Take a photo of a barcode or cover
adventurous
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
(im screaming into the void as i write this, i wouldnt say this is a review of the book, more or less why it had to exist) (also took this from my goodreads account)
This is a great character study and I wish there was more insight in various spots of Sylvanas’ story. First example that comes to mind is what she was thinking during the Fourth War. I really wanted to see her perspective during the Battle for Lordaeron and all the other significant moments that happened during the BfA expansion. We are given snippets of these events in the past as Sylvanas briefly reflects on them, but that’s about it. I understand this is based on an open-world and they want you to buy the game to “see for yourself”, but this logic doesn’t work given how much reliance Blizzard has for retconning the old to beget the new. It is dependent on an individual player’s leftover joy in this franchise to keep enduring what the game throws at you, and as we’ve seen, this patience wears thin eventually. Sure, there’s toxic fans who’ll never give grace to Blizz writers and attack each other in forums. There’s tired fans who have lost the spark that WoW used to give them. Some who were so outraged at what was happening story-wise that they spoke loudly against the franchise’s direction. And none of these consequences are solely because of Sylvanas’ character arc. This exhaustion has been brewing for years and Sylvanas is one of the figureheads of WoW’s decline. It’s been unfortunate to witness, to say the least, but at least we got this book.
Something I also understand is a lot of Sylvanas’ story has already been told in prior books, some even written by Golden herself. The mystery behind what condemned Sylvanas to hell has been a story built up for years – an event I personally have been wanting development for a long time – and what it’s turned into is something I don’t personally adore or hate. At best, I find it satisfying given Sylvanas’ angst against the living and her own damned existence. On a trajectory, it makes sense that a cursed being given no “real” hope will scratch at anything to relieve this fate. At worst, it encourages some emptiness within me, that as epic of a story Sylvanas’ descent turned out to be, it falls so flat once we learned the obvious that the Jailer is the villain of another expansion.
I mean, of course, right? That’s what everyone said. Of course, a giant man covered in runes synonymous of Frostmourne and the Scourge, convening with demons as crucial to WoW’s lore as Mal’Ganis, convincing a small, undead elf of “true justice” and “injustices” of the natural world, radicalizing an already dangerous leader in a major faction. Everyone sees through it, even Anduin in every interlude of the book. The fans of the franchise called it out years in advance before the big reveal in Sanctum of Domination. And is there satisfaction? That it’s over, maybe. The subscription expires in four weeks, might as well wait it out. Might as well watch as the rest of the game plays out.
Many people have pointed this out already, but Zovaal’s betrayal of Sylvanas screams mischaracterization. Before this novel was published, it definitely was clear who the real villain was. Without recontextualizing prior events in WoW and retconning essential lore on the Lich King and the Burning Legion, the average player has to make up their own headcanons and fan theories on what was going on when each new raid dropped. Every new cinematic gave us new information, but not the answers we wanted. Sylvanas documents the many other betrayals the Banshee Queen experiences before and after her raise into undeath: Dar’Khan betraying the high elves, Valimathras’ brief taking of the Undercity, Sylvanas’ youngest sister Vereesa indirectly causing the death of their younger brother and backing out of a deal to kill the Horde Warchief at the time. Betrayal is an essential part of her character and in hindsight, always leered its head in various chapters of her lore.
Given the severity of her actions in BfA and Shadowlands, the Jailer’s deception felt like a dethroning of not only Sylvanas’ integrity (which was barely there to begin with), but her character forever. It was way too much of a loss for her to just bounce back next couple of expansions. Maybe redemption. And of course there is the rewriting of Arthas’ character being always evil before he’s claimed by Frostmourne, the boogeyman of Sylvanas and the board of writers. The book has no mention of Sylvanas’ thoughts as Arthas’ soul wilts away in a cinematic, but what you see is what you get: Sylvanas having the final say and no one else having the same grace. If you were a fan of any of the characters in that circle – Jaina, Uther, Anduin – I completely understand why you were pissed off.
The novel gives some insight of Zovaal’s character. Part of the book re-paints what Sylvanas saw in The Edge of Night, this time with the Jailer revealing himself alongside his newly owned Val’kyr (“newly-owned” in relation to the retcon). He gives her the choice many fans know now, and what satisfied me was that she didn’t immediately take the alliance. Like before, she’s skeptical, even embittered because of the Jailer’s obvious influence on the Lich King (used to be because of the Burning Legion and Ner’zhul’s influence), but eventually it is revealed to her that Zovaal – an immortal being – can tell the future of what’s to come if Sylvanas decided to return back to the living. A thought that lingered as I read this part is: well, it makes sense a literal god of death would know time so intimately. Of course he would know all of reality, especially as it’ll unfold. It doesn’t necessarily imply he means well if he has knowledge beyond mortal comprehension. What have we learned from demons and the void? Even the Naga? I’m almost confused why Sylvanas was fooled by this alone. Even as Sylvanas returns and sees these prophecies come true, this story still doesn’t make sense to me. It comes across as the Jailer saw all of these events in the future, laid out a prophecy for Sylvanas to cling onto, and when the Burning Legion comes back and scars Azeroth, we know these aren’t events premeditated by the Jailer himself, but inevitabilities in history. Worse, that all of these events are actually influenced by the Jailer himself in his dingy proto-hell. Maybe it goes back to the idea of no free will or mortal enslavement, something most characters wouldn’t understand as intimately as Sylvanas. This facet is mentioned in the tail-end of the novel.
