Cycle of Hatred

It's been on my to-do list for ages to read all the Warcraft novels out there. I've been playing the games since Warcraft 2, might as well owe up to it! Years ago I read Day of the Dragon and genuinely disliked it. As Blizzard put just about all their lore developments prior to MoP in books and comics, I wanted to read up.

Goodreads told me this is the first book, so off I went. It's incredibly short. Set three years after Warcraft 3, pretty much at the start of the World of Warcraft, it is set in Kalimdor. Trouble is brewing between the Theramore humans and the Horde in Kalimdor. On both sides the conflict is fanned by a mysterious group called the Burning Blade. Jaina and Thrall try to solve this conflict, as it looks like war might break out.

So far so good. There's not really a whole lot of action in the book. A lot of vignettes about rising trouble, and some investigative work, an interlude with Aegwynn and stories about her past, and then the force behind the Burning Blade is defeated. It sometimes felt like fan-fiction and not a real professional novel. Characters were incredibly flat. I guess Jaina is the main protagonist, but she doesn't really stand out as having a personality. None of the characters really do. There's an air of non-seriousness about everything, even the bloody battle scenes.

Why still three stars? Because I enjoyed reading about Kalimdor, and familiar names. I am the odd person who gets the shivers and feels at home when entering The Barrens, so it felt like reading about my home. Yeah, weird, I know. Of course that also drove me a bit mad, because the book's Durotar is very different from the game's version. Forest around Thunder Ridge, farmland, no fishing? I don't think so.

Despite all the flaws I was decently entertained, so it's 2.5 stars rounding out to 3. I'll take this over Knaak any day!