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Astarion: Baldur's Gate 3
Not yet published
Expected 29 Sep 26The 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.
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.
272 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication September 29, 2026
About the author
T. Kingfisher
70 books30.4k followersT. 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.
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.
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April 24, 2026I didn't even play Baldur's Gate 3, but I guess I will be reading this book.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
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.
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.
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
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
Want to Read
April 25, 2026Pre-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!! 😭
I gotta go replay the game now 🥹
Neil Newbon is narrating the audiobook, I need it now!! 😭
September 6, 2026
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.
September 6, 2026
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.
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.
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.
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.
Review of advance copy received from Indie Reviewers
How this book has this kind of rating is beyond me.
How can you get Astarion *this* wrong?
How can you get Astarion *this* wrong?
Want to Read
April 29, 2026I'm seated.
Want to Read
April 24, 2026smashed that 'want to read' so fast
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
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.
⋆.˚ 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.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
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 |
Moderate |
Mild |
Content warnings as stated by the author | "Please note that this novel contains depictions of and . 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
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.
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
Want to buddy read this book now or in the future? You can do so on Storygraph.
Follow me on Spotify for specific reading playlists like these: 📚 This Connection Is Muddled With Rot | This Family Tree Has Root Rot | 📚 Gothic 📚 Dark Academia 📚 Dark Fantasy
GoodReads | StoryGraph | Instagram | TikTok | Spotify | Overview of all reading playlists | last.fm
PAST UPDATES:
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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
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
31 July, 2026
Guess who just got their ARC request approved???!!
I'm truly suffering from success with all these amazing ARCs!!
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
24 April, 2026
NO WAY! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!
Never added a book to my TBR as fast! I am beyond excited about this!!!
Rating: 3.75/5 ⭐
CW: I urge you to check the content warnings for this one if needed.
Explicit |
Moderate |
Mild |
Content warnings as stated by the author | "Please note that this novel contains depictions of and . 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
❥
❥ 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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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!!!
Review of advance copy
I get the distinct impression the author did not actually play Astarion's story before authoring this book.
Want to Read
April 28, 2026what an insane clash of worlds O.O
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
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!
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!
Want to Read
April 24, 2026SCREAMING
Want to Read
April 24, 2026ARE YOU KIDDDINGGG i’ve never added a book to my tbr so fast, i saw it on tiktok and thought it was a prank
Review of advance copy
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.
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.
September 22, 2026
This book is the worst kind of empty calories: it provides no nourishment, nor flavor, you’re only left with heartburn. I would have given it 1/5 stars just for having to suffer the joke about “tawdry sex acts, possibly performed with a dead fish,” but unfortunately, that’s the least of the book’s problems.
Whereas the story of Astarion in BG3 was celebrated for subverting the stereotypical sexy vampire trope and turning it on its head, this book flips the trope back over and shoves it in your face. This book is for all intents and purposes a “he cocked cockily” caricature, which was a choice considering it’s portraying a character renowned for representing victims of sexual exploitation, and in particular male victims that are rarely depicted. How anyone thought this book would be appropriate is beyond me.
Well, sorry to say, what he feels about what he is doing still doesn’t matter, because heaven forbid those feelings get in the way of fetishizing him and having a little fun with him, which is clearly the priority of the book. When you finally get a hint of something deeper, a taste of emotional weight, the author runs away and hides in the safety of levity. It’s unclear to me if the author, or perhaps WOTC, is unwilling or simply unable to take trauma seriously.
Obviously, the book does include some highly traumatic, horrific events, but these events are depicted in isolation of their consequences on Astarion, glossing over them so quickly they may as well have not happened at all. Graphic violence is used for quick spectacles instead of character defining moments, like they were the result of a short little writing prompt about the anatomical minutiae of torture or creative ways to make someone suffer when they are immortal. And once the spectacle is over, everything is reduced to a punchline and Astarion is fine somehow. A healthy dose of subtext was desperately needed.
While I’m sure it will be argued the narrative was a testament to Astarion’s resilience in the wake of his objectively terrible circumstances, the book reads more like the author didn’t want to dampen the mood with the inconvenience of his suffering. I suppose we do eventually manage to see some true, unmasked feeling … in the last two pages.
On to the elephant in the room: his so-called “hypersexuality.” The issue isn’t that Astarion, or victims in general, aren’t able or allowed to be sexual in the wake of abuse, or even the fact that its treatment in this specific case conflicts with canon at this stage of his story (150 years post turning), it’s that his story was essentially changed for no other purpose than for us, the audience, to take enjoyment in his sexuality and to laugh at it, taking every opportunity it can to redirect our gaze so we can pointlessly think about him in terms of sex.
