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A review by amandaexe
Arthas: Rise of the Lich King by Christie Golden
2.0
I would have given it 3 stars solely for the first third of the book, which I actually enjoyed, but everything else was kinda meh. If you've played Warcraft 3, this is not worth reading at all. The last part was definitely my least favorite though, it was so rushed, the part after the war ended was horribly written (if I hadn't played the video game I would have been so confused like how can a war end so abruptly without any explanation to it? I mean I know this is Arthas' story but come on there could at least have been a better transition) I personally think the game The Frozen Throne - in which the last four chapters are based on - is kinda rushed as well and I was expecting the book to expand on it a little but it did the exact opposite.
The thing that pissed me off the most though was the last chapter. It shouldn't have been the last chapter, there should have been a full one for when Arthas and Anub'arak are at the old nerubian kingdom, that little paragraph summing up what happened was not enough especially because IT LEFT OUT THE DWARVES. HOW COULD IT LEAVE OUT THE DWARVES???? This is such an important thing in the game and there's not a single mention of it, it's like it didn't happen and it had so much potential because Arthas could have had some sort of conflict thinking about how he killed Muradin but no. None of that was worth mentioning apparently. Also, the forgotten one?? The book made it seem like while they were down there all they had to fight was spiders; it made their journey seem a lot easier than it really was. There's a lot of other things left out in this last part (not a single mention of Lady Vashj or the naga, not even a "the sea creatures that made up Illidan's army" or something like that, nothing. I imagined the fact that Illidan's own race was not a part of his army would have been something Arthas would notice but I guess not. Also, SAPPHIRON????) and I'm still so angry about that.
Overall, I'm very disappointed if I'm being honest. When I first picked up this book I was under the impression the story would go past the one in The Frozen Throne - I was past the halfway point when I realised there wasn't much book left for the story I thought it was gonna be, but I kept going anyway and now I know I should have stopped. (Thinking back it was kinda stupid to assume a book called /Rise/ of The Lich King would be anything but an origins story but oh well too late now. At least I liked the things that happened before going into the WC3 storyline.) If you're gonna basically write a story around the dialogue from the game you could at least have kept every part of it.
If you're thinking of reading this book, go play Warcraft 3, you'll have a much better time.
The thing that pissed me off the most though was the last chapter. It shouldn't have been the last chapter, there should have been a full one for when Arthas and Anub'arak are at the old nerubian kingdom, that little paragraph summing up what happened was not enough especially because IT LEFT OUT THE DWARVES. HOW COULD IT LEAVE OUT THE DWARVES???? This is such an important thing in the game and there's not a single mention of it, it's like it didn't happen and it had so much potential because Arthas could have had some sort of conflict thinking about how he killed Muradin but no. None of that was worth mentioning apparently. Also, the forgotten one?? The book made it seem like while they were down there all they had to fight was spiders; it made their journey seem a lot easier than it really was. There's a lot of other things left out in this last part (not a single mention of Lady Vashj or the naga, not even a "the sea creatures that made up Illidan's army" or something like that, nothing. I imagined the fact that Illidan's own race was not a part of his army would have been something Arthas would notice but I guess not. Also, SAPPHIRON????) and I'm still so angry about that.
Overall, I'm very disappointed if I'm being honest. When I first picked up this book I was under the impression the story would go past the one in The Frozen Throne - I was past the halfway point when I realised there wasn't much book left for the story I thought it was gonna be, but I kept going anyway and now I know I should have stopped. (Thinking back it was kinda stupid to assume a book called /Rise/ of The Lich King would be anything but an origins story but oh well too late now. At least I liked the things that happened before going into the WC3 storyline.) If you're gonna basically write a story around the dialogue from the game you could at least have kept every part of it.
If you're thinking of reading this book, go play Warcraft 3, you'll have a much better time.