Customer Reviews

The Well of Eternity (WarCraft: War of the Ancients, Book 1)

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

First, I highly recommend that you read Warcraft: Day of the Dragon (another Knaak book) before this one. Think of it as a sort of prequel to the War of the Ancients trilogy, like The Hobbit is to the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Not that I'm comparing the book to LotR. It's not an amazing, genre-defining work, but it's a whole lot of fun for Warcraft fans and fantasy fans.

It's filled with lots of interesting characters - not just Krasus, Rhonin, and Broxigar, but also some familiar names from the games: Furion, Illidan, Tyrande, Cenarius, and others that I won't spoil. It deals primarily with the Night Elves, and details the Burning Legion's first invasion (the second and final was covered in Warcraft III). It also tells a lot about the Dragon Aspects, the 5 caretakers of the planet.

This isn't just a slow build-up to the next two books in the trilogy. It's full of amazing and important events and battles, and leaves you wondering where it could possibly go in the second and third books.

All in all, this is a great start to what will probably be an even greater series. Warcraft fans should definitely not miss this one.

I really liked this book. For any who read the "Day of the Dragon" book by Richard Knaak and liked it, you'll love this one. It has some of the old gang and some new folks as well as some people from the WC3 game. It's an easy read and I'd say a must have for any Warcraft Lore fanatics. If you wanna know how what became what this is definately a book you'll want.

At first, I was a bit hesitant to pick the book up mainly because when a company decides to pick up a good license and try to convert it to a different medium, such as a movie, the results are less than spectacular. But at the price my local bookstore was selling it, I decided to pick it up and read it. It started off slow but it slowly becomes more exciting, as the author is able to give personality to the characters in the book, and at times even be attached to them, not to mention the story is well written and will make you want more. However, I agree with one of the reviews in that the use of the time portal to bring the characters into the past is a bit campy, but its existance is explained in that its a combination of the powers of the Well of Eternity and one of the Dragon aspects.

Overall, its a very good book and I would recommend it to Warcraft and science fiction fans alike.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and read it in about 3 days. Anyone who is a fan of the games will greatly enjoy the insight into many of the characters that are in the game, but are not very well expanded on in the games (Cenarius, Malfurion/Illidan/Tyrande triangle, etc.). Also, if you are a fan of the book Day of the Dragon, you will also enjoy it as it continues the story of 3 of the characters from that book. Although it mainly centers on just 2 (Rhonin and Krasus). The book overalll does a fine job fleshing out the bits of history you pick up from the games and other books. I can't wait for part 2, The Demon Soul!

First, War of the Ancients was fun, Exspecially since im a Big time Warcraft buff, and for fans of the license, a must read.
The only problem to me was the beginning was kinda confusing, many things went off at once and the conclusion suddenly became known to those who needed to know.
Well This was my first Venture into the Warcraft books And I was hardly Dissapointed. I Easily understood, and enjoyed the Flow of Knaaks Style and what he added to the, though very cool, shallow surface to the characters the (warcraft) games gave to us. Cenariouse Anyone? he had nothing in Warcraft, and now we see why he was as great as he was. Good Job, Cant wait for the Second book !

I decided to check it out based on the good reads I got from the StarCraft series (Check those out too!), and then I saw the title: The Well of Enterity. You don't have to have played the computer game or read Day of the Dragon, and this book will still make perfect sense to you. Although there are some things that only a person who has played the computer and read through the History of WarCraft from the 100 page manuals(I wonder who does that :) Amazingly well written; Richard Knaak gives each character a unique personality. I would go into the plot, but I think Amazon has already given you a better description then I could.

*goes back to digging through WarCraft history*

This book surely is not for those who know nothing about Warcraft. By that I mean, you really have to have played through at least Warcraft III to fully appreciate what is going on in the story. World of Warcraft follows the events of WCIII, so even if you do play WoW, you still may not find War of the Ancients particularly thrilling, or even useful, really.

If you have a lot of knowledge about the events in WCIII, this is probably one of the best books you could ever read. Knaak does an excellent job of developing Malfurion, Illidan, and Tryande. The role of Cenarius is also developed significantly. So if you do want to know a bit about the first coming of the Legion, and what the Night Elves went through, pick up this book!

To be perfectly honest the only reason I got this book was because I preordered the World of Warcraft game. But when I decided to read this book I was instantly hooked. Richard A. Knaak is by far my favorite fantasy author. The trilogy takes place 10,000 years before the events of the first Warcraft game during the War of the Ancients (hence the title) and focuses primarily on the race the Night Elves. Or the Highborne as they are so often called in the book. The main characters are Krasus (Korialstraz the dragon) and Rhonin (a mage) who were both in the book Day of the Dragon (also written by Knaak) and an orc named Broxigar. Somehow the three warriors get sucked into a time portal and are dropped back into Azeroth 10,000 years in the past when it was simply known as Kalimdor. The queen of the night elves Azshara has made a deal with The Burning Legion, who for anyone who played Warcraft III are an evil group. The queen has calle upon the Legion to "cleanse the world of all the inferior races" and make the night elves the rulers of Kalimdor.

This was just a fantastically written book, and is one of the best ones I've read in a while. It is definitely one of the best fantasy trilogies that Knaak has released since the War of the Minotaurs trilogy for the Dragonlance people.

Richard Knaak is an awesome fantasy writer. I have enjoyed his books on the Dragonlance and Diablo world. He knows how to capture a reader's attention and hold it till the end of the story.

Well of Eternity is a page-turner. It gives you the background story to what happens in the Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos game. You get to know a little more about the Night Elves and the Burning Legion. You are introduced to Night Elf heroes like Malfurion Stormage and Illidian.

I have yet to read the other two books of the War of the Ancients series and I can't wait to get my hands on them. This series is highly recommended to anyone who enjoys fantasy and especially to those who love the Warcraft universe.

Well, like many, I was sucked kicking and screaming into the world of Warcraft (or, more correctly, the World of Warcraft). I started playing the MMORPG a few months ago, and have since become addicted to the world of Azeroth. I knew these books existed, so I decided to try the novels out to keep me in the world when I couldn't be IN the world.
But, the problem is, this book is TERRIBLE. So poorly written it is funny. I literally laughed out loud and had the urge to highlight some of the passages. I made my fiancee read it so we could both experience how terrible it is. (She, it seems, is less a masochist than I... she wouldn't get past the first 50 pages or so.)
The main problem, however, is that the story was of no interest to me. The time travel thing was the immediate kiss of death. What a poor choice for such a rich and deserving history. I wanted this to be a WoW story. Not a rehash of the same summarized material I had heard before (not to be redundant or anything.)
But to tell the truth, I may get the next one. I am that addicted. And I would recommend it to WoW fans, just because it does flesh out the world a bit... but it's soooooo bad.