StarCraft #2: Shadow of the Xel'Naga (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "AS A SMOTHERING BLANKET OF DARKNESS descended over the town of Free Haven, the rugged settlers scrambled to avoid the storm..." (more)
Key Phrases: field crawler, psionic storm, sonic thunder, General Duke, Bhekar Ro, Dark Templar (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Far in the future, 60,000 light-years from Earth, a loose confederacy of Terran exiles are locked in battle with the enigmatic Protoss and the ruthless Zerg Swarm. Each species struggles to ensure its own survival among the stars in a war that will herald the beginning of mankind's greatest chapter -- or foretell its violent, bloody end.

Bhekar Ro: a bleak, backwater world on the fringe of the Terran Dominion, where every day is a struggle to survive for its handful of human colonists. It is a veritable wasteland -- one speck of dust among many in the vast, dark sea of space. But when the most violent storm in recent memory unearths an unfathomable alien artifact, Bhekar Ro becomes the greatest prize in the Terran Sector -- the Holy Grail of the Zerg, the Protoss, and Humanity alike -- as forces from the three great powers converge to claim the lost secrets of the most powerful species the universe has ever known.

shadow of the xel'naga

An original tale of space warfare novels set in the world of the bestselling computer game!

About the Author

Gabriel Mesta is better known as his alter ego of Kevin J. Anderson. He has over 16 million books in print in 29 languages. Readers are most familiar with his Star Wars and X-Files novels; the Young Jedi Knights series with his wife, Rebecca Moesta; the prequels to Dune with Brian Herbert; and his original SF epic, "The Saga of Seven Suns" -- Hidden Empire, A Forest of Stars, and Horizon Storms (in which "Gabriel Mesta" briefly appears as a fictional character). His previous "fantastic historical" novel, Captain Nemo (written under the not-so-clever pen name of K. J. Anderson), has been optioned for a feature film or a TV miniseries. For more information on his numerous projects, see his website, www.wordfire.com.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Books (June 26, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671041495
• ISBN-13: 978-0671041496
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #219,886 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very very disappointing., July 29, 2001

By	errorfound482 "errorfound482" (Walla, walla Washington) - See all my reviews

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.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Straight out of the StarCraft manual, August 29, 2001

By	N. Robinson "zealot69" (Hutto, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars WHAT?! Are these reviewers crazy?!, August 22, 2001

By	"residentjay" (Tampa, FL) - See all my reviews

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!