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War Crimes

(World of Warcraft #13)

Christie Golden

4.02 · Rating details · 3,731 ratings · 243 reviews

Alliance and Horde forces have stripped Garrosh Hellscream, one of the most reviled figures on Azeroth, of his title as warchief. His thirst for conquest devastated cities, nearly tore the Horde apart, and destroyed countless lives throughout the...WORLD OF WARCRAFT® Now, on the legendary continent of Pandaria, he will stand trial for his transgressions. Renowned leaders f ...more

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Hardcover, 320 pages

Published May 6th 2014 by Gallery Books (first published May 1st 2014)

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Mar 12, 2014 Ellen Zacarias rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Azerothians

Shelves: fantasy

War Crimes is the thirteenth book in the World of Warcraft novel franchise, transitioning us from the Mists of Pandaria expansion to Warlords of Draenor. Lore-wise, this takes place after the the Siege of Orgrimmar, after the Alliance, Horde, and Pandaren have united to defeat Garrosh after he has poisoned the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, a place that was not even open to the world until recently.

Before and After: Vale of Eternal Blossoms
(Credit: Tenton Hammer)

...And this is why the Horde can't ha ...more

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Jan 19, 2016 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, 21th-century, adventure, fantasy, games, warcraft

Vol'jin: Shadows of the Horde (World of Warcraft #12), Michael A. Stackpole ...more

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May 07, 2014 Jessie rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy

After the defeat of Garrosh Hellscream, he stands trial in a Pandaren court. While many are crying out for a swift execution, it is the August Celestials who are the jury and will render a verdict after a fair trial has been performed. Meanwhile, the Dragonmaw are amassing allies to free Garrosh, and the Windrunner sisters are working together to try and poison Garrosh before the final verdict is given.

I struggled with this book. I've read most of the Warcraft novels, and to this date, I'd only After the defeat of Garrosh Hellscream, he stands trial in a Pandaren court. While many are crying out for a swift execution, it is the August Celestials who are the jury and will render a verdict after a fair trial has been performed. Meanwhile, the Dragonmaw are amassing allies to free Garrosh, and the Windrunner sisters are working together to try and poison Garrosh before the final verdict is given.

I struggled with this book. I've read most of the Warcraft novels, and to this date, I'd only been disappointed in one. When I picked up this book, I really wanted to like it as I had the others. But I didn't. Until the final chapter, this book was nothing but a courtroom filled with characters we're familiar with. Many of those characters were warped beyond recognition (e.g. Tyrande Whisperwind). I found myself incredibly bored of the trial, which felt like something straight off of Court TV. There was very little drama at all. There were formal phrases used in the trial ("With respect, I protest!") that are variations of what are used in today's courtrooms ("I object!"), and they felt very out of place in a Warcraft novel.

I've come to expect a changing, smoothly flowing storyline from Warcraft novels with lots of action scenes. This isn't present in War Crimes. You get the one scene (the Temple of the White Tiger and the trial), the same characters, and they're doing the same motions chapter after chapter. There are a few scenes here and there that break up the tedium and make things just a tad bit interesting, but it's not enough to save this book.

I wish I had saved my money and time and left this book off my Kindle. I wasn't sure whether to give this book a one star or two star rating. Since I've enjoyed Christie Golden's previous novels, like her writing style, and understand she has certain guidelines to work with when writing a Warcraft novel, I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and give this novel a two star rating. But don't squander it, Ms. Golden. If your next book doesn't live up to expectations (which have lowered after reading War Crimes), you'll lose more than just an extra star in my rating. ...more

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May 08, 2014 Jeremy rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Fans of the "Warcraft" Universe

I would start this review with an admission, this is a case where I feel Goodreads does its volunteer reviewers a disservice by not offering the ability to use half-stars in one's rating. Typically I can work around this limitation by rounding up or down depending on my overall feeling of the work in review - but here the subtraction or addition of an entire star would be respectively either an insult to the quality of the book or a well-intended lie on my part.

