World of Warcraft: Vor dem Sturm

World of Warcraft #15

by Christie Golden

AZEROTHS TAGE SIND GEZÄHLT …
Eine Welt stirbt.
Horde und Allianz haben die Dämonen der Brennenden Legion besiegt, aber tief unter der Oberfläche Azeroths braut sich eine furchtbare Katastrophe zusammen. Dort schwärt eine tödliche Wunde im Herzen der Welt, die ihr von dem gefallenen Titanen Sargeras in einem letzten Akt der Grausamkeit zugefügt wurde.
Für Anduin Wrynn, König von Sturmwind, und Sylvanas Windläufer, Kriegshäuptling der Horde und Königin der Verlassenen, bleibt kaum Zeit für den Wiederaufbau und noch viel weniger für die Trauer um das, was verloren ist. Azeroths tiefe Wunde hat ein mysteriöses Material hervorgebracht, das als Azerit bekannt ist. In den richtigen Händen hat diese seltsame goldene Substanz unglaubliches Schöpfungspotenzial; in den falschen könnte sie unvorstellbare Zerstörung verursachen. Während Allianz und Horde alles daran setzen, die Geheimnisse des Azerits zu enträtseln und die verwundete Welt zu heilen, fasst Anduin einen verzweifelten Plan, um einen dauerhaften Frieden zwischen den Völkern zu schmieden. Azerit gefährdet das Gleichgewicht der Kräfte, und so muss Anduin Sylvanas dazu bringen, ihm zu vertrauen. Doch die Dunkle Herrscherin hat – wie meist – ihre ganz eigenen Pläne.
Um den Frieden zu ermöglichen, müssen jahrzehntelanger Hass und Blutvergießen beendet werden. Aber es gibt Wahrheiten, die keine Seite zu akzeptieren bereit ist, und Ziele, die nur ungern aufgegeben werden. Während Allianz und Horde gleichermaßen nach der Macht des Azerits greifen, droht ihr schwelender Konflikt einen Krieg zu entfachen, der ganz Azeroth in den Untergang reißen könnte...

Genres: Fantasy, Warcraft, World Of Warcraft, Fiction, Audiobook, Video Games, Novels

352 pages, Paperback

First published June 12, 2018

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Nicko Mocanu (Elril Moonweaver) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven’t mentioned much about my also being a gamer and I sometimes find it hard to pick which I like more: the books I read or the games I play. *lesigh* This is my constant dilemma as a bookish gamer.

May contain spoilers! Read at your own risk!

One of the first truly marking stories I have ever experienced as a gamer was Warcraft III.
It was the first time I was introduced to the lore of the Warcraft Universe and when I realized that I wasn't just content with that single story. So I went on to World of Warcraft to find out more. This year, I am celebrating 10 years since I've started playing WoW. I am a die-hard Horde player, my favorite character of all time is Sylvanas Windrunner and my main character used to be a Female Blood Elf Hunter until I switched to Monk.



I mentioned, I’m a Warcraft lore nerd. I actively seek to expand my knowledge of the world and its characters, but I am ashamed to say that I hardly ever reach for Warcraft books. Something about the feel of the game doesn’t translate very well to literary form and that’s why I’ve been putting off reading Warcraft books for so much time. Maybe it's because various authors have written them and their quality varies wildly.

One thing I am certain about is that I wouldn't actively go back to read about events that have already happened in WoW/Warcraft in novel form because I would see no point to it.

However the events in Before the Storm are current events that are a prelude to the next expansion which I AM very interested to experience for myself. As far as we know as players, the major events that happen after this book are the Burning of Teldrassil and the Battle for Lorderon.
Lemme tell ya, I am REALLY looking forward to those events, you have no idea.


I... uhh... kinna cheated when reading this book.
As in I already knew what was going to happen. I am an active viewer of Taliesin & Evitel's videos on Battle for Azeroth content and they did have a video discussing the story of this book from the previews provided. So I knew spoilers, major ones.

That doesn't mean I enjoyed this book any less than I would other books I am currently reading. It's just that I knew what was going to happen and the element of surprise wasn't there anymore. That said I absolutely lost it and started to bawl like a baby when Wyll, Anduin's manservant, past away due to old age and Anduin was there to comfort him. And the parts with Genn Greymane grieving for the loss of his son, going from disbelief to rage to then sorrow, then acceptance that Anduin WAS doing the right thing with the Gathering was so heart-wrenching.

In this book the characters that truly were explored in-depth were Anduin and Sylvanas (duuuh they are the main characters) but also Genn Graymane, Elsie Benton, Calia Menethil and Grizzek funnily enough.

Anduin struggles to accept his father's death and to handle all the loss he has faced in his life while also being a good and just king of the Alliance. He comes across as naive and too trusting at times, but his heart is in the right place. He is kind, considerate, polite, humble and not afraid to show signs of weakness even in front of the people who hold him in high esteem. Anduin has just started understanding what it means to be a king and one of his first acts he does is trying to reunite the Forsaken of the Undercity with their still living relatives in Stormwind.



This makes a direct contrast with Sylvanas Windrunner (who players have started calling Garrosh 2.0, unsurprisingly). Sylvanas's characterization has varied greatly depending on the writer who wrote her but a few things about her ARE consistent: she is shrewd, level-headed, cunning, an opportunist and an excellent strategist. If anything she is always thinking two steps ahead, thinking of consequence and then about the consequences of those consequences. Sylvanas is anything if not ambitious, perhaps too ambitious at times - evidenced by her desire to take advantage of the Alliance respite to attack Stormwind and raise the fallen as Forsaken. She doesn't go through with that plan, arguably because the discovery of Azerite and finding ways to use it BEFORE presenting it to the other leaders of the Horde takes up her priorities.



