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yukieTalking about the books I've read, now! I've not read all of them, yet, but I'm going to try to for posterity's sake if nothing else. (I may, however, avoid some of them, because emotional abuse and ableist bullshittery about addiction are two of my huge "shove-a-runeblade-up-your-nose-o-gram!" buttons.)
The books I've read all of:
-The Last Guardian
-Lord of the Clans
-Of Blood and Honor
-Arthas: Rise of the Lich King
The books I've read a little of:
-Beyond the Dark Portal
-Cycle of Hatred
All of these have timeliningLOLOLOLOL to some extent, though some have it worse than others (Metzen, what is this even). Some authors are better at keeping internal consistency, others are really not. Of all the books, I liked The Last Guardian most. This is sort of kind of damning with faint praise because none of the books are especially AWESOMESAUCE per se, but out of all of them, it was the most technically solid.
So I'll give a short rundown of my thoughts on all these and try to keep it concise (LOL). XD
SPOILERS needless to say.
THE LAST GUARDIAN
The Good: Solid characterization within the novel, believable characters, no desperate efforts to match the games exactly but still feels solidly within the Warcraft universe, no stupid egregious depictions of women (Aegwynn and Garona are both epic), fairly good pacing up until near the end, a logical explanation for how the hell Khadgar's apparent age is what it is (take note other authors, this is how you do something like that), Karazhan is nice and spooky, the explanation for why Garona does what she does is believable, and the ending is really nicely done. Also, Anduin Lothar is adorable. Also also, I REALLY LOVE AEGWYNN.
The Bad: The pacing gets really really rushed toward the end--it's like SUDDENLY MEDIVH GOES BLARGH and the subtle whodunnit stuff they were doing with the mysterious deaths of mages gets wrapped up far too abruptly without any real explanation beyond lolSargeras. Some of Medivh's mercurial temperament shifts make me wonder how the heck Sargeras flew under the radar at all. I'm not sure why Moroes is depicted as being as old as he is--I know his depiction in-game postdates his novel but he's just like SUPER FREAKING OLD in this and I keep wondering how he handles the stairs at all... And some of the aspects of orcish culture as described annoyed me. I know this is the WAAAAGH Horde but still.
LORD OF THE CLANS
The Good: This predates the author's descent into stupid bashing, so Tari's depicted well. She's clever and kind and has a backbone of pure titanium. Draka is cool, too. There aren't a hell of a lot of ladies in this but those that are present are handled fairly well. I was surprised by how unstupid the whole 'feeding bitty Thrall' factor was--given Golden's recent antics I was expecting immature shockjockery but instead it's handled in a very low-key, un-sensationalized way. It's the same with Aedelas Blackmoore's abusing Tari--we don't SEE this, we just see the results. I like how Thrall is in this, too, and how the shamanism and the bond with the wolves is depicted. I like MOST of the orcs in fact. Aedelas is a satisfactory rat-bastard but he doesn't stoop to being one-dimensional as such. Also, no shoehoring of game mechanics into the book--though, this predates WoW, so that may be why.
The Bad: GodDAMN does this ever feel too short and too rushed. Some of the incidental characters aren't really well-drawn, and some of the stuff with Aedelas being a wanker can get awfully heavy-handed. His suddenly being onto Tari seemed to come out of the blue, to me. Like, how long was that going on? Did I just miss the mention of it? The 'yeah it's the WAAAGH horde but still' factor shows up here again though less so than it did in The Last Guardian.
OF BLOOD AND HONOR
This one is short and I desperately need to read it again because it's not terribly clear in my head. I think it's a little TOO short but that's just me being nitpicky. Also, Eitrigg and Tirion are adorable. Metzen is not real consistent here about how the hell the Light is supposed to work--I know he basically always is but it still makes me WTF. Also, the timelining WAT of this piece is especially out-there.
ARTHAS: RISE OF THE LICH KING
The Good: Golden does a good job of depicting the creepy deathness aspects of the Scourge's antics, and I like how she writes Anub'arak. She remembers that he's not serving by his own choice. And I do like some of the characterization choices she makes when dealing with Arthas--the fact that he sees the undead under his command as subjects and not necessarily cogs in the machine? Is awesome. And really, a villain who has some level of empathy and humanity is a lot more terrifying than a straight up heartless bastard--a villain who gives a fuck about his people is going to make your life a living hell if you hurt them. There is SOME integration of game stuff into here (like mentioning the barred doors in Strat), by necessity (this is basically WC3 The Book), but it's not anvillicious or shoehorned. And I like Kel'thuzad, and Arthas is cute at Invincible.