Dispensing with that external crit I would start this review with an admission, this is a case where I feel Goodreads does its volunteer reviewers a disservice by not offering the ability to use half-stars in one's rating. Typically I can work around this limitation by rounding up or down depending on my overall feeling of the work in review - but here the subtraction or addition of an entire star would be respectively either an insult to the quality of the book or a well-intended lie on my part.

Dispensing with that external critique let me say that "War Crimes" may well be the best extended universe offering in the Warcraft vein to date. Christie Golden takes on a very complex and interwoven set of stories and tackles them all with skill and aplomb. I tallied about about 8 concurrent story-lines all going at roughly the same time - most of them centered around the main event for the which the book takes its name, the trial and sentencing of war criminal Garrosh Hellscream. The book manages to resolve a number of previously open questions and at the same time asking several new ones. It also manages to hit the sweet spot of resolving a primary dramatic arc without closing the proverbial book on the greater story, and all of this without the dragging weight of the typical cliffhanger. It's a riveting and nuanced ride, and kept me up well into the night because I felt compelled to finish it despite exhaustion and the fact that I had to rise early for work the next day.

So with that effusion of praise I ask myself (and perhaps you also ask): "why not award that fifth star?" I can't in good conscious hand out a perfect score to a work that bears a flaw worthy enough to mention in a review - the flaw being that for all the enjoyment, the raw content that the book offers, it also overreaches in a profound way. My complaint is that every vignette in the book is made necessarily brief because it covers so many things, and I found myself wanting to dwell on certain parts of the story but was shuttled along at breakneck speed by its pace. It was akin to visiting a place you have always wanted to see, but finding that you only get a handful of minutes to take it all in before your tour-guide rushes you off to the next destination. All in all it was a wonderful trip, but the nagging sensation of things unseen stays with me at the close of it.

Long and short of it? "War Crimes" in an excellent book that I highly recommend to fans of the Warcraft universe, especially those with an interest in the rich tapestry of stories both inside and outside of the games themselves. Golden acquits herself nobly in the execution of the task of closing a number of story arcs while setting the stage for a new one to come - just try to remember the warning above in the process and don't attempt to force yourself to linger. ...more

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May 16, 2014 Rob rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, sff-audio, own, author-female, read-2014, audio-book, warcraft

Executive Summary: I think your enjoyment of this book will largely depend on how much you like and know about the Warcraft lore.

Audio book: Scott Brick is a fine narrator, but nothing really special. He seems to do accents for the trolls and a few other races, but for the most part he doesn't really add much to the story like my favorite narrators seem to.

Full Review
I'm a recovering World of Warcraft addict. I've been clean for about a year since my guild's raids fell apart. I played a good ...more

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Apr 15, 2017 Andrew rated it really liked it · review of another edition

As a world of warcraft nerd, this is probably the best warcraft novel I've read (I haven't read that many, but still). It gives face time to all of the racial leaders (apart from Blood Elves, who were notable absent. I mean, the guy had a single line but then literally never got mentioned again. Very odd for one of the most highly played races, but oh well).

If you're not into warcraft, there's no real reason to read this book, and if you know absolutely nothing of warcraft then I imagine this wo ...more

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Mar 28, 2020 Trey Stone rated it it was amazing

I finally got around to reading this, and I just have to get it out of the way and say: it's amazing!

Whenever someone asks me for fantasy recommendations, I try to remember to recommend the Warcraft series. I suppose it helps that I've played the games, all the way back since the beginning of the real-time strategy games, because it means that I know a lot of the lore and history of the universe, and recognize the characters. But even without that, I think any fantasy lover would enjoy Warcraft. ...more

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Sep 28, 2014 C.T. Phipps rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, warcraft

This is a World of Warcraft courtroom drama.

It's played entirely serious.

