I was looking over the New York Times Best Sellers List, and I couldn't help but notice that Christie Golden's new novel Arthas, Rise of the Lich King was there (high up too). It's fairly well known that most Warcraft novels (and most game related novels) don't get too popular, and are usually poorly written. But there was something different about this book. Very different...unlike the other novels, riddled with Mary Sues (*cough* Rhonin *cough*), stiff dialogue (even for a quasi-medieval setting), etc, this book was actually good. Dare I say, enjoyable.
As the title suggests it follows the story of Arthas Menethil, prince of Lordaeron, his falling in with Ner'zhul, and his eventual transformation into the new Lich King.
A lot of it is a "behind the scenes" look at what was going on during Warcraft III and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. A lot of the dialogue (especially later, with the purging of Stratholme and such) is word-for-word what was in the game. Christie does a fairly good job in fixing the As You Know Bob dialogue that was necessary in the game, but would have killed a novel.
I was disappointed that Christie decided to cut a few parts to the story short. Arthas and Anub'Arak's journey through Azjol'Nerub and the encounter (or lack thereof) with Sapphiron. The book was also very short -- that may have been intentional, but it made me feeling a bit cheated on the length.
Many of Warcraft's most beloved characters have their place: Jaina Proudmoore, Varian Wrynn, Kael'Thas Sunstrider, Antonidas, etc. Each of them gets their time (I enjoyed learning more about Varian. He's such a great character, it's a shame that he only got a minor role in earlier novels after the murder of King Llane Wrynn.) Many loose-ends are tied up, and the relationships of Jaina, Arthas, and Kael (previously only hinted at) are brought front and center.
The ending is quite a shocker -- I'm not sure if I like it or not though. I won't spoil it for you here, but suffice it to say that it will change the way that people look at the new Lich King forever.
No, it's not a grand masterpeice, but it held my interest the whole way through. What more can you ask for?
As the title suggests it follows the story of Arthas Menethil, prince of Lordaeron, his falling in with Ner'zhul, and his eventual transformation into the new Lich King.
A lot of it is a "behind the scenes" look at what was going on during Warcraft III and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. A lot of the dialogue (especially later, with the purging of Stratholme and such) is word-for-word what was in the game. Christie does a fairly good job in fixing the As You Know Bob dialogue that was necessary in the game, but would have killed a novel.
I was disappointed that Christie decided to cut a few parts to the story short. Arthas and Anub'Arak's journey through Azjol'Nerub and the encounter (or lack thereof) with Sapphiron. The book was also very short -- that may have been intentional, but it made me feeling a bit cheated on the length.
Many of Warcraft's most beloved characters have their place: Jaina Proudmoore, Varian Wrynn, Kael'Thas Sunstrider, Antonidas, etc. Each of them gets their time (I enjoyed learning more about Varian. He's such a great character, it's a shame that he only got a minor role in earlier novels after the murder of King Llane Wrynn.) Many loose-ends are tied up, and the relationships of Jaina, Arthas, and Kael (previously only hinted at) are brought front and center.
The ending is quite a shocker -- I'm not sure if I like it or not though. I won't spoil it for you here, but suffice it to say that it will change the way that people look at the new Lich King forever.
No, it's not a grand masterpeice, but it held my interest the whole way through. What more can you ask for?
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I'll have to pick it up.