The Bad: So. Fucking. Rushed. This pacing sucks. And Holy Mother Tiamat, GOLDEN CANNOT WRITE JAINA. She can't write Kael either, and Kael's characterization especially annoys me because there's this undercurrent of homophobia and misogyny there. Christmuffins. Like, what the shit is that supposed to be? And fuck the anvil crap with Kael discussing the orcs, that's the worst effort at dramatic irony I have ever seen, gb2skool. But--seriously GOLDEN CANNOT WRITE JAINA. I see very little of the WC3 hero in this Chickification-cursed, often-emotionally-a-soggy-tea-towel character. And we never learn what happens to Calia, what the fuck. AND WE NEVER SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ARTHAS RUNS OFF INTO THE STORM AFTER KILLING MAL'GANIS JESUS HELL WHY IS THIS LEFT OUT GODDAMMIT WHY WAS THAT NOT EVEN TOUCHED ON, asdgwhsgkljhyksdshetyu. That just made me want to spit, I was so mad. I knew this was the case, but it's such an execrable ROOSTERBLOCK oh my gods. Yukie smash.
THE REST OF THE BOOKS
BEYOND THE DARK PORTAL: This file has some formatting problems that made it a PitA to read. It starts out okay and Alleria is quite the badass, but okay please stop harping on how hawt elves are, and why are she and Turalyon arbitrarily not talking to each other? I stopped reading this one because Preview crashed and I got annoyed, but I may pick up again later.
CYCLE OF HATRED: Okay, the unnecessary and canonically-unsupported addition of random sexism? Screw that. There's no evidence ANYWHERE ELSE of the attitudes DeCandido's trying to depict. The opening muckraking is well-done but the meeting between Thrall and Jaina and the subsequent bollocking on about people randomly not taking Jaina seriously because she's a woman? Close window.
THE VERY BEGINNING OF Ms>DAY OF THE DRAGONlol fuck no Yukie's brain failed it this was THE WELL OF ETERNITY, disregard my density pls: It was an adjective, adjective noun. And what is Azshara doing wearing gold, it has a solar association, if Azshara wanted to play up the Light of a Thousand Moons thing she'd wear silver. XP I'll try to press on with this, though i suspect I'll be irritated with the depiction of Azshara.
(I tend to see her as like--Gilgamesh if Enkidu never came along. Without a tempering influence or a balance point or a challenge, she just descends more and more into decadence and selfishness to fill this ever-growing hungry hollow void inside her. Azshara is definitely narcissistic, and narcissists are horribly, devastatingly insecure under all the obnoxious swagger. But narcissism generally has an origin somewhere--there are very few 'bad seeds' and Azshara was apparently a good ruler at first--people loved her to bits even before the glamour bollocks. So what made Azshara who she is? We don't know at all, and I very much want to explore that.)
SO YEAH that's my stupid reviews of things! Whee! I may come back later an expand on some of this or I may just keep faffing around growing carrots in Pandaria. XD
The books I've read all of:
-The Last Guardian
-Lord of the Clans
-Of Blood and Honor
-Arthas: Rise of the Lich King
The books I've read a little of:
-Beyond the Dark Portal
-Cycle of Hatred
All of these have timeliningLOLOLOLOL to some extent, though some have it worse than others (Metzen, what is this even). Some authors are better at keeping internal consistency, others are really not. Of all the books, I liked The Last Guardian most. This is sort of kind of damning with faint praise because none of the books are especially AWESOMESAUCE per se, but out of all of them, it was the most technically solid.
So I'll give a short rundown of my thoughts on all these and try to keep it concise (LOL). XD
SPOILERS needless to say.
THE LAST GUARDIAN
The Good: Solid characterization within the novel, believable characters, no desperate efforts to match the games exactly but still feels solidly within the Warcraft universe, no stupid egregious depictions of women (Aegwynn and Garona are both epic), fairly good pacing up until near the end, a logical explanation for how the hell Khadgar's apparent age is what it is (take note other authors, this is how you do something like that), Karazhan is nice and spooky, the explanation for why Garona does what she does is believable, and the ending is really nicely done. Also, Anduin Lothar is adorable. Also also, I REALLY LOVE AEGWYNN.
The Bad: The pacing gets really really rushed toward the end--it's like SUDDENLY MEDIVH GOES BLARGH and the subtle whodunnit stuff they were doing with the mysterious deaths of mages gets wrapped up far too abruptly without any real explanation beyond lolSargeras. Some of Medivh's mercurial temperament shifts make me wonder how the heck Sargeras flew under the radar at all. I'm not sure why Moroes is depicted as being as old as he is--I know his depiction in-game postdates his novel but he's just like SUPER FREAKING OLD in this and I keep wondering how he handles the stairs at all... And some of the aspects of orcish culture as described annoyed me. I know this is the WAAAAGH Horde but still.
