Last week, I posted my own review of the Stormrage novel by Richard Knaak. Today brings a second opinion on the book from previous guest poster Faeroh Moonreign. Just as with the official review, the spoilers have been kept below the Spoiler Badge. Enjoy!

Second Opinions

Guest Poster's note: This article was written before I read Greyseer's review, as he thought it might be cool to have two opinions on the book. While we generally agree, there are a few things his article goes into detail on which I choose to gloss over. Likewise, there are scenes that stood out to me which he doesn't go into too much detail upon. After reading both reviews, I think you'll find we have similar opinions, but perhaps we reach different audiences.

I won’t lie, most of the time I’m not a big fan of Richard Knaak. I was filled with rage after I read Night of the Dragon. I wanted my money back. The book's lack of cohesive plot and direction still make me wish I’d never bought it.

So, as you can probably guess, when I heard that Richard Knaak was writing a novel about one of my favorite WoW characters, I worried that I wasn’t just going to read it and rage, I was going to Stormrage…

Alright, that was a cheap pun. But I needed a laugh before I said what I’m about to say: I kinda…liked it. No, seriously. Stop laughing. That wasn't the funny part. 

In Short

It's true! I found myself pleasantly surprised. Stormrage was different than all of Knaak’s other books—it was better. Sure, it was far from perfect, but the there were so many more positives this time around that I almost forgot about the negatives. Especially in the first half of the book. And for that first half, the story made sense. It flowed well, it presented a plot... and then suddenly it dropped off into typical "Knaakery." The later half of the book, while still fairly good, fell into a lot of the typical Knaak writing tropes. I was willing to overlook much of it, though, because the first half of the book is honestly good, and drew me into the story.

Still, the short of it is that this book is an improvement. It's a good waste of a few hours. It's entertaining. And it's not all that bad. Most of the time.

Stormrage Revisited

Ah, so you're looking for details...

As I pointed out above, Stomrage was entertaining. I cannot stress enough that I actually enjoyed it. But after I finished it, the negativity began to grow. There are a lot of problems with the second half of the book in particular. As a reader with a long-time distrust of Knaak, what changed for me? I can best explain it by comparing Stormrage to its predecessor. In Night of the Dragon, the plot seemed to stop and start, following the same general pattern of find the bad guy, get beat by the bad guy, escape the bad guy’s imprisonment, find the bad guy, get beat by the bad guy…

…in two words: repetitive monotony.

Stormrage didn’t suffer from this until much later in the novel. On my way through it, I felt that the story was building towards something. The plot was simple, but sometimes simple is good. There are some authors who can improve upon the basics of the plot structure triangle taught in grade and high school, but often those who try do not pull it off. Such was the case for Night of the Dragon. In Stormrage, Knaak didn’t try any of those tricks. He kept it simple. He stuck to the basics and told a story I found myself wanting to continue reading. I wasn’t reading the book just to learn the new lore of my favorite fantasy setting, I was reading because I was enjoying myself.

There were many characters featured from the game, and the nightmares of canon characters were fun little one-offs from the main plot. They added to the story, and I can see how they would make the book more fun for gamers who don't play night elves.

None of this is to say that I didn’t think the book suffered some problems. First off, the second half of the book features a lot of that same "run to the bad guy—run away—run back to the bad guy—run away again" thing that made me absolutely detest Night of the Dragon. Thankfully, this didn't start until much later in this book, and by that time the plot was moving quickly enough that it didn't seem to bother me the same way it did in Knaak's previous works.

Secondly, I am sick to death of Richard Knaak’s “special” characters, and though they weren't the focus of this book, they still appeared. It is a big plus that these characters weren't really the main focus of the story, but their inclusion still makes me cringe a little. Thankfully, it was fairly easy to overlook them.

The final point I would make echoes Greyseer's: the night elves do not seem wise and ancient. In fact, they don't seem much different than they were 10,000 years ago. A little bit of character development would have gone a long way towards making the novel better. That said, Tyrande was much less of a damsel in distress in this book. Instead of being relegated to "arm jewelry," she did have teeth. Knaak wrote her in a way that proved she could take care of business, but then made her a little too unsure of herself to be truly effective.

Overall, I would have to say that the book is worth a read. Some people will find it great. A lot will find it enjoyable. It is, in my estimation, Knaak's best book yet. Then again, the best of the dregs is still the dregs.

Stormraging Again, Now With Spoilers

There's still the matter of my favorite and least favorite parts, but to discuss those, I must reinforce: You may not want to stop here. This is Spoiler Country!

As I said above, the introduction of short visions of the nightmares of major canon characters was a fun diversion. In particular, the story of Sylvanas falling victim to the Nightmare caught me off guard and made me chuckle. In a book which established itself as happening after the death of the Lich King (and therefore the events of the Wrathgate), I found it strange that Sylvanas was talking to Varimathras until I realized she was trapped inside her Nightmare. I had really thought Knaak was creating a major lore faux pas, but when it turned out to be the Banshee Queen's Nightmare, I was genuinely surprised (and a lot relieved.)

As a side note to this point, I have read and heard many arguments from Forsaken “experts” that had a hard time with the idea of Sylvanas falling under the effects of the Nightmare. While I am aware that the Forsaken do not need to sleep, I found it easy to believe that the Nightmare could have such an effect. By the end of the novel, the whole world was affected. The novel makes us quite aware that the Nightmare is no ordinary sleep. It is the magic of a powerful enemy who seems to have ties to the Old Gods. In short, this is one place where I don't think Knaak is dropping the ball. I just feel people are being a little too close-minded. Knaak makes enough mistakes. There's no reason to give him more.

