Pixels to paper - 10 videogame novels reviewed

From Halo's prequel to Perfect Dark's sequel, we rate the reads

Words: Ben Richardson, GamesRadar UK

Warcraft - War of the Ancients: The Well of Eternity

'He dismissed the emerald crystal and rose. The Dragon Queen, his beloved Alexstrasza, would be awaiting him. She suspected his desire to return to help the mortal world and, of all dragons, she most understood. He would transform to his true self, bid her farewell - for a time - and depart before regrets held him back.}His sanctum he had chosen not only for its seclusion, but also for its massiveness. Stepping from the smaller chamber, Krasus entered a toothy cavern whose heights readily matched the now lost towers of Dalaran. An army could have bivouacked in the cavern and not filled it.
Just the right size for a dragon.'
(Courtesy Amazon.com

What is it?
A time-travelling tale set in the universe of Blizzard's WarCraft RTS. Three great heroes lurch into the past and into the middle of Azeroth's greatest conflict, a conflict which could have dire consequences for the future of the world.

Who wrote it?
It's Richard A. Knaak! He of The Sin War (Diablo) trilogy.

Fanboy factor?
This actually taps into the fanbase well, hurling its protagonists into a war that colours all of WarCraft's videogame iterations, and enabling fans to relive a huge event that they've previously only known as distant history.

Is it any good?
Knaak's clunky sentence building is tempered here, but you know you're in good old banal fantasy land when a story begins with a tower atop a mountain, surrounded by storms, in which cowled figures gather around a glowing and mystic portal. The Well of Eternity is dirge, but it reads a lot better than Knaak's other dirge.

Further reading
The War of the Ancients trilogy continues with The Demon Soul, but you could try a change of author and grab Jeff Grub's The Last Guardian or WarCraft co-creator Chris Metzen's Of Blood And Honor

 
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