Now, either this is awesome and hilarious at once or it's suspension of disbelief breaking. I lean more toward the former than the latter. Does it make sense that Baine Bloodhoof and Tyrande Whisperwind have either the training or formal speech patterns of a trial lawyer? No. Does it make sense that Azeroth has any of the legal traditions of a modern Western trial? I dunno, does it make sense Gnomes can build rocket-trai ...more

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Apr 30, 2014 Blizzpro rated it really liked it

Shelves: warcraft

There are likely a number of folks who are going to look at Christie Golden’s latest novel entry and write it off as an episode of Law and Order with tauren and dragons in it. So let’s get a couple things out of the way first: Yes, the bulk of the book is a courtroom drama focusing on the prosecution and defense interviewing witnesses in the trial of Garrosh Hellscream. Most of what doesn’t take place in the courtroom has to do with the reactions of folks attending the trial, and while a good po ...more

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May 12, 2014 Steve Hamner rated it it was amazing

Best WoW novel yet. It had a wonderful taste of WoW's past with a fascinating examination of the current climate of Azeroth and Pandaria. We got to see some characters we haven't really had a chance to spend time with, and Anduin becomes more and more someone I like reading about and less that little kid next to Varian in Stormwind. The courtroom section of it is tense, smart, and absolutely gripping - this is a must-read for WoW players, and I think even non-Azerothians will find something to e ...more

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Sep 28, 2020 David Octavian rated it did not like it

I HOPE YOU ARE READING THIS COMMENT!

THIS IS HOW THIS BOOK WILL MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE: Imagine that I will come and tie your wrists and feet. And then I make you watch…How I slaughter your mother. Your father. Your wife or husband. Your children. Your brother and sister. And laugh in your face as I make you watch me slit their throats and grin widely. You literally watch them die while their bodies throb in agony. I throw their limp bodies or severed heads at you, with all their blood spattering on I HOPE YOU ARE READING THIS COMMENT!

THIS IS HOW THIS BOOK WILL MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE: Imagine that I will come and tie your wrists and feet. And then I make you watch…How I slaughter your mother. Your father. Your wife or husband. Your children. Your brother and sister. And laugh in your face as I make you watch me slit their throats and grin widely. You literally watch them die while their bodies throb in agony. I throw their limp bodies or severed heads at you, with all their blood spattering on you. You see their terrified eyes and realize all the wishes and hopes they had for life turn to dust. On top of that, I also destroy your house and blow up your city and laugh in your face as I spit on you, and make countless other families cry as they hold the limp bodies of their loved families (since I bombed the city).

And then you see me in trial. A TRIAL STILL…and bring me and Accuser and a DEFENDER. The judges ask me why I did all of this and then I LAUGH AND SPIT on their faces and tell them “BECAUSE I CAN!”

This is what this shitty book will make you feel like. Not only Garrosh has murdered thousands of innocents with no real motivation, and made my favorite characters scream in unnecessary pain, but Literally…the Count is Filled with Arse Lickers that Try so f***ing hard to WIN GARROSH’S CASE and NOT TO SEE HIM DEAD, ONLY BECAUSE “PEOPLE CAN CHANGE”, AND IN THE END HE IS STILL THE SAME MORON. HE ALMOST KILLS ANDUIN IN HIS PRISON CELL WHILE TALKING SHIT ABOUT ANDUIN’S MOTHER AND FATHER…AND ANDUIN STILL CHOOSES TO SAVE HIM.
Not only that, the judges (celestials) would’ve let Garrosh LIVE FREELY FROM THE START, BASED ON SOME IDIOTIC MORAL PRINCIPLES.

The last 40 pages of the book I could not bear to read so I just had to go and watch youtube how, in the end, Garrosh Escapes and everyone fights some shitty “moral” version from another of their own timeline. “I won’t kill the murderer of my family just because I don’t want to become him. AND ON TOP OF THAT I LET HIM GO…SO HE CAN KILL MORE MEMBERS OF MY FAMILY.”
I am utterly astonished how Christie Golden did not give a shit about sensitivity readers for this book and I literally lost all of my respect I had for this author. I will never read any other of her books, although sadly, I have wasted money on her last WoW book “Before the Storm”.

