Vindication!
This is fun.
Remember when I read the Dragon Age novel and talked about... well, you could go read what I wrote, but I'll excerpt the relevant paragraph here:
Actually a remarkable amount of the plot happens off-screen. I thought about it for a little bit to make sure I wasn't overstating it, but no, a remarkable amount happens off-screen. Including the end. The end of the plot happens somewhere between the last chapter and the epilogue! This is not normal... and yet I like it. The whole book just builds up and develops the characters, the plot being just a vehicle for them, and when the characters have reached the appropriate points in their arcs (I can't really call them the end, because more goes on as revealed in the epilogue) the plot is allowed to just roll with its momentum offscreen. It makes the book, impressively, one of the ones that knows quite well what it's about, and that it's not actually about its plot.
Today I was poking through the Dragon Age forums and I found David Gaider saying this:
I've heard that a few times, from numerous people -- many of which still liked the book, but who were perhaps surprised that the "climax" took place off-screen, so to speak.
My response to that is simply that the Battle of River Dane is not the climax. Not to me. The book isn't about the rebellion -- adding yet one more battle scene into the book wasn't going to give it more resolution, especially when Meghren wasn't even at that battle. I considered writing out that battle and having both Meghren and Severan present, to be defeated all at once, but it just didn't feel right. The arc of the book is a personal one, and rests in Maric. The book is about his transformation, not about the liberation of Ferelden (which is essentially a foregone conclusion).
Did I or did I not say EXACTLY THAT?
Thank you.