringing him to full absolution.
My introduction to a high elf in this universe was Drizzt. Drizzt is noble, complex, and ever-evolving. Quite simply, Astarion is not. Drizzt had countless experiences that tested him and could have turned him into a monster, but he ultimately took the high road. Astarion was the opposite of Drizzt. Astarion had no drive to redeem himself in a way that I could get on board with. He wanted to be free to indulge himself, not to selflessly help others. He didn't care to make the world better, only to make his own world better for himself. Yes, he may be persuaded by your BG III character to support--nothing more, nothing less--you, but that's the extent of it. Deep down, he was and always will be selfish, sightless, and extremely unappealing to someone like me. I believe only a reader who's wholly unfamiliar with the character of Drizzt in this wide universe would find Astarion anything but boring, superficial, immoral, and unworthy of being rooted for. Harsh, I know. Apologies. Recall that I wasn't going to post my review of the book, and I'm a bit uncomfortable doing so like this in a public setting.
Do I think the book Kingfisher wrote is bad? No. If I'd finished playing BG III, I might have found myself seduced by this character, the way the author clearly is. But, having only read her book, I was mainly just disgusted by him. Also, while Kingfisher does write for children and young adults, for the most part even her adult fiction is PG-13. I wasn't prepared for the language and shocking nastiness of this novel at all. That aspect made it very difficult for me to finish reading. That said, I'm sure she's written nothing that hasn't been done before in the universe. My experience, however, has mainly been with the heroics of Drizzt and friends and Salvatore's "suitable for children" adult adventures. Bottom line, I found this character to be a poor man's Drizzt, not worth my time or notice. But that's just my opinion. I fully expect a lot of people will like him and enjoy this book, especially those who have played the game.
To wrap this up, I'll mention that HBO may be developing a TV series of BG III. I'd certainly watch it to get
the story in BG III without having to
try to play the impossible game.
Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of 156 titles and 16 series. Visit her website here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/
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