BtDP up for Scribe award, Warcraft audiobooks delayed
by Mike Schramm 
Apr 1st 2009 at 9:00AM
Here's a few bits of WoW book news from our friend Medievaldragon over at Blizzplanet. First up, the good news: Aaron Rosenberg and Christie Golden have been nominated for a "Best Adapted" award from the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers (just proving that for everything in the world, there's an association for it) for the World of Warcraft: Beyond the Dark Portal book that they wrote together. Pretty groovy, and supposedly well-deserved -- if you ever sit down to read any of the Warcraft literature, we've heard that's a great place to start. Winners of the prizes will be announced at GenCon this year, so good luck to the writers there.And secondly, a bummer for those who've been waiting on the audiobook versions of the Warcraft books -- Medievaldragon says that he heard from Tantor Media, the company behind the productions, that they've been postponed. He's convinced that they've only been held off temporarily, but we're not so sure -- given the current economy, Tantor may have figured it wasn't worth the licensing and the trouble. But you never know -- apparently they've all been recorded, so perhaps we'll see them at some point in the future, even if it's only in digital form. We certainly hope so.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Odds and ends
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Delshay Dethecus US Apr 1st 2009 9:11AM
I have been reading the books now for a few months. I got the 2 Warcraft Archive's and about 3 others. I just wish I knew what order to read them in.
I have been playing WoW for 4 years (March 21st) and it is cool to read about some of the places I have been (kara) and just the places in the world they write about. Makes the game that much cooler.
If you have a chance pick one of the books up, you won't be disappointed!
BulletzBill Apr 1st 2009 9:25AM
I've just started reading the Warcraft literature too, just to immerse myself more in the game and gain a better appreciation for the lore and characters, ect. I think it really helps make the game seem more alive.
Out of all the warcraft related books do you guys think are the best? Who do you think is the best author?
Right now I'm working my way through the Warcraft comic up to the current issue, then the Ashbringer comic miniseries, followed by both manga trilogies, then finally the novels (Archive, dark portal, tides of darkness, ect.).. So I'd say I'll have my reading list full for quite some time. :D
Kylenne Apr 1st 2009 10:03AM
Basically? Christie Golden is...golden. Avoid Richard Knaak like the herp, though. I can't speak to the quality of his dragon books, but if you value your sanity and/or will to live, skip War of the Ancients. Seriously. It's that bad. I'd heard the horror stories about it and figured people were just exaggerating about how bad it was. And, hey, I adore Illidan, and I love reading crappy books to snark on them. So I decided to give it a shot anyway.
I got the omnibus edition and barely made it through book one. I could not make it through book two. And I used to read Anne Rice books, okay? Between Knaak's unbearably awful prose, the apparent lack of any sort of editing, the horrendously OOC characterizations (he gets everyone wrong, particularly Tyrande), and the blatant Mary Sue-ism, I felt like I was reading some teenage fanboy's terribad fanfic. In fact, I've read better fanfic. I've WRITTEN bettter fanfic. At 14.
The Sunwell Trilogy has exactly one redeeming quality, and that's the gorgeous artwork. The story has "Knaak" written all over it--blatant Sues, shoddy pacing, characters I cannot be forced to care about, clunky dialogue, and horribly OOC treatment of a lore figure. Not to mention it's anticlimactic as hell to read about how supposedly uber-powerful the big bad is when I've whipped his ass at least a dozen times in game with a group of level 20 blood elves.
BulletzBill Apr 1st 2009 10:23AM
Thanks for your insights. Thats good to hear about Golden, I am looking forward to getting started on Rise of the Horde, and Beyond the Dark Portal. And I also just preordered her new 'Arthas' book, so can't wait for that either.
As for Knaak, I probably will avoid the Ancients Trilogy (if anything, I'll attempt it last), but I'm gonna still read the mangas as I do enjoy good art, no matter what the quality of writing is. By the way have you read the Legends trilogy and if so is his writing any better in that?
uncaringbear Apr 1st 2009 9:35AM
I think it'd be a great idea for WoWinsider to provide more coverage of the Warcraft books. I've read only a few, and they seem to vary in quality, but I've enjoyed them. It would be interesting to read some reviews of the books from a WoWinsider perspective.
dawnseven Apr 1st 2009 9:52AM
The audio versions have been postponed?
QQ !
I've been waiting and waiting. :(
(Best author in my opinion? Christie Golden. No contest.)
Kylenne Apr 1st 2009 10:06AM
Amen to that. Hers are the only Warcraft books worth reading as far as I'm concerned. I can't wait for her Arthas book to come out. I just wish she'd do one on Illidan/Kael/Vashj. QQ
Haq Apr 1st 2009 10:02AM
I actually picked up "Beyond the Dark Portal" from Amazon a few weeks back. I just happened to have like 6$ left over after picking out a few other books, and this one looked interesting.
While I'm no lorenerd, I still at least understood a good majority of what was happening. Overall, I'm glad that they got the nod for this book. I plan on picking up others in the future.
Eric J Apr 1st 2009 11:26AM
Honestly, I never thought that the Knaak books were that bad.
Maybe it's because I have read some really horrid authors... Kevin Anderson hurts my brain..
Zerokku Apr 1st 2009 11:33AM
I to this day, have yet to read anything from K.J.A. If only because dune is by far my favorite series of books ever, but from what I've been told I would probably cry from reading what he's done to such a magnificent series.
outsideWoWer Apr 1st 2009 1:19PM
I've read the first archieve book, and my favorite is the one about Thrall, how he roused the orcs and gained knowledge about his parents.
Very interesting to read about how Thrall was before his warchief status.
AyaJulia Apr 1st 2009 1:42PM
My five-year-old niece was visiting the other day, and she walked up to me saying she wanted me to read her a book.
...she was holding this one. XD
She can't read yet and I remember my own mother teaching me to read pretty much entirely from reading things to be and following her finger along, so I indulged the kid. She actually made it something like 10 pages in--when the Army rushed back in through the portal and Ner'zhul was standing there--before she darted off to bring me her laptop and I hid the book, hoping she'd forget about it, uncomfortable with reading to her about battles and demons and angry orcs.
She crossed up the description of orcs and ogres though, and she thinks they have "grass skin" (because grass is green and orc skin is green) and "piggy heads". XD So funny.
Michael C. Apr 1st 2009 4:03PM
I've been trying to read "Beyond the Dark Portal" for a while now, and I just can't get into it. The writing is such a marked step below the other WoW-related books I've read, that I really just don't care to finish it. The dialogue is forced and stilted, the characterizations are hasty and flat, and there seems to be no smoothness to the flow of the story.
"Rise of the Horde" and "Lord of the Clans" were very good books, but "Beyond the Dark Portal" is simply nowhere near their quality.
Arnold Grundel Apr 27th 2009 5:49PM
I played World of Warcraft (WoW) for the first time today and I didn't think it was bad at all. It was kinda fun. Of course I got wasted by an easy computer so that wasn't very fun. So if I am correct WoW has it's own audio books?