Speaking of that though, it's interesting to see the contrast between both Anduin and Sylvanas receiving the news of the existence of Azerite. Anduin gladly shows it to the other leaders of the Alliance and members of the Netherlight Temple, whereas Sylvanas keeps all information about it secret, before she can learn more about it and what it can be used for.

Through Genn we see that even the strongest beliefs can be shattered and that the loss of one's child has a deep, lasting and traumatizing impact on the parents. Genn has fueled his rage for the Forsaken for years and to see Anduin, the one he viewed as close to a son to him, see that he is even considering the idea that Forsaken can be redeemed is abhorrent to him. Until he is proven wrong.

With Calia Menethil we explore what it meant for her to be the older sister to a prince who was corrupted and ultimately committed unspeakable atrocities to then later become the Lich King. I imagine it was hard for her to listen what people thought of the man and had never known him when he was a boy. Calia's POV also discusses this idea of whether the Forsaken are ready or not to embrace the rightful ruler of Lorderon again.

Elsie's POV explores what it truly means to be Forsaken and Grizzek's POV touches on the morality of using an inherently benevolent material for destruction and who would be responsible for the existence of such items.

I can't really say much about the writing. I haven't read any of Christie Golden's works to asses her as a writer, but the prose was fluid, descriptive and it does captures quite well the feel of the different places on Azeroth where the events occur. It also helps that I can perfectly visualize what is happening in this novel and then some, due to having played WoW for 10 years. The various scenes, while not overly descriptive were really atmospheric, especially the Undercity and the Arathi Highlands.

This book was really enjoyable. Yes the overarching story is that of the discovery of Azerite and the Gathering is just a way for the Horde and Alliance to potentially find peace. Yes it is destined for Warcraft fans and read out of context it may be a truly horrible work of fantasy. But as a gamer and as a reader I very much enjoyed it. And my subjective rating for this will be a 4 star rating.

Edit: 17.06.2018
I just found out that the narrator for the audiobook I listened to when reading this book, Josh Keaton, is Anduin Wrynn's voice actor. No wonder his voice sounded so well as Anduin. He WAS Anduin. *fangirling*

Edit: 02.08.2018
There are only a few more days until the launch of Battle for Azeroth and in anticipation, Blizzard has released the second Warbringers short film that shows the Burning of Teldrassil. (Which I said in my actual review of this book, I was really excited about :D)

The one who gave the order was Sylvanas... unsurprisingly, I might add, because I did predict that this would happen, that there was no big twist as everyone speculated.

And while some people argue that this is bad writing and that Blizzard is being lazy for being so obvious. I would argue that yes, Blizzard are known for being lazy with their writing *coughGarroshcough*, this time around we get some great consistent writing for Sylvanas' character and I love every minute of it.

While I am not particularly fond of Blizzard's writing in the WoW lore, I understand what the writers are going for. They are trying to show us that Sylvanas does not represent the Horde. And the Horde is not Sylvanas. Sylvanas does not uphold the ideals of the Horde as we know them! She is far too pragmatic for the Horde and that's why she doesn't fit as Warchief. There are certain expectations to what a Warchief of the Horde is and Sylvanas is not that. It's unsurprising that people call out Blizzard for creating a Garrosh 2.0 (they've done that since the previous expansions, no surprise there :P).

Now personally speaking do I agree with what she does? Yes. She is completely right. This is war and in war hope does not keep you safe. Do I however accept her decision, without a question? As a Horde player, no. Because I do have some standards for what the Horde represents to me. And it is not how Sylvanas envisions it.

Now how this short film ties in with this novel is rather minor, far as details are concerned, but it has major impact on her decisions in Warbringer. She believes that hope is what makes the living desperately cling to life and not accept undeath, as she has inevitably has so in order to prove that hope will not keep them alive she does what any villain with the power she has would do. She crushes it. And it is freaking glorious!
I cannot deny that this was such an awesome short film! The art is gorgeous, the music, the voice acting and, my GOD, is Sylvanas an entertaining villain, and badass to boot! :D
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Now that that's done let's go on with My Lady Jane and The Liar's Key.

[John Goode · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy crap!!

This was...holy crap!! I mean...wow.

If you’re going to play BFA read this book. If you love the world of WOW read this book. If you want to know why this expansion is going to be balls out blood, read this book.

It’s amazing, funny in places, very touching in others and gives fantastic character development. So many stars from this WOW player.

[Roobie · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️4 stars⭐️

We cannot go back to happier times.
We can only live in the present, and right now that present is painful.

[Megan M · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you play Horde and have been waiting for Christie Golden to bring more of that same Sylvanas magic she did with War Crimes, don't rush to read this book. Very disappointing from a Horde perspective. The racial leaders for the Horde barely appear and when they do, it is because they are being bullied by Sylvanas. There was a rumor before the Christie Golden was working on an Anduin centric book and this is definitely it. The book is deeply Alliance biased in every way with only a few opportunities for the Horde characters or races.

I would also mention that the first 50 pages or so of the book seem very forceful about how Straight Anduin definitely is. This goes away once the actual story starts, but be aware that you'll have to listen to him wax poetic about female characters that we have barely heard mentioned while ignoring huge elephants in the room about what and who he was spending time with up until this point.

The best part of the book was the interactions between Anduin and Faol, a character I have a lot of love for as a priest main. Otherwise, this is a very filler heavy book with all the major interactions occurring in the last 40 or so pages. Definitely a book that will be used to turn Sylvanas into a villain in BFA, probably will end up leaving the Horde without a Warchief yet again. Very disappointing from Christie Golden, who I like to think of as one of the better Warcraft writers.