There is no exploration of a victim’s changing relationship with sex with a loss of body autonomy or in the aftermath of trauma, it’s all simply so it can hammer home the point that the main thing about Astarion is SEX SEX SEX. I’d almost argue, Astarion isn’t so much hypersexual as the narrator is obsessed with bringing up sex. Immature jokes and references to his sexual appetite are incessantly shoehorned into the story, starting from him as young as 12 years old and continuing into his 150 years of enslavement, and serve no other purpose than to be a sexy or silly treat for the audience to consume. It’s a frankly gross treatment of his story.
This book declares, “Ding ding ding! There is not much point. We insist on thinking about you in terms of sex, not because sex is an important part of your story and the human experience that should be explored, but because sex sells. We can’t have an Astarion who is uncomfortable with sex, that’s no fun and simply won’t do. Best we can offer is an Astarion that is starting to get a bit bored of it after a couple centuries of willful hedonism.”
The most egregious offense: Game Astarion makes it loud and clear that he was forced to sleep with his victims, and that enjoyment was never a part of it. He tells us in game that he “had nothing for so long. Nothing. Not even my own body,” and that there were times he “would have been thrilled if everyone who put their hands on me burst into flames.” Yet in the book, the choice to sleep with his victims is now fully his! For funzies. His victims are now sexually exploited before their death because Astarion himself chooses it. Cazador has nothing to do with it.
The book establishes that he need only get his victims to one of the many secret palace “collection points”, where they will be taken away by skeletons. Seduction helpful, but sex not required. In one example, he easily lures a bard to the palace by simply stating they had a cancellation and are in need of one to perform at a party. Yet he chooses to sleep with many victims anyway. He even recalls some of these sexual encounters with positivity, like the “charming blacksmith [he] climbed like a tree.” In the early days of his slavery, when his quota of victims was lower, he hunted using prolonged seductions over tendays, and expressed excitement at the prospect of returning to these long cons, calling them “craftsmanship.” This is not only tonally dissonant and an offensive form of erasure, but if sex was not a requirement or a compulsion, (which there is no possibility it was in this book), it therefore means that any sex he did have with victims, he did for his own pleasure or for no reason at all, even knowing they would be going to their death. These victims could never consent to sex considering they were seduced under horridly false pretenses, but in the game Cazador bore the culpability since Astarion was forced with quite literally no way to refuse. Now, Astarion is the perpetrator. They took his story of sexual exploitation and turned him into a willing participant in sexual exploitation. Oh, is that steam coming out of my ears? I suspect this oversight wasn’t on purpose, simply not much thought was put into the logistics of it all more than Astarion must sleep with his victims and him not hating it is more fun for the audience.
Let’s be clear, he is still a victim of severe sexual (and physical) abuse in the book and was obviously victimized many times. One scene in particular is quite difficult and I almost thought it was handled well enough, until I was quickly disabused of that notion when shortly after this violent assault, Astarion is not only fine, he already has a “spring in his step.” And now, even 150 years into his slavery, he’s somehow only left feeling that sex has become a “tiresome chore.” Conveniently for the audience, that leaves room for him to have instantly lustful feelings for our token romantic interest, who conveniently is unabashedly flirtatious and sexually forward from the moment they meet, even under quite dire circumstances. I suppose WOTC gave a word or a page limit so they had to speed things up.
The story of the paladin grew on me eventually. It was downright goofy and forced much of the time, especially in the beginning, but it also offered some rare glimpses into a deeper emotional complexity (though often this was at the expense of Astarion’s voice). I found myself somewhat moved by it in the end despite how unconvincing their relationship was, but still, the story’s existence contradicts an important part of Astarion’s canon, (that no one ever helped him or said a kind word to him). And there are quite a few logical problems with how the romance arc ends. I’d have been willing to forgive it if the rest of the book’s story hadn’t given me so little reason to, and taken together with everything else, it all amounts to one more selfish rebellion against Astarion’s story.
Cazador was a strange version of himself in this book, and the atmosphere of the palace did not inspire the fear and foreboding it should have, especially considering his sadism and power over the spawn. You rarely got a sense of just how much power and control he truly had. It felt more like a dysfunctional family sitcom, with of course occasional bouts of horror and humiliation for good measure. There was a brief mention of Astarion fearing that everything might not be real, which is a compelling insight that I wish was explored.
I’ll not delve into the childhood backstory; it all amounted to nothing.
All in all, this book left me with the taste of putrid rat in my mouth. Any changes or divergences from canon should have been in service of the heart and soul of his story. Instead, what we are left with is a reductive and cheap attempt at being provocative, which is hard not to see as exploitative. And there is surprisingly little emotion to be felt in this book despite the seriousness of the subject matter. The ending will try to suggest to you this is a story about endurance. Well, I certainly had to endure it.