Now getting into what actually this book has: the whole plot is build upon the arse-licking of this arrogant and idiotic murderer (Garrosh Hellscream). All who try to kill him utterly fail. The biggest Arse-Licker of all time is Anduin. The only thing that kept me reading were some of the characters: Sylvanas, Tyrande and Jaina. I have never in my life read a book SO UNSATISFYING. ...more

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Jul 26, 2019 S.M. Johnson rated it liked it

Shelves: blizzard-universe, fantasy

I don't think it was a bad book per se, and it had its moments, but it wasn't terribly interesting overall. Perhaps the biggest issue I had with it was that several of the characters came off to me as out-of-character and/or unlikable which it made it difficult to be invested. In addition, the Jaina/Kalec romance felt forced and I didn't sense any chemistry between them whatsoever. Still, some of the story was a neat addition to existing Warcraft lore and it was a decent setup to Warlords of Dra ...more

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May 13, 2018 Lauren rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. TL;DR: The trial was a terrible slog, but the scenes outside of it were fantastic with great character development and the only reason I gave this book three stars instead of two.

Full Version (might nod to a spoiler or two):
The book is a court drama, and typically the reader / watcher doesn’t know all of the details, but the nuances and truths eventually reveal plot twists as the layers unfold. That’s what we all enjoy about court drama stories and how they’re framed to us as the viewer. They h TL;DR: The trial was a terrible slog, but the scenes outside of it were fantastic with great character development and the only reason I gave this book three stars instead of two.

Full Version (might nod to a spoiler or two):
The book is a court drama, and typically the reader / watcher doesn’t know all of the details, but the nuances and truths eventually reveal plot twists as the layers unfold. That’s what we all enjoy about court drama stories and how they’re framed to us as the viewer. They have mystery and suspense with the us not entirely knowing the whole story and constantly wondering if our theories are correct until the end.

War Crimes has none of this. The case is one-sided because we most likely know the details of what Garrosh did during his reign as Warchief. Either we play the game or follow its lore in some capacity. The trial is just rehashing content we’ve already encountered. Even if you knew nothing about the lore or the characters, the trial is so abhorrently one-sided that both Alliance and Horde make constant notations to it in their commentary. Everyone thinks the trial is a joke. Everyone verbalizes that it’s a joke. Even Garrosh himself thinks it’s a joke and shows not one lick of remorse. With the entire book already framing the fact that this whole trial is a waste of time, why should we as the readers care about its procession in the first place? We don’t, and we shouldn’t have to.

This is not a story of whether or not Garrosh did the things he was accused of, because we already know that answer. So, any of the mystery or suspense needed to hook a reader into maintaining interest over the court hearing is gone. The only people left surprised over the evidence are the characters themselves, but not us. Why do people toil endlessly to get out of jury duty? Because very few people enjoy sitting listening to testimony all day long. Why would that be any different here?
Writing a book where it retells all of these scenes that we already know does not bring suspense or insight. It’s just endless exposition wrapped in dialogue. Both Christie and Blizzard should have pulled back on the trial scenes and delved more into the aftermath of how people were digesting those emotions as each day was coming to a close. I found myself compelled in reading scenes where Anduin was conversing with Garrosh, Sylvanas and Vareesa’s antics, and Jaina and her relations with the others, than anything that was going on in the courtroom save the retelling of the Theramore incident. Reading about the psychological turmoil that members of both the Alliance and Horde were going through during the trial was far more interesting. It allowed me the chance to understand and forgive a few of the characters who had changed and developed into stronger individuals, except for one person.

I openly admit bias against Tyrande because I’ve always considered her to be an unforgiving elitist about everyone who doesn’t meet her pristine standards when it comes to “moral high ground”. She’s far from perfect, and people always place her on a pedestal for reasons beyond my understanding. But in this story, she’s amped up to a level of intolerance that made me cringe. She’s supposed to be putting Garrosh on trial, and the entire time she tries to weasel in ways to lump all of the Horde into it despite being given multiple warnings not to do so. She also tries to derail the trial with an NPC Sentinel coming out of nowhere and presenting evidence against Baine without explaining how she even found it to begin with (which is more a fault of the writing than the character).

