WORLD OF WARCRAFT: STORMRAGE: REVIEW AND BONUS ENTRIES

WORLD OF WARCRAFT
STORMRAGE
BY RICHARD A. KNAAK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Richard A. Knaak is the New York Times bestselling author of some three dozen novels, including the The Sin War trilogy for Diablo and the Legend of Huma for Dragonlance. He has penned the War of the Ancients trilogy, Day of the Dragon and its upcoming followup, Night of the Dragon. His other works include his own Dragonrealm series, the Minotaur Wars for Dragonlance, the Aquilonia trilogy of the Age of Conan, and the Sunwell Trilogy -- the first Warcraft manga. In addition, his novels and short stories have been published worldwide in such diverse places as China, Iceland, the Czech Republic, and Brazil.

SEE MORE ABOUT STORMRAGE AND MY INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD KNAAK HERE AND MORE CHANCES TO ENTER TO WIN!

MY REVIEW:

WORLD OF WARCRAFT STORMRAGE marks the return of Malfurion to Azeroth which will lead up to World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Knaak gets right into the main story line with very little time spent on clarification of anything that’s important to the plot. Loyal followers of this saga need no explanation which might make some people who don’t follow the series leery of reading the book. I am counted in that newbie group but found I could actually, with some help, get into the story easier than I thought at first.

The plot itself is made clear right off the bat, and that is that Marlfurion has been lost to Azeroth and can’t wake up so is trapped in the Emerald Dream. Tyande Whisperwind is warned with a vision from Elune that Malfurion's body is dying. There is, however, some time taken to introduce characters that even some World of Warcraft fans may not be familiar with. Thura, a female orc warrior, Broll Bearmantle, and Varok Saurfang are the main ones. Other less important characters from the past play minor parts in the story such as druid Naralex, Marshal Dughan, and Arch Druid Renferal. They all help to create at times an almost amusing atmosphere to break up some of the conflict, action, and drama.

The story is set at the same time as in Wrath of the Lich King. The Wrath Gate episode has already happened and so this forecasts what is coming in Cataclysm. As I understand it, some Night Elven stories are from the past and dealt with along with the main plot. Knaak seems to have a good grasp of all of places and parts of the World of Warcraft as opposed to someone like me who admittedly did have to look names up at times during my read. Broll Bearmantle and Tyrande travel toward Ashenvale's Bough Shadow with a practically hopeless objective to rescue Malfurion from the Emerald Nightmare's clutches. The Nightmare is spreading all through the Emerald Dream, while it is a mystery as to who is doing this. What happens is so unexpected when all the pieces come together, that I imagine even die-hard WoW followers will be surprised!

The story is fast-paced and fascinating. I believe this can be considered a stand-alone novel as it is the only World of Warcraft book I have read and I was able to enjoy it. I will say it is a genre I do not read at all and knew nothing about it other than it had something to do with some kind of video game. I realized upon reading the inside cover flap I might be a little bit lost and so I read up on some things about World of Warcraft and the characters in order to be able to give the book a fair review. That said, as an ‘older” reader with no background in this area, I still found the book to be surprisingly understandable and good fun. It was certainly well written so that even those of us who are not familiar with the “world” for which it is written can understand and be fascinated by the story. As for those people who love the genre and, of course, this particular series, I imagine they will be delighted with STORMRAGE and cheering.

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