[Pippa DaCosta · Rating 4 out of 5]

WoW is my get-away. It's where I go to escape and while I don't have much time to play anymore, when I do grab a few hours it feels like coming home. With that in mind, I've followed the stories of the characters via the game, for years. Seeing young Anduin grow into his role as king is an absolute delight. And here, we see the young king take up the mantle of his father's legacy, and perhaps naively assume he can broker some kind of 24 hour peace between the Horde and Alliance. You can't blame him for trying, such is the optimism of youth. Sylvanus, on the other hand, has seen all this shit before, and she's not having any of it - although, perhaps, some of the ice cracked off her undead heart.

I haven't read Christie's work before and found her writing to be a delight. No bloated and sprawling descriptions that so often drag fantasy down. The pace is swift and the characters wonderfully drawn. After this one, I've ordered the Lich King book by Christie, as he's yet another character I've been fascinated by, but as I rarely raid, I don't get to see much of the "end-game" content and stories. That's where these novels excel.

This was a delightful read that bridges the gap between expansions. I doubt I'll have much time to play the next expansion but at least I've caught up with the world and the lore, so I can go in with that background and depth.

[Curtis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not Golden's finest work.

Book is pretty straightforward, both factions are recooperating from the events of Legion. Sylvanis is a plotter who doesn't really want to be Warchief or like anyone not Forsaken. Her only motivations are creating more Forsaken and getting weapons to kill Alliance.

Then there is Anduin and the Alliance. All you need to know is that everyone in the Alliance feel everything so very deeply. All the time. If Thrall was a problematic Mary sue that had to be gotten rid of, King Anduin Super priest stepped up and said hold my Dalaran red. Anduin cares and feels and priests so very deeply. He can't make bad decisions without his bones hurting, and at 18 he's so wise Velan apologizes to him. He's so squeaky clean he's boring. As is the rest of the Alliance. Genn is the only passibly interesting Alliance leader, but Dali Anduin teaches him the error of his ways too.

The best thing she gets right is the portrayal of the factions. Pay attention to those scenes, Horde co-mingle throughout the book while the Alliance stay away from one another even during remembrance ceremonies.

The author has done some great books for this series and others, but unfortunately this isn't one of them

[Latasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Troll Priest, always been horde, Kul Tiras

first thing first, I have never liked or trusted Sylvanas. with that being said, this book!! it almost makes me want to change sides but I gotta stay loyal to Thrall, Baine and honor Vol'Jin.
Anduin is so brave and noble in this tale. I admire his efforts and vision. The story is never dull, I enjoyed all of it and the narrator was just fine. I had no problems with his reading. the only thing that I wasn't sure about was calia's sudden "I must claim the throne" when a few chapters earlier she said she had no desire what so ever. what changed her mind? Faol made me proud to be a priest and I hope I get to act out some of this in BFA. and as always, I love Prophet Velen. so I'm wondering, after reading this book, how many still trust Sylvanas?
this book was great for any fan of warcraft.

[rowanthorn ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before the Storm is the second Warcraft novel I've read, and it has totally regained my happiness in the WoW novels! I enjoyed this book so much; Christie Golden found the perfect balance of epicness, wit, and emotion. The locations around Azeroth were perfectly described, as were so many of the characters. Anduin is the most precious cinnamon roll of a human, and Sylvanas is as badass as always. Even though it is HIGHLY biased towards the Alliance, I enjoyed every second of it!

[Katyana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid intro to the events of BfA, for the most part I enjoyed it. I've been playing WoW since launch weekend of vanilla - on both horde and alliance side, because I'm a story nerd and wanted the story from both sides - and so I'm admittedly not a generic audience member for this book. So YMMV.

I do want to touch on Sylvanas, because she was the toughest thing to swallow in this book. Firstly, prior to Legion, I found her to be a complicated yet compelling character. Someone I had great sympathy for, because of the events with Arthas... even if sometimes that sympathy gets stretched thin. My heart broke for her, when Vareesa decided not to join her in undeath, after Garrosh's trial (these things aren't in spoiler tags because they are events that way pre-date this book).

I was excited, at the start of Legion, to see what she would do as Warchief. And then Legion happened, and I was ... immensely disappointed. Firstly, Sylvanas was just utterly absent, aside from her own personal quest in Stormheim, to capture more val'kyr (and Eyir) so she could live forever. I was disappointed that the Warchief of the whole damn Horde would, when they are facing their gravest threat (the Burning Legion), just head off on her own to hunt down personal business. Like, really, fuck off with that. And then on Argus, with Vareesa and Alleria (her sisters) right on the front lines, she felt conspicuously absent. It felt wrong. Furthermore, I hated her handling of Varian's death (and not only hers... don't get me started on Jaina). Here's the deal. She didn't abandon Varian to his death on purpose. The Horde were overrun, Vol'jin was dying and he ordered her to retreat and save the Horde. She had to make a horrible choice, to save as many as she could. And of ALL people, Anduin would understand that - in this book, Sylvanas calls him a starry-eyed dreamer, and Anduin has always pushed for peace. He would understand why they had to retreat. But rather than talk to him, and mend this divide ... she said not a word and let it fester, so that all Anduin was hearing was Genn and Jaina's tales of betrayal. And here's the deal: it makes Sylvanas a shitty leader. She has done nothing to stabilize a very shaky alliance with the Alliance as they were dealing with the biggest threat ever... and has virtually guaranteed war with them after the Legion was dealt with. It is DUMB. And Sylvanas has never been dumb. So yeah, I very much disliked Sylvanas's arc in Legion.