The Vision of Time has a set limitation on how much you could use it. While Baine was being sparing with it, Tyrande used it like a JJ Abrams lens flare. She wasted so much time and resources trying to prove her points. Meanwhile, Baine would call a witness, quickly question them, show little-to-no video footage, and make a surprising counterargument against Tyrande’s over-bloated one. I’m not entirely sure if this was by accident or design.

There were also no post-trial scenes with her either. Especially after she pretty much demolished a ton of relationships within her own faction to prove her points. She walks off with Jaina at one point to have a quick conversation, but we as the readers never get to see that. I really wanted to know how in the hell she was going to explain herself out of painting both Jaina and Anduin as traitors to the Alliance just to get to Baine. Like, you can’t just have a ten-minute conversation and afterwards be all like, “We cool?”

Tyrande took the title of Slimy Lawyer and ran with it, and we don’t receive any scenes with her having to deal with the ramifications of pulling those terrible stunts against her own allies. We get somewhat of a glimpse of Baine’s mental anguish trying to defend Garrosh, but even that is minimal. The scene between Varian, Jaina, and Anduin was character development gold and yet Tyrande is given the Get Out of Jail Free card in this whole process. Yeah, no…I don’t buy that.
This book could have brought way more potential to the table, and instead it got wrapped up in rehashing stuff that could have been woven into stronger scenes with character development instead.

...more

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Jan 02, 2016 Richie Brand rated it it was amazing

I believe this book was very good for many reasons but one major reason is for the lore. This book takes events from all over the Warcraft universe and were described in great detail for people who have not known about the game before they read the book. Such as the bombing of Theramore, the accuser described mostly every detail such as when, how and the affect that it had on many alliance members. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested on knowing the background information abou ...more

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Feb 06, 2016 Grant Herfindahl rated it it was amazing

I loved this book. I am a big fan of the Warcraft franchise and World of Warcraft. This book is about the trial of Garrosh Hellscream, former warchief of the horde. This book isn't just about a trial because there are many other conspiracies at play here. I highly suggest you read it if you have some knowledge of World of Warcraft. Otherwise, the book might seem quite strange. ...more

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Jun 29, 2018 Wester Tucker rated it really liked it

What an ending! Solid 4 stars. This was my second time reading a novel from the Warcraft universe, and now I'm hooked.

Honestly, those not interested in the game are going to find this a tough slog. There wasn't a whole lot of action. But, Golden did a great job giving us a deeper look into some of our favorite characters. Awesome book, awesome characters. ...more

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Sep 22, 2014 Bishop rated it did not like it

I play World of Warcraft for the satisfaction of participating in raiding dynamics and choreography, not for the story. But as a ten year veteran of the game I sometimes try to pinpoint how exactly the story went so wrong, and imagine what the writers could have done to fix it so that it would help and not hurt player motivation in the game by making player actions feel meaningful and thematically justified instead of just kind of ridiculous and flailing.

There are three things:

1) They needed to I play World of Warcraft for the satisfaction of participating in raiding dynamics and choreography, not for the story. But as a ten year veteran of the game I sometimes try to pinpoint how exactly the story went so wrong, and imagine what the writers could have done to fix it so that it would help and not hurt player motivation in the game by making player actions feel meaningful and thematically justified instead of just kind of ridiculous and flailing.

There are three things:

1) They needed to have at least a sketch of the master story arc from the beginning - none of this inadvertent mini series, writers constantly off guard feeling, constant need for new existential threats to the world (ok the demons and the scourge are gone, wait here comes Deathwing, ok he's gone wait here comes another Old God...) and then when that gets too obviously laughable start in with the total jump-the-shark Star Trek style multiple timeline garbage in Warlords of Draenor.

