Baldur's Gate - Astarion

by T. Kingfisher

The roguish charlatan Astarion will free himself from a centuries-long fate of servitude or die (a second time) trying—in this decadently dark fantasy adventure by award-winning author T. Kingfisher.

You’re too pretty to die.

Astarion Ancunin was supposed to be a magistrate, not a vampire spawn. He was supposed to serve the law, not the vicious vampire lord Cazador Szarr. And he was supposed to drink fine wine, not rat blood. Alas—the city of Baldur’s Gate cares little for what’s supposed to happen.

Though he has been powerless to resist his master’s bidding, haunting the nighttime streets to fetch warm blood, Astarion has never surrendered his hope. One day, this nightmare must end. He just has to find out how.

When the vampire lord announces a twisted competition for his favor, an opportunity presents itself in the form of a rare prize . . . and an unlikely alliance. The blood of a dead god is buried deep beneath Baldur’s Gate, and, to get it, Astarion will need the help of a handsome Aasimar paladin named Hahn den Suriel.

There are just a few problems. Astarion is not supposed to trust his fellow spawn. He’s not supposed to go out into the city for his own ends rather than the vampire lord’s. And he’s certainly not supposed to strike a deal with a stranger whose golden eyes can snare even a blackened, undead heart.

But the city of Baldur’s Gate cares little for what’s supposed to happen.

Genres: Fantasy, Vampires, Adult, Horror, Fiction, Audiobook, High Fantasy

512 pages, Paperback

First published September 29, 2026

About the author

T. Kingfisher is the vaguely absurd pen-name of Ursula Vernon. In another life, she writes children's books and weird comics, and has won the Hugo, Sequoyah, and Ursa Major awards, as well as a half-dozen Junior Library Guild selections.

This is the name she uses when writing things for grown-ups.

When she is not writing, she is probably out in the garden, trying to make eye contact with butterflies.

Reviews

[Lana Doodles]

Yeah, the fans of the character are right to be angry. The author seems to have taken it personally that she was dumped by pixels for not caring about him enough to pay attention to his story. So she lined her pockets and took the opportunity to dunk all over canon. So much established lore was completely trampled over in this book. Astarion was used for the author's sexual gratification rather than out of any appreciation for him as a whole - just like his many, many conquests. He's Sexy Vampire Trope. He is NOT Astarion. The positive reviews are from people scared to piss off NetGalley and lose access to ARCs in the future. I'm not afraid myself. If you love Astarion, the one presented in the game, you will not like this book. If you're just a romantasy reader with no interest in his deep lore, then I guess it's for you, cause it's certainly not for his fans. I was defensive of this author right up until I read it for myself. I don't support harassing authors or bringing complaints to their doorstep before you've even read the thing. Now, I've read the thing, and I'm actually pretty okay with the fact that people are angry. This was a character that should have been handled delicately. It was not. WOTC got a letter from me, but she'll just be blocked on any platforms I use to buy books.

[Ricarda]

I didn't even play Baldur's Gate 3, but I guess I will be reading this book.

[Sadie E]

3.5: T. Kingfisher gets Astarion.

The opening sold me: We meet him battered and broken lying in a pool of his own blood and, naturally, thinking about whether that specific shade of red works with his outfit. It's such an efficient introduction to the character, because we immediately see his vanity and wit, and of course his unwavering commitment to aesthetics, on full display. He's theatrical, charming, intelligent, observant, and always with a snarky remark if the alternative's admitting how frightening things actually are. For the first half, I could almost hear him in my head.

But unfortunately, T. Kingfisher only gets Astarion for about 33% of the book. 

There's an interesting approach to the traditional vampire archetype. The beautiful, seductive vampire's normally the predator. And Astarion's very much a predator, but he's also the product of one. 

He's simultaneously the vampire fantasy and the victim trapped inside it.

Before I get into the review, I've had accusations of AI. I can see it tbh, I write like a chatbot. So here's:

- My initial review from before I replayed the game and changed my mind on the book https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p...

- And the review you're reading right now https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R...

Google Docs version control probably won't be enough proof for some of you, but enjoy my typos at the very least 🫡

Anyway… 

It's hard to separate the book from the game. The character’s already fully formed in players’ minds. We've spent hundreds of hours with him. We've romanced him. Many have played his Origin (I personally haven't because I keep making hot Drow Durge sorcerers like a basic bitch 🫠). We've picked apart his dialogue and approvals and filled in any space the game leaves open with our own head canons. 

So writing a prequel means making choices about things the game leaves ambiguous. There's a lot of room to piss people off. And I'm sort of in an between place, because while I enjoyed the book, unfortunately, the characterisation isn't consistently convincing.

Like sometimes I'm like yes that's sooo Astarion, and others I'm like, uh… certainly a choice…?

He flip flops. A lot.

Now, this is a character full of contradictions. And sometimes the book gets those contradictions that make Astarion so compelling exactly right. Vain and insecure, frightened and performatively confident, selfish because survival demands it, cold yet capable of tenderness.

But there are other times where the book feels like it's more interested in the idea of Astarion than the character of Astarion. 

The sections with Cazador are so good. Cazador's cruelty isn't just simple, individual acts of violence; it's a system of ownership and coercion. And I loved getting more of the spawn. We don't get much of them in the game, but the book gives them personalities, internal lives, relationships, and their own ways of coping. We see genuine moments of care and camaraderie between them, despite being trapped in a hierarchy where Cazador controls the consequences and conditions of their survival. But everything's transactional. A favour becomes a debt. Protection creates obligations.

The book's great when it's exploring all the tiny calculations that become survival mechanisms: where you sit, how you look, how loudly you speak, how quickly you move… anything to avoid bringing unnecessary attention to yourself. And Cazador doesn't even need to be physically present to control the spawn because they've all learned to anticipate him.

I appreciate that Astarion's trauma doesn't consume his personality. Terrible things happened to him. Terrible things are still happening to him. And yet he's still sharply funny. He's still vain and sassy and dramatic. Trauma doesn't consume the character and he isn't reduced to some damsel in distress. But it also frustrates me because it could have gone darker.

It's not nearly as dark as the established backstory suggests it should be. There are some genuinely horrible things here, but sometimes it feels like the book's more interested in shock factor than in taking that extra step and exploring the psychological impact. Trauma doesn't consume the character because it often feels glossed over when I wanted the book to really examine it.

One thing I loved is the atmosphere. The city feels foggy and damp, crowded and grimy, with this constant sense that something unpleasant's skulking in the next alley. It feels like a place where everyone has an angle.

I wanted a lot more about how he became a vampire. What did those 200 years actually look like? What did he have to relearn? What did Cazador do to keep him in line? How did the spawn build their relationships with each other?

Somewhere around the halfway point the book changes. We leave the cloying, claustrophobic Szarr Palace where everyone's simultaneously victim, rival, and ally. And suddenly we're in a more conventional, lighthearted fantasy/D&D adventure with romance and quests and banter and all the usual fantasy nonsense.

I like all those things. I really, really do! But I didn't want them here. 

It feels like it loses sight of what made the earlier story interesting. It shifts from Astarion's story to a story that just happens to contain a character named Astarion. 

It's around this point that the voice becomes less convincing. There's a shift as the story progresses. Some of that may be den Suriel’s influence, because as the relationship becomes more central, Astarion feels less like a complex, guarded character and more like a generic romantasy protagonist. 

Speaking of romantasy… do we need romance in everything?

His relationship with sex is complicated. The book really needed to engage with that on a deeper level. It's like the author didn't know how to address it and just went with a cop out: “More than a century in the vampire’s service had turned sex into a tiresome chore.” Chore is a funny way to spell trauma.

It's not like he had a bad job. Sex was a tool Cazador forced him to use. For 200 years his body hasn't truly been his. That obviously doesn't mean he can't enjoy sex or reclaim his sexuality. It doesn't mean he can't feel attraction for someone. But it would be nice to see the author tackle such a heavy, mature subject with a little more grace. 

I can't help thinking that the book skips over that becuase it's speedrunning to the romance. 

And that brings me to Hahn den Suriel. An aasimar paladin who easily and almost immediately gets Astarion to open up about his circumstances? That's a bit convenient and cliche. 

