Customer Reviews

StarCraft #2: Shadow of the Xel'Naga

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(28)

 

 

It's obvious after the first few short chapters, that although the writer may have done his research on the Starcraft world, he's not well-acquainted with it. The book DOES NOT fit into the continuity of the Starcraft world. It reads more like the writer got a few profiles of some races and decided to do whatever he wanted with them to keep his plot moving, which is not a good idea considering a majority of readers are probably Starcraft fans. (A Queen does not control the drones...)
But the worst offense in this book is that it's BORING and painful to read. Thankfully, it's short, but at the end of every 3-page chapter, I wanted to put the book down for good. I'd pick it up thinking, it'll get better later -- it didn't. LIBERTY'S CRUSADE (the first book), had its fault but it's a Starcraft novel through and through. SHADOW OF THE XEL'NAGA only has a few cameos of two characters from Starcraft and does very very very little characterization of any of the new or old characters. And a ROVERLISK (a dog-zerg)? C'mon! If you're going to invent new zergs, at least make them interesting. If I knew then what I know now, I never would've spent money on this book.

This book was a huge disappointment. Most of the descriptions of the various military units and weapons come word for word right out of the StarCraft user's manual. Various inconsistencies with the game appear (Zealots fall dead rather than vanish, Reavers are somehow able to transport units, etc) and the battles read more like a StarCraft battle report than a description of what is relevant to the story. It reads as though it was written quickly without much in the way of creative input. The author's spin on several of the characters is not true to the game designers' design, and the ending destroys the impact of most of the battles. The co-authors of this book state in their bio that they have worked in many universes...Star Wars, Star Trek, Dune, etc. It shows in this book, because it feels that they have neither played StarCraft or done much research into it. It feels that this book was written to profit on the StarCraft franchise, rather than to entertain the people who enjoy it.

How can you give this book 3 or 4 stars, unless you were being paid to give it a good review?! Let's get this straight, you can't learn anything about Starcraft from this book. This book isn't a real Starcraft book. It's also written like it's done by a seventh grader. The first book was okay, but this book "Shadow of the Xel'Naga" was a waste of time. There was also NOTHING about the Xel'Naga! Want to know how stupid and comic book-like this book was? Here's an example. (spoiler) >>>> The characters who died come back to life in the end for a stupid happy ending because, they weren't really dead -- although they got absorbed and digested to become nothing!

One word: Disappointment. Okay, maybe two words: Boring. You would think from the title that this book would delve into the Starcraft background. Xel'Naga - the creator of the Protoss and Zerg. But in fact, there's nothing here about the races. No background, no insight. It's almost as if the author didn't research the Starcraft universe and filled out a "Sci-Fi Mad Libs" where they said in this formulaic story <insert alien race name here>. Example: "And all of a sudden three aliens lunged at her. It wasn't long before <insert alien race here> infiltrated the old man's shack."

It also seems to be written by a juvenile. I have a feeling that all the "4 star" reviews here are planted by the publisher and author, because it's obvious they don't know any more about the Starcraft universe than the author did.

As a starcraft player, and a fan of the game, I expected this book to be interesting. Unfortunatly, it isn't. To me this book destroys all the ideas created by starcraft, and it is obvious that the authors who created this so called work, did not play the game but only read the instruction manual. Where to start, there are too many mistakes. The main idea of the book is a calling from a Xel-Naga creation. Xel-Naga? If you never played starcraft then you would never know much about the Xel-Naga since the authors forgot to place descriptions of the alien race. It took a while though to figure out the main idea, since there was too much jumping around from race to race that figuring out the idea was a challenge. The authors describe most of the ships and technology exactly as it is in the manual. Example:(book) "...On cue, both Terran warships fired their powerful guns, intense magnetic fields focusing a small nuclear explosion into a cohesive beam of energy..." (manual)"Yamato Cannon...a terrifying weapon that uses an intense magnetic field to focus a small nuclear explosion into a cohesive beam of energy...". Also the authors made no attempt to expand upon the game format; no new vehicles or ships. The first book in this series expanded by adding in new battlecruisers, as well as descriptions on other ships (i.e. Scavenger-class). If the authors played the game fully, they would've noticed the many different ships in some movies, not just 3 Terran types. The descriptions on units are also very textbook and disappointing. Apparently, the maker of this book did not research the game much more than the manual. They used the pictures and artists creations to base their character discriptions on, which since the pictures are artists view of things it is not what it really looks like. Another thing that lowers this book's rating as stated earlier is the jumping around. One chapter you are looking from the Protoss' point of view, then as things start to get good the chapter ends and you are Zerg, then Terran, then Zerg again. If it was only one point of view or less jumping the book could be better. The ending of the book also is not really believable compared to the game, and the first book. Certain parts where colonist hold off an entire Zerg brood are unbelievable as well. From my gaming experience holding off just a couple hundred Zergs is too much. To sumarize though, this book is not worth the effort of reading. If you are new to the Starcraft world, then the first book is enough, and veteran players like me would be disapointed to find this book decimates all the ideas, and logic found in Starcraft and Brood War.

