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A review by hidekisohma
World of Warcraft: Folk & Fairy Tales of Azeroth by Steve Danuser, Kami Garcia, Christie Golden
3.0
Having read a bunch of warcraft books in the past, i came across this one and thought it would be neat to read a bunch of short stories based on warcraft in the form of fairy tales.... it was not that exciting. There were 12 stories so here we go.
1. Eyes of the earth mother: a native american-esc story about creation with Tauren. It was dull. It was told in one of those old timey native american ways and was pretty boring. I find myself skimming my eyes through this one a lot. 2 out of 5.
2. One small tuskar: a story about a female tuskar who goes off to find better fish and be approved by her community. doesn't listen to her elders and goes off to deadly waters and fights a sea serpent. Weird moral to have in a fairy tale book. 'don't listen to your elders and you'll be rewarded'. eh. 2 out of 5.
3. Lay down my bones: a vulpera cautionary tale about listening to your heritage and not disrespecting it. Completely the opposite of the previous one. Dark and depressing, but not poorly written. 2.5 out of 5.
4. Uninvited guest: Goblin cheaps out on giving an appropriate gift at a funeral and gets possessed by a spirit of charity and ends up going broke. Funny, if not drags on a little too long. 3 out of 5.
5. Sister is another word for always: a blood elf misses her dead sister and tries to bring her back. what do you think happens? kind of weird for a game that has like 6 classes that can resurrect, undead resurrection and death knights. Could see the ending coming from a mile away and a story with "move on from grief" would hit a lot better if the game didn't explicitly have multiple ways of bringing people back from the dead. 2 out of 5
6. The paladin's beast: best of the bunch. Uther the paladin gets transported off to another world where he shows that mercy is a very strong weapon. Told like an actual story, had a good if not bittersweet ending, and was overall enjoyable. 4 out of 5.
7. For lies and liberty: newly undead guy in undercity realizes the guy he looked up to in life was a giant jerk and they deal with it. Not bad. Good story about not trusting your heroes blindly. 3 out of 5.
8. Stones, moss, and tears. Night elf story. lame story about how a night elf is too shy to tell a guy she likes him so she has a potion brewed to give her confidence. it's as lame as it sounds. 2 out of 5.
9. The embrace: this had nothing to do with anything. it's a story about a nature spirit who is lonely, makes a kid, loses the kid, is lonely, the kid comes back. it has some in common with eyes of the earth mother only written more terribly and pointless. didn't have ANY of the races from wow and could have literally been in any game or location. didn't have anything to do with the races of azeroth. most pointless of all of them. 1.5/5.
10. Why the mermaids left boralus: a lesbian story about a mermaid in love with a sea priest. Kul Tiran race. it was....fine? but i found myself very bored for most of it and didn't really care. The climax took too long and the story beforehand was boring. 2/5.
11. The courageous kobold and the wickless candle: a kobold hears a story about a wickless candle and runs after their sibling after the sibling hears the story and they find the "candle". this one was pretty good. i liked the characters and it was the only one to actually wrench any kind of emotion from me. good characterization and i actually cared about the characters. 3.5 out of 5.
12: Visage day: a male dragon can't decide on a visage (what he'll look like to not scare human sized people) after farting around for a bit he decides on a female gnome. Because...sure why not. pointless. it was a story about walking around and asking other dragons their opinion. it's as exciting as that sounds. 2.5 out of 5.
If you average all those numbers that comes out to an even 2.5. Which is EXACTLY what this book deserves. a FEW are good, but the rest are either nonsense or boring.
Best 3: 1. Paladin 2. Kobold 3. For lies and liberty
Worst 3: 1. The embrace 2. Eyes of the earth mother 3. stone moss and tears.
If you come across this book, only read paladin, kobold, for lies, and MAYBE uninvited. you can kinda skip the rest. Was this book worth the time i invested?...eh?
the quality was uneven at best, and sigh worthy at worst.