It's been like a day and Astarion's like, hey, hot, handsome, golden-retriever-energy stranger who I don't know but is obligated to kill me, wanna hear all my deepest, darkest secrets that I've never told anyone ever?

And I'm over here like, 🤨 wtf dude, why did I have to work so bloody hard to gain your trust??

I've not read a T. Kingfisher book before. I tried Paladin's Grace and got a few pages in before giving up in boredom. According to the author's note (“...which eventually culminated in a series of novels just about paladins…”) milquetoast paladin love interests are her thing. 

From my initial notes: “Update: I'm sorry Den Suriel for what I said, I will die for you”, because I can't not love a man who carries around a wheel of cheese in his bag of holding. Truly a man after my own heart. He's still boring, and I wish we'd gotten less of him, but it did make me laugh.

The man has good taste in cheese, if not in gods. I suppose if you can only have one of the two, cheese is more important.

Aside from the fact that paladins and aasimars are the most boring class and race, respectively, to me, I also feel like we were robbed? When I heard there'd be a romance plot I thought we were getting the Sebastian story. 

Then there had been Sebastian, that first decade after he’d been turned … he was an innocent … Astarion hadn’t been in love with Sebastian so much as with what Sebastian represented … he looked at me as if he had just learned what desire was. I should have turned him down that first night, told him to go home and not come back…

Ms. Kingfisher? Why would you scatter in just enough mentions of him to make me crave that thread? You had to know, deep down, that's a better story than the one we got??

Think about it. Sebastian meets a newly turned Astarion. Astarion sees an innocence in Sebastian that he recognises from his younger self. He's a reminder of a simpler, happier time and he can't help but fall for him. He thinks, for one tiny, stupid moment, that he can find a way around the rules and spare this gentle man from his inevitable fate. But he learns that in the vampire world there are no loopholes.

Gods! That could have been a banger.

It could have been incredible. Dark and brooding. Sad and beautiful. With just enough hope to make you forget how their story ends and really root for these two. It could have been totally devastating while staying true to the character and the lore. 

But instead we get a buddy cop romcom with a bland paladin who yells about badgers. Badgers are mentioned 21 times but it feels like 210 🫠

Additionally, I didn't love the structure. We're constantly jumping between timelines within chapters, sometimes only for a few paragraphs, and while the scenes themselves are well written and provide valuable backstory, the transitions aren't always as strong as they could be and make the narrative feel fragmented instead of deliberately layered. 

The author mentions at the end “in no way did I have time to write this book. I had five books due in 2026 already and it was a terrible idea to take on another one. I did it anyway.” 

I respect it. And how are you going to say no to writing about one of the biggest games of the last decade? But also, the rushed second half shows. Because the first half has a very specific understanding of what it wants to be and wants to explore. The second half feels like it's just trying to get somewhere. 

Don't get me wrong, despite my complaints, I was having a good time. I wasn't bored or hate reading. I laughed a lot more than I expected to. But I did have to come to terms with the fact that this isn't a Baldur's Gate 3 novel. 

It's a YA dark(ish) fantasy with a D&D(ish) adventure tacked on. 

Even going into it completely blind and treating it as a standalone with no connection to existing characters or locations, it's still very much two books in one. They're two pretty good books, but it's impossible to ignore the whiplash around the 40% mark.

Unlike a lot of others, I don't mind interpretation. We've all got out own headcanons. T. Kingfisher has hers. I mean, some of my interpretations of characters (and the way I treat them in-game) would have people coming for me with pitchforks 🔱🔥

It's essentially fanfiction. I don't object to that. There's plenty of successful books that started out as fanfiction. I do object to using an established character, world, and lore while behaving like it's all optional. If you're going to change something, make it make sense. Why is THIS astarion behaving differently from the Astarion I've spent 600+ hours with (I know those are rookie numbers 😭) 

Like, strawberries. Astarion “liked to dip the strawberries in blood occasionally.” It's a tiny detail but there's plenty of established Forgotten Realms vampire lore that states anything other than blood tastes like ash to a vampire. So it leaves you like, hang on… what else are we just making up now??

I did enjoy the ending. It's so brutally bittersweet because we already know where Astarion's story’s going. We know he doesn't get a happily ever after here, so every brief moment of contentment's accompanied by the knowledge that it'll end. Every tender moment between Astarion and den Suriel carries this tiny shadow underneath it.

I finished this sad that it was over and immediately started a new BG3 playthrough (hot Drow Durge sorcerer, obviously 🫣) so I could experience Astarion again with the new knowledge and context from this book. Unfortunately, with both the book and the game fresh in my mind, I started seeing things differently. Hence the updated review. Because I originally thought T. Kingfisher had a great grip on this character, but replaying and refreshing my memory made me realise she didn't get quite as much of him as I thought. 

There are things I adored. Like Cazador and the spawn, and the early atmosphere. I wanted more of that. More about autonomy, identity, abuse, sexuality, and what happens when someone else controls your body and choices for 200 years. But I got a wacky side quest with cheese instead.

But I have one request for T. Kingfisher. Can we get a Rooftop Henry prequel? sequel? anthology? poetry? I'll take anything. Just give me more Rooftop Henry 🐦

One thing this book has taught me is that I think I'm done with BG3, at least for a while. You know when a fandom makes you want to put some distance between you and the thing you love? Yeah… I think I'll do a few more playthroughs of Pathfinder: WOTR first because some of the discourse online about this book is seriously unhinged. Y'all need a snack. Maybe some of den Suriel's cheese?

I wrote this for a previous review: “The fun of reading isn't necessarily in agreement, but the discussions and exploration. It’s arguing over favourite characters at 2am. It’s debating whether the villain's justified or not. It’s rereading a line and going, "oh... OH SHIT." It's a book hitting different at a different stage in your life. It's the shared disagreement where no one's wrong and everyone's feral about it.”

Everyone's feral about this book. But not in the good way.

And for the love of fuck stop with the AI whining. Notice how no one calls something they like AI? 

Claude wishes it was as mean as me.

I know I write like an AI 😭 If you ran this through an AI checker it'd come back 112% written by AI. The only thing missing is em dashes because I don't know how to use them and I've been in writing/writing-adjacent fields too long to ask now 🫠 But you all realise that ‘it's not X, it's Y’ and rules of threes and all the other things that people take as sure signs of AI have been around forever, right? Marks & Spencer have been doing that shit since like 2002. Shakespeare was doing that shit! HBO? A Christmas Carol?

So to finish up: a decent book with a good premise that occasionally fumbles the execution, and ultimately didn't stand up to a fresh playthrough. 

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC

[Wendy]

I tried to finish this book, but I think I’m done with it. Made it a little less than halfway through. It’s not bad exactly just kind of… boring? And also a bit sad I think. It’s sad to see a story about 200 years of sexual assault and slavery turned into a soulless, flirty, comedic romp.

I heard someone describe Kingfisher’s writing as “Whedon-esque” and I really can’t help but agree. This book starts with a “Yeah, that’s me. I bet you’re wondering how I ended up here.” scene and stays at that level for as long as I managed to read. In one scene, after a character sees a minotaur lady, there’s a line that goes “Do you think she'd step on me? If I asked very respectfully?”

I can’t tell you how much that line gives me the exact same vibes as “he’s right behind me isn’t he?”

The entire book is that way. I can’t exactly call any of it bad. The book isn’t really trying to do or be anything, so it’s hard to say it fails or misses the mark at all, since there was no mark to miss to begin with. Instead of being “bad”, it’s just kind of vapid, shallow, and empty. Which is especially jarring when this book was billed as a horror book. There is not an ounce of horror in this book. There’s not really an ounce of anything in this book, if I’m honest. Except maybe dick jokes.

It’s a very strange feeling to read a book from an author that has absolutely nothing to say to you. I don’t really know how someone managed to write so many words without having a single earnest or honest thought or idea that they’re trying to get across. You’d think one would happen by accident at least.

[Maggie ♡ (Hiatus)]

Pre-release: I never added a book so fast to my TBR 🙂‍↕️🤚 Kingfisher writing about Astarion?? Yes pleaseeee
I gotta go replay the game now 🥹

Neil Newbon is narrating the audiobook, I need it now!! 😭

[ManicMooncake]

How this book has this kind of rating is beyond me.

How can you get Astarion *this* wrong?