I am quite a fan of the Starcraft Universe and it was with great excitement that I learnt about the two paperbacks written on the storyline. I guess part of my enthusiam for the game stems from the excellent work that Blizzard put into the storyline and background for the game, as well as the game itself.

I found the books however to be well below class. I read something of the comments made by others on the book and how the author didnt seem to know anything about Starcraft and would have to agree with this. However, my main complaint was with the way it was written. It seemed to me as though I was reading a short story written by an excited kid, trying too hard to be descriptive and not putting the right words together. A level of writing that assumed the reader was either 10 or with an IQ of that. The words dont flow and if the author claims to be a writer, then ...(I won't be)reading any of the other books. I question why Blizzard contracted such useless writers for these books given the excellent work done in the manuals and in the game storyline. I think of books like "Dune" that I have read and how pathetic this book is in comparison.

The Starcraft series is now two books old, and I'm beginning to lose some faith in the saga. This isn't a good sign, especially since I am a huge fan of the game. The first book, Liberty's Crusade, followed the Terran campaign from the game, but this next entry, by Gabriel Mesta, branches off, creating a new storyline. Liberty's Crusade's somewhat flawed style at least had an established story to fall back on. Legend of the Xel'Naga, alas, does not. Gabriel Mesta, a pseudonym for the writing pair of Kevin J. Anderson and his wife, Rebecca Moesta, certainly brings in strong aspects from some of Anderson's prior work, including the Star Wars Galaxy. A huge problem that I have with Anderson's writing is that vehicles (and whatever the Zerg have) seem to be held together with masking tape. This problem helped bring down works such as Darksaber and the Jedi Academy Trilogy. Here, huge numbers of Zerg die to seemingly small numbers of untrained, underequipped Terrans in one scene that does little to recall the excellant cut-scenes from the game. Also, the ending has an interesting climax, but bizzare and disappointing conclusion, a "lets not have to connect this to Brood War" cop-out in my opinion. This is not to say that the book totally was lacking in virtue, as the masking tape fleets did engage in a couple interesting engagements, a definite improvement over the last book. However, I tend to believe that this was sadly overshadowed by the numerous negatives of novel. I can only hope that the series improves whenever the next book comes out. Maybe they can get Timothy Zahn to write one...hmm...

This was probably the worst book I've read for a few years. Horribly disappointing. I didn't think the book could be as bad as everyone said it was, especially since the first book was good. My mistake. It really is written amateurishly and doesn't reveal anything about any of the races. Like a really boring comic book, except replace the pictures with more boring words. Wall-to-wall boredom.

This is a horrible waste of time. It makes trashy romance novels by Fabio seem thought-provoking. I like playing Starcraft but I don't play much. I'm not Starcraft background expert but then again neither is the author of this book.

I only picked up this book because the first book ("Liberty's Crusade") was good. Do you like Starcraft? Don't buy this book. Do you like good stories? Don't buy this book. This book is only for those people who like to waste their time.

Don't usually write reviews but when I saw the rave reviews and 5-star reviews on the page, I felt compelled to let the truth out.

I was expecting much more from this book than the last based on the other reviews it received, but I found myself frustrated by the childish writing style and utterly uninteresting characters. Not everything needs to be described "..like..". I might have been reading a Hemingway novel, the way every sound and smell was being related to something else. Space opera really doesn't need such details, I believe.

I felt no sympathy towards the community of victims, perhaps because their story was so broken up. Star Wars can get away with alternating stories between chapters because the characters are actually ones you care about, but I think it utterly failed here.

In short, I was very disappointed with this book. I had expected much more from Kevin Anderson, given his ability to adapt to existing storylines. I suppose if this book was targeted towards teenagers (who form the majority of Starcraft players), it might explain a lot, but where were the characters we knew and actually cared about?