There's no way a coherent epic of the necessary mass could have grown organically out of the original Warcraft 1's crude foundational tropes ("Orcs and Humans" was literally the subtitle of the game). They were meant as just a serviceable scenario sketch to support a new network video game idea. But by the time WoW rolled around or even earlier maybe back in the Warcraft 3 days there should have been a reckoning and Metzen and crew should have lain down the 10 or 20 year vision. It never happened, so the story just kept spurting forth in these teeny little flimsy outgrowths that could support the next financial year's releases or whatever and eventually the soggy structure just drooped over and collapsed in on itself.

2) They needed to fully commit to subverting the racist Tolkien tropes that their genre is grown from. They made some half assed stabs at it, like with the Horde orc factions that were corrupted by demon blood instead of being an intrinsically evil race, and that proceeded to overcome their corruption, suffer through a period of slavery, and then rebel and free themselves and try to found a just society. But in the end characterization falls back into unattenuated racism more often than not. The naga are an evil race. The Forsaken by now are more or less depicted as an evil race despite their leader Sylvanas' initial sympatheticness. The tauren have always been nuance-free noble savages. Etc. Yeah the writers try to split the races into factions and then assign moralities to the factions, not the race. I can tell that's the overcome-Tolkien-racism innovation they are shooting for, and it's better than nothing, but more often than not they seem to just say fuck it and fall back to racial morality shorthand.

3) They needed to either fill in their faux 10,000 year history with real history (doubtful) or trim it down to one or two thousand years or so of events at the granularity they went with. As it is, the history is barren. If you look at a timeline, the story of WoW is that basically nothing happens for 10,000 years then suddenly the world starts getting threatened and then saved or partially destroyed and then rebuilt over and over five times in 30 years. Coincidentally, the 30 years that the games are set during.

In real world history 100s of civilizations have risen and died over just our recorded 4 or 5 thousand years. In the World of Warcraft we have the same 10 or 20 civilizations continue on more or less intact for more or less 10,000 years. Plus they would have had like 50 different types of magic influencing the development of their technology. After 10,000 years their world should be balls to the wall unbelievable hyperfuture techno insane by now or at least up to the baseline standards of modern post-human sci fi lit, but instead it's kind of static and uninspired.

So yeah, if they could have circumvented those three problems, the WoW storyline might be something to get excited about.

This particular novel is terrible, but there's no way to write a good story within the broken framework. ...more

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Jul 28, 2018 Dottie rated it it was amazing

Christie never disappoints, what a page turner and what an ending.

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Sep 19, 2016 Soullessmaiden rated it it was amazing

Shelves: warcraft

My expectations for War Crimes were not very high to begin with but after reading just a few pages I was hooked. The courtroom is definitely one of the most unexpected but also extremely fascinating locations for a World of Warcraft novel. The best thing about this book in my opinion is the abundance of beloved characters involved in the action. Reading about characters' reactions and interactions was an amazing experience. I like Christie Golden's writing very much and I think she has once agai ...more

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Sep 06, 2018 Debbie Tails Prower rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

War Crimes is my most favorite World of Warcraft so far. It had literally everything in it that I wanted to have.

The plot is a matter of Garrosh Hellscream's questionable trial at the end of Mists of Pandaria and tells the whole trial in detail. I know that the idea of the trial itself was received with rather mixed feelings. While I had found it to be weird to not simply execute Garrosh, the idea of the trial was new and refreshing. In the novel it gets further explained as to why this was chos ...more

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Feb 02, 2015 Dan rated it it was amazing

I still hold a firm belief that bringing Christie Golden on board to compose literature for World of Warcraft was one of the best decisions Blizzard has made to date. And after finishing War Crimes, I don't believe that opinion will be fading any time soon.