[rey]

edit: just would like everyone who sees this to know that i have seen the author go on long rants on bluesky and choosing to argue with fans about … a lot of stuff while not responding to genuinely good points + breaching the generally accepted rule of authors not interacting with review spaces. idk just a fyi about how incredibly inane she is acting. also, despite her undeniable lack of professionalism, please don’t harass or threaten the author.

my original placeholder review for this was just “look how they massacred my boy” which some found funny and others overly dramatic, so will anyone believe me when i say that i am not even an astarion fan? thus, the book had less to do with massacring “my boy” and more with massacring a beloved and nuanced character by turning his entire essence on its head with no consideration for anything that made astarion so loved in the first place.
basically all of what i have to say has already been said and worded better than i ever could. however, i did read the book, so this is my two cents. i’ll try to keep it as short as possible.
the fans of astarion have the absolute right to be pissed off. there is zero loyalty nor nuance to his character (nor is there any to other characters in the book???), things that would benefit from having complexity to them or, at the very least, not being made weirdly sexual, are instead always sexualised in a way that gives the impression of the author just trying to get her rocks off. the argument that it is simply “dark fiction” sort of falls off here too, in my opinion. i have read a lot of transgressive fiction in the past few years, and this book isn’t dark nor transgressive, it just reads as gay porn with no plot nor depth catering to an audience of fangirls/boys unfamiliar with astarion’s true character.
the prose is genuinely just bad. not surprising considering the author claims to have been working on like a bajillion other books simultaneously.
the acknowledgements read less professional than some author’s notes from ao3. nothing wrong with banter in author’s notes but shitting on other creatives just shows massive immaturity imo
overall, it feels like the author didn’t truly care about writing a good story and doing astarion justice, nor did she have time for it, which is, along with the result, unfortunate. nearly every part of this book is lazy, inconsiderate or in bad taste.

[Luss]

I get the distinct impression the author did not actually play Astarion's story before authoring this book.

[Samantha Shannon]

I'm seated.

[Lexie]

smashed that 'want to read' so fast

[rosie (jason todd's version)]

ʚɞ baldur’s gate 3: astarion by t. kingfisher ⋆.˚

⋆.˚ 29/7/26 — 6/8/26

⊱ ۫ ׅ book no. 83 of 2026 ── .✦

₊˚ ✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━ ✧ ₊˚

𑣲 ꜰɪʀꜱᴛ ɪᴍᴘʀᴇꜱꜱɪᴏɴꜱ/ᴘʀᴇ-ʀᴇᴀᴅ:

𑣲 28/07: I GOT ITTTTTTT OH MY GOD OH MY GOD, FORGET SCHOOL I’M READING THIS RN

𑣲 26/07: I JUST REQUESTED THIS ON NETGALLEY. crossing all my fingers and toes rn. you have no idea how hard i am manifesting this book in my inbox rn.

𑣲 1/05 (pre-release):

I’M GOING ABSOLUTELY INSANE CUZ OMG???? ONE OF MY FAV AUTHORS WRITING A BOOK ABOUT ONE OF MY FAV GAME CHARACTERS EVER??? AM I HALLUCINATING??? 😃😃 this book genuinely sounds like it was made with me specifically in mind. time to play baldur’s gate 3 to satiate my cravings until this comes out.

i do NOT apologise for the person i will become when this releases 🫶🏻

₊˚ ✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━ ✧ ₊˚

╰› (⭐5)

❝ are you alive? ❞ ❝ i find that question in very poor taste. ❞

⋆.˚ ᴍʏ ᴛʜᴏᴜɢʜᴛꜱ:

── .✦ 𝒑𝒍𝒐𝒕

T KINGFISHER I TRUSTED YOOOUUUU 😭😭😭 YOU BROKE MY HEARTTTT OH MY GOODNESS (i’d let her do it again because oh my god this was unimaginably perfect)

by the end i was saying “WHAT DO YOU MEAAAAAN” like that one video of jennifer lawrence eating spicy chicken wings. 🥲

this book should come with a warning. i’m so serious, i was in a stupor fuelled by denial and grief by the end. i was reading the acknowledgments, still waiting for an extra chapter because WHYYY LEAVE IT THEEEERE (i know why. but still 😭💔)

this book is 100% for the fans. i missed faerûn so so much and now all i want to do is replay the entire game. 🥲💞

while the plot itself took a bit to warm up, i really appreciated setting the scene and expectations for what life was like for astarion under cazador’s control. it was heartbreaking — all i wanted to do was reach through the screen and give cazador a right hook to the jaw 😭💔

── .✦ 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔

oh astarion my baby. i may be incredibly biased (due to having used up hours of baldur’s gate 3 playtime just staring at this beautiful man and replaying his voice lines) but he is genuinely one of my favourite characters in all media, ever 🙂‍↕️☝️ i love the fact that he gets genuinely offended when people wear bad outfits 😭 like omg he’s such a nerd i adore him sm <3

his sass and his habit of calling everyone ‘darling’ (even himself, in his internal monologue, which is the cutest thing ever 😭), his confidence in his own beauty and his endearingly annoying personality… there is not a thing i’d change about this dude 🥹💓

i felt so maternal towards him in the little flashbacks, like he’s just a lil guy 😭 i adore him so so much, my heart is ready to burst with affection for every version and every part of this man 🥹💕

den suriel was such a pleasant surprise 🥹💞 he is possibly the cutest patootie of all time, tbh 😋 i love his goofy ahh little ‘for the ardent badger’ thing 😭 what a nerd, i adore him !! this honestly really made me crave t. kingfisher’s clockwork boys and saints of steel series, cuz MAN i need more paladins right this second 😭🫶🏻

and i CANNOT write a characters section without mentioning the one, the only, rooftop henry. arguably, the MVP of this novel. what a KING. i absolutely adored this talking bird 😭 he was such a silly goober, i cheered his name every time he was mentioned. he deserves all the sauce in the world 💗

── .✦ 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈

t. kingfisher, the incredible woman she is, manages to ensure that astarion’s sardonic humour is strewn throughout this book in the most beautiful way — it had me giggling OUT LOUD.

i don’t think they could have asked a better person to author this novel 🥹💓

also can we talk about the PHENOMENAL language?? like oh my goodness the metaphors and similes had my jaw DROPPING. how does one’s mind even come up with that beautiful phrasing?? 🫢🫶🏻

honestly this has cemented t. kingfisher as one of my favourite authors — maybe even my number one. 🤭 i’m craving her entire backlog, so don’t worry if you see me picking up the rest of her works, it’s just me obsessing 🙂‍↕️🤞

・・・・・

thank you so much to Netgalley, Del Rey and Random House for an advance reader’s e-copy!! 🥹🫶🏻 this book releases on September 29, 2026!

・・・・・

𑣲 ᴅᴏ ɪ ʀᴇᴄᴏᴍᴍᴇɴᴅ ᴛʜɪꜱ ʙᴏᴏᴋ?

YES. if you like: sassy vampires, tragic mlm paladins, or crude sexual humour, then DOUBLE YES.

[The Reading Frog (trying to catch up!)]

Thank you to T. Kingfisher, Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore & NetGalley for this free ARC in exchange for my honest review

Rating: 3.75/5 ⭐
CW: I urge you to check the content warnings for this one if needed.
Explicit | Abuse of power, abuse through humiliation and dehumanisation, animal death, blood, gore, injury description, mental/physical/sexual abuse, physical and psychological torture
Moderate | Being unsure about what is real or isn't real, confinement, death, dissociation/depersonalisation, sexual content, starvation, suicidal ideation
Mild | Enslavement, mention of bestiality
Content warnings as stated by the author | "Please note that this novel contains depictions of torture and sexual assault. The author and publisher are committed to handling such themes to the best of their ability, but readers must decide for themselves whether they wish to read on."
My chosen soundtrack(s): My Dog - Honeycrush | Family Tree (Intro) - Ethel Cain | The Taste Of Blood - SQÜRL, Jozef van Wissem

"All he had left, all he had had for many years, was the power to endure."

