Customer Reviews

The Demon Soul (Warcraft: War of the Ancients, Book 2)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After reading the first book, the Well of Eternity, I was very interested in contiuuing the series. Althought I thought that the story line of the book had many parallels to the game, warcraft 3, for anyone who has played the campaigns, it was written exceptionally well. He jumps around alot so it makes you not want to put the book down, as you never know what exactly comes next, even with having played the game I was surprised by how the book kept my interest. Knaak is an excellent writer and this flows right from the previous book. The dragons role, Malfurion, Illidan, and Tyrandes' path become more evident in this one, and I can't wait for the next one.

Loved the whole triology... even my girlfriend who hates WOW, read these and liked them, that is a rating by itself. A must if you like the genre.

Great book, he does tend to drag just abit as he tries to get the meat of the story line out, but the action is great and detailed you can almost picture the action as he describes it. I am about to start into the third book and hope it is as good as the first two.

I just finished reading this book and I must say that The Demon Soul (Warcraft: War of the Ancients, Book 2) keeps the same energy than its predecessor, "The Well of Eternity (WarCraft: War of the Ancients, Book 1)". Once more Knaak shows the ability to present an arc so compelling, tragic and entertaining at the same time. His writing style is fluid and somewhat comprehensive: even for those who does not know the World of Warcraft lore, it's possible to enjoy this story. For sure it can be understood as a nice High Fantasy book, with elves, dragons, magic, mythical creatures and the astonishing historical background of Azeroth.

Despite knowing the main plot at first (that's because I'm a Wow fan), it is still amazing the way the reader can feel "stunned" for a couple of times reading this book (I suppose it has a special meaning for those who are playing the Cataclysm arc, because this book introduces in such a compelling way the dragon named Neltharion). As a perfect arc and fitting very well the role of the second book in a trilogy, The Demon Soul (Warcraft: War of the Ancients, Book 2) keeps the pace and prepares the reader for the third book... The plot twists are numerous... Nice, nice, very nice indeed.

I have read all of the WoW books I could get my hands on... and I have enjoyed almost all of them. This one was fun and a nice brainless read. I think I liked most WoW books so much because I spent 5 years of my life playing the game. Now, I'd rather read the lore than play so I find the novels a fun break from some of the more serious reading I do.

Warcraft, War of the Ancients #2: The Demon Soul, by Richard A. Knaak

"The Demon Soul" continues where the first book of the trilogy left off. Krasus and Rhonin, who are from the future, have joined forces with the night elves of Azeroth's past to defeat the Burning Legion. The Burning Legion is an ancient force of evil demons who are attempting to take over the world.

This book delves into the dragons, and the creation of the Dragon Soul - an artifact that has the potential to drive away the Burning Legion...but only if it is used properly. Its creator, Neltharion, will become a figure of Warcraft legend...but not for the right reasons. His name will become synonymous with evil, just like the Burning Legion.

"The Demon Soul" further fills in the history of the War of the Ancients, giving Warcraft fans a fun romp through the past of their favorite world. In it readers learn more about the dragons, the night elves, the first druid Malfurion, and more. Also in it the downfall of Illidan, one of the great bosses of the Burning Crusade, is depicted.

Like the first book in the trilogy, "The Demon Soul" is an enjoyable read. This isn't meant to be high or original fantasy - it's based on an established game series, but Knaak doesn't let that stop him from writing an interesting book that will surely be enjoyed by Warcraft fans. There's plenty of action, plenty of battles and fights; character development for many of the legendary game figures; and more lore. One thing I love about this Warcraft trilogy is that reading it always makes me want to go back and visit the parts of the game that were described, or visit the characters that were given detail.

4/5.

As with pretty much all Blizzard books (Starcraft, Diablo, and the other Warcraft series) the second book in the series is sort of a letdown (or the worst of the three). Don't get me wrong, I liked this book very much. I just felt it kind of dragged in the middle. Still this book is definitely worth checking out. It's just that I wish they had more parts with the evil night elves, and the Burning Legion. Like they did in the first book. But despite that this is still a good book to read. And it shows Neltharion's descent into insanity rather well. Richard A. Knaak definitely is a great writer. I just hope the next book The Sundering is the best and tops his best work yet (which in my opinion is Diablo book 3: The Kingdom of Shadow), so yeah definitely check this one out.

4 stars

I enjoyed the first novel in this series enough to read on, but after reading this installment I won't bother with the final book. The problem with this novel is mainly it is simply describing a battle. Although this is understandable since the book is based on a wargame, it still distracts from what should be the main characters. I found I could just skim over several pages at a time because they just were a play-by-play of this battle.

Also, the characters are shallow and it hurts the story. It isn't that the characters aren't interesting or without flaws, it's more that they aren't developed.

Finally, the story isn't really any different from the first novel. Sure, the situation is different but the plot isn't. It made for a long, boring read.

If you are into game-based books you might like it. I'm generally not, and I didn't.

I thought this book was great, I can't understand why some people find it so boring. I read over 150 pages of this book in one day (over three or four sittings), which is a lot - even for me. I very much enjoyed getting a better understanding of the characters, particularly Malfurion. I always liked his character, although I knew very little about it. However, now I feel I understand and know him far better than I did before. I also feel that I know what happened to Illidan a lot better - I knew there was some story between him and Tyrande and Malfurion, but I didn't know how that came to fruition - it is nice to see that revealed. While I feel that particular plot was a little cliched (how many times have we seen a villain who was brought down by love?), I think that was already established in the lore and so can't be blamed on Knaak.

Usually I don't like books that focus too much on battles, but I thought this one did a good job of keeping the battles entertaining by incorporating other things, whether it be doubts about Illidan etc. I also loved the "side plot" with Neltharion - I knew essentially what had happened with him, but it was nice to have the story fleshed out. I highly recommend to anyone who wants to learn about the history, or just plain wants a good read about the Warcraft universe. As I said with the first novel, I wasn't crazy about Day of the Dragon and I had heard a lot of negative comments about Knaak, but these have been some of my favorite WOW novels so far (although I still like Christine Golden the most!!!). I recommend that if you haven't tried them because of negativity about Knaak that you at least give them a try before discounting them out of hand.

Received product as described. Thanks for a fast, easy and smooth transaction. Great experience and A+++ quality product would repeat anytime.