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A review by capturedinwords
World of Warcraft: Traveler by Greg Weisman
3.0
Video Review: https://youtu.be/2CWZpIGQ31U
I was sent this book by Scholastic Canada for an honest review.
I think it goes without saying that the majority of people have heard of World of Warcraft, if not played it themselves. For those of you who have never played, fear not because you don't need to know any of the back story to the world's most famous MMORPG. This book is completely original, with all new characters.
The story follows a boy named Aramar Thorne who, well, has daddy issues. His dad, Greydon Thorne, left his wife and young son to travel the seas of Azeroth, never even to visit until recently. Greydon returns after a long period of time to take his son travelling with him on his sail boat, much to Aramars dismay. He of course has some trust issues after not knowing his father for so many years, so many years in fact, he began to believe that his father had died. But now here he is, out of nowhere.
So Aramar is taken aboard the Wavestider and meets the crew. One of these members is Makasa Flintwill, second mate to Captain Greydon Thorne, and the person in charge of rudely interrupting Aram's sleep each morning. After a series of events that leaves Aram stranded in the wild struggling to survive, he and Makasa have to find a way to work together and discover the mystery behind an odd compass left in his possession by Greydon.
This is a completely decent Middle-Grade book, better then a lot I have read actually. However it never truly exceeds over that "decent" mark. Weisman does a fantastic job at world-building, introducing the reader to the setting at a good pace that is not overwhelming (quite the feat since Azeroth is such a huge world). The only thing is that in this first book we hardly see ANY of the world at all. This is somewhat disappointing to a WoW player that knows what fantastical things Azeroth contains. I am hoping the second book will pick up and lead the reader on an even bigger journey.
The artwork within this book is fantastic. Each illustration is described as Aramar himself drawing them and this adds a very nice touch to the novel.
What really makes (and breaks) this book is the wide variety of characters and races, for the most part each of them having a humorous side. Many of the World of Warcraft races make an appearance, such as the dense ogres, creepy undead, honorable Tauren, jolly Dwarf, Jamaican sounding Trolls, Vegan Night elfs, and many more. One of the main characters is a murloc, and that's just awesome. Valdread, one of the main antagonists who fills the shoes of "creepy undead" actually ends up being one of the most fun characters in the book to read about; him re-attaching his limbs and holding his weapons in his ribs and what not. The cast of characters and creatures is enough to keep any young reader interested.
The reason I say that the characters also break the book is the fact that any average reader can see how cliché they are. Usually cliché characters don't bother me a whole lot, especially when reading middle-grade (a genre with many clichés) but for some reason a few of them bugged me here. I think the main one that annoyed me was the one and only main female lead, Makasa Flintwill. The fact that she was a lead female character, I was expecting her to have a lot of character growth and be a very interesting character. However, she fills the role of a strong and silent character that slowly warms up near the end. Hoping she will become more rounded in the next book.
While I did have a lot of fun reading this, I noticed something subconsciously nagging at the back of my mind. I really wasn't able to put it into words until just now, when writing this review. What was bugging me, is that this book could have been MUCH more whimsical. This is the high fantasy World of Warcraft, not some low fantasy playground. I feel like there could have been a much more magical narrative and events taking place. I mean, it's not like there isn't much to work with. Has anyone been able to keep up with all the lore of WoW? I know this book is a brand new start and doesn't have any of the previous lore or anything, but this is just more of a reason as to why it should be more fantastical! In WoW we are use to large epic-scale battles and tales of heroism, and tales of woe. Since this is a middle-grade, the epic warfare could have been replaced with a more whimsical tale. But instead we have an average run-of-the-mill low-grade children's fantasy novel. I'm not trying to sound harsh, because really I did enjoy this book and recommend it to both of those new to WoW and to the veteran players. It's just that this book has so much to work with and could have been so much better.
I eagerly await the second book in hopes that it pounces over the "decent" mark.
I was sent this book by Scholastic Canada for an honest review.
I think it goes without saying that the majority of people have heard of World of Warcraft, if not played it themselves. For those of you who have never played, fear not because you don't need to know any of the back story to the world's most famous MMORPG. This book is completely original, with all new characters.
The story follows a boy named Aramar Thorne who, well, has daddy issues. His dad, Greydon Thorne, left his wife and young son to travel the seas of Azeroth, never even to visit until recently. Greydon returns after a long period of time to take his son travelling with him on his sail boat, much to Aramars dismay. He of course has some trust issues after not knowing his father for so many years, so many years in fact, he began to believe that his father had died. But now here he is, out of nowhere.
So Aramar is taken aboard the Wavestider and meets the crew. One of these members is Makasa Flintwill, second mate to Captain Greydon Thorne, and the person in charge of rudely interrupting Aram's sleep each morning. After a series of events that leaves Aram stranded in the wild struggling to survive, he and Makasa have to find a way to work together and discover the mystery behind an odd compass left in his possession by Greydon.
This is a completely decent Middle-Grade book, better then a lot I have read actually. However it never truly exceeds over that "decent" mark. Weisman does a fantastic job at world-building, introducing the reader to the setting at a good pace that is not overwhelming (quite the feat since Azeroth is such a huge world). The only thing is that in this first book we hardly see ANY of the world at all. This is somewhat disappointing to a WoW player that knows what fantastical things Azeroth contains. I am hoping the second book will pick up and lead the reader on an even bigger journey.
The artwork within this book is fantastic. Each illustration is described as Aramar himself drawing them and this adds a very nice touch to the novel.
What really makes (and breaks) this book is the wide variety of characters and races, for the most part each of them having a humorous side. Many of the World of Warcraft races make an appearance, such as the dense ogres, creepy undead, honorable Tauren, jolly Dwarf, Jamaican sounding Trolls, Vegan Night elfs, and many more. One of the main characters is a murloc, and that's just awesome. Valdread, one of the main antagonists who fills the shoes of "creepy undead" actually ends up being one of the most fun characters in the book to read about; him re-attaching his limbs and holding his weapons in his ribs and what not. The cast of characters and creatures is enough to keep any young reader interested.
The reason I say that the characters also break the book is the fact that any average reader can see how cliché they are. Usually cliché characters don't bother me a whole lot, especially when reading middle-grade (a genre with many clichés) but for some reason a few of them bugged me here. I think the main one that annoyed me was the one and only main female lead, Makasa Flintwill. The fact that she was a lead female character, I was expecting her to have a lot of character growth and be a very interesting character. However, she fills the role of a strong and silent character that slowly warms up near the end. Hoping she will become more rounded in the next book.
While I did have a lot of fun reading this, I noticed something subconsciously nagging at the back of my mind. I really wasn't able to put it into words until just now, when writing this review. What was bugging me, is that this book could have been MUCH more whimsical. This is the high fantasy World of Warcraft, not some low fantasy playground. I feel like there could have been a much more magical narrative and events taking place. I mean, it's not like there isn't much to work with. Has anyone been able to keep up with all the lore of WoW? I know this book is a brand new start and doesn't have any of the previous lore or anything, but this is just more of a reason as to why it should be more fantastical! In WoW we are use to large epic-scale battles and tales of heroism, and tales of woe. Since this is a middle-grade, the epic warfare could have been replaced with a more whimsical tale. But instead we have an average run-of-the-mill low-grade children's fantasy novel. I'm not trying to sound harsh, because really I did enjoy this book and recommend it to both of those new to WoW and to the veteran players. It's just that this book has so much to work with and could have been so much better.
I eagerly await the second book in hopes that it pounces over the "decent" mark.