Beyond the Dark Portal (World of Warcraft)

I don't know why I keep doing this to myself. Serviceable (far better than some of the others) but slow to get moving, lacks any sort of satisfying resolution, and just perfunctory in general.

Part of the problem, I think, is that these books are all essentially childrens' histories. There's a fixed timeline, cast of characters, and sequence of events that have to be hit on the nose, the setting already exists, and there's just not that much room to add real tension. The best of the lot so far has been Christie Golden's Arthas, which was largely interesting because she was able to take a character we knew the endpoint of and really flesh out his childhood with a fair degree of narrative freedom. This book, however, is really just a show more paint-by-numbers setup for the Burning Crusade. It's fine for what it is, but again, I don't know why I keep bothering. show less

If you play WoW, you will enjoy this book. It helps flesh out some of the great figures in WoW history and brings alive the mythology. If you don't play the game, this is a just a run-of-the-mill fantasy story.

The first WoW book i've read was Rise of the Horde, which, for me, is the best one by far. Of course i have many WoW books to read yet, this is only the third for me. Still, Beyound the Dark Portal is better than Tides of Darkness, the characters seem to have more depth and the ending really made me create many interesting images in my head. I'm going to keep reading the series, but i must confess that i'm not too excited..

My favourite so far ... Alliance FTW!