4 Responses to “World of Warcraft: Beyond the Dark Portal”

1. Taylor Jones on February 6th, 2010 10:33 pm

   I have read the majority of the Warcraft books and I believe I like this one the least. There is practically no tension between Alliance and Horde. The entire book is pretty much one sided with no real retaliation from the Horde faction. It was pretty much just reading the how Alliance slaughtered the Horde in every way over and over again.
   Rating: 2 / 5

2. Dave Chua Hak Lien on February 7th, 2010 1:08 am

   The Warcraft novels have been mostly of middling quality, and this does little to change that perception. It tries to squeeze in too many characters in too limited a space, and the reader has little time to form any emotional link with any. The book ties together events that lead to the reopening of the dark portal, and Burning Crusade players might get a treat to see numerous characters from the game in the book. Nonetheless, it’s a plodding effort, even though both writers, who have written much better work, try to save the proceedings.
   Rating: 2 / 5

3. Edward Novak on February 7th, 2010 3:35 am

   Beyond the Dark Portal is probably the novel that most resembles World of Warcraft: in it, the Alliance vastly outnumbers the Horde at every turn, easily dispatches them and slaughters their soldiers and heroes, and still claims moral outrage when an orc actually manages to hurt one of them. As any veteran of a WoW PVP server will tell you, this is remarkably true to the game’s experience.

   This premise does not make for a good work of fiction, however. The heroes of the Alliance consist of characters who any WoW player will already know are, for the most part, destined to survive the book, and if this weren’t enough to kill any dramatic tension in combat scenes, it is coupled with the fact that the Alliance. Always. Wins. Each time the orcs manage to gain some advantage, the Alliance easily counters it tenfold. The orcs take refuge in the ruins of Auchidoun, and find a few powerful allies? The Alliance recruits an army of dead draenei and reenacts the Battle of Pellenor Fields.

   Only in a single battle at the beginning does the Horde manage to win a fight, and even then, they fail to bring down anyone important. The Alliance, meanwhile, continually slaughters at least one important, likable, and sympathetic Horde hero with each clash, often in an anticlimactic manner. (See: Khadgar’s duel with Dentarg, Danath’s fight with Kilrogg, and the casual defeat of Kargath Bladefist, who isn’t even mentioned by name.)

   By the end of the book, I was amazed that there were still any orcs left on Draenor to eventually appear in WoW. Time and time again, they are slaughtered wholesale, and yet any time they manage to defend themselves, the Alliance characters (who are given de facto status as the heroes of this book) are horrified. Particularly egregious is Danath Trollsbane, a character I was begging the writers to kill. Early in the novel, he is not only willing but *eager* to torture an orc prisoner; however, later, when a friend of his has been subjected to such, he is utterly horrified. The hypocrisy is staggering, and I sincerely wish that the writers had included at least one character capable of calling these “heroes” on their bull.

   This is a story that could have been great, and was in the original game. A small band of soldiers and heroes, marching into a hostile, ruined world, alone and outnumbered, trying to put a stop to the orcish threat, exploring an alien landscape, meeting strange new foes and stranger allies, and all the while racing against the ticking clock of Ner’zul’s great ritual. Instead, we got a story about a massive army marching through a portal, crushing the pathetic remnants of the Horde, slaughtering their champions at every turn, and making the orcs look about as threatening as a battered kitten.

   Perhaps the sort of sadistic Alliance player who enjoys griefing in Hillsbrad will enjoy this book, but for the rest of us: there are better ways to kill time between flight paths.
   Rating: 2 / 5

4. Ronald L. Matthews on February 7th, 2010 7:05 am

   A very good read, offering a wealth of background information to the World of Warcraft enthusiast.
   Rating: 5 / 5

Leave a Reply