Yes, he’s fictional. I suppose the silver lining in all this is he’s not real and will never see it… I imagine he would instantly multiclass into barbarian and go into a rage. But is there not still a message sent on what our priorities really are in our society when we take a story like Astarion’s and turn it into this?
Whereas the story of Astarion in BG3 was celebrated for subverting the stereotypical sexy vampire trope and turning it on its head, this book flips the trope back over and shoves it in your face. This book is for all intents and purposes a “he cocked cockily” caricature, which was a choice considering it’s portraying a character renowned for representing victims of sexual exploitation, and in particular male victims that are rarely depicted. How anyone thought this book would be appropriate is beyond me.
“What I wanted, how I felt about what I was doing, it never mattered” - Astarion, BG3 Game
Well, sorry to say, what he feels about what he is doing still doesn’t matter, because heaven forbid those feelings get in the way of fetishizing him and having a little fun with him, which is clearly the priority of the book. When you finally get a hint of something deeper, a taste of emotional weight, the author runs away and hides in the safety of levity. It’s unclear to me if the author, or perhaps WOTC, is unwilling or simply unable to take trauma seriously.
Obviously, the book does include some highly traumatic, horrific events, but these events are depicted in isolation of their consequences on Astarion, glossing over them so quickly they may as well have not happened at all. Graphic violence is used for quick spectacles instead of character defining moments, like they were the result of a short little writing prompt about the anatomical minutiae of torture or creative ways to make someone suffer when they are immortal. And once the spectacle is over, everything is reduced to a punchline and Astarion is fine somehow. A healthy dose of subtext was desperately needed.
While I’m sure it will be argued the narrative was a testament to Astarion’s resilience in the wake of his objectively terrible circumstances, the book reads more like the author didn’t want to dampen the mood with the inconvenience of his suffering. I suppose we do eventually manage to see some true, unmasked feeling … in the last two pages.
On to the elephant in the room: his so-called “hypersexuality.” The issue isn’t that Astarion, or victims in general, aren’t able or allowed to be sexual in the wake of abuse, or even the fact that its treatment in this specific case conflicts with canon at this stage of his story (150 years post turning), it’s that his story was essentially changed for no other purpose than for us, the audience, to take enjoyment in his sexuality and to laugh at it, taking every opportunity it can to redirect our gaze so we can pointlessly think about him in terms of sex.
Astarion (BG3): “I don’t think I want you to think about me in terms of sex. I don’t know if I want anyone to.”
Player: “How do you want me to see you?”
Astarion: “As a person? Would that be so much to ask.”
There is no exploration of a victim’s changing relationship with sex with a loss of body autonomy or in the aftermath of trauma, it’s all simply so it can hammer home the point that the main thing about Astarion is SEX SEX SEX. I’d almost argue, Astarion isn’t so much hypersexual as the narrator is obsessed with bringing up sex. Immature jokes and references to his sexual appetite are incessantly shoehorned into the story, starting from him as young as 12 years old and continuing into his 150 years of enslavement, and serve no other purpose than to be a sexy or silly treat for the audience to consume. It’s a frankly gross treatment of his story.
“I suppose there’s not much point in me if I won’t have sex. My only talent, I’m fully aware.” -Astarion BG3 Game.
This book declares, “Ding ding ding! There is not much point. We insist on thinking about you in terms of sex, not because sex is an important part of your story and the human experience that should be explored, but because sex sells. We can’t have an Astarion who is uncomfortable with sex, that’s no fun and simply won’t do. Best we can offer is an Astarion that is starting to get a bit bored of it after a couple centuries of willful hedonism.”
The most egregious offense: Game Astarion makes it loud and clear that he was forced to sleep with his victims, and that enjoyment was never a part of it. He tells us in game that he “had nothing for so long. Nothing. Not even my own body,” and that there were times he “would have been thrilled if everyone who put their hands on me burst into flames.” Yet in the book, the choice to sleep with his victims is now fully his! For funzies. His victims are now sexually exploited before their death because Astarion himself chooses it. Cazador has nothing to do with it.