Many know full well that this novel is not an action-driven story and instead foucses on a courtroom debate of the fate of Garrosh Hellscream. And while it does not necessarily utilize intense, honorable combat as it prerogative to drive the s ...more

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Jun 09, 2014 Cheryl rated it liked it

I have only read a few of the World of Warcraft (WOW) books. Even though I play the game. The ones that I have read, I enjoyed. I can tell the author is also a fan and player of WOW. The author really makes the world come alive and be just like you are playing the game, only in the books. Of course if you play the game, you are excited than to the next expansion and fighting new bosses. So I wanted to read up on this book to see if I could get a little more insight to the new expansion coming so ...more

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Apr 23, 2015 Dale Ulrich rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Finally things make sense

I played through Mists of Pandaria with little care for the lore until the War between the Alliance and the Horde began to pick up much momentum. I was upset that it couldn't all be handled in-game, but now I understand why. There are three different stories running through this book. All of which blend together somewhat seamlessly. The trial, while a bit on the dull/boring side definitely had its moments of "oh my god, what?!" It was nice hearing major characters testim ...more

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May 05, 2014 Latasha rated it liked it · review of another edition

this was not my favorite WoW book. I'm in the "let's just kill the fucker" crowd so I think the trial was a waste of time. (view spoiler) ...more

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Jan 18, 2017 Lit Witch rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

One of the best of this series

Well written as per usual in regards to the author, C. Golden.
Only dissatisfied with the ending but that isn't in her power. This section of lore encapsulates the pandered hosted trial of war crimes committed by Garrosh Hellscream. As usual the story is more about the reflections faced by other important people of Azeroth and the growth they may achieve in their self discovery. This book had much more of Sylvanas than most, which makes it one of my top favorite lor ...more

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Jan 26, 2017 Nathan Olson rated it really liked it

Shelves: warcraft-books

Having been only my second World of Warcraft book it was indeed an enjoyable read and helped me to understand some of the aspects of the universe as a whole. If you are a fan of Warcraft or enjoy fantasy on any sense then I would implore you to give this book a shot.

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May 13, 2014 Brendan Riker rated it really liked it

Great story, 5th grade vocabulary.

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Jan 28, 2017 Love of Hopeless Causes rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Book Crime number two: opens with a dream sequence. This is not fair play. Too bad, because the reader and production values sounded excellent.

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Sep 02, 2017 Hidekisohma rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, warcarft

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. so....this was an interesting read. I've always been a fan of world of warcraft and I wanted to read a book where it mentioned pandaria. Welp, this is the first one i've come across, so I thought i'd give it a read. And honestly...meh. Why do I say meh? Well i'll tell you.
Firstly, this book is a trial book. Meaning that Garrosh Hellscream is on trial and it's up to the horde and alliance to defend and prosecute the guy accordingly. Hard to do when everyone including the horde wants him dead. It' so....this was an interesting read. I've always been a fan of world of warcraft and I wanted to read a book where it mentioned pandaria. Welp, this is the first one i've come across, so I thought i'd give it a read. And honestly...meh. Why do I say meh? Well i'll tell you.
Firstly, this book is a trial book. Meaning that Garrosh Hellscream is on trial and it's up to the horde and alliance to defend and prosecute the guy accordingly. Hard to do when everyone including the horde wants him dead. It's also not easy to defend him when this guy has committed more atrocities than hitler.
The biggest problem i have with this story are the main characters in it. The main characters can be boiled down to
Jaina, Anduin, Garrosh, Sylvanas, Baine, and Tyrande. Let me break it down.
Tyrande I already don't like because in Legion she's extremely whiny. In this book though she's a terrible prosecutor who gets frustrated easily and who doesn't know how to keep her composure. Why they picked her I have no idea.
Jaina is her usual terrible self. She's a witness, but other than that she shouldn't be playing a large role in this trial, but that doesn't stop her as she takes up a large portion of the book with her whining.
Anduin is so saccharinely sweet it's disgusting.
Garrosh hardly did anything in his own book.
Baine...was okay. I got bored with his backstory though.
Honestly, the only person who had their head on straight was Sylvanas who was like "The hell with the trial, let's poison him." Then, just when you think that's going to happen, her sister wussies out and they end up not doing it. Yeah, it's one of those books.
Oh, and if you wanted to see some sort of resolution or conviction or sentencing? Well too bad. you don't get that.
Honestly, the only reason this book is a 3 is because it reads well and being a WOW fan like myself, it's cool to see some of the things that happened as i'm not completely brushed up on my lore. Most of the characters are frustrating, but I didn't DISLIKE it. If I could, i'd give it a 2.5 ,but it doesn't deserve a 2 so....3. I'm feeling generous. ...more

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May 28, 2018 Nancy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

If you don't play the game, don't read the novel. Of course, if you haven't played World of Warcraft, you probably would not have heard of the novel anyway. Unless you are a Christie Golden fan. If you are her fan, you aren't going to like my review, so you just might want to stop.

