Customer Reviews

Diablo: The Sin War #3: The Veiled Prophet: Veiled Prophet Bk. 3

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

 

 

As I said, the book wasn't bad, but the lore was absolutely murdered in the end. The end is just....so bad... so eye rolling...like WTF. I hate the end. I have read all the other diablo books save moon of the spider and this was the worst. Due to the end. GOd the end sucks...

A fitting end to the series and an awesome backstory to the game. If you have an very good and active imagination, reading this book can give you shivers! It is higher in gore compared to the first two but you certainly wont be able to put this book down.
This book was far better than the 2nd in my opinion... It really nice to see the main protogonist mature. I actually found him less annoying in this book comapred the first two. It seems like Knaak really has a facination with necromancers! Trust me its true, I've read his other books on Diablo and they always have a witty necro in them. Not that I'm complaining as I myself play Diablo2 using a necro.
I hope he writes more on the main character (Zayl and Humbart) from the other books (Moon of the spider & Kingdom of Shadow)

Peter

The third book of the serie and the third book that i have the chance to read about diablo.Love , drama, and lots of action scenes this book repeat the sucess of the other two books.Totally awesome!!!

I also did not plan on writing a review however as I progressed through this series I found myself growing more and more frustrated with the seemingly invincible powers of uldyssian. At first it was enjoyable but it got really corny, for lack of a better word, really fast. Also as someone else mentioned thr ending is horrible, theres no other word for it I'm sorry to say. I have to say I really expected more out of the series being a huge diablo fan and because I really enjoyed knaak's warcraft based books. This book makes me extremely hesitant to continue reading the diablo novels. I hate to say that this trilogy ruined it for me but I just can't take them serious if they're on the same dramatic level as these. Unfortunately I would advise against this series of novels.

As the 3rd book of the series it gave us exactly what we wanted, a huge build up and an epic finish. I dont want to go into too much detail but if you have read the first two books you HAVE to get this one.

The ending will really get you thinking, i loved it!

I just finished this book last week. After reading the first two, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this story. The part that really interested me was the theological aspects that were greatly intertwined within the story, especially the part of the Nephilim (Edyrem). I must say that I did not predict this ending to the story, I sort of suspected it because of the story-line in the video games, but I had no idea it would be like this.

This conclusion is much more profound and far more action packed than the previous two. There is still a fair degree of intrigue, especially when they're in Khejan, so Knaak keeps that writing style up pretty consistently.

I was honestly half expecting him to play up more of the religious end and draw more from historical theology, such as he did with Angels. He sort of included the hierarchical structure of Heaven with the Angiris council at the end, but I half expected a true form of a Seraph to show up.

The part I most enjoyed in this series was the development of the Necromancer character. My philosophies identified most with Trag'oul and his teachings, so I really got into that character. The way this tale is written it seems the author also seems to agree the most with that philosophy. I was also surprised to see the author take this stance in a widley read series. He essentially teaches that any extreme of good or evil is a very bad thing and only results in a circular war with no real victor. Considering how much this country, the U.S., takes it's politically correct diatribes, I'm surprised there weren't any outspoken people towards this. At least I haven't encountered any, yet. I suppose the demographic of people reading Diablo don't really pertain to such extremists. But the extremists tend to get into everything these days and there seems to be an obvious split, which can probably be reconicled with balance.

I first want to say, I didn't intend on writing a review for these books. But between just finishing the third book, the impending release of the next game they are based on, and the small number of reviews up here, I figured I should review it to give some more feedback to fans of the game on whether this is worth their time and money. I would also like to say I am a big fan of Blizzard's games, and have read now all the Diablo and Starcraft books. I'm going to copy and paste this review across all three books, but don't worry, I won't give you any spoilers (not that there is much to give).

To get right down to it, the books are based on a man named Uldyssian, his brother Mendeln, and a woman named Serenthia and their fight for freedom for their world basically from angels and demons. The angels and demons have set up followings in the world of Sanctuary to recruit worshipers. It sounds interesting, the execution was poor. Uldyssian and Serenthia basically have a magic power that allows them to do whatever they want, and all they have to do is think it hard enough. Mendeln is pretty much the first necromancer and while his magic isn't the, "just think it hard enough" type, he just magically has the right words pop out of his mouth to get the job done with very little actual training. The ties into the actual games themselves are pretty slim and as a stand alone to someone who hasn't played the games, the books don't hold up well and they add hardly anything to the lore of the universe itself.

The first book is decent, but slow. The second book is slow and slightly less decent. The third book is slow, and the ending is atrocious. I can't say much more without spoiling the ending unfortunately. As others have mentioned, Knaak says on basically every other page that this person isn't their name, but the son of, the brother of, the daughter of. It gets really old, really fast. You never at anytime think the characters are in any real trouble for their lives and this also applies to the atrocious ending the the books, which I promised not to spoil. There is no character growth hardly at all except that they devolve slightly as their powers grow stronger, but it is never expanded on or anything. For some reason I can't understand Knaak and Chris Metzen (who is basically lore master at Blizzard and approves everything that goes into all Blizzard books) seem to go out of their way to reverse typical thinking and make the angels out to be worse than the demons. They did something similar in the Warcraft universe where they went out of their way to make the orcs less evil, except they didn't do it nearly as well. Maybe they thought they were being original, all they ended up being was boring.

Really that is all I can comfortably say without spoiling anything, but otherwise, I strongly recommend avoiding these books to everyone, even the hardest of the hardcore Diablo fans who want to know everything about the universe the game is set in. What makes these books even more disappointing is how well Richard Knaak did the other books in the Diablo universe and how good my friend said he did with the books in the Warcraft universe.

I do not recommend this series at all to anyone but the most die-hard of fans.

I bought this series because, as a fan of Blizzard's adapted novels and the Diablo II video-game, I was intrigued by the backstory of the Diablo universe. However, upon reading the series, I found that not only does this novel explain next to nothing about the Diablo universe, it is also very poorly written. I've enjoyed Richard A. Knaak's works before but this series was thoroughly uninspired.

Even for a fantasy book, there were just too many instances requiring an extreme leap of faith. While most fantasy themes revolving around magic require effort, will, and preparation such as words of casting, reagents, etc., magic in this book happens simply by thinking about it (huh?). This is strange more-so because typical "casting" wizards are present in the storyline and the differences are not described but simply explained as being that way. The story makes you feel that these characters have god-like powers but are simply too ignorant to realize as much.

Furthermore, none of the characters experience much, if any at all, growth throughout the series and are completely predictable and stereotypical. The characters are simply dull, unoriginal, and cliche (strong older brother, good and reliable best friend, eccentric but occasionally useful younger brother, damsel-in-distress childhood friend). Any recognizable connections to the Diablo universe are not explained but simply assumed to be and felt very forced as if Knaak included them as obligations. It's also disappointing that what few connections he made to the Diablo universe were even incorrect.

The weakest links of the story are the beginning and ending; the beginning explains nothing and is beyond cliche while the ending is completely over-the-top. Aside from that, the bulk of the story itself plods and clips along at a decent pace and the action is acceptable, though in most cases is completely far-fetched. But still, the only reason I finished the series at all is that I bought the series together and had little else to read. I kept hoping that Knaak would redeem himself by the end of the series but alas, he did not.