The book establishes that he need only get his victims to one of the many secret palace “collection points”, where they will be taken away by skeletons. Seduction helpful, but sex not required. In one example, he easily lures a bard to the palace by simply stating they had a cancellation and are in need of one to perform at a party. Yet he chooses to sleep with many victims anyway. He even recalls some of these sexual encounters with positivity, like the “charming blacksmith [he] climbed like a tree.” In the early days of his slavery, when his quota of victims was lower, he hunted using prolonged seductions over tendays, and expressed excitement at the prospect of returning to these long cons, calling them “craftsmanship.” This is not only tonally dissonant and an offensive form of erasure, but if sex was not a requirement or a compulsion, (which there is no possibility it was in this book), it therefore means that any sex he did have with victims, he did for his own pleasure or for no reason at all, even knowing they would be going to their death. These victims could never consent to sex considering they were seduced under horridly false pretenses, but in the game Cazador bore the culpability since Astarion was forced with quite literally no way to refuse. Now, Astarion is the perpetrator. They took his story of sexual exploitation and turned him into a willing participant in sexual exploitation. Oh, is that steam coming out of my ears? I suspect this oversight wasn’t on purpose, simply not much thought was put into the logistics of it all more than Astarion must sleep with his victims and him not hating it is more fun for the audience.
Let’s be clear, he is still a victim of severe sexual (and physical) abuse in the book and was obviously victimized many times. One scene in particular is quite difficult and I almost thought it was handled well enough, until I was quickly disabused of that notion when shortly after this violent assault, Astarion is not only fine, he already has a “spring in his step.” And now, even 150 years into his slavery, he’s somehow only left feeling that sex has become a “tiresome chore.” Conveniently for the audience, that leaves room for him to have instantly lustful feelings for our token romantic interest, who conveniently is unabashedly flirtatious and sexually forward from the moment they meet, even under quite dire circumstances. I suppose WOTC gave a word or a page limit so they had to speed things up.
The story of the paladin grew on me eventually. It was downright goofy and forced much of the time, especially in the beginning, but it also offered some rare glimpses into a deeper emotional complexity (though often this was at the expense of Astarion’s voice). I found myself somewhat moved by it in the end despite how unconvincing their relationship was, but still, the story’s existence contradicts an important part of Astarion’s canon, (that no one ever helped him or said a kind word to him). And there are quite a few logical problems with how the romance arc ends. I’d have been willing to forgive it if the rest of the book’s story hadn’t given me so little reason to, and taken together with everything else, it all amounts to one more selfish rebellion against Astarion’s story.
Cazador was a strange version of himself in this book, and the atmosphere of the palace did not inspire the fear and foreboding it should have, especially considering his sadism and power over the spawn. You rarely got a sense of just how much power and control he truly had. It felt more like a dysfunctional family sitcom, with of course occasional bouts of horror and humiliation for good measure. There was a brief mention of Astarion fearing that everything might not be real, which is a compelling insight that I wish was explored.
I’ll not delve into the childhood backstory; it all amounted to nothing.
All in all, this book left me with the taste of putrid rat in my mouth. Any changes or divergences from canon should have been in service of the heart and soul of his story. Instead, what we are left with is a reductive and cheap attempt at being provocative, which is hard not to see as exploitative. And there is surprisingly little emotion to be felt in this book despite the seriousness of the subject matter. The ending will try to suggest to you this is a story about endurance. Well, I certainly had to endure it.
Yes, he’s fictional. I suppose the silver lining in all this is he’s not real and will never see it… I imagine he would instantly multiclass into barbarian and go into a rage. But is there not still a message sent on what our priorities really are in our society when we take a story like Astarion’s and turn it into this?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Want to Read
April 24, 2026this is the best day of my life
August 3, 2026
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
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
Review of advance copy
Overall this book genuinely just sucks. There's almost no actual plot, and what plot exists is lifeless and boring. The characterizations of both Astarion AND Cazador are atrocious and I actually think a lot of shit is gonna come down on Neil Newbon for saying yes to this when it has such horrendous implications for the SA aspect of the character. The writing is boring, the characters are completely flat. There's no "imagination" at work here. No ideas, no interesting spins on anything. Kingfisher CLEARLY did not immerse herself in the game - at this point I can't be convinced otherwise. What she did consume of the game was the shallowest stuff possible. She fully conceives of Astarion's outward persona - charming sex guy - as the end-all of the character and I was genuinely really depressed after reading it for severa days because
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
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.
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.
Review of advance copy
I would like to start out by saying the rating on this book is inaccurate. Over 85 negative reviews were removed without good reason.
I will repost my previously deleted review once more:
I usually don't leave negative reviews because I am a firm believer in 'don't like don't read', but I think it's necessary for this one.
I could not get through this book. I cannot believe how badly the author mischaracterized and burchered this beloved character. Astarion is a very complex, troubled and traumatized character that many people deeply relate too. Portraying him as a spoiled, sex-obsessed brat is extremely offensive to the victims that relate to his story.
All the depth has been sucked out of this character in favour of sex jokes. He is so horrificly misunderstood by the author it is almost like she either didn't play the source material, or just truly dislikes this character all together. This book does not read like a love letter to the character or his fans, instead its completely changes him for the worst.
