They may not be masterworks, but people enjoy them. I enjoy bad things all the time, like the movie Underworld. Being as this is a WoW-themed newsblog, and not critical book review themed, I try and understand when they mention things I don't myself like about the expanded universe.

I have to agree. I found Knaak's novels far more compelling - Arthas read like a bad novelization of a movie, all recount and little depth.

I certainly don't see you writing books based on the Warcraft universe.

Keep in mind that writers who do tie-in work aren't necessarily throwing their entire skill and ability into the book. They're writing a tie-in work. In this case for a computer game. It means that even if Golden is perfectly capable of writing a twelve-novel epic odyssey to rival LotR, it wouldn't be appropriate for the Warcraft universe. In fact, it would probably just confuse the majority of the readers who aren't going to remember that chance meeting between two characters for half a scene on page 211 and realise that it has a massive impact on the rest of the story. (Do you remember that Elaida met Padan Fain? Yeah, that kind of oops.)