And I very much disliked it in this book. I feel like Blizzard is having her go this horrible megalomaniac route... she's basically becoming Arthas, in some horrible irony. I mean, in the very beginning of this book, she's planning to attack Stormwind - unprovoked - and murder everyone, to raise them as Forsaken. That IS Arthas. She is LITERALLY him now. She's gone from being one of my favorite characters, to one I despise. Because between that opening and the events at the end of this book, she is appalling.

And to be clear, I'm not talking about killing Calia. Honestly... what Calia did was dumb, and I feel that Sylvanas killing her ... it falls fairly in that morally gray window. Calia was the rightful heir to Lordaeron, and she was there on the field encouraging her people to betray Sylvanas. Killing Calia was fair ... and Sylvanas could have used her presence to start a war with Anduin (something even he recognized - he was pretty pissed about it, in the Temple, afterwards), because it would have been fair to accuse him of conspiring to foment rebellion. He didn't do that, we know, but it pretty easily gives that appearance. So no, I don't hate Sylvanas for killing Calia Menethil. I hate her for wiping out her own people. Killing Elsie - who was utterly loyal to Sylvanas - and being fucking thrilled to have the excuse to wipe out the Desolate Council. It was disgusting, something utterly tyrannical ... and it takes the one core truth I thought I knew about Sylvanas - that she loves her people - and makes it into something abusive. She doesn't love them. She requires their worship, and loathes their happiness because she feels it undermines her. And that's gross. Evil. Unforgivable.

So there. That's my 2 cents on the ongoing Sylvanas debate.

[isobel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited to read this book but ultimately let down by it. The tensions leading up to outright war between the Horde and the Alliance were a great canvas to paint upon that felt unutilized. The story was overall pretty bland and empty. The one main event in the book wasn't really strong enough to be the focus of a whole book itself. It could have and should have been part of a bigger story. Too little seemed to happen and that which did happen didn't occur until literally the last 20 or so pages of the book. The emotional moments within the book often felt forced and too played out, very obvious in being crafted to pull at the heart strings and using generic tropes to do so.

Despite the story being lacklustre however, the book was well paced. The characters were written very well; especially Sylvanas, who is often a tough character to capture and is often portrayed in a very one dimensional fashion. I wish more time had been spent in her perspective instead of most of the focus being on Anduin, but both sides were well crafted and established with a solid mixture of thoughts, feelings and emotions presented that are backed up by canon actions within the game itself.

All in all I didn't hate it, Just felt that it was a missed opportunity and generally underwhelming.

[Wester Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

In nearly a decade of immersion within the World of Warcraft, not once have I ever felt any sympathy for the Alliance... Not until now.

This book was a big surprise. I didn't expect to feel much when I purchased the book, but the story hit on some emotional plot points that really got me. And I will definitely have to explore more books within this universe. As somebody who plays the game, this book has reshaped the way I see the world and will certainly alter how I play the next expansion. It was a great segue from the end of Legion into Battle for Azeroth. Solid four stars.

For the Horde! Not my Warchief...

[Francisco · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review CONTAINS SPOILERS.

There are certain issues with this book that make me wonder whatever happened to the Christie Golden that wrote the masterpiece that is Arthas: Rise of the Lich King.

Despite what other people may be saying, the writing style of this book is mediocre. While internal perspectives of the characters can be interesting, the book relies too heavily on them, leaving no space for actual descriptions or interactions between the characters. Several plot points that are introduced in the early chapters are left hanging, with no real conclusion.

Blizzard claims that the lore of World of Warcraft should be seen more in terms of "shades of gray", and less on "black and white morality". However, that is not the case with this book, which paints Anduin as someone who is divinely inspired and who can do no wrong, while Sylvanas (in this book) epitomizes all the evil that can be potentially pinned to her. And whatever is too much out of character for her can then be pinned to Gallywix which in turn is actually an interesting character (one I would love to kill in-game).

Anduin's character is interesting, but receives way too much attention for a book that is supposed to cover both Horde and Alliance. Sometimes the text feels more like a fanfiction about Anduin than an actual book written by someone who is currently employed in the story group for the game.

That being said, I'm not particularly fond of Golden's style, although I enjoyed other books she has written before, like Arthas (to which there is a subtle, but remarkable, reference), and I really resent her for turning Sylvanas into a lunatic, paranoid moron.

But there is one positive aspect about the story that really got me thinking as I moved along with it. It's not about the Alliance, and it's not about the Horde. It's about personal stories, and how they transcend the faction divide regardless of whether you are a king, a queen, a "Dark Lady", or a simple servant. Be it Anduin's personal struggle with grief over his dead father and whether or not he trusts Baine, or Elsie and Wyll Benton's story, or - more remarkably - Ol' Emma and her three kids. There is a point being made all over the book about how in certain conditions people can tolerate each other, work together, or even be friends - good friends - regardless of race or place of origin. And that is a very positive outlook.

One aspect I enjoyed very much, and which makes that very point, is the story between a gnome and a goblin, probably the two most unlikely races to get along in the history of this setting. And yet, not only they work together but they understand the importance of what they are doing, worry about the consequences, and care very much for each other. I do not care for the cliffhanger, but at the same time I look forward to seeing more of Grizzek and Sapphy.

I gotta be honest: I found - somewhere, deep down - some sympathy for Genn Greymane. I still think he could go die in a fire, but who knows, maybe there is some hope for him after all. As for Sylvanas - something deep inside me still hopes for some kind of reasoning that makes her actions less stupid and evil, but at this point it's mostly because I'd rather gouge my eyes out than see another Garrosh taking over the Horde.