Representation
╰┈➤ Queer characters and dynamics
‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✴︎ Bi/Pan MC, Astarion
‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✴︎ Unspecified queer MC whose name I won't spoil
‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✴︎ (Past) MLM dynamic(s)
‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✴︎ Unspecified queer BGCs


Themes
Abuse, bodily autonomy or the lack thereof, dehumanisation, desensitisation, forced servitude/slavery, free will or the lack thereof, hunger in all its forms, insatiability, lies and truths, mind control/manipulation, overindulgence, physical/psychological torture and abuse, sex/seduction as currency/tool/bargaining chip, the torture of boredom


Tropes/What to expect
‎ ‎ ‎ ❥ Vampires and vampire-spawn
‎ ‎ ‎ ❥ Found Forced family
‎ ‎ ‎ ❥ Morally grey and evil characters
‎ ‎ ‎ ❥ Dual timeline
‎ ‎ ‎ ❥ Dark fantasy
‎ ‎ ‎ ❥ Reluctant allies to ???
‎ ‎ ‎ ❥ New canon Astarion lore

⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆

What I liked/loved
‎ ‎ ‎ ✧ I am a huge BG3 lover, so of course I immediately had to request this ARC! I knew it'd be worth it for the new lore alone, and anything else would be a bonus. I'm happy to confirm we do indeed get new info about Astarion, and I had a good time with what else it offered.
‎ ‎ ‎ ✧ The opener was captivating, horrifying and immediately pulled me in, which is all I want from a first chapter. Though the word chapter might be a bit generous. I'll come back to that detail in my 'What I didn't like/felt lacklustre about' list.
‎ ‎ ‎ ✧ This book follows two timelines that continuously either mirror or contrast each other. Some aspects come full circle, or feel like an echo that still reverberates, while other moments show how extremely Astarion has been forced to change over the centuries (or has he?).
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ The two timelines are as follows:
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✵ Astarion before becoming a vampire spawn. We delve into his childhood, family, the hopes and dreams he had and how he ended up in the city of Baldur's Gate. Which I won't delve into as deeply as the other timeline for the sake of spoilers, but just know, "rat catcher", I still think of you.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✵ Astarion after becoming a vampire spawn. This timeline delves into the nitty-gritty of living under the horrific, abusive rule of Cazador (their vampire lord/master), what goes through Astarion's mind while actively being in that environment, and the complex "sibling" dynamics between Astarion and all the other spawn who reside in Cazador's palace.
‎ ‎ ‎ ✧ Astarion's past as a magistrate. I do believe this is knowledge that can be found somewhere in the game, but it definitely wasn't as explored as it was in this prequel.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ In both timelines, it's clear how magistrate principles and ideas shaped Astarion's way of thinking and solving problems. He looks for loopholes, fine print, grey areas and is able to wield the law or someone's own words in ways that end up benefiting him or his goals.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ It also includes a huge focus on lies, truths and the blurry line that divides them. It explores lies that are "almost" truths, lying through withholding information and bending the truth in smart little ways. This feels true to his character as a charlatan. It has that devious yet charming flair I love about in-game Astarion.
‎ ‎ ‎ ✧ This book is heavy with a capital H. Though not extremely explicit and sometimes very downplayed because of how Astarion distances himself from certain traumatic events, it still delves into torture, abuse and trauma. The approach to it reminded me a bit of Jean Moreau in the AFTG series, in which he would mention or think about the most insane, diabolical, obviously abusive situations, yet regard them as completely normal.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Some of the aspects explored:
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✵ Discourse on physical and emotional scarring and how being undead affects this.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✵ The constant mind games that permanently warp the spawn's sense of what is real/truth or an illusion/lie.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✵ The blurred lines between punishment and reward.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✵ Hypervigilance, dissociation and depersonalization as a way of survival.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✵ Starvation, isolation, boredom, humiliation, introducing and taking away hope as a form of abuse.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✵ Abuse in such creative and evil ways that really emphasised what a deranged individual Cazador is.
‎ ‎ ‎ ✧ As mentioned before, I was really intrigued by this deeper delve into the super complex spawn-sibling dynamics. We get a more up-close and personal look at all of them.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✵ On an individual level, there is a contrast between who the spawn are as people and who they are forced to be under Cazador's rule. They all developed their own ways of survival, and unfortunately this often means stepping on others to save their own hide. But can you really blame them when the alternative is so much worse?
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ✵ On a group/family level, I was extremely intrigued by the dichotomies of their dynamics. They at times hate each other, betray each other, want/try to kill each other, and are envious of any relief one earns from their abusive "father".
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Yet they alone can understand what it is like to be in this specific situation. And thus, they have an inherent understanding of each other in ways that no other being could ever comprehend.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ To a certain degree, they also care for each other, though in very non-conventional ways. There was a lot of "I'm sorry this is happening to you, but I'm glad it's you and not me" or "even though I hate this person, no one deserves this". Which brings me to my next point.
‎ ‎ ‎ ✧ An exploration of the survival of kindness and love in an environment that punishes anything even slightly resembling it.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Astarion's opinion of himself is that he is not a kind or good man. Whether that statement is the truth, a half-truth, a lie or something in between, he can't afford to act on any of it. An eternity of servitude, one very hard lesson learned more than a century ago and being humiliated and tortured more often than not leaves him with no choice but to kill the part of his heart that still holds some warmth.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ This prequel does a good job of exploring that inner conflict between emotions/morality and survival, as well as the risks of not being completely detached.
‎ ‎ ‎ ✧ A plot point I hadn't expected to find in this read managed to capture my attention (sorry for being cryptic. You're gonna have to find this out for yourself).
‎ ‎ ‎ ✧ This prequel introduces new characters to the BG3 universe. One of them has a very unique dynamic with Astarion and ties in a lot of the themes/aspects I've mentioned so far. I loved everything about it. They were so different from each other, yet in some ways unexpectedly similar.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ I can't say much more without spoiling, except that I enjoyed this addition but am now craving more info about them.
‎ ‎ ‎ ✧ You won't get it until you've read it, but I loved the recurring imagery/symbolism of silk and other types of cloth and clothing.
‎ ‎ ‎ ✧ There were some surprisingly funny moments here and there, which I definitely needed in between all the heaviness this read served me.



What I didn't like/felt lacklustre about
‎ ‎ ‎ ✦ So a bout those chapters I mentioned before... There are none. Like, literally.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ We got the Title Page, Copyright, Dedication, Content Warning, TEXT (yes, all the text. Many, many pages of text), and the Acknowledgements. Which left me a bit confused.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ I don't know if this format will change in the final published version, but I do hope so. I really didn't enjoy this lack of structure.
‎ ‎ ‎ ✦ I'm not fully clear on what caused this, but somewhere in the middle, the pacing slowed down, and I had to push myself more than I commonly have to, to keep reading. Disclaimer, though: I didn't have this problem AT ALL with its start and the last +/-30%
‎ ‎ ‎ ✦ I didn't feel as emotionally invested or affected as I had expected. It still hit me personally at times, but I expected it to hit me a little harder.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ I suspect that Astarion's own efforts to distance himself from the traumatic events depicted in this book kind of distanced me alongside him.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ At some point, Astarion does begin to feel more, which in turn made me feel more as well. Which probably also contributed to me liking that part more than the middle.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ I do think it feels correct to tell the story in that somewhat detached way since it IS Astarion's POV, and narratively serves a purpose in displaying and emphasising his survival strategies, but I wish we could've gotten the best of both worlds.
‎ ‎ ‎ ✦ I read this book with the knowledge that comes from having played 205 hours of BG3, including one campaign with friends who have over 500 hours and a lot of knowledge about its universe, and thus had no issues understanding this book.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ That being said, I think this could be quite a difficult read for those who haven't played BG3 or aren't familiar with DnD. It's still possible to read and enjoy this book, but I suspect there'll be a lot of Googling involved since it doesn't hold your hand when it comes to all the different races, classes, creatures, cultures, and religions.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ On the other hand, this book is very clearly made for and marketed to gamers and BG3 enjoyers, and I don't think many readers outside of that market will pick up this read, but I decided to mention it just in case.


Conclusion/Notes
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Though some aspects made this not a perfect read to me personally, I still had a great time! I loved getting a deeper understanding of the spawn siblings and the horrific events that shaped the Astarion we get to meet in Baldur's Gate 3. Learning all this new lore about him, especially what his life looked like before becoming a vampire spawn, made it fully worth my time.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ It also really opened my eyes to the potential of more prequels focusing on other characters. I would probably insta-buy those. Plus, not naming any names, but I'd probably be interested in media expanding on the newly introduced characters in this read as well!

