World of Warcraft: Tides of Darkness, by Aaron Rosenberg
I read this immediately after finishing “Rise of the Horde,” by Christie Golden, and as such it provides a continuation of what happens after the orcs entered the Dark Portal. It is the story of the Second War, when the orcs tried to take over Azeroth but were stopped by the Alliance of humans, dwarves, and elves.
“Tides of Darkness” is a novelization of Warcraft II, and so is good background information for players new to the Warcraft universe.
I don’t have much to say about this book. It’s a quick read, despite its length of 374 pages; it felt to me like Rosenberg was writing to a juvenile audience. While he has some key figures of the Warcraft universe starring in the book, such as Turalyon, Khadgar, Lothar, Doomhammer, Gul’dan, and Zul’jin, the novel as a whole feels pretty flat and uninspired. Part of that could be because it is a direct tie-in novel to a video game and the author likely didn’t have much leeway, but I still wish the book just had that special something to it. Je ne sais quoi.
2/5.