The author gets the portrayal of this character so wrong, and changes so much about his backstory, that he comes across as a predator and not a victim.
If you are a victim and heavily resonate/find comfort in Astarion and his story: do not read this book. It truly felt like a slap in the face to me. I'm extremely disappointed.
It feels like Cazador himself ghost wrote this book
I will repost my previously deleted review once more:
I usually don't leave negative reviews because I am a firm believer in 'don't like don't read', but I think it's necessary for this one.
I could not get through this book. I cannot believe how badly the author mischaracterized and burchered this beloved character. Astarion is a very complex, troubled and traumatized character that many people deeply relate too. Portraying him as a spoiled, sex-obsessed brat is extremely offensive to the victims that relate to his story.
All the depth has been sucked out of this character in favour of sex jokes. He is so horrificly misunderstood by the author it is almost like she either didn't play the source material, or just truly dislikes this character all together. This book does not read like a love letter to the character or his fans, instead its completely changes him for the worst.
The author gets the portrayal of this character so wrong, and changes so much about his backstory, that he comes across as a predator and not a victim.
If you are a victim and heavily resonate/find comfort in Astarion and his story: do not read this book. It truly felt like a slap in the face to me. I'm extremely disappointed.
It feels like Cazador himself ghost wrote this book
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
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?
Review of advance copy
Overwhelmingly shallow take on a complex character; if that were the only problem I likely would’ve given it a higher review, but the writing style was also just not for me. If I had to hear one more overly descriptive account of fabric, silk and feather hats, I think I might roll my eyes so hard they get stuck.
Want to Read
April 24, 2026i am going to be insufferable about this for the next 5 months
September 22, 2026
Review to come once I gather my thoughts properly and in a manner that won't be terribly offensive.
Review of advance copy
I would like to begin with: were people high when they were giving this book a 4–5-star review, and is there a street name for this drug? I want to be that delusional. I read this book twice before I can properly review it. This book is pure OC FANFICTION catered to this writer's own paladin OC and how SHE personally viewed Astarion. It contradicts a lot of his actual story from the game, and it makes him look a liar because of the changes she did. The retcons should be taken seriously. Aside from the Gur being changed to poachers, everything else was just fair game for her to write this story as long as it followed the current dnd manual and WOTC book of hunger. Keep in mind. This is her version of Astarion, this is not the ACTUAL game astarion. Just because the book is called Astarion, doesn't mean it's the real Astarion.
The spawn is the only thing I can say that was alright. Aurelia was fine, I am not too fond of what she did with Dalyria. The gnome Yousen was there… but I did get annoyed with KF frequently making him blend in with the wall.... because he's a rock gnome. They do that. Cazador, in some parts, I can see him doing the horrible acts he makes the spawn do and put them through. Though I really didn’t see the Cazador we meet in the game. This is the powerful vampire lord Cazador Szarr, the creature that has tortured and tormented Astarion for two centuries, and yet his presence is lacking in the book. Some of KF choices do trouble me, especially with the love bombing. Why was this necessary? A vampire lord has complete control over his spawn. He does not need to love bomb. I do find it incredibly odd that this version of Cazador would listen to Astarion's suggestions in sparing a huge potential threat, someone who knows of an entrance to his domain and knows of their existence. Cazador is described by Astarion in the game as merciless and relentless. Listening to his spawn, and letting people go is very out of character, but I guess it makes sense since KF really wanted to spare her precious himbo paladin. Frankly, I referred to the palace segment of this book as: Peepaw Cazador and his home of wayward naughty children. Since all Cazador does is sleep 9-10 hours a day, and the spawn were often left to their own devices to drink their supply of cow blood and eat cheese cubes.
I am upset with how she wrote Astarion in this book. Astarion in the game was FORCED and prostituted by Cazador to seduce and lure victims for him. Cazador would then collect the victims from the guest bedroom after Astarion was done entertaining them. He didn't get ANY pleasure from it; it wasn't even an option for him at all. He had ZERO autonomy. He referred to these two centuries as PURE shit and misery. His life was either rotting in the kennels or languishing in the boudoir. Yet I have to say that the palace conditions in the book didn't make it look 'that' bad. Apparently, every spawn had their own bedroom, they have a supply of blood on hand, they munch on cheese cubes/bloody strawberries and can spend various days on the hunt. One of the many things that really bothered me in this book was Astarion CHOOSING to use his body to get victims while his siblings chose violence. I mean KF laid it out since his childhood, that sex was a core trait of his…clearly. I absolutely hate this change so much because it sounds like Astarion did this to himself. It is a victim blamey. There wasn’t compelling to make him choose to do this when his siblings just knocked someone out and dragged them to the palace. There is a section where he fondly remembers climbing a victim like a tree and other victims he was attracted to. In the game, he said he had long stopped caring at all, and he was disgusted with his targets. Pretty much repulsed by it all. Again, he received zero pleasure at all from this. Keep in mind, this book is 50 years before the game. By this time, Astarion’s mindset would have been different from his early spawn years. The lack of tone change is a huge issue in this book. There was hardly a difference between pre-spawn and post spawn Astarion. It is just flat and shallow.
