warcraft

World of Warcraft Series 3 Draenei Mage Action Figure
$23.99
the figure is very detailed and intricate. there was a problem with the dagger, b/c the "removable" end, wasn't removable, and broke off. the figure also doesn't stand well at all on it's own, and needs to be propped up against something else. It's a cool looking design, but could use a few points of articulation.

Warcraft: World of Warcraft: Rise of the Horde (No. 4)
$7.99
World of Warcraft: Rise of the Horde, by Christie Golden

"Rise of the Horde" is what a Warcraft book should be. The book is enjoyable, the plot is pretty solid, and the characters are spot on. In the author biography, Golden states that she is a World of Warcraft player and it shows - there are little things thrown in that any Warcraft player will appreciate.

Each chapter starts with a brief introduction from Thrall, the current chief of the new Horde. He is writing the history of the old Horde, the Horde that destroyed their own world and invaded Azeroth, the Horde that perpetuated genocide on the draenei and slaughtered the humans.

The story of the orcs starts with a noble race, living peacefully on Draenor. The orcs have coexisted with the draenei for hundreds of years, ever since the draenei arrived on Draenor fleeing from their ancient enemies. While the orcs take pleasure in hunting animals and bloodlust, they are not killers and have a culture, family groups, a belief system. But all that changes when the Burning Legion turns a key orc to their side, and he leads the orcs on a terrifying descent into madness. Only one clan stands apart, the Frostwolves; their leader Durotan watches helplessly as the orcs are corrupted by demons.

Golden depicts this tale with plenty of emotion; I felt for Durotan's situation. How many of us have watched someone do something we know is wrong, but we can't change their minds? Most of us have, I'm sure. "The Rise of the Horde" details just that, the rise of the horde that descended upon Azeroth, intent on taking the world for their own. The story is known, especially if one is a Warcraft player; but Golden fleshes out the story very nicely. How many Warcraft players have visited Durotar, or Orgrimmar? The figures these places are named after, Durotan and Orgrim, are key characters in this book. The additional background detail it provides will delight any Warcraft player; this is one of my favorite novels based on the universe - I've read all of them, and read them all multiple times.

5/5.

WarCraft War of the Ancients Archive
$17.99
This book was, without a doubt, a good read, especially if you are a fan of Warcraft lore and/or if you played Warcraft 3 (classic and expansion).

The sad part is that the Burning Legion is treated like the Scourge. The Scourge is a big, I mean really big, bunch of walking corpses, whose power is given by their numbers and not by their individual strength.
The Burning Legion is an almost as big bunch of extremely powerful individuals, individuals who, together, brought the end to thousands of worlds. It might take an army to stop 3-4 demons from their plans. In these books even 12 years old Night Elf girls with a bow in their hands are able to headshot demons. I must say I was very dissapointed by the presentation of the Burning Legion, being almost opposed to how I imagined it and how it is showed in fan arts.

It's really unrealistic how Rhonin, who is around 30 years old, pew pews demons thousands of times older than him, demons which are by every aspect superior to Rhonin. Seemingly, Rhonin was able to amplify his powers immensely because of the Well of Eternity, but for some reason, that didn't happen to the Eredar, their magic being hardly a challenge for Rhonin's. I would have expected a single Eredar to be able to kill a dozen of Rhonins with 1 spell, and not viceversa. The same thing goes on when Malfurion, a beginner druid, even if very talented, defeats one of the most powerful beings in the Universe, Archimonde.
It seems that Knaak didn't take all factors in consideration when he wrote the book, and that's a big minus.

The "time travelling" idea seems really forced and unrealisthic, even if well-motivated by existing lore characters. I would have been absolutely perfectly happy with a description of the War of the Ancients and how it was won in thruth. That was the thing I wanted to discover when I bought the book and, sadly, I haven't, because Knaak's character were practically everywhere and changing history everywhere at everytime, but, OMG, in the end all is like if the characters never actually intervened, except maybe for the death of Hakkar the Houndmaster, a minor demon if you ask me, as he wasn't heard of in any other writing.
Another big minus is that in Knaak's story it just seems that there are too many "Alice and the Wonderland"-like events are going on - going to the big good Mother Tree, flying with the dragons, etc... which seems very non-Warcraft in my opinion.

I told you the bad parts, but there are good parts too. Even if Azshara could get more attention, the attention she got was enough to give us insight about this character which is met not in many but still in enough quests in WoW to make lore fans think: "Who the heck is Azshara?". The scene where Hakkar was defeated was really well written, in my opinion. I don't know why I think that, because I can't remember the scene very well, I just recall it made my hearth beat faster, thing which doesen't happen to me very often. While the main focus wasn't on Malfurion, Tyrande and Illidan, as I would have liked it too, they still got enough attention to make me think that I actually found out something new about my favourite characters after reading this book.

In the end, I would recommend this book if you are a fan of any of the main characters presented there - Tyrarnde, Malfurion, Illidan, Krasus, Rhonin or even Cenarius or Maiev (even if she doesen't have an important role), or if you want to get some insight over one of the coolest Warcraft events, even if they could have been presented better. But, remember, there may be hundreds writers better than Knaak, but there are thousands who are worse.

Short version of what I said - buy the book.

World of Warcraft +20 Frost Resistance Zip-up Hoodie
$44.99
This jacket really does live up to its name. I bought this as a gift for one of my friends, he really likes it.