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ This is a must-read for those who love Astarion and BG3. Thank you, T. Kingfisher for gifting us this vulnerable portrayal of our favourite bloodsucking charlatan.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Baldur's Gate 3: Astarion is set to release on 29 September, 2026. Make sure to add it to your TBR and/or pre-order a copy to read immediately upon release.


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"All the best lies are true."

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Immediate thoughts after reading 24 August, 2026:
I don't smoke, but I'm craving a cig and a glass of wine after finishing this.

FULL REVIEW TO COME

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31 July, 2026
Guess who just got their ARC request approved???!!
I'm truly suffering from success with all these amazing ARCs!!

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24 April, 2026
NO WAY! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!

Never added a book to my TBR as fast! I am beyond excited about this!!!

[bee ⭑.ᐟ]

i roughly have about 700 hours in baldurs gate 3 and by far is my favourite game of all time. most of those hours was spent with astarion in my party, so he is obviously my favourite character. i screamed when i saw this was announced, and when i saw who it was written by i could’ve cried.

however, sadly, i don’t think my expectations were met. while i did enjoy some parts of it, i expected much more dark and gritty themes.

what i didn’t like:
• not that i enjoy seeing my favourite characters go through hardships, even though its so integral to astarion character. i did expect much more. having read a lot of Kingfishers work it makes sense as her books aren’t typically as dark as astarion’s backstory but i still expected it.
• towards the end i do think astarion lost his voice and didn’t feel like him.
• similarly towards the end i kind of forgot about the past pov of astarion and his journey towards baldurs gate. it felt forgotten about. i wish it was touched on more and how he became a vampire.

i’m sure this might be received differently from others who haven’t played the game and doesn’t already know part of his backstory, but for me unfortunately didn’t meet my expectations, but to be fair my expectations were quite high so please bare that in mind!

[Melanie (meltotheany)]

what an insane clash of worlds O.O

[Sophie]

SCREAMING

[gabbie]

ARE YOU KIDDDINGGG i’ve never added a book to my tbr so fast, i saw it on tiktok and thought it was a prank

[Oliver]

edit 22th September 2026: After sitting on this book for more than a month, I've come to realize that I was being too kind and I didn't enjoy the book as much as I thought I was. I've lowered the rating from 3 to 2 to better reflect my feelings now. The rest of the review is left as-is.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Ray Imprint for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own and subjective.

2.5 rounded up to 3.

Like most people, I have hundreds of hours in Baldur's Gate 3 throughout multiple playthroughs and have all achievements. When Larian Studios announced that they're moving on from the Forgotten Realms universe and back to making their own stuff i.e. Divinity 3, I wondered what Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast was going to do about the game's cast now with the writers over at Larian relinquishing the characters to them. I have my own criticisms about the writing in the game, but I still felt like it's a shame that these characters that people have come to know and love are just going to be left in limbo, with only the occasional crossovers here and there as breadcrumbs, because I understand that a new Baldur's Gate game that actually lives up to the legacy of the franchise would never be made in the current gaming industry landscape.

(And, personally, thank god that Larian Studios bailed when they did. I would've hated to see them become The Company That Makes Baldur's Gate Games as someone who has known them since Divinity: Original Sin.)

So, I was surprised to hear that a book that's set in the Baldur's Gate 3 world was getting published (but of course it's about Astarion - what fictional deity to I have to worship for a Lae'zel book?), by an author that I've been meaning to read but haven't gotten around to. I figure a book about a character that I'm familiar with would be an easy introduction to Kingfisher's works, and I went in both wanting to see what their vision of Astarion's past is, and getting a taste of their writing.

If I hadn't made it obvious with my tone, I'm not the biggest fan of Astarion, for reasons that correlate to my criticisms of Larian's writing. Let's just say that what's in the game is not quite enough to hit the mark for me. Despite that, I was still eager to learn more about him and perhaps walk away with a new perspective on his character.

I'm unsure what the process of drafting this book was like behind the scenes, as in if Kingfisher had a 'guideline' of a plot they had to follow from WoTC, or if they were told to freestyle it. But, I'll go right ahead and say that I did really enjoy the first half of the book! We know that Astarion's life under Cazador was a nightmare, and it was interesting to finally peel back the veil and see it for myself. I find the flashbacks to his younger days a brief respite in between the cruel, difficult days at present, and appreciated them as they revealed an aspect of life in this universe that shaped Astarion into the man he was. I especially loved the brand new characterization to his spawn siblings, as we only get to see them at their worst and most desperate in the game, how they chose to carry out their interactions with each other and their master, and I genuinely wished I've gotten more of this. I wanted to see the struggles of trying to form connections with the only people they were allowed to know, while simultaneously second guessing if they were right to place trust and love, and how ultimately they share the same tormentor and are all equal in their suffering.

The blurb mentioned a new character. Hahn den Suriel the Aasimar paladin. I'm an aromantic skeptic, and I so desperately wanted him to be someone Astarion made a connection to, a common ground in between holy and undead, but instead he was the reason the second half of the book was unreadable to me. I've said before in another review, but once you've read a Baldur's Gate 3 fanfic, you've read them all. The intrigue with Astarion, his siblings, and the way they lived was tossed to the side just to fit this half-assed romance. It was completely trope-ridden, biggest offender being instalove, where I was meant to be convinced that these two were into each other within the first five pages of Hahn's introduction. The common ground I wanted them to have was barely mentioned within one sentence and by then the book was over.

I get that this book is a prequel to an existing story, and any new character mentioned comes under the scrutiny of, "Well, where do you fit this character into the bigger narrative?". But this story reads unbelievably rushed. The first half and second half do not mesh well at all, and they feel like antithesis to each other. To allow myself a bit of bad faith hating for a moment - no, I do not care for your Aasimar OC Kingfisher. He was not given them time to be fleshed out, and he was nothing more than character tropes pieced together like a square in a circle. Of course, he has to be big! Size difference for Astarion! And he has to be stereotypically righteous too, because that's what paladins do, right? He's gotta be a bit silly, a himbo but wait! He... flirts... And he fucks... Oooh... Dame Aylin had barely a few scenes in the game and I feel like I know her better than I do Hahn after 150 something pages.

Quite frankly, the second half reads like watching someone mashing dolls together while making kissing noises (and going by the author's notes at the end, that is exactly what this is). I would unironically say that I feel duped, because the first half was so good, even if I wanted it go further and delve into the horror of it all. I was lured in only to end up reading fanfic-tier shipping. Ao3 is right there if I wanted that, and god, I do not want that. This is a real published book that people have to pay money for!

The second half with its half-baked romance and inserted OC turned me off completely from wanting to read more from this author. It's one thing to have Astarion cracking bad, cringe-worthy jokes, that's his character and coping mechanism. It's another thing to read very modern jokes like 'I hardly knew her' in a sword and shield fantasy world (and yes, the writing in Baldur's Gate 3 isn't exactly trying to be fantastical, but the writers at Larian knew how far they could push it before it becomes too anachronistic.)

With Neil Newbon narrating the audiobook, I suspect this would be a hit for a lot of the Ancunin spouses. I do wish this book works for its intended audience if only it would convince WoTC to fund books for the other companions that desperately need it. Wyll and Karlach my baddies your times will come. If you also feel the way I do, please please please let me know so I know I'm not alone.

[Sarah Rose]

this is the best day of my life

[Salomé]

3.5 stars

When I saw the news that T. Kingfisher, one of my favourite writers, was writing a book about one of my favourite video game characters, I was stoked. Honestly, she seemed like the perfect person for Astarion and for the world of Baldur’s Gate 3. She has exactly the kind of strange, macabre, tender sensibility that should have made this pairing a perfect match.

Kingfisher absolutely nails Astarion’s voice. I could hear him in my head the entire time I was reading, and there is something genuinely magical about that. The mannerisms, the theatricality, the self-deprecation, the vanity, it all feels immediately recognisable. She clearly understands what makes Astarion Astarion, rather than simply reproducing his more obvious quirks. Likewise, she has a wonderful understanding of D&D itself: the absurdity of adventuring, the camaraderie, the ridiculousness of its world, but also the capacity for that world to suddenly become surprisingly tender or heartbreaking. She understands why this is such a fun world to inhabit.