Astarion's thoughts in this book were pretty much: sex, sex, silk, silk and COCK. Every thought, whether its lockpicking, being held down by a threat, and drinking blood from a cow or pigeon...is sexual. He refers to the blood going down his throat as a mouth on his cock. First, game Astarion would NEVER say the word cock. He is a refined, eloquent speaker with an archaic flair. He speaks in innuendo, but he is never vulgar. Another thing is the amount of F•ck he says in this book; again, game Astarion hardly says any F bombs. It is only said in a few specific moments.
Going back to this topic, Astarion’s thoughts usually lead back to sex. It's clear to me and from KF own words, she viewed Astarion as DTF and getting lit. In his childhood, she brings up 12-year-old Astarion and masturbation. Astarion at 17, immediately wants to f•ck everything he sees. And she really loves to use this word, Astarion knows so many ways to use someone else's COCK, and use his own COCK. I won't go much into his childhood; all I will say is I absolutely HATE how she wrote his parents and family dynamic. His mother frequently wild shaping to avoid issues especially when it came to Astarion. Then she disappears after he chooses to stay with his great grandmother….by turning into a bird…. she literally flew out of his life. Never to be seen or mentioned. I honestly did not care for her version of his childhood, rather very disappointed with it.
There are so many issues I had with this book, but I will say that in the last 100 pages, I had to force myself to finish it. The paladin and the romance inclusion were completely unnecessary. The humor and banter are bloody awful and eye rolling, and it completely contradicts his story in the game. Their short-term romance (literally under 5 days) was so FORCED AND CRINGE. KF is not slick, she said Astarion isn’t in love with the paladin, yet I question Astarion’s choices in saving his life, TWICE. The flirting (instalust) happens immediately, and even though she uses the guise that Astarion is manipulating him or keeping him as a last resort to bring to Cazador. He just wants to f•ck him. Astarion in the game has never had a friend, has never had anyone look out for him, never received a kind word from anyone, and was never helped. He had a very poor view of heroes, because no one saved him from Cazador. Yet in the book, Astarion did have someone who wanted to help and kill his master for him. Even willing to get an army to kill Cazador. Astarion tells the paladin NO and don’t forget me. Astarion goes so far as to leaving him a note after sleeping with him that said, “I didn’t want to be the one to break you”. There are lines where Astarion does say that sex has become a chore, but I felt as if it was just mentioned and then brushed off. Onto the next scene. When Astarion sleeps with the paladin, he just says “it was good, even if it wasn’t what he wanted”. In the three-day adventure, there was no indication from Astarion that he didn’t want to have sex with the paladin at all. Astarion tells him personal stories about his torment, when in the game it takes a long time for him to open up to us about a most painful memory, but for her OC it happens in one day. It was clear to me, that KF just wanted to smush her paladin OC and Astarion like dolls, let him be the special one and make her OC be the one that got away. No one cares about your cliché himbo lathander devotion paladin OC. Reading how the gravelly voice goes straight to Astarion’s groin… Astarion please stand up it’s been ONE DAY. The real Astarion would completely side eye someone like him. Just please throw away the whole romance. Cliché cliché cringe. In my opinion, it does affect the romance Astarion has with Tav in the game. Especially, when Astarion tells tav that “you’re the only one, no one has a heart like you”. Well in this book he did have friends, some knew he was a vampire, and there’s the paladin who was willing to help him because he fell for him. It just makes Astarion look like a complete LIAR. Astarion saying “well at least I had a paladin suck my cock” …just no.
The retcons are troublesome. Astarion getting the scars 30-50 years before the game begins, when in the game he has been carrying it for two centuries. KF combined two different characters into one person and changed the timing of when this event happened. The two characters were Sebastian and the darling boy. These two are separate characters from different times in Astarion’s spawn life. The spawn apparently knew about Mephistopheles and Cazador making negotiations, when in game Astarion said there were no devils hanging around the crypt. The biggest retcon is Astarion being offered help by someone willing to help him, but Astarion in this book rejected the help. When in the game, he says no one has ever helped him, and he isn’t used to being met with help.
