Micky Neilson

Originally Reviewed At: Mother/Gamer/Writer
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Controllers
Review Source: Edelweiss
Reviewer: Me


World of Warcraft: Pearl of Pandaria is an enchanting tale of one young girl’s quest to find adventure in the midst of a land that has truly forgotten what it means to dream. For fans of World of Warcraft, Pearl of Pandaria is a direct tie-in to the newly released World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria expansion. And for those graphic novel lovers who have never played a single game show more of WoW, the story opens with a brief overview of the WoW universe, giving us a glimpse at past happenings and other popular characters from the PC games.



Our story is centered around Li Li Stormstout, a headstrong young girl who, despite the teachings at school and constant discouragement from her father, is determined to find adventure and remind her father that their people once thrived on steeping out into the unknown and discovering whatever life has to offer. Her heart longs for zest, fun and excitement and knows there is more to life than just living on the Wandering Isle. In order to prove a point, Li Li decides to leave her home and search for her notorious uncle, Chen. However, none of the stories and clues left by her uncle over the years could have prepared her for the captivating, dangerous, amazing world of Azeroth.




Over the course of this breathtakingly illustrated graphic novel, we are led on one precarious escapade after another. The quest to decipher Chen’s clues, gives us some history on Chen’s life since he’s been missing, while introducing us to other characters and villains who are related to the Mists expansion. I thoroughly enjoyed being engrossed in the story and couldn’t wait to see what type of trouble our young friend would encounter next!


Overall, World of Warcraft: Pearl of Pandaria is a great addition to any WoW fan’s collection. It will definitely bridge some gaps and tie up loose ends from previous games while enhancing your knowledge of the WoW lore. There’s a lot of quick-witted humor and fantastic dialog to read and plenty of over-the-top characters to meet. Moreover, let’s not forget the artwork is without a doubt, a remarkably well put together masterpiece that will immediately suck you into Li Li’s world. I highly recommend it to not only WoW fans, but to fans of great fantasy adventures and video gamers alike. show less

This is generally cheap-feeling, probably rushed to produce, franchise tie-in media and reads like it. Worth it for nostalgia for an earlier era and that's pretty much it, you aren't going to feel the need to ever read these again. Quality, of course, varies.

Jeff Grubb's Liberty's Crusade - Basically the plot of the video game written from the first-person perspective of a reporter assigned to Jim Raynor's group. Grubb's new material is generally interesting instead of forced and it was show more worth reading as a companion piece to the game even if large portions of the text are literally the game script.

Kevin J. Anderson (Gabriel Mesta)'s Shadow of the Xel'Naga - Light this garbage on fire. KJA's work is godawful as per normal. Not only does he not actually have any familiarity or understanding of the world he's writing for, it isn't even good writing on its own.

Tracy Hickman's Speed of Darkness - On the complete opposite spectrum from KJA, Tracy Hickman is an excellent, imaginative writer and it shows. Even though this is clearly not one he was putting his best effort into, there's a high floor for his work. Tried to do a ground-level perspective from characters that are in-game just pixelly mans for you to shoot at, and provide some introspection. Best novel in the anthology.

Micky Neilson's Uprising - Includes some material relating to Proper Nouns that got namedropped with otherwise zero elaboration in the game manual's backstory writing and notable for that, but honestly I barely remember it at all. Obviously didn't make much of an impression on me. Did what the author was hired to do, I guess. show less

Have you ever picked up a book, and within the first ten pages, realize: ah, this is written by a cishet white man who really likes anime?

Halford Ramsey is not a good guy. He's not even a decent guy. He does nothing worth while except recognize that the print of the mysterious Wolf Cult doctrine he's reading came from someone he'd talked with earlier in the comic. He's not compassionate, or thoughtful, or even all there as a character. He's so flat and lifeless that when he becomes a worgen, show more literally nothing changes. The text SAYS there's a change, but it's not discernable. Also, and please note that this is not the clinical term, Halford is written like an extremely bad caricature of a sociopath.

Interesting that the night eleves, who commonly address each other as "brother" or "sister' (regardless of relation), would ever refer to each other as "females." Ralaar says this about Blysyryaia (or however you spell fantasy names), referring to her as "that female" to his friend. It's weird.

Some of the characters have anime hair for inexplicable reasons. Their heads are also concave, with little to no forehead or skull shape.

The art of the guest artists, and the cover, is awesome! I don't dislike the idea behind the art style, either. It's got its good points. The worgens (when on model) look fantastic. Hence, one extra star, because I see the love put into this. And, of course, because I really want to like this, since worgens are my favorite playable race. :( show less

5 stars is too low a rating for this book. If I could go higher I would. This art book is a meticulously crafted compendium filled with a deep dive of behind-the-scenes content like quotes from the artists, anecdotes from the game's developers, and dazzling concept art. It's vivid, vibrant and just all around fun to lose yourself into. Spyro fans of all ages are dangerously missing out if they don't have this book!