As for Anduin, I have always liked that boy. No, he is not a mary sue, as some people have complained. His so-called "bone superpower" is well-established, and - who would have thought - we have Garrosh to thank for it. He is a good person, who has suffered in life and still tries to see the best in everyone - including some reckless decisions and mistakes along the way. I share his outlook on how things should be on Azeroth, and as a Horde player I would jump at any opportunity of helping him in bringing it about. Of course it also helps that I relate to him on a personal level, because I lost my father years ago - not to Gul'dan, though.

I am extremely disappointed with Golden, though, because she has helped turn the Horde away from the family that Thrall built. I hope, I really hope, to see the Horde rise again. After all, that's what we do.

[Ari ☾ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

"I believe,” said Anduin Llane Wrynn, “that Sylvanas Windrunner is well and truly lost.”

I really really enjoyed this book. Christie Golden always does such a fantastic job at writing these stories.

I really loved getting this development for Anduin. I did feel this novel was Alliance heavy, but honestly was super needed since most of the game right now seems to be Horde heavy. But thats just my opinion.

The novel seems to be mainly focused on Anduin and his ideas. And FINALLY, some Forsaken development. I have been saying since like WoD that the Forsaken really need some development or anything other than them being mindless undead.

I've also never would've thought that I would have shipped a gnome and a goblin and look forwards to reading about them?? What Golden did to them was sooo not fair, I was cryingg!

There was a lot of bitter sweet moments in this book, and it really hit me in the feels. As of right now, didn't set much for the opening of BFA but I feel like a lot of this novel will be relevant later in the the expansion lore wise.

OH MY LAWD CALIA!!! She messed everything up but is now some weird Forsaken Lighforged thing?? I am so excited to see her model in game when it comes out? Also when Sylvanas was firing on her own people, I was like oh god. They are really going somewhere with my favorite character, well one of them, Jaina is bae, and I am not happy.

[Vani ☾ · Rating 5 out of 5]

My jaw is on the floor.

I called that last death, but I didn't imagine...

Wow. Just wow.

I mean, I completely understand the Horde's point of view on this. But, Anar'alah Belore, Sylvanas, was *was* that??? My heart has been pierced by a black arrow and has shrivelled like Forsaken skin.

It was brutal, but.

I loved it.

I got to see Sylvanas, and Sylvanas, and more Sylvanas. Much more Anduin than I wanted to, it is true, but I still got Sylvanas. We don't talk about the wolf.

And that ending when *edited against spoilers*... I was stunned. I still am.

Now, to figure out how the heck I'm going to incorporate that into my longstanding fan fic. Ha. I still haven't figured out Legion yet...

Anyways, I loved it!

[James · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the worst books I have ever read. I gave up half way through after getting utterly fed up of a one sided story that was going nowhere interesting. Chapter after chapter after chapter of tedious back story and scene setting minutia left me dreading the next page. If you're a fan of the Alliance then you might get off on the endless pages on Stormwind and the rest of the faction. If you're a fan of the Horde then you will probably feel seriously let down and wanting your money back. Whilst the author goes into excruciating detail on the Alliance characters they paint the Horde as two dimensional, shallow stereotypes.

This was my first venture into the novels based on World of Warcraft and I'm sad to say it will almost certainly be my last.

[Katerina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well... What a bleeding heart Anduin is. I feel very proud of him in a maternal way, but can't seem to think that he should man up a bit more. This cute adolescent act while he'd been through loads of bad situations, seems forced. And Calia Menethil?! What was she thinking. I enjoyed Sylvanas, she was perfect. The book was slow and didn't really give any information that I as a player didn't already know. The writing was juvenile but I understand that the game is PG12 therefore I expect young audience.

[Unai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Estoy en shock y ofendido a partes iguales al acabar esta novela que sirve de puente entre el final de la expansión "Legion" y "Battle for Azeroth". Aunque todo sea dicho es un puente al que le falta un tramo, porque aun leyéndola y jugando el inicio de la beta de la expansion, nos sigue faltando un tramo importante de información. No voy a Spoilear creo que nada, pero no puedo callarme lo ofendido que estoy con este libro, siendo horda desde hace muchísimos años, por hacerme simpatizar con el niño rey de la Alianza y por hacer patente, que es mejor jefe de facción que mi jefa de guerra.

Estoy muy indignado con Sylvannas, con sus actitudes que rayan en la puta estupidez porque si y por ende, con Blizzard por arrastrar por el barro la decisión final de Vol'jin de nombrar a Sylvannas su sucesora. Ya solo puedo hacer las paces con esa decisión, en teoría comunicada por los Loa a Vol'Jin en el lecho de muerte, si es parte de un plan del mismo Loa de la muerte "Bwosamdi" y haya un plan mayor en marcha y espero que implique horrores incognoscibles, dioses antiguos y toda la vaina.



En fin, un libro solo para interesados en conocer todo en cada momento y que a pesar de venderse como precuela, no aclara que exactamente lo que desencadena Battle for Azeroth, ni la quema de Teldrassil ni nada de lo que nos va a llevar a la guerra con la Alianza. Es mas bien una historia triste sobre un buen rey, con una noble intención que atañe a los Renegados de Sylvannas y a los propios humanos de la extinta Lordaeron. Entre medio, el asunto de la azerita, con puntos estelares con cierto goblin y cierta gnoma que juntos son lo mas potxolo que se puede echar uno a la cara y que tienen el genio y la inventiva propias de sus razas para investigar las propiedades de la Azerita.

La novela es buena, es bonita y es emocionante por momentos y aunque no aclara el paso concreto que nos lleva a la guerra, supongo que no lo veremos hasta el parche pre-expansión, si que toca un tema interesante con los Renegados y deja otro tema muy conflictivo e inesperado entre manos que no se a donde nos va a llevar pero fiándome tan poco como me fío de los Naaru, creo que a nada bueno y menos por tener como instrumento y resultado a una humana de infausto apellido y con una capacidad para liarla parda y joder a Alianza y Horda por igual, que todavía está por ver si no es ella la causa de toda esta guerra que vamos a jugar durante los próximos dos años.

