Vol’jin: Shadows of the Horde was released in 2013 as a pre-story for patch 5.1.0, which which in Mists of Pandaria expansion. . The book is written by Micheal A. Stackpole—”an award-winning novelist, game designer, computer game designer, podcaster, screenwriter, and graphic novelist. He’s had more than forty-five novels published, the best known of those being the New York Times bestselling Star Wars books I, Jedi and Rogue Squadron. He has an asteroid named after him and, since undertaking to write Vol’jin: Shadows of the Horde, spends a lot of his spare time “levelling up!” (Amazon, 2013).
I bought the book quite late, roughly by the beginning of this year, 2021, because the troll has the least of my attention among Warcraft universe’ races (except the goblin). I am not a fan of their pirate-like language, to be honest. However, after Vol’jin’s physical death, I decided to get to know more about this hero.
The book cover follows the same format as most recent Warcraft novels with the logo World of Warcraft on top; below it is the book title, then the cover picture, and at the bottom resides the author name. The cover picture depicts Vol’jin and Chen in flighting posture, back to back in front of the flaming background. It excellently represents the book’s spirit—two heroes are fighting and protecting each other with absolute trust. And so, the book started when Chen Stormstout and his Pandarias rescued Vol’jin after Garrosh Hellscream’s assassinated strike. In the misty continent of Pandaria, Vol’jin has to face his identity conflicts while assisting Pandaria in defending their homeland against the invasion of the Zandalari.
The theme is typical—a hero is leaving at death’s door, rescued and fight back his enemy while protecting something dear to him. During this dark period, the hero will have a chance to discover and reconstruct his life’s meaning and so his identities. It is, indeed, a good theme. However, Stackpole, sadly, did not fulfil his duty in conveying such an insight. In the first half of the book, the moral lesson of identity conflicts is very confusing, as if Stackpole did not understand the concept while trying to convey such a profound idea.
Another drawback that hindered me from finishing the book is Stackpole’s writing style in combat scenes. Somehow it is chaotic and difficult to fathom the scenes’ actions. At first, I blamed the inadequate comprehension for not getting used to his writing style. However, at half of the book, I decided to stop trying. I wanted to have some pleasure reading, not trying to challenge myself with confusing writing.
In short, I dropped at half of the book. This is the first time I could not finish a Warcraft novel or any other video-game adaptation books. Even bad story like the official movie novelization version of the Assassin’s Creed, Christie Golden’s beautiful writing kept me hostage till the end. Vol’jin: Shadows of the Horde, in my opinion, is a mess with uninterested characters, unrelated events, and moral lessons, which makes no sense due to the bad writing. Later, I found that a friend, who is also a hardcore Warcraft fan, couldn’t finish this book, either.
Somehow I feel like Blizzard was trying to refresh the audience’s mind by keeping inviting new authors to novelize their Warcraft universe. However, I would like to have Christie Golden and Richard A Knaack back (happily, Golden is coming back to the upcoming Sylvanas novel). This is the second time a video game adaptation novel failed me. This first time is Guild Wars: Sea of Sorrow, a book filled with dull characters and a swirling storyline. Somehow, I lost my trust game designers who try to become a writer.
Worth a purchase?
- Buy if you want to collect all of Warcraft books.
- NO, if you just wanna find a good novel to spend your precious time on.
Lucid Realms 