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World Of Warcraft: Vol'jin: Shadows Of The Horde (2013)

by Michael A. Stackpole(Favorite Author)

3.86 of 5 Votes: 3

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Gallery Books

series

World of Warcraft

review 1: What does one do when one survives an assassination attempt by your leader, one who has proven willing to do anything to accumulate power and may use your species as cannon fodder in genocidal wars against other races? Apparently, the answer is sit around and talk a lot. This is perhaps unfair but this is a strange sort of novel that goes in an unexpected direction after its explosive beginning. There's no lack of action in the book. It's one of the bloodiest World of Warcraft novels ever, though still PG-13 in terms of content, but the obvious hook never materializes. Instead of desiring revenge against the person, Garrosh, who tried to kill--Vol'jin spends much of the novel feeling that his old life is over. This is perhaps a more realistic reaction than most to... more having the head of state in a fantasy setting try to kill you. In real life, if the President of the United States tried to have you killed, most people wouldn't start thinking about how they might take him out instead. Still, it's an unexpected reaction from one of Warcraft's many signature heroes. The premise of Vol'jin: Shadows of the Horde is the titular character, Vol'Jin survives the aforementioned assassination attempt by Warchief Garrosh. Garrosh has determined Vol'jin is a potential threat, a fact which Vol'jin grudgingly admits was true. Rescued by the peaceful Panderan race, basically Chinese panda-people (if the name wasn't clue enough), Vol'jin takes up residence in a monastery and tries to figure out what he's going to do now that he's an enemy of the state. He can't return to the Horde and his people, the Darkspear Trolls, are too weak to oppose Garrosh on their own. Rather than try to figure a way out of this conundrum, Vol'jin decides he'd prefer to simply begin his life anew in the peaceful land of the Panderan. He's encouraged in this pursuit by a similarly wounded Alliance soldier named Tyrathan. Tyrathan has his own reasons for not wanting to return to his old life and believes he might find peace in adopting a new identity. Neither of them get their wish as Panderia is soon invaded by the Zandalar Empire. The Zandalar are aided in this by the Mogu, Chinese lion-people with dark occult powers. On a basic level, I think the book spent way too much time ruminating about looking to your past life versus looking to the future. Michael A. Stackpole is a great author and I loved his Star Wars novels but I get the sense he believes he's saying something really profound but I'm just not feeling it. It was hard to buy that Vol'jin would be so demoralized by his near-death experience given the constant battles he's had to endure up until this point. One doesn't become a leader of a group like the Horde without an iron will and a strong sense of self. Oddly, I prefer the supporting cast in the book to Vol'jin himself. Chen the Brewmaster, Li Li, and Tyrathan are all interesting and nuanced characters. The Panderians are a lovable race and there were times I just wanted to climb into the book and hug them all. Michael Stackpole does an excellent job establishing their culture too, giving a real sense of a living world. I could have used more Li Li, though, because I absolutely adore her character. The villains are kind of iffy as their motivations boil down to: we're a bunch of racist imperialists who want to take over Panderan because we want their stuff. Which, to be honest, is hard to argue with because that was the motivation for a lot of empires throughout history. There's also a nice parallel with Garrosh as the heroes all recognize something familiar about the Zandalar and Mogu's motivations with their own cultures. In conclusion, this is a good book and I enjoyed it but all the naval-gazing detracted from the fun factor for me. I will say that Panderia was a fun place to be, the development of Tyrathan, and insights into Troll culture were welcome, though. I also thought the action in the book was extremely well-handled and had a very martial-arts film sort of feel.7/10
review 2: i enjoyed this more than I should have. It's not that books based in this world are bad, it's just that they have limitations defined by other mediums used for storytelling, such as the games. Vol'jin and the Trolls are something I have been content to not explore particularly, but I enjoyed it here. His journey is an interesting one that I felt compelled to continue. I also have an interest in Chen Stormstout, as well as Pandaren and Monks. All in all an enjoyable book, especially for players. less

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