[John Devlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a Warcraft book so to say I wasn’t expecting much is understatement.

But it’s surprisingly thoughtful.

Sure, I’ll stipulate I’ve played this one MMO for years, and even then I’m sorely lacking in knowing the history and storylines, but Golden takes the idea of the undead, the Forsaken, and does a deep dive into what that would mean.

This isn’t zombies chewing people. It’s what if some undead were still compos mentis, and grieved to be with their living kin, and how those kin would react.

Sure, it’s still Warcraft but that makes Golden’s achievement shine brighter bc she’s taking something that could generously be named lowbrow culture and putting forth a thoughtful treatise on what it is to live…in whatever from that takes.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first ever WoW novel but I was not overly impressed. It was a good enough story, but I felt like Anduin was annoying as hell and much too goody-goody. There was little suspense and little reason for Sylvanas to act the way she did imo. I had basically expected a lot more than I ended up getting out of it. Okay for some lore background but not super impressive as a novel.

[Ren · Rating 3 out of 5]

This might be a four for diehard Warcraft fans, and maybe a two if you're coming in as just a fan of fantasy. In the end, going with three on the Goodreads scale, as that's meant to reflect "I liked it."

I liked this book, it's an easy read and I read it in an afternoon. At its best, it does a good job putting you into a world, and more particularly, one major event that helps you feel what some war-and-magic-torn characters might feel. As a World of Warcraft player, I wanted to know what would happen.

The rest of the book can be broken down to a somewhat lengthy but relatively insubstantial build-up to said event, and a lot of time spent inside the head of one King Anduin Wrynn. It has a couple of other moments to make you think, or tug at heartstrings, but they're all too brief.

In the end I feel like I walked away from the table down $15, they left me grazing too long on chips and salsa, the entree was moderately tasty but the portion size was very small.

[Karolina Kat · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story itself was ok, nothing too engaging, but not boring either. The main letdown was the Polish translation.

[⚜️XAR the Bookwyrm · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of times, the World of Warcraft novels get a bad rap, because they're tie ins, prequels, what have you, but I think that the vitriol that is aimed at them is due to the fact that they take beloved characters and turn them on the heads of our preconceived notions. I came into this book having returned to the game about 6 months prior. In game, I felt a bit lost and uncertain, so I turned to the novels to try to find my bearings again. What I discovered instead was a new way to look at an old world.

This book is the prequel story for the upcoming expansion, Battle for Azeroth. It goes into some detail about current in game events, and even lays the groundwork for some of what we will get to do in the expansion. I liked seeing that part of the story, as I think it will become something I smile over as I work with the Azerite in game, thinking of Grizzik and Saffy. It definitely made me excited for some of the planned features of the new expansion, which is saying something, especially since I was feeling so weary about it all!

Of course, this wouldn't be a WoW novel without taking your notions of the cast of in game characters and turning it on its head. All it took was the events of the latter third of the book to have me completely reversing my opinion on Sylvanas Windrunner. I fear she will become even more hated than Garrosh Hellscream, and I really hated him! Where I once viewed Anduin Wrynn as a whiney-boy or a puppet-king, I instead found a compassionate and heartfelt leader. Makes me quite proud of my Alliance characters right now!

This was an amazing book that had me in tears on more than one occasion. I definitely recommend reading it, and can't wait to add it to my collection!

[Tomas Grizzly · Rating 5 out of 5]

(World of) Warcraft books are hard to write reviews/comments for. Partially because stumbling on a spoiler during the beta test of the next expansion is far too easy. Anyway, I think this goes to my favorites among Warcraft-related books with ~90%.
As the author said, she was working with the game developers more closely than ever and it's visible at the beginning where the two in-game cutscenes are done with more detail added to them.
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Now, I will admit I am biased. I've started considering Sylvanas evil since early Cataclysm and while she had some lighter moments, she crossed the line for me during Stormheim storyline so the moments supposed to say "she's getting closer to the line" were coming too late. I already see her behind it.
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The goblin and gnome substory was a decent way to show the properties of azerite in a bit more personal way than having members of both factions closed in a lab even though it's most likely that happened anyway in the background.
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What, to me, was the most enjoyable was to see the different opinions about the forsaken among the Alliance members and the gradual changes in opinions among some. Calia's revelations, Faol's meeting with Turalyon and eventually even Genn reaching some understanding were good moments and I only wish that Alliance characters were getting decent showtime (and development) in the game as well - and not just Anduin and Genn but the others as well.

[Max Z · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've read a decent amount of setting-based fiction books: Shadowrun, Space 1889, Iron Kingdoms, to name a few. Some of them were good books, some mediocre, others were bad. This one, however, is not a book. Sure, it has an appearance of one, dead trees, good binding, all that. But there are so many problems with the narrative, if we're calling it that, that it makes it borderline unreadable.

Let's start with the plot. The plot is that a mysterious substance was found in the world after the earthshaking event of the previous World of Warcraft expansion (called Legion). And the lead character, Anduin, king of Stormwind and leader of the Alliance, driven by Light itself, wants to reunite the undead from the other faction with their living relatives in the hopes of eventually making peace. The reunion does not go without problems... That's it. That was all of the plot. It's not an advertising blurb about the plot hooks to get the story going, it's the full description of 280 book pages.