As a reader I am offended by this book, as a huge Astarion fan even more. Many of us connected with his story and character. It is heartbreaking to read this book about our favorite companion by someone who I truly believe failed to understand his character. I will even go so far as to say she didn’t even explore the lore in the palace and skimmed her playthroughs. The book is flat, lacking tone change, has clunky writing, and over explained, kind of like she was trying to reach her word count. The weird back and forth between the past and present gave me a mental whiplash. It was a honestly drag. I had to force myself to finish the book. She tried too hard to mimic Astarion, instead we got the horny sexy vampire trope. Very disappointing, as I was often told that Kingfisher is an amazing well researched writer. This just reeks poorly written smut YA sublevel writing. This romantasy smut book is clearly for booktok fans, not for the actual real fans.
If you haven’t played the game and picked up this book for the first time…please disregard this. If you want to know Larian’s brilliantly written Astarion, and not WOTC’s comical horndog caricature of Astarion…play the game. Anyone asking for a sequel between the paladin and Astarion…. If we were to consider this book canon (not me and others), there is already a sequel…it’s called Baldur’s Gate 3. THE GAME.
Also, will the REAL Astarion fans. Please stand up. This is not our pale elf.
The spawn is the only thing I can say that was alright. Aurelia was fine, I am not too fond of what she did with Dalyria. The gnome Yousen was there… but I did get annoyed with KF frequently making him blend in with the wall.... because he's a rock gnome. They do that. Cazador, in some parts, I can see him doing the horrible acts he makes the spawn do and put them through. Though I really didn’t see the Cazador we meet in the game. This is the powerful vampire lord Cazador Szarr, the creature that has tortured and tormented Astarion for two centuries, and yet his presence is lacking in the book. Some of KF choices do trouble me, especially with the love bombing. Why was this necessary? A vampire lord has complete control over his spawn. He does not need to love bomb. I do find it incredibly odd that this version of Cazador would listen to Astarion's suggestions in sparing a huge potential threat, someone who knows of an entrance to his domain and knows of their existence. Cazador is described by Astarion in the game as merciless and relentless. Listening to his spawn, and letting people go is very out of character, but I guess it makes sense since KF really wanted to spare her precious himbo paladin. Frankly, I referred to the palace segment of this book as: Peepaw Cazador and his home of wayward naughty children. Since all Cazador does is sleep 9-10 hours a day, and the spawn were often left to their own devices to drink their supply of cow blood and eat cheese cubes.
I am upset with how she wrote Astarion in this book. Astarion in the game was FORCED and prostituted by Cazador to seduce and lure victims for him. Cazador would then collect the victims from the guest bedroom after Astarion was done entertaining them. He didn't get ANY pleasure from it; it wasn't even an option for him at all. He had ZERO autonomy. He referred to these two centuries as PURE shit and misery. His life was either rotting in the kennels or languishing in the boudoir. Yet I have to say that the palace conditions in the book didn't make it look 'that' bad. Apparently, every spawn had their own bedroom, they have a supply of blood on hand, they munch on cheese cubes/bloody strawberries and can spend various days on the hunt. One of the many things that really bothered me in this book was Astarion CHOOSING to use his body to get victims while his siblings chose violence. I mean KF laid it out since his childhood, that sex was a core trait of his…clearly. I absolutely hate this change so much because it sounds like Astarion did this to himself. It is a victim blamey. There wasn’t compelling to make him choose to do this when his siblings just knocked someone out and dragged them to the palace. There is a section where he fondly remembers climbing a victim like a tree and other victims he was attracted to. In the game, he said he had long stopped caring at all, and he was disgusted with his targets. Pretty much repulsed by it all. Again, he received zero pleasure at all from this. Keep in mind, this book is 50 years before the game. By this time, Astarion’s mindset would have been different from his early spawn years. The lack of tone change is a huge issue in this book. There was hardly a difference between pre-spawn and post spawn Astarion. It is just flat and shallow.
Astarion's thoughts in this book were pretty much: sex, sex, silk, silk and COCK. Every thought, whether its lockpicking, being held down by a threat, and drinking blood from a cow or pigeon...is sexual. He refers to the blood going down his throat as a mouth on his cock. First, game Astarion would NEVER say the word cock. He is a refined, eloquent speaker with an archaic flair. He speaks in innuendo, but he is never vulgar. Another thing is the amount of F•ck he says in this book; again, game Astarion hardly says any F bombs. It is only said in a few specific moments.
