Customer Reviews

World of Warcraft: Night of the Dragon

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First off, I really like Richard Knaak as an author, and I love the Warcraft books in general. However, this book seems really rushed, and the plot suffers for it.

Pluses:

-Knaak has given us some great characters, and its fun to read about their contining adventures.
-Fast paced story. I was able to knock it out in no time. The story keeps moving without any slow sections.

Minuses:

-Weak plot. All the characters were brought together haphazardly.
-Typical plot devices are used. Knaak suffers from the same issue that Tolkien had with Gandalf in LOTR. He created a character powerful enough to pull the protagonists out of any situation, but in doing so, he has to create reasons that character isn't always there (or is weakened) so they don't always save the day.
-New characters are 2 dimensional. didn't care about 'em at all. Very simplistic backgrounds and motivations.

On the whole it was a good book, and I will read the next one in the series, but I hope it's a little better thought out.

First off, I must say I think Richard Knaack is a great writer. I loved the War of the Ancients series and enjoyed Day of the Dragon. Now then, what happened with Knaack and this book I don't know. I was so excited to return to World of Warcraft and see Krasus back in action, but it didn't turn out how I expected.

First off, is the new characters. The new characters aren't that attractive, so I was never able to really relate to any of them. Second is the problem that was noted in another review with Krasus. Krasus always is in a weakened position, yet when he comes to a difficult challenge, his amazing powers always move him forward. It hurts the feeling of the book greatly to know that Krasus will always overcome everything thrown at him.

Overall, the book started off quite slow but picked up very fast near the end. I found I read the last 100 pages all in one sitting, which for this book was a surprise. I give it 3/5 stars.

I always find it difficult to get through Knaak's books. His vocabularly is weak and everything is overly dramatic. There is always some imminent catastrophe about to destroy everything. Then, at the last possible second, one of the characters miraculously saves the day. This happens on just about every page. It's like a soap opera. The thing that annoys me most is the fact that I KNOW the character is going to survive. Stop making it so dramatic. Save your money and time and go read something by Christie Golden, Jeff Grubb, or Chris Metzen.

First, let me say that of all the World of Warcraft novel authors, Richard A. Knaak is among my favorite. With that being said, this novel fell short of my expectations.

Night of the Dragon is the sequel to one of Knaak's other novels, Day of the Dragon. It follows the adventures of some of WoWs most prominent figures (though strangely enough, not ones you find much in the game). I got the feeling, unfortunately, that Knaak was trying to fit in the "game of WoW" into the novel. Don't get me wrong, he could even have done that if presented in the right fashion, but instead it was done quickly, without much story weaving.

If you are a reader of WoW novels, then this is a must read. If you are LOOKING to read a WoW novel for the FIRST time, DO NOT start with this one! While it is decent, it is not in the "top 5" so to speak.

Night of the dragon was a good book to sit down and read but it was not the best wow novel i have read.

It was more or less a side story in terms of the Wow universe. The story in its-self was interesting and it is a must read for those Wow Lore fanatics (like myself). But the 'War of the ancients' series and the Tides of Darkness were much better novels than this one.

If you NEED to know more about the warcraft Lore then pick up this book, but if you are a cusual wow reader then it might be better to skip over this one and get your self one of the more solid novels in the wow universe!

I did enjoy this story, which is why I gave it 3 stars. However, I am not really sure where this fits in with the WOW lore as a whole, or why it was even written to be honest. It was interesting to see Sinestra, but this was written well before Cata, so unless they were already planning to add her to a raid, I am not really sure what the primary purpose of this book was. If the point was to add Sinestra's story, they did do that...but it still didn't entirely feel connected to WOW as a whole. I was left with a "Ok....so what?" feeling after reading it. We got to see Krasus and Rhonin and co. again, and we met Sinestra, and we got to see that Deathwing was still alive and plotting....and that was really it. Most of the other WOW books have a grand purpose or add a significant chunk to the story, and this one really didn't....unless I am somehow missing something.

