Scales of the Serpent (Diablo: The Sin War, Book 2) (Bk. 2) Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought The Sin War trilogy with no knowledge of the games on which it is based, so my opinions here are of the novels as standalone fiction.
I was pretty tired of the main character, Uldyssian, about midway through the first book. He spends all his time either brooding or thundering around like a big baby - making the scenes devoted to him the sort you wish you could fast forward through.
But the strength of the supporting characters makes this book worth reading - his brother who sees dead people, his old friend the undead hunter, the informative bone chip, the helpful void dwellers - it's just too bad the author didn't kill off Uldyssian in the first book and concentrate on them instead.
I also wish the author would just call people by their names. His habit of referring to them as "the son of (insert dad's name)" or "the brother of (insert sibling's name)" wears very thin. He does it every three to five pages!
But if you're a fan of fight scenes, you'll probably like Scales of the Serpent. It offers plenty of demon-head severing and arrows to the eye socket.
I'm excited to read The Veiled Prophet to find out what happens with Mendeln, Achilios and Serenthia. I just hope not too much attention is devoted to that dolt Uldyssian.


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Since the beginning of time, the angelic forces of the High Heavens and the demonic hordes of the Burning Hells have been locked in the Eternal Conflict for the fate of all Creation. That struggle has now spilled over into Sanctuary -- the world of men. Determined to win mankind over to their respective causes, the forces of good and evil wage a secret war for mortal souls. This is the tale of the Sin War -- the conflict that would forever change the destiny of man. Bent on destroying the evil cult of the Triune, Uldyssian does not yet suspect that Inarius -- secret Prophet of the Cathedral of Light -- has been subtly aiding his quest. Obsessed with restoring Sanctuary to its former glory, Inarius has been playing Uldyssian against the two great religions in a reckless attempt to topple them both. But another player has slipped back into the equation. The demon Lilith, once Inarius's lover, seeks to use Uldyssian as her own pawn in a scheme to turn humans into an army of naphalem -- godlike beings, more powerful than any angel or demon, who could overturn all Creation and elevate Lilith to supreme being. An original tale of swords, sorcery, and timeless struggle based on the bestselling, award-winning M-rated computer game from Blizzard Entertainment. Intended for mature readers.

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Birthright (Diablo: The Sin War, Book 1) (Bk. 1) Review

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(More customer reviews)I've read a few other novels by Knaak and every one of them has been fantastic. I'm not sure why he wrote this one the way he did but alot of important things were missing, such as an easy to follow story line, likeable charachters, and occasionally cohesion. There were alot of moments where the story gave to much of itself away. It's nice to see the Diablo story coming into play from the begining but it could have been alot better. Not terrible, but not great either.

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Since the beginning of time, the angelic forces of the High Heavens and the demonic hordes of the Burning Hells have been locked in an eternal conflict for the fate of all Creation. That struggle has now spilled over into Sanctuary -- the world of men. Determined to win mankind over to their respective causes, the forces of good and evil wage a secret war for mortal souls. This is the tale of the Sin War -- the conflict that would forever change the destiny of man. Three thousand years before the darkening of Tristram, Uldyssian, son of Diomedes, was a simple farmer from the village of Seram. Content with his quiet, idyllic life, Uldyssian is shocked as dark events rapidly unfold around him. Mistakenly blamed for the grisly murders of two traveling missionaries, Uldyssian is forced to flee his homeland and set out on a perilous quest to redeem his good name. To his horror, he has begun to manifest strange new powers -- powers no mortal man has ever dreamed of. Now, Uldyssian must grapple with the energies building within him -- lest they consume the last vestiges of his humanity.

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The Demon Soul (Warcraft: War of the Ancients, Book 2) Review

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(More customer reviews)After reading the first book, the Well of Eternity, I was very interested in contiuuing the series. Althought I thought that the story line of the book had many parallels to the game, warcraft 3, for anyone who has played the campaigns, it was written exceptionally well. He jumps around alot so it makes you not want to put the book down, as you never know what exactly comes next, even with having played the game I was surprised by how the book kept my interest. Knaak is an excellent writer and this flows right from the previous book. The dragons role, Malfurion, Illidan, and Tyrandes' path become more evident in this one, and I can't wait for the next one.

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THE BURNING LEGION HAS COME. Led by the mighty Archimonde, scores of demonic soldiers now march across the lands of Kalimdor, leaving a trail of death and devastation in their wake. At the heart of the fiery invasion stands the mystic Well of Eternity -- once the source of the night elves' arcane power. But now the Well's energies have been defiled and twisted, for Queen Azshara and her Highborne will stop at nothing to commune with their newfound god: the fiery Lord of the Burning Legion...Sargeras. The night elf defenders, led by the young druid, Malfurion Stormrage, and the wizard, Krasus, fight a desperate battle to hold back the Legion's terrible onslaught. Though only embers of hope remain, an ancient power has risen to aid the world in its darkest hour. The dragons -- led by the powerful Aspect, Neltharion -- have forged a weapon of incalculable power: the Dragon Soul, an artifact capable of driving the Legion from the world forever. But its use may cost far more than any could have foreseen. The second novel in an original trilogy of magic, warfare, and heroism based on the bestselling, award-winning electronic game series from Blizzard Entertainment.