Going back to this topic, Astarion’s thoughts usually lead back to sex. It's clear to me and from KF own words, she viewed Astarion as DTF and getting lit. In his childhood, she brings up 12-year-old Astarion and masturbation. Astarion at 17, immediately wants to f•ck everything he sees. And she really loves to use this word, Astarion knows so many ways to use someone else's COCK, and use his own COCK. I won't go much into his childhood; all I will say is I absolutely HATE how she wrote his parents and family dynamic. His mother frequently wild shaping to avoid issues especially when it came to Astarion. Then she disappears after he chooses to stay with his great grandmother….by turning into a bird…. she literally flew out of his life. Never to be seen or mentioned. I honestly did not care for her version of his childhood, rather very disappointed with it.
There are so many issues I had with this book, but I will say that in the last 100 pages, I had to force myself to finish it. The paladin and the romance inclusion were completely unnecessary. The humor and banter are bloody awful and eye rolling, and it completely contradicts his story in the game. Their short-term romance (literally under 5 days) was so FORCED AND CRINGE. KF is not slick, she said Astarion isn’t in love with the paladin, yet I question Astarion’s choices in saving his life, TWICE. The flirting (instalust) happens immediately, and even though she uses the guise that Astarion is manipulating him or keeping him as a last resort to bring to Cazador. He just wants to f•ck him. Astarion in the game has never had a friend, has never had anyone look out for him, never received a kind word from anyone, and was never helped. He had a very poor view of heroes, because no one saved him from Cazador. Yet in the book, Astarion did have someone who wanted to help and kill his master for him. Even willing to get an army to kill Cazador. Astarion tells the paladin NO and don’t forget me. Astarion goes so far as to leaving him a note after sleeping with him that said, “I didn’t want to be the one to break you”. There are lines where Astarion does say that sex has become a chore, but I felt as if it was just mentioned and then brushed off. Onto the next scene. When Astarion sleeps with the paladin, he just says “it was good, even if it wasn’t what he wanted”. In the three-day adventure, there was no indication from Astarion that he didn’t want to have sex with the paladin at all. Astarion tells him personal stories about his torment, when in the game it takes a long time for him to open up to us about a most painful memory, but for her OC it happens in one day. It was clear to me, that KF just wanted to smush her paladin OC and Astarion like dolls, let him be the special one and make her OC be the one that got away. No one cares about your cliché himbo lathander devotion paladin OC. Reading how the gravelly voice goes straight to Astarion’s groin… Astarion please stand up it’s been ONE DAY. The real Astarion would completely side eye someone like him. Just please throw away the whole romance. Cliché cliché cringe. In my opinion, it does affect the romance Astarion has with Tav in the game. Especially, when Astarion tells tav that “you’re the only one, no one has a heart like you”. Well in this book he did have friends, some knew he was a vampire, and there’s the paladin who was willing to help him because he fell for him. It just makes Astarion look like a complete LIAR. Astarion saying “well at least I had a paladin suck my cock” …just no.
The retcons are troublesome. Astarion getting the scars 30-50 years before the game begins, when in the game he has been carrying it for two centuries. KF combined two different characters into one person and changed the timing of when this event happened. The two characters were Sebastian and the darling boy. These two are separate characters from different times in Astarion’s spawn life. The spawn apparently knew about Mephistopheles and Cazador making negotiations, when in game Astarion said there were no devils hanging around the crypt. The biggest retcon is Astarion being offered help by someone willing to help him, but Astarion in this book rejected the help. When in the game, he says no one has ever helped him, and he isn’t used to being met with help.
As a reader I am offended by this book, as a huge Astarion fan even more. Many of us connected with his story and character. It is heartbreaking to read this book about our favorite companion by someone who I truly believe failed to understand his character. I will even go so far as to say she didn’t even explore the lore in the palace and skimmed her playthroughs. The book is flat, lacking tone change, has clunky writing, and over explained, kind of like she was trying to reach her word count. The weird back and forth between the past and present gave me a mental whiplash. It was a honestly drag. I had to force myself to finish the book. She tried too hard to mimic Astarion, instead we got the horny sexy vampire trope. Very disappointing, as I was often told that Kingfisher is an amazing well researched writer. This just reeks poorly written smut YA sublevel writing. This romantasy smut book is clearly for booktok fans, not for the actual real fans.
If you haven’t played the game and picked up this book for the first time…please disregard this. If you want to know Larian’s brilliantly written Astarion, and not WOTC’s comical horndog caricature of Astarion…play the game. Anyone asking for a sequel between the paladin and Astarion…. If we were to consider this book canon (not me and others), there is already a sequel…it’s called Baldur’s Gate 3. THE GAME.
Also, will the REAL Astarion fans. Please stand up. This is not our pale elf.
Review of advance copy received from Goodreads Giveaways
The writing is unprofessional and doesn’t fit Astarion’s character
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
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.
"OMGGG! I'm so hyped 🥹♥️"
-
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.
Want to Read
April 25, 2026AND Neil Newbon narrating the audio book??? 😩🫠
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