My biggest disappointment, then, is that I wanted her to go darker.

His suffering is so integral to Astarion’s character that it is difficult to separate him from it, his history with Cazador is precisely what gives everything else about him its weight. I expected more of the horror of what it actually meant for Astarion to spend centuries as a slave: the degradation, the fear, the loss of autonomy, the psychological consequences of being treated as an object for so long. Having read a lot of Kingfisher, I probably should have anticipated this. Her books can be macabre and occasionally horrific, but they rarely inhabit the particular darkness of Astarion’s backstory.

As a result, the book sometimes felt surprisingly young-adult to me, especially when compared with the game, which is considerably more willing to sit with the ugliness of its characters and their histories. I kept waiting for Kingfisher to dig further beneath the surface, to really explore what Cazador did to Astarion and what surviving that existence would have meant. If you're looking for something that leans more heavily into the horror of Astarion’s past, Sacrament by Morgan Dante actually does a better job of scratching that particular itch.

I also felt this most strongly towards the end, Astarion seemed to gradually lose his voice. For most of the novel, I could hear him so clearly, but by the final stretch there were moments where he stopped feeling quite like the Astarion I knew. The ending is undeniably emotional, and it is also a logical conclusion given that this is a prequel and has to remain canon-compliant. But I could almost feel the constraints of that canon closing in around the character, and with them, Kingfisher’s version of his voice becoming less distinct.

Similarly, I found myself increasingly forgetting about the past storyline, the Astarion who is actually on the journey towards Baldur’s Gate. That thread, which initially felt central to the novel, gradually became secondary, and I really wish it had been woven back into the narrative more deliberately. More than anything, I wanted to see his transformation into a vampire explored in greater depth. That was the part of his history I was most interested in, and the book left me wanting considerably more.

So I’m left with slightly mixed feelings, which is frustrating precisely because this should have been such an easy five-star combination for me. T. Kingfisher writing Astarion? On paper, perfection. And there are genuinely moments where it is perfection. She captures his voice beautifully, understands the strange warmth and absurdity of the D&D world, and gives us an Astarion who feels recognisable and alive.

I just wish she had trusted the darkness of his story a little more.

Thank you, Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore & Random House Worlds for the digital ARC.

⋆˚꩜｡⋆ pre-read ⋆˚꩜｡⋆

buddy reading with bee 🐝

————————————

I GOT THE ARC 💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽 tears in my eyes bro

[thevampireslibrary]

I don't mean to be dramatic but I will never be the same after this book. Thankyou T Kingfisher for being incredibly T Kingfishery and writing an Astarion story that had me laughing, giggling, gasping and maybe sobbing, what an absolute gem of a book, can we have more please?

[Oli]

Spiderclimbing…can Astarion spiderclimb? That was the most important question T.Kingfisher asked at the WOTC meeting, and presented us a novel where Astarion spends unnecessary a lot of time doing it. It truly must be a key aspect of a vampire spawn who spent 200 years in torture and slavery, whose bodily autonomy was taken from, and who touched hearts of thousands of people who related to his story.

The book doesn’t go deeper than that, we spiderclimb on the surface of everything, while occasionally being struck by a line , sometimes even a direct quote, from the game, probably for a “wow” factor or a weird fan service. Although I don’t know what fans exactly the book was trying to please, by constantly juggling the sexual jokes and lover story with forced remarks of “it’s manipulation” or “he didn’t enjoy it”, the title seems to not know what is it or what it stands for.

The abused , disgusted by intimacy Astarion we see in the game…doesn’t exist, we are meeting a man who enjoys sex, who thinks about sex, and of course uses it, and while there is a trauma response known as hyper sexuality , it is still Astarion we are talking about. The game clearly tells us that it never got to enjoyment, that he performed, and he didn’t want to have sex, while the best thing the book did is “sex is a tiresome chore”, and no matter how many times the author tries to write “it’s manipulation” in the end of paragraph, it doesn’t sound believable and all we are left with is a horny vampire trope.

Speaking of horny vampires, it is a popular headcanon that Astarion is getting aroused after first bite, because he never had human blood, I can agree that it’s a good head canon for AO3 fanfic, however, as with everything, a book takes a step further and makes Astarion willing walk into an orgy. Whatever happens after while grotesque and disturbing, but at least fits into the “200 years of slavery” situation. Sex and intimacy are important for his character, and for the fans who related to his story, although us and author might have different understanding of it, and while fans are trying teeth and nails for respectful representation, author decided to speak about 12 years old masturbating, or him unable to do anything without making horny remarks, cringe sexual comments or calling himself “god of sex and darkness”. Once again, Astarion has been used by others, for their financial and sexual gratification. To not be entirely negative, there is one SA scene that is written well enough, that’s it.

There are couple of darker moments, to describe us the atmosphere in Cazador’s palace, but they are just brushed over, without being taken too deep or too serious, whether an author was trying to go for Astarion’s voice and show us how he is “disassociating” or author tried to balance the themes - horror and comedy , it didn’t work. We expected a book to be dark, after everything what Astarion told us, readers wanted for book to be dark, but all we get is an old man and a bunch of spawns, constantly fighting each other as kids. The only good thing was Aurelia, and while it might not be the Aurelia I imagined, her character is still nice , so they didn’t ruin one person.

Let’s stay a bit more in the palace. One of the biggest issues , from where goes the domino effect to other issues, is authors complete mischaracterisation or misunderstanding of how the spawns live under Cazador. In game Astarion loud and clear says - I had no choice / vampire lord COMPLETELY controls you / what I wanted how I felt about what I was doing never mattered. In the book this dynamic simply doesn’t exist, or not taken seriously, yes Cazador is still a sadistic prick but he doesn’t compel spawns to that extent , so he never made/forced them to sleep with victims, for all we know they could hit them with the rock in the dark alley and bring to castle. So Astarion CHOSE to do all of that?

Astarion would hate it, because this is not him, it’s someone who wants to be Astarion, someone who is trying to mimic his voice, to mimic his story, but it’s not Astarion. He even doesn’t talk like Astarion, and best example being is his obscene usage of “fuck”, yes, the game Astarion also curses a lot we can argue, but he does it with good timing and in right place, not just “fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck” , and yes, that can be a quote from the novel. By mimicking the story, I mean it. The game canon has been taken and trashed out of the window, as if WOTC was showing a middle finger to Larian and telling who actually owns the character(s), Stephen Rooney didn’t get acknowledgment, despite him constantly being used as a shield in front of confused fans. This is not Larian’s Astarion, this is not their story, and the endless number of changes speak for itself.

Apparently Astarion got his scars only 50 years before game , and not 200 as he said to us. And spawns knew about Cazador dealing with Mephistopheles, while in game Astarion tells us that “there were no devils around palace”. Spawns were eating human food and were getting blood of different animals, and above all they all had different rooms and not a common dormitory. Spawns didn’t have to fuck their victims , they could just bring the in, so, does this imply that Astarion willingly chose fucking? The book turns Astarion into complete liar, because if we trust it so he had people looked out and cared for him, someone who even offered to kill Cazador, or others who were helping him on a deadly quest, that doesn’t sound like a broken in-game character who tell that “you are the only one, other people don’t have a heart like you, you’re…you”.

Speaking of people, mostly Astarion’s lovers. The book heavily implies that he is mainly attracted to men. Aside from one childhood crush, most of his sexual experiences are described being with men. As for the main character - the dumb muscle daddy Paladin. Whoever said that there is “no love/romance” between them straight up lied to our faces, because no matter how many times there will be forced the line about “manipulation” it’s undeniable what the author was going for. It was an undeniable self-indulgence. T.Kingfisher wanted to write a love story, her characters flirt back and forth in the most cheesy way possible , and then Astarion gets his “cock sucked by a paladin”. Unfortunately there is nothing more to say about it, it’s just shallow.

And if the plot couldn’t get bad enough, here comes an “award winning” writing. It might be a subjective opinion, but this is sub-YA level book, remove the occasional gore and vulgar language and we can mark it as kids book (no insult to kids and YA books meant). The constant repetitions in text, in every paragraph, something for what your school teacher would definitely lower your mark, the absolute lack of depth not only in character but in the whole world, that more often than not you are simply disassociating and looking through text waiting when it will be over. The book is rushed, and the reader feels how bit time, thought and effort was put into it. T.Kingfisher wrote a dnd love story for her fans, but didn’t give a single thought about a character and his fans.