I wouldn't read it again. it was an interesting experiment..but if they ever do another one of these, i'd say, try harder. 2.5 out of 5 rounded up to a 3.
1. Eyes of the earth mother: a native american-esc story about creation with Tauren. It was dull. It was told in one of those old timey native american ways and was pretty boring. I find myself skimming my eyes through this one a lot. 2 out of 5.
2. One small tuskar: a story about a female tuskar who goes off to find better fish and be approved by her community. doesn't listen to her elders and goes off to deadly waters and fights a sea serpent. Weird moral to have in a fairy tale book. 'don't listen to your elders and you'll be rewarded'. eh. 2 out of 5.
3. Lay down my bones: a vulpera cautionary tale about listening to your heritage and not disrespecting it. Completely the opposite of the previous one. Dark and depressing, but not poorly written. 2.5 out of 5.
4. Uninvited guest: Goblin cheaps out on giving an appropriate gift at a funeral and gets possessed by a spirit of charity and ends up going broke. Funny, if not drags on a little too long. 3 out of 5.
5. Sister is another word for always: a blood elf misses her dead sister and tries to bring her back. what do you think happens? kind of weird for a game that has like 6 classes that can resurrect, undead resurrection and death knights. Could see the ending coming from a mile away and a story with "move on from grief" would hit a lot better if the game didn't explicitly have multiple ways of bringing people back from the dead. 2 out of 5
6. The paladin's beast: best of the bunch. Uther the paladin gets transported off to another world where he shows that mercy is a very strong weapon. Told like an actual story, had a good if not bittersweet ending, and was overall enjoyable. 4 out of 5.
7. For lies and liberty: newly undead guy in undercity realizes the guy he looked up to in life was a giant jerk and they deal with it. Not bad. Good story about not trusting your heroes blindly. 3 out of 5.
8. Stones, moss, and tears. Night elf story. lame story about how a night elf is too shy to tell a guy she likes him so she has a potion brewed to give her confidence. it's as lame as it sounds. 2 out of 5.
9. The embrace: this had nothing to do with anything. it's a story about a nature spirit who is lonely, makes a kid, loses the kid, is lonely, the kid comes back. it has some in common with eyes of the earth mother only written more terribly and pointless. didn't have ANY of the races from wow and could have literally been in any game or location. didn't have anything to do with the races of azeroth. most pointless of all of them. 1.5/5.
10. Why the mermaids left boralus: a lesbian story about a mermaid in love with a sea priest. Kul Tiran race. it was....fine? but i found myself very bored for most of it and didn't really care. The climax took too long and the story beforehand was boring. 2/5.
11. The courageous kobold and the wickless candle: a kobold hears a story about a wickless candle and runs after their sibling after the sibling hears the story and they find the "candle". this one was pretty good. i liked the characters and it was the only one to actually wrench any kind of emotion from me. good characterization and i actually cared about the characters. 3.5 out of 5.
12: Visage day: a male dragon can't decide on a visage (what he'll look like to not scare human sized people) after farting around for a bit he decides on a female gnome. Because...sure why not. pointless. it was a story about walking around and asking other dragons their opinion. it's as exciting as that sounds. 2.5 out of 5.
If you average all those numbers that comes out to an even 2.5. Which is EXACTLY what this book deserves. a FEW are good, but the rest are either nonsense or boring.
Best 3: 1. Paladin 2. Kobold 3. For lies and liberty
Worst 3: 1. The embrace 2. Eyes of the earth mother 3. stone moss and tears.
If you come across this book, only read paladin, kobold, for lies, and MAYBE uninvited. you can kinda skip the rest. Was this book worth the time i invested?...eh?
the quality was uneven at best, and sigh worthy at worst.
I wouldn't read it again. it was an interesting experiment..but if they ever do another one of these, i'd say, try harder. 2.5 out of 5 rounded up to a 3.