LORD OF THE CLANS
The Good: This predates the author's descent into stupid bashing, so Tari's depicted well. She's clever and kind and has a backbone of pure titanium. Draka is cool, too. There aren't a hell of a lot of ladies in this but those that are present are handled fairly well. I was surprised by how unstupid the whole 'feeding bitty Thrall' factor was--given Golden's recent antics I was expecting immature shockjockery but instead it's handled in a very low-key, un-sensationalized way. It's the same with Aedelas Blackmoore's abusing Tari--we don't SEE this, we just see the results. I like how Thrall is in this, too, and how the shamanism and the bond with the wolves is depicted. I like MOST of the orcs in fact. Aedelas is a satisfactory rat-bastard but he doesn't stoop to being one-dimensional as such. Also, no shoehoring of game mechanics into the book--though, this predates WoW, so that may be why.
The Bad: GodDAMN does this ever feel too short and too rushed. Some of the incidental characters aren't really well-drawn, and some of the stuff with Aedelas being a wanker can get awfully heavy-handed. His suddenly being onto Tari seemed to come out of the blue, to me. Like, how long was that going on? Did I just miss the mention of it? The 'yeah it's the WAAAGH horde but still' factor shows up here again though less so than it did in The Last Guardian.
OF BLOOD AND HONOR
This one is short and I desperately need to read it again because it's not terribly clear in my head. I think it's a little TOO short but that's just me being nitpicky. Also, Eitrigg and Tirion are adorable. Metzen is not real consistent here about how the hell the Light is supposed to work--I know he basically always is but it still makes me WTF. Also, the timelining WAT of this piece is especially out-there.
ARTHAS: RISE OF THE LICH KING
The Good: Golden does a good job of depicting the creepy deathness aspects of the Scourge's antics, and I like how she writes Anub'arak. She remembers that he's not serving by his own choice. And I do like some of the characterization choices she makes when dealing with Arthas--the fact that he sees the undead under his command as subjects and not necessarily cogs in the machine? Is awesome. And really, a villain who has some level of empathy and humanity is a lot more terrifying than a straight up heartless bastard--a villain who gives a fuck about his people is going to make your life a living hell if you hurt them. There is SOME integration of game stuff into here (like mentioning the barred doors in Strat), by necessity (this is basically WC3 The Book), but it's not anvillicious or shoehorned. And I like Kel'thuzad, and Arthas is cute at Invincible.
The Bad: So. Fucking. Rushed. This pacing sucks. And Holy Mother Tiamat, GOLDEN CANNOT WRITE JAINA. She can't write Kael either, and Kael's characterization especially annoys me because there's this undercurrent of homophobia and misogyny there. Christmuffins. Like, what the shit is that supposed to be? And fuck the anvil crap with Kael discussing the orcs, that's the worst effort at dramatic irony I have ever seen, gb2skool. But--seriously GOLDEN CANNOT WRITE JAINA. I see very little of the WC3 hero in this Chickification-cursed, often-emotionally-a-soggy-tea-towel character. And we never learn what happens to Calia, what the fuck. AND WE NEVER SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ARTHAS RUNS OFF INTO THE STORM AFTER KILLING MAL'GANIS JESUS HELL WHY IS THIS LEFT OUT GODDAMMIT WHY WAS THAT NOT EVEN TOUCHED ON, asdgwhsgkljhyksdshetyu. That just made me want to spit, I was so mad. I knew this was the case, but it's such an execrable ROOSTERBLOCK oh my gods. Yukie smash.
THE REST OF THE BOOKS
BEYOND THE DARK PORTAL: This file has some formatting problems that made it a PitA to read. It starts out okay and Alleria is quite the badass, but okay please stop harping on how hawt elves are, and why are she and Turalyon arbitrarily not talking to each other? I stopped reading this one because Preview crashed and I got annoyed, but I may pick up again later.
CYCLE OF HATRED: Okay, the unnecessary and canonically-unsupported addition of random sexism? Screw that. There's no evidence ANYWHERE ELSE of the attitudes DeCandido's trying to depict. The opening muckraking is well-done but the meeting between Thrall and Jaina and the subsequent bollocking on about people randomly not taking Jaina seriously because she's a woman? Close window.
THE VERY BEGINNING OF Ms>DAY OF THE DRAGONlol fuck no Yukie's brain failed it this was THE WELL OF ETERNITY, disregard my density pls: It was an adjective, adjective noun. And what is Azshara doing wearing gold, it has a solar association, if Azshara wanted to play up the Light of a Thousand Moons thing she'd wear silver. XP I'll try to press on with this, though i suspect I'll be irritated with the depiction of Azshara.
(I tend to see her as like--Gilgamesh if Enkidu never came along. Without a tempering influence or a balance point or a challenge, she just descends more and more into decadence and selfishness to fill this ever-growing hungry hollow void inside her. Azshara is definitely narcissistic, and narcissists are horribly, devastatingly insecure under all the obnoxious swagger. But narcissism generally has an origin somewhere--there are very few 'bad seeds' and Azshara was apparently a good ruler at first--people loved her to bits even before the glamour bollocks. So what made Azshara who she is? We don't know at all, and I very much want to explore that.)
SO YEAH that's my stupid reviews of things! Whee! I may come back later an expand on some of this or I may just keep faffing around growing carrots in Pandaria. XD