[La Criatura]

Where do I even start.

First things first: I don't envy the author's position, here. You're coming in to write a tie-in book for a game franchise owned by a company notorious for being very particular about their big moneymaker IPs, to write about a character who has achieved mascot status in spite of-- or perhaps because of-- him being an incredible mess of a person in ways that are often either complicated or unpalatable or both, who is also known for having some fans who are... peculiar about him, in the way that they perceive any slight against him as actual harm coming to a real person. I get it. It's a difficult proposition, and I wouldn't want to be fielding some of the batshit insane tweets and other social media pings she's getting from people who aren't smart enough to realize their favorite elf does not actually exist, and that no harm is actually being done to him. I know she's a talented author; her work has come across as highly recommended by several people whose opinions I trust as well as being lauded by actual institutions. It should also be noted that I have a very high tolerance for "bad to mediocre TTRPG tie-in novels" (and if you look to the left you will see the 70+ Warhammer 40,000 books I have read).

That all being said: this is bad. This is not good!

Astarion is a character who is infamous for being imperfect. His story is thus: he was abused, horrifically. In life, in death, and in the game he is an asshole who did/does/will do horrible things. He is not a kind person; he's not even a good person most of the time. All of that does not change that he is undeserving of the abuse that he received. This has historically been difficult for people to grapple with-- even in fiction, the concept of someone who has gone through the specific type of physical/emotional/sexual trauma that he's been though and come out the other side jagged, jaded, distrustful, and cruel is tough to deal with, when many would prefer the trauma response to manifest perhaps as something kinder and softer. This book grapples with that extremely complicated and controversial topic by retroactively changing much of Astarion's backstory and personality to make him seem like a kinder person who has done fewer awful things.

This starts from basically page 1, with the retcon about the Gur, who in the game were a tribal ethnic/cultural minority of monster hunters who Astarion passed a biased ruling against as a magistrate (the implication being that he was bribed to do so by, you know, the vampire that they were hunting) and subsequently were responsible for his first death. The book changes this significantly-- not only are the people Astarion hears the case against not part of any named group (they are only ever referred to as "poachers"), but the judgement he passes is explicitly a merciful one (jail time instead of execution-- specified by law, in case one might argue a case of Unreliable Narrator). After which the families of the accused still beat him to death. And I will cut the author a bit of slack here because I know (because she said so) that this retcon was made by WOTC themselves, but it's still deeply stupid and annoying, because it is a transparent attempt to scrub a less attractive flaw out of the character who's currently achieved Baldur's Gate Mascot Status. In the process it makes him flatter, less interesting, and also makes the narrative come across as bizarrely pro-cop for no good reason. Why bother being merciful to criminals who haven't endangered lives or anything particularly awful, even, if they're just going to kill the fair and honest judge who showed them mercy anyway?

At every possible opportunity, the book narrative shies away from showing Astarion doing anything that might actually qualify as cruel. It is allergic to having him do anything that might engender the idea that he has any part of his tragic backstory coming, or even that he's kind of a prick. He puts himself in harm's way to help his little sister not once but twice, both times for essentially no reason-- no payment, no blackmail, no deal, just "I'm bored and I need something to do". He puts himself in danger to save the life of someone who explicitly has orders to kill him in multiple situations where he could have let that person die, where the game character absolutely would have let that person die. And my personal favorite, lifted right from the text: “One of the things that made him better than Cazador was that he was completely uninterested in tormenting the weak.”

This is from the person who you can farm approval from in Act 1 of the game mostly by stealing from orphan children and bullying animals. This from the person who is BIG UP on you killing a bunch of defenseless refugees. This from the person who gives you a thumbs up when, after listening to a woman pour her heart out about her dead best friend, you take her friend's lute and smash it on the ground.

Well, okay. Agree to disagree, I guess.

Astarion is at the very least not unique in the way the narrative shies away from showing him do anything particularly awful. Bizarrely, the book also seems reticent to show Cazador-- his vampire sire and the person who tormented him for two centuries-- doing anything awful either.

Full disclosure, because this is important context: Cazador Szarr is my favorite character in Baldur's Gate 3 the video game. I love him. He's an awful, neurotic, abusive helicopter mother who pimps out his kids for food and is meant among other things to demonstrate what will happen if Astarion cannot break the cycle of abuse himself. He sucks really, really bad. My love for him is informed by the fact that he is all of this and also a complicated person unto himself. If Astarion's "good" end shows what happens when someone who is a victim of abuse is given the space to realize not everyone wants to hurt them and they can hope for better (even if better is not "perfect"), then Cazador is what happens when the victim of abuse has no place to heal, believes they will never be safe, and spirals into destructive control freak paranoia. I remember when news about this book was first coming out, and a lot of the TikTok Astarion girlies (cursed phrase) were getting Big Mad about it, hearing the phrase "this book is Cazador propaganda" which at the time I just took to mean they were taking onus with Astarion being portrayed as kind of a dick.

I hate to agree with them on anything, but while they're not strictly right (and are still fucking insane), the girlies were correct about one thing, which is that Cazador comes out of this novel looking like he's barely done anything wrong. Mostly this is because he comes out of this book having barely done anything. Astarion in the game talks constantly about how dogshit his life was in Szarr palace. He talks about torture, starvation, being fed putrid rats, being humiliated, being whored out without his consent, verbal abuse, physical abuse, and Cazador's all-consuming obsession with him being a font of misery and also other more complicated emotions he mislikes addressing. This novel takes place at the tail end of the 200 years of vampire slavery Astarion suffered through, and barely addresses any of that.

And look-- I don't think it NECESSARILY needs to have a horrific, graphic torture scene where Astarion gets flayed or whatever. But the book brings up exactly three instances of actual torture across two centuries. One of them is quite bad, though hilariously the author gives Astarion plausible deniability for the horrible thing that might have happened to him during it (not elaborating-- it is one of the few bits in the novel I actually respected for being kind of gross, and I do not wish to spoil it). One of them is something Astarion talks about in the game-- the time Cazador locked him in a tomb for a year, which the novel somehow softens because the way Astarion describes it makes it sound like he was physically locked in a coffin for a year straight, whereas in the book he's just locked in a crypt (which: still not great, but really lessens the "horrible claustrophobia" torture of it, no?). The third is an instance of Cazador demonstrating that the sun can hurt him by burning his hand off in it. Which again-- quite horrible, although for some inexplicable reason Astarion caps off the account with "to be fair it did teach me a valuable lesson". I don't know why he did that, because Astarion as I know him has never once missed out on an opportunity to play up how maligned he is to engender sympathy.

On top of the torture being more alluded to than shown and being more infrequent than not, Cazador is also maybe the most hands-off a pseudo-parent can possibly be for like 90% of this book. Among other things he lets the spawn all have their own room (which they do NOT in game-- the "favored spawn" quarters are EXPLICITLY SPECIAL because they are a private bedroom!), lets them be card-carrying Thieves Guild members (Astarion mentions in game party chatter that Cazador does not allow them to go anywhere near the Guildhall because he "hated questions" from Guild members), lets them take bubble baths(????), and just seemingly doesn't give a fuck if any of them wander off and get lost on a fun little romantasy adventure. He regularly feeds his children wine and fresh pig's blood. He lets Astarion have his stupid little books and stupid little clothing collection.

Literally what does he do in this book that is so evil that isn't just alluded to or ambiguously recounted? He makes Astarion lick his boots once and then goes to take his Vampire Xanax and sleep for 8-10 hours (canonical). There's one instance of son-whoring that's described as vaguely as such a thing can be described for about two sentences before the story moves on as if it didn't happen. The scar carving (which-- holy timeline fudging, Batman) is so nothingburger in the way it's presented as to be meaningless, despite it being so fundamental to Astarion's entire story in the game.

The bastardization of his and Astarion's characters aside, is this not just atrocious optics? Astarion comes out of this book looking like all the complaining he does in the game about how awful he had it is for basically no reason. Oh wow, he had a strict mom who beat him once a century. Like maybe still not great, but hardly worse than some of the other characters in game. Shadowheart was kidnapped and raised in a militant cult, Lae'zel was a child soldier, Karlach got sold into slavery and underwent a nonconsensual organ transplant. Maybe suck it up a bit!

