A review by ezzydesu
World of Warcraft, Before the Storm by Christie Golden

5.0

'You led the Army of the Light, Turalyon,' Anduin thought, and his heart lifted. 'But this is the army of hope.'
(Christie Golden, Before The Storm)

★★★★★

(As this is a book tied to a video game going since 2004, the review might not entirely make sense to some people, but I will make my opinion about it clear enough.)

Wow, just... Wow. This was an amazing read! And that ending. I was speechless, absolutely speechless. I absolutely love Christie Golden her work and I knew this was going to be good, but it was so much better than expected. I had so many questions I was hoping to find answers to (and I did), but this novel left me with even more. As this is the prequel to the new World of Warcraft expansion, Battle For Azeroth, I had a suspicion which way the story was going to bend to cover the lore gap between the Horde and Alliance epilogue cinematics and the Siege of Lordaeron in the expansion trailer. But I truly didn't expect this turn of events!

The book starts, on the timeline, just before the moment of the epilogue cinematics and the story then unfolds to show us what happens after that, something many players wanted to know. I have been a Horde- player ever since I started playing this game and even though the Alliance POV was way more present, I am not disappointed. I actually liked reading more about the Alliance. It let me show the good and bad of both sides and I actually felt some compassion for the Alliance. The first time I felt that was when I read Jaina's story in Tides of War and both books really changed my perspective on both factions.

You don't have to read all the other Warcraft novels or be an absolute lore expert to read this book. General knowledge about both factions and their leaders, what happened in Lordaeron and what happened in the Legion expansion is more than enough to enjoy this novel and I would definitely recommend everyone who is planning to play Battle For Azeroth (or just enjoys the lore) to read this book. At this point, we simply don't know how much we will see of these events in-game and I think that even if we get them explained, it won't be as clear as reading about it in this book. It explains so much and I am really excited to learn what's next (which I will find out soon enough!)


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https://ezziesbookshelf.wordpress.com