Even when I play mental gymnastics, Jailer’s inclusion in Sylvanas’ story falls so flat. After two expansions honing in on the Banshee Queen’s apparent downward spiral, and the latter expansion essentially being about herself, it is still upsetting how everything’s unraveled. However, the book handles this the best way it could. Humanizing an otherwise heinous character, enlightening her most vulnerable moments in lore, then her encounter with the Jailer corrupting her already nihilistic vision upon life itself. Even with these disappointments, there’s still some suspension of disbelief given the burden Sylvanas has carried alongside her people. It can be easy to influence the hurt and the disadvantaged, and this story is no exception.
Manifesting a deep connection with Sylvanas’ arc, Golden does a great job for what she had. This book is a character study and it does what it sets out to do. I felt many years of Blizzard frustration lift off me reading this. Golden writes Sylvanas as greatly sympathetic and then someone too far gone. To this day, it still hasn’t fully clicked in me how much harm Sylvanas inflicted on the world, which could be a mixture of my disillusionment of WoW during the events of Shadowlands, BfA, and the events unfolding during so (the controversy surrounding Blizzard’s SA lawsuits). None of this is at the fault of the author, at all, bringing up the difference again.
My biggest wishes now was I wish we gathered more of her psychology during the inception of the Fourth War, her hand at many of the events in BfA, intimate moments where Sylvanas loses her chill as she wreaks havoc on Azeroth, etcetera. Also, more insight during her punishment in the Maw, but maybe that is becoming too much to ask. I’m pleading in the wrong places.
This is a great character study and I wish there was more insight in various spots of Sylvanas’ story. First example that comes to mind is what she was thinking during the Fourth War. I really wanted to see her perspective during the Battle for Lordaeron and all the other significant moments that happened during the BfA expansion. We are given snippets of these events in the past as Sylvanas briefly reflects on them, but that’s about it. I understand this is based on an open-world and they want you to buy the game to “see for yourself”, but this logic doesn’t work given how much reliance Blizzard has for retconning the old to beget the new. It is dependent on an individual player’s leftover joy in this franchise to keep enduring what the game throws at you, and as we’ve seen, this patience wears thin eventually. Sure, there’s toxic fans who’ll never give grace to Blizz writers and attack each other in forums. There’s tired fans who have lost the spark that WoW used to give them. Some who were so outraged at what was happening story-wise that they spoke loudly against the franchise’s direction. And none of these consequences are solely because of Sylvanas’ character arc. This exhaustion has been brewing for years and Sylvanas is one of the figureheads of WoW’s decline. It’s been unfortunate to witness, to say the least, but at least we got this book.
Something I also understand is a lot of Sylvanas’ story has already been told in prior books, some even written by Golden herself. The mystery behind what condemned Sylvanas to hell has been a story built up for years – an event I personally have been wanting development for a long time – and what it’s turned into is something I don’t personally adore or hate. At best, I find it satisfying given Sylvanas’ angst against the living and her own damned existence. On a trajectory, it makes sense that a cursed being given no “real” hope will scratch at anything to relieve this fate. At worst, it encourages some emptiness within me, that as epic of a story Sylvanas’ descent turned out to be, it falls so flat once we learned the obvious that the Jailer is the villain of another expansion.
I mean, of course, right? That’s what everyone said. Of course, a giant man covered in runes synonymous of Frostmourne and the Scourge, convening with demons as crucial to WoW’s lore as Mal’Ganis, convincing a small, undead elf of “true justice” and “injustices” of the natural world, radicalizing an already dangerous leader in a major faction. Everyone sees through it, even Anduin in every interlude of the book. The fans of the franchise called it out years in advance before the big reveal in Sanctum of Domination. And is there satisfaction? That it’s over, maybe. The subscription expires in four weeks, might as well wait it out. Might as well watch as the rest of the game plays out.
