winchella's review against another edition
4.0
Tons of lore and amazing art throughout. A great visual guide.
trike's review
4.0
This is the 2016 expanded edition.
I am not a fan of World of Warcraft, but I *am* a fan of the original RTS WarCraft games, especially WarCraft II and WarCraft III. I'm of the opinion that the fall of Arthas is one of the better versions of a character being seduced by the dark side ever created, and it was done in a video game that had silly characters and goofy art. So I do like this world.
As I've mentioned in reviews of similar books, I'm also a big fan of worldbuilding books that detail imaginary universes. I often read the fact books of games I've never played, such as Shadowrun or Mutants & Masterminds.
This book specifically is another superb DK Publishing entry. Those guys have been crushing it for more than 25 years now. I don't know how they put out books of this size for this price. $30? How do they do that?
DK has never tried to be fancy; they understand what big art books are supposed to do, namely feature the art with no muss and no fuss. Clean designs, straightforward presentation. They never let pretentious artsy-fartsy "look at me I'm a designer!" attitudes get in the way. This is why I love their books. For things like this, design should be invisible, which is why I own so many of their products.
(Although not this one. I saw this at the library and snatched it up, along with the Halo Encyclopedia. My review. Getting both of these along with my usual haul of books was quite a workout. This could be the cornerstone of the Bibliophile Workout. But I would buy it because it's that good.)
This is a great compendium of the major characters, locations and history of Warcraft. There are a lot of things that were new to me, which is understandable given that the last expansion for WarCraft III came out in 2003 and I last played WoW in the beta back in 2004. (I really would love to play a new installment of the WarCraft RTS series. It's been 13 years, Blizzard, time for WarCraft IV.)
If I have any quibbles about the content, it's that almost no space is spared for the flora and fauna of Azeroth. There are side comments here and there if an animal is important to a main character, but a section detailing the types of wildlife in this world would've been nice. I'd also liked to have seen sections on inventions, because those are fun bits in the Warcraft universe. I was surprised that various weapons weren't give a separate section, either. As with most fantasy worlds, named swords and warhammers are key elements to this world. For instance, it's impossible to talk about the history of Axeroth and the story of Warcraft without mentioning the sword Frostmourne. Arthas' quest to secure the weapon literally alters not just the political landscape of the world but the actual landscape as well. Mentioning these things as asides connected with specific characters diminishes their importance. However, the most important items are brought up time after time, so you do get a sense of their impact, it's just not as explicit as it could be. I suspect some of his stuff as cut (or condensed) for space.
All things considered, though, this is a terrific book.
I am not a fan of World of Warcraft, but I *am* a fan of the original RTS WarCraft games, especially WarCraft II and WarCraft III. I'm of the opinion that the fall of Arthas is one of the better versions of a character being seduced by the dark side ever created, and it was done in a video game that had silly characters and goofy art. So I do like this world.
As I've mentioned in reviews of similar books, I'm also a big fan of worldbuilding books that detail imaginary universes. I often read the fact books of games I've never played, such as Shadowrun or Mutants & Masterminds.
This book specifically is another superb DK Publishing entry. Those guys have been crushing it for more than 25 years now. I don't know how they put out books of this size for this price. $30? How do they do that?
DK has never tried to be fancy; they understand what big art books are supposed to do, namely feature the art with no muss and no fuss. Clean designs, straightforward presentation. They never let pretentious artsy-fartsy "look at me I'm a designer!" attitudes get in the way. This is why I love their books. For things like this, design should be invisible, which is why I own so many of their products.
(Although not this one. I saw this at the library and snatched it up, along with the Halo Encyclopedia. My review. Getting both of these along with my usual haul of books was quite a workout. This could be the cornerstone of the Bibliophile Workout. But I would buy it because it's that good.)
This is a great compendium of the major characters, locations and history of Warcraft. There are a lot of things that were new to me, which is understandable given that the last expansion for WarCraft III came out in 2003 and I last played WoW in the beta back in 2004. (I really would love to play a new installment of the WarCraft RTS series. It's been 13 years, Blizzard, time for WarCraft IV.)
If I have any quibbles about the content, it's that almost no space is spared for the flora and fauna of Azeroth. There are side comments here and there if an animal is important to a main character, but a section detailing the types of wildlife in this world would've been nice. I'd also liked to have seen sections on inventions, because those are fun bits in the Warcraft universe. I was surprised that various weapons weren't give a separate section, either. As with most fantasy worlds, named swords and warhammers are key elements to this world. For instance, it's impossible to talk about the history of Axeroth and the story of Warcraft without mentioning the sword Frostmourne. Arthas' quest to secure the weapon literally alters not just the political landscape of the world but the actual landscape as well. Mentioning these things as asides connected with specific characters diminishes their importance. However, the most important items are brought up time after time, so you do get a sense of their impact, it's just not as explicit as it could be. I suspect some of his stuff as cut (or condensed) for space.
All things considered, though, this is a terrific book.
clavietika's review against another edition
5.0
This guide is a must if you're a fan of the Warcraft universe.
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