In the beginning we find out that the mysterious substance is called Azerite. It's an obvious game-changer, because each character that touches it, immediately gasps and repeats that. But what does it actually do? Well, it's mysterious, wondrous, unimaginable properties are not yet researched. We don't know. The only thing we know is that apparently it gives a cocaine high to everyone who touches it and later on in something resembling a subplot, the pair of researchers finds out that it can: a) neutralize poisons; b) simultaneously increase their effects; and c) is very durable. But every character continues to gasp and repeat how it's a game-changer, imagine what weapons we could do with it! Go on, imagine, because I can't. The truth is, Azerite is a grind currency in the following World of Warcraft expansion, Battle for Azeroth. On sale right now for the very affordable price of $49.99! Players rub it all over their gear to make stats better. And maybe to get high in the process.

The aforementioned researchers' subplot abruptly ends with them dead and we move on to the second part, the reunion. What's that got to do with Azerite, you might ask? Nothing. That's right, any Azerite mentions are basically dropped from the book at this point. Why they did it this way is completely baffling. The story went nowhere, the Azerite went nowhere, did I tell you to go buy the next expansion? I'm sure the plot will continue there.

But enough of that, let's move on to the next part. King of Stormwind is young and idealistic, he really wants peace with the Horde. He says so every two pages. While the evil Sylvanas, the war chief of the Horde, is evil and is already thinking about preparing for war. She says so every two pages, too, in case we forget. In addition to being war chief, she rules over her undead people, the Forsaken. Well, the Forsaken should all be doomed and tormented, it's in their name. They can't have nice things, obviously, but some do want to reunite with their loved ones. Reluctantly, Sylvanas goes with the plan and it predictably fails. This part of the book actually had a plot, with beginning and ending. No matter how much contempt I was feeling for the characters at this point, it was actually readable.

But that's not over yet, let me point out the presentation problems. Firstly, there is a lot of characters appearing in cameos and disappearing before you get to know them. The first 50 pages are literally Anduin and Sylvanas meeting a dozen or two of other leaders and chatting. None of these matter at all to the story. In fact, it took me a while to understand that this yet another random character that was just introduced, will actually never be featured in the story again. The ones that do, never stick. For example, Anduin has his old servant, who takes care of him since childhood. And he dies in the second scene from old age. Why should we care? Another rando, who's now dead. And there's a lot of these.

Secondly, there is no sense of a living world. Both of the main protagonists conveniently teleport around the locations in the world through the use of actual portals. That quickly destroys any feeling of believability you might have had. Stormwind's quarters is just next door to Darnassus, which is next door to Ironforge. I think actual travel is mentioned only once or twice and it might as well be teleporters, too, at that point. The Forsaken are all grumpy that their Queen is so busy she never visits them. Just use the teleporter, dummy. Duh.

Mentioning Darnassus reminds me of the location descriptions. Everyone knows that Darnassus is the elves capital, right? It's got these lakes and streams, and cute little bridges on top, and patrolling NPCs. Well, they might as well have used screenshots from the game to illustrate, because the descriptions are so bare, you don't know what they mean unless you've played the game extensively. What's Tanaris, for example? Yeah, it's a desert zone for levels 40-50, Zul Farrak is there, that's all you need to know as a reader. Someone painstakingly named all the scene locations appearing in the book from World of Warcraft map and forgot to actually describe them.

Thirdly, kings and queens. It's like World of Warcraft fiction firmly believes that kings are running around through portals chatting with each other over tea. Nowhere in the book we see any of the rulers actually doing ruler stuff. You know, like solving the problems of their states, giving orders to their retainers, listening to the advisors, etc. Supposedly, a big war just ended, the previous faction leaders died in an epic battle, but there's no mention of anything related to that, no wounded, no ruins, no restoration process. Nothing. Remember how I said that Sylvanas is very busy? You guessed it, she says so every two pages while the amount of stuff she actually does could be done in a day or two with solid twenty minutes left for a visit to Undercity to placate her people.

Fourthly, everyone is emotional. So emotional they can't even drink tea without feeling remorse or despair, or conversely joy, jubilation, whatever. It starts grating after awhile. These people need better medication.

While writing this review I remembered about the Darnassus scene, and it suddenly struck me. I didn't read a book, I've read a piece of fan fiction. It does not even pretend that it can stand on its own. If that is what they sell as fiction currently, then Azeroth is well and truly lost. (Note how I cleverly used the last line from the book in a different context)

[Teresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pese a todo sigo sin entender por qué la expansión empieza como empieza.

[Santiago · Rating 4 out of 5]

Acabo de terminar el audiolibro en el trabajo y capaz se me caen las lagrimas fue hermoso. Es increíble lo emocional que nos puede llegar a poner la historia de éste juego.
Gracias Christie Golden!

[Vinny Hiemstra · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be very honest, I was expecting more from Christie Golden, especially after her excellent previous books such as Rise of the Horde.

Before the Storm tries to be important while at the same time not being so important that you miss out if you don't read the book before playing BfA (like War Crimes). This makes it so that nothing much really happens.

The plot is incredibly predictable, long winded and devoid of any big twists. It only picks up a bit near the end when people meet that should have met a long time ago. Christie tries to describe locations in Azeroth to encite the feeling of "Oh, I've been there!" - which completely falls flat since it feels forced.

Overall it's an okay read. It's 280 pages of slow paced story with a neat ending which ends up being pretty inconsequential in the long run.

[Harry Flaskos · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was extremely well written. Christie Golden consistently writes the best World of Warcraft novels in my opinion, which is why I feel obligated to bump my rating up to four stars. Other than that, this book was very dialogue heavy and hard for me to finish. I couldn’t help but feel like there was a severe lack of substance here, though I have a sense that Blizzard wanted to control how much story from the expansion was in the book before the release of BFA.