Many people have pointed this out already, but Zovaal’s betrayal of Sylvanas screams mischaracterization. Before this novel was published, it definitely was clear who the real villain was. Without recontextualizing prior events in WoW and retconning essential lore on the Lich King and the Burning Legion, the average player has to make up their own headcanons and fan theories on what was going on when each new raid dropped. Every new cinematic gave us new information, but not the answers we wanted. Sylvanas documents the many other betrayals the Banshee Queen experiences before and after her raise into undeath: Dar’Khan betraying the high elves, Valimathras’ brief taking of the Undercity, Sylvanas’ youngest sister Vereesa indirectly causing the death of their younger brother and backing out of a deal to kill the Horde Warchief at the time. Betrayal is an essential part of her character and in hindsight, always leered its head in various chapters of her lore.
Given the severity of her actions in BfA and Shadowlands, the Jailer’s deception felt like a dethroning of not only Sylvanas’ integrity (which was barely there to begin with), but her character forever. It was way too much of a loss for her to just bounce back next couple of expansions. Maybe redemption. And of course there is the rewriting of Arthas’ character being always evil before he’s claimed by Frostmourne, the boogeyman of Sylvanas and the board of writers. The book has no mention of Sylvanas’ thoughts as Arthas’ soul wilts away in a cinematic, but what you see is what you get: Sylvanas having the final say and no one else having the same grace. If you were a fan of any of the characters in that circle – Jaina, Uther, Anduin – I completely understand why you were pissed off.
The novel gives some insight of Zovaal’s character. Part of the book re-paints what Sylvanas saw in The Edge of Night, this time with the Jailer revealing himself alongside his newly owned Val’kyr (“newly-owned” in relation to the retcon). He gives her the choice many fans know now, and what satisfied me was that she didn’t immediately take the alliance. Like before, she’s skeptical, even embittered because of the Jailer’s obvious influence on the Lich King (used to be because of the Burning Legion and Ner’zhul’s influence), but eventually it is revealed to her that Zovaal – an immortal being – can tell the future of what’s to come if Sylvanas decided to return back to the living. A thought that lingered as I read this part is: well, it makes sense a literal god of death would know time so intimately. Of course he would know all of reality, especially as it’ll unfold. It doesn’t necessarily imply he means well if he has knowledge beyond mortal comprehension. What have we learned from demons and the void? Even the Naga? I’m almost confused why Sylvanas was fooled by this alone. Even as Sylvanas returns and sees these prophecies come true, this story still doesn’t make sense to me. It comes across as the Jailer saw all of these events in the future, laid out a prophecy for Sylvanas to cling onto, and when the Burning Legion comes back and scars Azeroth, we know these aren’t events premeditated by the Jailer himself, but inevitabilities in history. Worse, that all of these events are actually influenced by the Jailer himself in his dingy proto-hell. Maybe it goes back to the idea of no free will or mortal enslavement, something most characters wouldn’t understand as intimately as Sylvanas. This facet is mentioned in the tail-end of the novel.
Even when I play mental gymnastics, Jailer’s inclusion in Sylvanas’ story falls so flat. After two expansions honing in on the Banshee Queen’s apparent downward spiral, and the latter expansion essentially being about herself, it is still upsetting how everything’s unraveled. However, the book handles this the best way it could. Humanizing an otherwise heinous character, enlightening her most vulnerable moments in lore, then her encounter with the Jailer corrupting her already nihilistic vision upon life itself. Even with these disappointments, there’s still some suspension of disbelief given the burden Sylvanas has carried alongside her people. It can be easy to influence the hurt and the disadvantaged, and this story is no exception.
Manifesting a deep connection with Sylvanas’ arc, Golden does a great job for what she had. This book is a character study and it does what it sets out to do. I felt many years of Blizzard frustration lift off me reading this. Golden writes Sylvanas as greatly sympathetic and then someone too far gone. To this day, it still hasn’t fully clicked in me how much harm Sylvanas inflicted on the world, which could be a mixture of my disillusionment of WoW during the events of Shadowlands, BfA, and the events unfolding during so (the controversy surrounding Blizzard’s SA lawsuits). None of this is at the fault of the author, at all, bringing up the difference again.
My biggest wishes now was I wish we gathered more of her psychology during the inception of the Fourth War, her hand at many of the events in BfA, intimate moments where Sylvanas loses her chill as she wreaks havoc on Azeroth, etcetera. Also, more insight during her punishment in the Maw, but maybe that is becoming too much to ask. I’m pleading in the wrong places.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, War
Moderate: Body horror, Mental illness, Violence, Death of parent, Murder
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It's a great addition to the Warcraft lore and gives more depth into Sylvanas. Sadly I think it won't make much sense to people that are coming into the book without having touched the Shadowlands expansion for World of Warcraft. But I loved it and it showed me more depth to a character that to this point I hadn't been all that wild about but now I see her from a different viewpoint
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Violence, War
adventurous
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Violence
Moderate: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, War
Minor: Sexual assault