As far as Knaak's "pet characters," Stormrage introduced us to Lucan Foxblood, a human who was born inside the Emerald Dream and somehow ended up with some of the powers of the green dragon Eranikus. A human. Who could teleport into and out of the Emerald Dream at will. A special, special snowflake, for certain. Add to this the fact that Krasus, Rhonin, and many of Knaak’s other “snowflakes” make appearances, and it seems like a recipe for disaster. Not so, this time around. Rhonin and Krasus barely show up (Krasus is affected by the Nightmare and Rhonin has two quick cameos), and they don’t do anything to affect the plot. Even Foxblood wasn’t that bad. The plot didn’t completely hinge on his abilities. Never was he the deus ex machina, whose poorly explained god-like powers saved everyone at the last moment. In general, many of Knaak’s common pets—immensely powerful beings who can’t use their powers, or are able to use them just at the perfect time to save the day—were shelved in favor of following the lore characters.

But this led to another problem—they weren't necessary. In fact, Foxblood in particular (who I still believe started as a Gilnean/Worgen until Knaak was told not to use him in such a way) served no purpose other than to prolong the climax of the book by porting people into and out of the Nightmare over and over. As I said above, it wasn't as bad as in Night of the Dragon, but couldn't we just go in and kill the bad guy already? Artificial extension of word count is just annoying.

One thing that definitely left a sour taste in my mouth was the handling of exactly who was corrupting the Dream. For five years now, I’ve been following the story of the Nightmare on my characters, and there have been subtle hints along the way that an Old God was responsible. With the revelation in Stormrage that the first satyr, Xavius, was behind the corruption, I felt that much of that story was conveniently “skipped over.” Even though Xavius is portrayed as being empowered by some ancient evil sleeping beneath the waves of Azeroth, it felt like he had been inserted as the main antagonist. Why had no one in game mentioned the demon-turned-Old-God-worshipping-nightmare-Tree before? Why write in a middle-level villain, especially when everyone already expected the power behind him?

Luckily, that deeper villain still exists. Even though Malfurion makes himself something of a demigod whose power almost utterly obliterates all signs of the Emerald Nightmare from the Dream and Azeroth itself, I was very happy that there was part of the Dream which was still corrupted. I felt like it was a peace offering from the author to all those who were hoping to see a Nightmare expansion in game. Enough of the plot was left over to say “Hey, it can still happen.” While Stormrage ties up the plot threads that began in World of Warcraft, there are still ways we could see the story in game. And I commend whoever made that decision. It really has expanded our knowledge of the Warcraft universe without completely tying up an important plotline.

And now, the piece that bothered me most: the wedding of Tyrande and Malfurion. You may be wondering why this bothered me so much, and I can only say this: The wedding felt artificial. There was no need for it. Without even delving into the fact that before this book I didn't even believe night elves had wedding ceremonies (instead simply choosing long-term mates), I can say that the ceremony seemed extremely out of place to me.

First, it was entirely unnecessary. Tyrande and Malfurion have been together for hundreds of centuries, even if Malfurion has spent much of that inside the Emerald Dream. They don't need to be married—they've been together since the War of the Ancients. Second, assuming they did need to marry for some weird reason, the wedding feels entirely too human—again one of those pointers that Knaak writes night elves as immortal teenagers. Finally, the wedding seems like nothing more than a chance to put Tyrande and Malfurion in the same room as all of Knaak's "special snowflake" characters. Rhonin is there with his children, who get two or three good sentences of description that basically say "and they were highly attractive, unlike other half-elves." Falstad Wildhammer, who is a Knaak creation, is there representing the Wildhammer dwarves. (What about their mainstream cousins in Ironforge?) And the line that irritated me the most—Shandris Feathermoon is said to secretly enjoy planning weddings way more than leading troops. Oh goodie... how sappy and simply girlish (don't get mad—I'm trying to point that her character doesn't need to be "rounded out" so stereotypically).

Thankfully, Ysera and Alexstrasza are there to preside over the ceremony... wait, what? They preside over monogamist relationships even though both have had multiple consorts at a time throughout their long history? It's just... all wrong. It comes across feeling like Knaak's way of saying "Tyrande and Malfurion, in their wedding, join the ranks of my greatest creations." In my personal opinion, the scene is just arrogant. But I could be going overboard.

Before I close, I would be remiss not to mention that Richard Knaak did do something cool that I really wasn't expecting. I felt pity for Fandral Staghelm. Understand, I’ve wanted him to die since I first met him five years ago. I started to understand where he was coming from when the Ahn’Qiraj event happened, but I still hated him, and wanted the chance to fight him in-game. Even though Stormrage robbed me of that chance (for now—I still think we’ll see Staghelm in the future), it did so by making me feel sorry for what the once archdruid of the Night Elves had become. When he was led to his prison in the Barrow Dens, all the while babbling to the Nightmare phantom image of his dead son, I realized how shattered he had truly become. I pitied Fandral Staghelm. And that says a lot for the writing in Stormrage.

In closing, I am certain there are parts of Stormrage that will get retconned, possibly even as early as Cataclysm. I know that there are problems with the book and that there are people out there who feel betrayed by Blizzard for letting their so-called “worst writer” tie up plotlines that they wanted to be a part of. I am also certain that I haven’t had as much fun reading a Warcraft-related book in some time. And it was written in such a way that it gives me hope.

This, for the first time, was Richard Knaak book about Warcraft that enhanced the Warcraft Universe for me. I was looking for Stormrage to keep me entertained. It did just that, and gave a little more. I wouldn’t put it on my list of favorite Warcraft novels ever, but I would rank it pretty high.

And given my feelings about how the writer has handled the world before, that’s one hell of a compliment.