[Xime García · Rating 3 out of 5]

Desde febrero que no leo nada que no tenga más de cien páginas e incluso con esos tardo gracias a mi querida facultad de Derecho que decidió que quinto año sería el año del AVERNO y gracias también a que decidí arrancar otra carrera en el susodicho año del AVERNO y sí lo pondré con mayúsculas cada vez que lo mencione porque, por si no quedó claro, la estoy pasando mal en este año del AVER-

El punto es que necesitaba leer algo tranquilo que no me exigiera nada, ni atención, ni buscar información, ni tuviera muchas páginas, y como amo World of Warcraft y estoy familiarizada con esta autora con algunos de sus trabajos anteriores, me dije que estaría bueno para despejarme un poco después de estudiar unas 750 páginas de código comentado por un jurista que repite exactamente lo mismo que dice el puto artículo YA MENCIONÉ EL AÑO DEL AVERNO?

Lo malo es que los años me han vuelto más exigente que nunca con mis lecturas y ya no perdono nada. La novela sería mejor considerarla una obra de teatro porque de narración ni hablemos, puro diálogo. Christie Golden comete el desastroso error de meter un adverbio de modo cada tres palabras, lo que si en inglés suena chocante, imagínense leer un "-mente" con esa frecuencia *tiembla de terror*. También el libro intenta demasiado poner en situación al lector, como si a esta altura (este es como, no sé, el libro número 20 de la saga después de más de diez años de continua historia en el juego más ¿ocho expansiones? ¿Por cuál parche vamos?) novatos se mandarían a leer esto o incluso jugar el juego. Es obvio que este libro fue creado para los que siguen el lore del juego, para los que vienen jugando desde el principio o para aquellos, como yo, que jugaron el juego un tiempo y de vez en cuando se fijan cómo viene la historia porque les interesa. No es necesario ponernos en situación: gracias, ya sé que Varian Wrynn murió, lo vi en una cinemática unas cinco veces. Pero aun así recapitula en todo lo que pasó hasta el momento más o menos y es incómodo y cringy porque como dije, no estás explicándole esto a gente que necesita un resumen de lo ocurrido, estás relatándoles estos hechos a nerds que se saben la historia de memoria. Sí, somos nerds.

A pesar de ello hubo escenas que me pusieron la piel de gallina y volver a ver nombres de lugares y personajes que fueron tan conocidos para mí en su época me sacó una sonrisa. Me alegra que se le diera lugar a los gnomos y a los goblins que, extrañamente, tuvieron bastante screentime en este libro - por desgracia, entiendo por qué nunca tienen protagonismo, porque son sumamente caricaturescos, poco serios y aburridos.

Me enojó un poco el lugar que se le dio a Sylvanas, de malvada implacable sin razón de ser, cuando en libros anteriores y en el juego es todo lo contrario. Querían meter una villana en la historia, y como siempre a la Horda la meten en el estereotipo de "malos" Sylvanas no podía ser de otra forma. No siempre vamos a poder tener un Thrall.

Lo leí porque todos decían que era el mejor libro de Christie Golden sobre Warcraft hasta el momento... Me sigue gustando más War Crimes para mi sorpresa.

Hasta la próxima expansión (o parche).

[Yub Yub Commander · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE NOVEL.

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Let me first preface this review with two things: I am a die-hard member of the Horde and I did not find this book at all offensive. I thought it very well portrayed the fact that Anduin has ALWAYS strove for peace between the Horde and Alliance whereas Sylvanas wants nothing more than to destroy the Alliance for reasons.
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I thought this book would cover why the Alliance was attacking Lordaeron in the BFA trailer, but it didn't really.  Instead, this book tied into the homecoming of tired soldiers, Sylvanas dealing with being a ruler to the Forsaken as well as Warcief to the Horde, and the incident in Silithus with Azerite.

I think this book actually finally made me really hate Sylvanas.  Her story arc has been written in such a way that the longer she's alive, the more insane she's getting and the more despot/tyrant-like she is.  The first few chapters of this book reveals that her grand plan to capture the val'kyr in Stormheim during Legion was so that any time a Forsaken died, she could bring them back and that person would be immortal.  She also stated that her plan was to attack Stormwind while it was weak, to slaughter as many humans as she could, so that the Forsaken would never die.  The irony is that a lot of the Forsaken don't care and want to die.  They don't want to live forever.  Her crusade to keep bringing them back and making more is turning her into the Lich King.

Unsurprisingly, Sylvanas wants to use Azerite to make weapons where the general Horde people want to use it to make useful things like better homes, medicine, and armor, and the Alliance wants to either lock it up or use it for those same things.  Only Sylvanas wants to create weapons of mass destruction.

One of the questions I've had for the longest time was FINALLY answered in this book, and that was why are the Alliance (specifically humans) so racist towards the Forsaken when the majority are exactly as they were before they died (minus their looks), and what would happen if human families were to meet their Forsaken family members.  This whole family arc was both heartbreaking and super sweet.  I absolutely DESPISED what Sylvanas did in the end.  She killed every Forsaken who were able to reconnect with their family, and I can't even imagine how the family members felt when they were finally able to see their sons, wife, best friend, etc. only to have the person shot down in front of them.  Sylvanas' ridiculous hatred against the Alliance allowed her to justify killing her own loyal people who would have helped foster a temporary peace between herself and the Alliance.  Instead, she further degraded herself and made herself a despicable individual.

Also super interested to see where the story of Calia Menethil.  I was not expecting her to pop back up in WoW lore.  I truthfully thought she was dead, but she showed up and is now some sort of Light-born Undead person which is cool but really weird and confusing.

Considering all of the information in this book deals with current events, I highly recommend for any WoW fan who is interested in seeing what is coming up in the game and the buildup to the new expansion.