Good:

First, the progression of the story was great. The structure was good and main character development was also good. Grammatically, it was smooth.

Secondly, the pace of the story was good. I was able to get through ...more

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About Christie Golden

Christie Golden

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Award-winning author Christie Golden has written over thirty novels and several short stories in the fields of science fiction, fantasy and horror. She has over a million books in print.

2009 will see no fewer than three novels published. First out in late April will be a World of Warcraft novel, Athas: Rise of the Lich King. This is the first Warcraft novel to appear in hardcover. Fans of the youn Award-winning author Christie Golden has written over thirty novels and several short stories in the fields of science fiction, fantasy and horror. She has over a million books in print.

2009 will see no fewer than three novels published. First out in late April will be a World of Warcraft novel, Athas: Rise of the Lich King. This is the first Warcraft novel to appear in hardcover. Fans of the young paladin who fell so far from grace will get to read his definitive story.

In June, Golden’s first Star Wars novel, also a hardcover, sees print. Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi—Omen is the second in a nine-book series she is co-authoring with Aaron Allston and Troy Denning. Also in June comes the conclusion of Golden’s StarCraft: The Dark Templar Saga with the release of Twlight, the third book in the series. The first two are Firstborn and Shadow Hunters.

2004 saw the launch of an original fantasy series called The Final Dance, from LUNA Books. The first novel in the series, On Fire's Wings, was published in July of that year. The second, In Stone’s Clasp , came out in September of 2005. With In Stone’s Clasp, Golden won the Colorado Author’s League Top Hand Award for Best Genre Novel for the second time. The third book, Under Sea’s Shadow, is available only as an e-book

Golden is also the author of two original fantasy novels from Ace Books, King's Man and Thief and Instrument of Fate, which made the 1996 Nebula Preliminary Ballot. Under the pen name of Jadrien Bell, she wrote a historical fantasy thriller entitled A.D. 999, which won the Colorado Author's League Top Hand Award for Best Genre Novel of 1999.

Golden launched the TSR Ravenloft line in 1991 with her first novel, the highly successful Vampire of the Mists , which introduced elven vampire Jander Sunstar. Golden followed up Vampire with Dance of the Dead and The Enemy Within . In September of 2006, fifteen years to the month, The Ravenloft Covenant: Vampire of the Mists enabled Jander Sunstar to reach a whole new audience.

Other projects include a slew of Star Trek novels, among them The Murdered Sun , Marooned , and Seven of Nine , and "The Dark Matters Trilogy," Cloak and Dagger , Ghost Dance and Shadow of Heaven .

The Voyager novel relaunch, which includes Homecoming and The Farther Shore , were bestsellers and were the fastest-selling Trek novels of 2003. Golden continued writing VOYAGER novels even though the show went off the air, and enjoyed exploring the creative freedom that gave her in the two-parter called Spirit Walk, which includes Old Wounds and Enemy of my Enemy .

Golden has also written the novelization of Steven Spielberg's Invasion America and an original "prequel," On The Run , both of which received high praise from producer Harve Bennett. On The Run, a combination medical thriller and science fiction adventure, even prompted Bennett to invite Golden to assist in crafting the second season of the show, if it was renewed.

Golden lives in Loveland, Colorado, with her artist husband and their two cats. ...more

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“Life is not about reward and punishment,” said Xuen. “It is about understanding, accepting who oneself is right now, in order to know what to change, and how.” — 2 likes

“How have you managed to survive for so long, Saurfang? Not fallen victim to your own memories?” Saurfang smiled. “I don’t eat pork.” — 2 likes

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War Crimes

(World of Warcraft #13)

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