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The Well of Eternity (WarCraft: War of the Ancients, Book 1) Review

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(More customer reviews)First, I highly recommend that you read Warcraft: Day of the Dragon (another Knaak book) before this one. Think of it as a sort of prequel to the War of the Ancients trilogy, like The Hobbit is to the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Not that I'm comparing the book to LotR. It's not an amazing, genre-defining work, but it's a whole lot of fun for Warcraft fans and fantasy fans.
It's filled with lots of interesting characters - not just Krasus, Rhonin, and Broxigar, but also some familiar names from the games: Furion, Illidan, Tyrande, Cenarius, and others that I won't spoil. It deals primarily with the Night Elves, and details the Burning Legion's first invasion (the second and final was covered in Warcraft III). It also tells a lot about the Dragon Aspects, the 5 caretakers of the planet.
This isn't just a slow build-up to the next two books in the trilogy. It's full of amazing and important events and battles, and leaves you wondering where it could possibly go in the second and third books.
All in all, this is a great start to what will probably be an even greater series. Warcraft fans should definitely not miss this one.

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The Sundering (Warcraft: War of the Ancients Trilogy, Book 3) Review

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(More customer reviews)Based on the other reviews, I am in the minority on this but I found this whole trilogy a massive disappointment. I can only assume that others liked these books because they were so entranced by the lore, that they overlooked the many deficiencies. I've read a lot of fantasy novels, some good, some bad, and this was among the very worst. The only reason I slogged through this tedious, poorly written trilogy was to get at the lore, most of which is merely hinted at in the game.
Knaack is either a poor writer, or simply wrote this as a work-for-hire and gave it only the minimum attention required to get his pay check. The quest text and cutscenes in World of Warcraft are better scripted and edited than this novel. His syntax is frequently atrocious. One jarring example came early in the first book, when he describes a dragon aspect as "humongous". This word is pure 1960s slang, on a par with "ginormous", and is a poor choice to describe the majesty and scale of the Titans' hand picked guardians of Azeroth.
His characterization is paper thin. Only Broxigar stood out as having any depth, a warrior suffering survior's guilt and feelings that he is not worthy of the accolades bestowed on him by Warchief Thrall and others. Shandris Feathermoon was intriguing but never really got enough time on the page to develop. Azshara, queen of the night elves, is vapid, self absorbed and easily duped. Malfurion and Tyrande, while likable enough, are mostly characterized by the fact that their intentions are always good, and they always do the right thing. They are heroes, yes, but they're never really conflicted or complex enough to be very interesting. Sargeras, as a rogue Titan, could have been interesting, but his history, motivations and character were barely touched on; the WoWWiki article does a better job of conveying the character, a dutiful champion of the Titans, who after millennia despairs of his task and slips into madness. In the book, he is a one dimensional anarchist intent merely upon destroying all life.
His plotting is mediocre and meandering, consisting of the heroes running between various points in Kalimdor, never quite accomplishing what they set out to do, and returning in time to prevent the succession of battles from turning into complete defeat. In this he gets a partial dispensation in that he is constrained not to step too far from the boundaries of known WoW lore. This fault taken by itself would not damn the whole. But taken with his other deficiencies, however, this was simply the final nail in the coffin.
Some may argue my expectations for a novel based on video characters is too high, but I'd counter that the depth of the narrative and characterization of WoW is a huge part of its success. A novel offers so many options for extending the depth and breadth of what is often only hinted at in the game, that it ought to do a better job than the video game. Knaack had three novels to work with, but failed to improve in any way upon what came before.

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The hour of wrath draws near... The valiant night elves have been shattered by the loss of their beloved general. The black dragon, Neltharion, has claimed the Demon Soul and scattered the mighty dragonflights to the winds. Above all, the demonlord, Archimonde, has led the Burning Legion to the very brink of victory over Kalimdor. As the land and its denizens reel from this unstoppable evil, a terror beyond all reckoning draws ever nearer from the Well of Eternity's depths... WARCRAFT In the final, apocalyptic chapter of this epic trilogy, the dragon-mage Krasus and the young druid Malfurion must risk everything to save Azeroth from utter destruction. Banding together the dwarves, tauren and furbolg races, the heroes hope to spark an alliance to stand against the might of the Burning Legion. For if the Demon Soul should fall into the Legion's hands, all hope for the world will be lost. This then, is the hour...where past and future collide! THE SUNDERING An original trilogy of magic, warfare, and heroism based on the bestselling, award-winning electronic game series from Blizzard Entertainment.

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