This. God, this. I wish there were 5 stars for this comment. Slap a familiar logo on the spine and fanboys will eat it up even if it's a crap sandwich. And troll message boards flaming the shit out of people who point out the Emperor has no clothes.

And the thing is, EVEN with my admittedly much lower expectations for licensed novels, particularly licensed video game novels, Knaak's work doesn't even cut the mustard. When the likes of Bob Salvatore are writing circles around you, there's a serious problem (and I say this as someone who enjoyed the early Drizzt novels just on a popcorn, fluff level). I don't expect Gaiman or Martin or Pratchett levels of genius from a freaking Warcraft novel, okay? But when your stuff doesn't even rise to the level of, say, an Elminster novel? Heh.

At no point when reading a novel do I ever want the thought to strike me that I could work with this material ten times better. Yet every time I force myself to read Knaak's garbage because I'm a lorehound, I get that feeling in spades. And I'm not even remotely close to being the best fanfic author I know.