I did really enjoy the book on its own; if it wasn't for the above comments I would have given it 4 or 5 stars. I have come to really like Knaak's characters after the War of the Ancients Triolgy (despite the negative impression I got of some of them in Day of the Dragon...especially Vereesa), so I enjoyed seeing them again. It was also neat to hear where Sinestra fits in, and to see Kalcegos in action. I also was happy to FINALLY see another draenei character; they are my favorite race and have so little lore. Iridi was definitely a highlight of the book for me. His stories usually (for me) flow well and are enjoyable; the only one I haven't been all that in love with was Day of the Dragon.

One (minor) thing that drove me crazy in this book was his constant use of the word "mount" instead of "mountain". Yes, I believe both are equally correct, but "mount" just does not read as smoothly and somewhat smacks of "I want to show I am really smart so I am using a more complex/less common word to show it", which is what a lot of people dislike about Knaak, from what I understand. Just use the more common (and entirely grammatically correct) word. I've noticed this several times in his books, it was just very glaring here because he used it constantly, often multiple times in one paragraph.

In essence, this was a good enough read, but if you're just looking to bone up on WOW lore you could easily skip it and not really miss anything. As near as I can tell, it barely ties into the game at all other than some crossover characters.

EDIT: 12/23/11 - After the release of the Dragon Soul raid, this book makes a lot more sense - the Ultraxion boss is (I assume) the tie in. However, given that there is only one boss in one raid, it is still a fairly week tie in.

I have mostly pros with this book, but I might as well share the cons as well. First the good:

Very interesting characters, well written battle scenes...and plenty of suspense to make you want to keep reading. Knaak's WoW novels are among my favorite. The first WoW novel I ever read was "Day Of The Dragon" also written by him, and I really enjoyed it. I was new to WoW at that time, and he did a wonderful job introducing the characters to me. This book was no exception. The War of the Ancients are my favorite WoW books, which he wrote as well. Like his other WoW novels. "Night of the Dragon" keeps you intruiged and wondering what's going to happen next. I was so sure I knew exactly who the woman in black was....but I was wrong (mostly because I had no idea who that character was, but now I've leared a lot about them because of this book). I just felt it was genuinely well written.

The bad...

The bad isn't really Knaak's fault, but I was hoping that the story would have more diverse locations. Most of it took place in Grim Batol, which is fine....but I'm so used to Knaak having a variety of settings in his WoW novels. The other thing (and again, not Knaak's fault), is I didn't feel this story was a main part of the WoW lore. That doesn't make it bad, but it doesn't seem as crucial to the overall story like the "War of the Ancients" trilogy, or "Rise of the Horde" by Christie Golden, which is ALSO one of my favorites.

So over all, great writing, great plot, plenty of entertaining action, tons of trying to figure out what's really going on....but I felt it could have used a few more different locations (again, not Knaak's fault, he made the best with what Blizzard gave him, which was still plretty damn good!)

I have been a fan of Richard A. Knaak ever since I read the Legend of Huma 7-8 years ago and love most of his work in Dragonlance and in Warcraft with the War of the Ancients being my favorite among the warcraft books. That being said I must say that I was a bit disappointed in this book. Don't get me wrong, it isn't a bad book, I just expected better from Knaak, had it been any other author I would consider it a better read. I can't quite put my finger on what is wrong though, perhaps it is a different writing style or something. Either way I wouldn't recommend against it, but if you are a long time Knaak fan then just be warned that it isn't his best work.

Let me say that Knaak's "War of the Ancients Triology" is my FAV book of all the wow books. That being said, this book's plot and characters didnt pull me into the story and I kept catching myself being distracted since it was boring.

again Mr. Knack has exceeded the expectations of this reader. His books are well written and interesting, and this one is no exception. continuing the story line of the The Aspects, he includes plot twists and familiar names to make the story flow. His knowledge of WOW and the main charactors who inhabit the world of Azeroth keep the story as interesting, and captivating, as any book I have read. KUDOS, Mr. Knack. Keep writing!! A MUST HAVE for any WOW reader