In shying away from everything that makes the character what he is, his story is cheapened to a degree that's laughable. It makes him seem like he's hysterically overreacting, like it wasn't so bad. It makes him seem like a liar. And granted-- he does lie in the game about some aspects of his story, but the interesting thing about that is because he is trying to convince you as the player that he is a Perfect Victim and gain your trust. He does not need to do that in the book that is from his perspective, and frankly I can't imagine being someone who's reading this book because they found Astarion's story relatable and then seeing all of this. It feels like a really shitty way to handle it from a "representation of an abuse victim" POV. I just don't understand why these choices were made.

This isn't even getting into the structural issue mountain that is the rest of the text. I'm trying to keep this review relatively spoiler-free so detailing the stuff I didn't like in the second half of it is kind of a no-can-do on that front, but the direction it goes in is not interesting. The flashbacks to Astarion's pre-vampire past could have gone in an interesting direction (I was saying the whole time I was reading it that Astarion's mother could have been fascinating to directly parallel with Cazador but the text did not seem invested in that parallel, despite the seeming obviousness of it? Whatever) but mostly serve to check off a list of "how he got this skill/to this place". The spawn dynamics in the palace are easily the best part and it's frustrating that the story truncates that whole baked-in bit of character intrigue to do intrigue with someone I care significantly less about. I do not like your Cool Paladin OC, I do not find him appealing, I do not find the stakes in this part of the story adequate enough to capture my attention, nor do I find this relationship at all compelling or convincing. I could go on another 5000 word tangent about how aggravating Den Suriel is to me both as a character and conceptually. Jesus Christ.

Anyway. WOTC or some other power-that-be's has been deleting low-starred reviews of this book in an effort to keep people from cancelling preorders etc. which is a dogshit stupid coward move that lacks any type of integrity, though I don't know why I'm surprised considering all the other bullshit they've pulled over the years and are continuing to pull as we speak. You can force me to delay my review but you can't make me forget how much I dislike this book. Do not purchase this novel. It is a waste of your time and money which would both be better served some other way. Maybe play the game again if you want more Astarion and imagine whatever backstory you think suits him best.

[Leanna Streeter]

I am an absolutely MASSIVE Baldur’s Gate 3 fan, so the second I saw ASTARION was getting his own book, there was no question. I HAD to read it. That man has been my favorite character since I first played the game, and my expectations were dangerously high.

T. Kingfisher NAILED him.

The voice. The vanity. The sarcasm. The theatrics. The way he can be completely ridiculous one second and make your heart hurt the next. This was ASTARION. I could practically hear him delivering the lines in my head the entire time.

And getting to walk the streets of Baldur’s Gate again? I didn’t realize how badly I wanted to return to this world until I was back in it. A few hundred pages was nowhere near enough.

Now I absolutely have to reread it with the audiobook because obviously I need the full experience.

God, I loved this book. Five completely biased, unapologetic Astarion-fangirl stars.

[lanny]

i am going to be insufferable about this for the next 5 months

[muhgooo]

***I HAVE NEVER PLAYED BG AND I DO NOT KNOW THE LORE***

But by the gods, I loved this book. I really think all the people online freaking out need to COOL IT. I didn't find anything in this book to be offensive; IN FACT I absolutely loved how Astarion's trauma was maneuvered. There wasn't a lot of on page abuse, but wow could you feel the effects of what HAD happened to him when we got a peek at his past. Things were mentioned in passing, and you could feel the fear and his resigned acceptance bleed through the page as Astarion coped with his captivity. Yes, Astarion was snarky, sarcastic, and very flippant throughout the book but it was obvious to see it was his reaction to the terrible things he has experienced. Every once in a while we got a peek behind the curtain and his despair was VERY obvious. Astarion is a deeply tormented character. Although, I thought his humor was perfect! It was such an interesting way to showcase how hard Astarion put on his "mask" to the world, while all the while DEEPLY suffering.

All these angry people screaming "they turned him into a vulgar sex god" clearly haven't read the book because it was obvious to me that Astarion had a VERY complicated relationship with sex, and it was VERY OFTEN used against him. The ending and the terribly sad choice he had to make to save another just further solidifies the kinda of silent torment that poor spawn has endured.

This was a deeply moving, and yet oddly hilarious adventure and I enjoyed every moment of it. I was not a fan of T Kingfisher before, but I really loved what she did with this character and how she handled his story. I can't say for sure that all the BG fans will love this book, but I for one am now a fan of Astarion and am interested in playing the game to see what I am missing. I think this story sheds Astarion in a very interesting light, and I don't see why anyone who loves the game wouldn't at least give it a shot!

[Tori Heroux]

3.5 stars
Either all these girlies who think they know Astarion so well who are demanding all 'true' fans must hate this book are delusional or completely lacking critical thinking skills, I guess, because that's clearly him to me. Snarky, numb, pretending not to be affected...classic Astarion from the beginning of the game. I'm not sure why people seem to be expecting endgame, enlightened Astarion. The characterization was pretty spot on. As a fellow victim of SA, I can see the dissociation and the playing of a role oh so clearly. This version of Astarion doesn't have space to introspect, of course. He's still under Cazador's thumb.

Unfortunately, the pacing was kind of a mess and I didn't care for the early life story artlessly smashed into the present story...I wish it had been one continuous story in the present, and then I would've found it easier to invest in the paladin (who appears at the 50% mark like clockwork). So it was kind of mid, overall, but I did really love most of the relationship stuff between Astarion and the other spawn enough to give it a decent review. Sure, there are some discrepancies in terms of details, but I don't expect a mainstream author to have the same level of autistic hyperfocus on this guy, personally.

[Luciënne]

Actual text I posted when this was announced:
"OMGGG! I'm so hyped 🥹♥️"


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Arc review | ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

When this book was announced, I was beyond excited. Baldur's Gate 3 is one of my all-time favorite games, and, surprise, surprise 😂, Astarion is my favorite character. But somehow, I'm left feeling kinda disappointed.

The biggest issue for me was the story itself. It just never fully pulled me in. I found Astarion's past interesting to read about, but not interesting enough to keep me completely invested. I kept waiting for that moment where I couldn't put the book down, and unfortunately, it never came. There were even moments where I found myself getting bored and setting it aside to pick up another book instead. But every time I did, I'd end up reading another new five-star read, which made me question my own opinion, lol. I honestly started feeling guilty because I wanted to love it. To be fair, I had just finished a five-star read before picking this up, so maybe that influenced my experience a little, but even taking that into account, I still expected to connect with this story much more than I did.



What surprised me most was that I never really felt like I was reading Astarion. I know this takes place before the events of the game, and of course people change over time, but I really missed the sharp wit, the sass, and the dramatic remarks that made me fall in love with his character in BG3. That spark just wasn't there for me, even though I've read many people did feel that.

That said, T. Kingfisher's writing is, as always, fantastic. Her prose is engaging, polished, and incredibly easy to read. I genuinely have nothing negative to say about her writing style, so I can absolutely understand why so many fans are loving this book. Sadly, it just didn't work for me. This isn't the first time I've felt this way with a Kingfisher book. I've read other books by her that seemed to have everything I usually love, yet I still didn't quite feel that emotional connection. So maybe this is simply a me problem.



Overall, I'm glad I read it, and I don't regret picking it up. It just didn't live up to the excitement I felt when it was announced or the magic I was hoping to experience as an Astarion fan.

[Lina]

AND Neil Newbon narrating the audio book??? 😩🫠

[Hanner]

Yeah sorry biased af but I love this sad hysterical man. No hope for a less-than-5 when it’s a queer Kingfisher Quest™️ to boot lol

If you love the game and you love Astarion, I think you’ll especially enjoy the audiobook!!

[Charis Simpson]

This book takes the story of a character that is enslaved, physically and mentally abused, and sexually assaulted for 200 years - and is forced to use his body and sexual favours in order to kill and kidnap people, and turns it into some witty dark romance. The beauty of Astarion's story in the games is him discovering who he is, who he wants to be, after years of abuse, not him flirting and joking around his trauma.
In an age where sexual assault, and especially male victims, is treated with such little respect, this is a really disappointing book. Especially given the author's previous work, which I've always really enjoyed.