Lord of the Clans

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable but predictable
Review: "Lord of the Clans," the second WarCraft novel (third if you count the eBook), is yet another worthy addition to the series. Taking place over a number of years, it takes place after "Day of the Dragon" and before "Of Blood and Honor." Basically, this book is just an adaptation of the cancelled adventure game of the same title that was in the works at Blizzard a couple of years ago. While Christie Golden doesn't have as fluid or readable a writing style as Richard Knaak, this book still flows very nicely, as it has a much smaller focus. Unfortunately, the story itself is very familiar - the outcast, in this case an orc, raised among humans as a slave and fighter, finds freedom, tries to fit in with his own people, and ends up, of course, excelling beyond all expectations.

"Lord of the Clans" really has nothing to do with "Day of the Dragon," but the direction this series of novels seems to be taking overall is that of a lead-in to the game "WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos," in which it seems that the Orcs and Humans, if still not friendly, are at least fighting together against a common foe. "Day of the Dragon" started out somewhat boring, with lots of expository writing, and served to introduce us to the various races of the Alliance at the end of the time of WarCraft II - namely Humans, Dwarves, and Elves. By the time of the beginning of "Lord of the Clans," the wars are over - the Orcs are essentially wiped out or being kept in large internment camps. This novel is about an Orc named Thrall, raised by humans as a gladiator, who has also picked up some other human traits - mercy, tactical thinking, and has also managed to pick up on the nobility of the Orcish clans before they were united by the evil Gul'Dan into the Horde. Thrall, once he gains freedom, begins a quest to find out who he is and ends up becoming...well, the title says it all.

This book gives us a fair amount of background on the Orcs, and is in fact very readable. Aside from a glaring grammatical error right on the first page, I found very few typos, although this novel does suffer, though not as badly, from the same problem that plagued "Day of the Dragon" - how hard would it be for them to copy a map from an old WarCraft manual and stick it in the front of the novel?

Overall, this book isn't technically as good as "Day of the Dragon," but it's very readable, and the relationships don't seem quite as forced in this book as in the previous one. J.R.R. Tolkein it's not, but "Lord of the Clans" is an engaging and entertaining fantasy novel in its own right, setting down an important chapter in the history of the World of WarCraft.

Rating:
Summary: Can't miss it for WarCraft III fans
Review: Based on PC game "WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos", the writer wrote a whole life of Orcish WarChief Thrall, from his Da and Ma, his raise, his name meaning, his master of fighting tactics and spirit of nature, even where his favour Doomhammer come from ...and he became every orcs's hero and leader.
Everything about Thrall you can got it from here. If you love the game "WarCraft III", can't miss it.

Rating:
Summary: Unoriginal
Review: Basically, this is a copy of Spartacus by R. Jovaniolli, if that's how you spell it, converted into the world of Warcraft. Spartacus was a Roman slave, trained to be a gladiator, who then ran away, and rose other slaves and gladiators to fight against rome. He actually collected an enormous army of these people, but then was defeated. Same stuff. Encampents are gladiator schools, etc

The only reason I gave this book 3 stars is because if you forget about originality, then you'll actually get quite a book. Although I dislike the idea of everyone coming to help Thrall. Sounds kinda stupid... maybe it's just me. Read this book if you want to.

Rating:
Summary: Did not like this book
Review: I bought this book thinking it looked awesome and I was hoping it would be based on missions from the game,it wasnt but that didn't make it an awful book.first off the orcs all of a sudden become the good guys,and not just from their point of view i mean really the good guys and all humans are evil.Also the book is boring and lacks any logic or creativity

Rating:
Summary: Great read, too short to buy
Review: I have played Warcraft since 1993 so I had to read this. If I had recognized the author's name I may not have bought it though since I hated her book "Vampire of the Mist" (1st book in the Ravenloft series). However I'm glad I read this since it provided depth and background that was sorely lacking in regards to the orcs. Instead of stupid savage brutes bent on destruction, Warcraft3 portrayed them as noble and civilized, but there wasn't too much story there (it was only a game though so I'm not complaining).

Thrall's character is completely revealed and I actually cared about him. The antagonist was well done also as I wanted Thrall to kill him, but the author didn't make him a cheesy villian type; rather he was just an abusive SOB alcoholic. It's too bad these types can't get the sword more often in real life because the author made his character so realistic that I believe she has had experience with these people.

Overall the plot was interesting, although it mainly just introduced a portion of the Warcraft world (just like the other two Warcraft books). The character development was excellent. The action was great too; it was exciting without the unbelievable heroics of a Jean Rabe character (yuck).

My only criticism is that the book weighs in at a palty 278 pages, which I blasted through in about 2.5 days (it's very easy reading). This to me was not worth the seven bones plus tax that I coughed up for it. Better to borrow it.

Rating:
Summary: Great read, too short to buy
Review: I have played Warcraft since 1993 so I had to read this. If I had recognized the author's name I may not have bought it though since I hated her book "Vampire of the Mist" (1st book in the Ravenloft series). However I'm glad I read this since it provided depth and background that was sorely lacking in regards to the orcs. Instead of stupid savage brutes bent on destruction, Warcraft3 portrayed them as noble and civilized, but there wasn't too much story there (it was only a game though so I'm not complaining).

Thrall's character is completely revealed and I actually cared about him. The antagonist was well done also as I wanted Thrall to kill him, but the author didn't make him a cheesy villian type; rather he was just an abusive SOB alcoholic. It's too bad these types can't get the sword more often in real life because the author made his character so realistic that I believe she has had experience with these people.

Overall the plot was interesting, although it mainly just introduced a portion of the Warcraft world (just like the other two Warcraft books). The character development was excellent. The action was great too; it was exciting without the unbelievable heroics of a Jean Rabe character (yuck).

My only criticism is that the book weighs in at a palty 278 pages, which I blasted through in about 2.5 days (it's very easy reading). This to me was not worth the seven bones plus tax that I coughed up for it. Better to borrow it.

Rating:
Summary: Good background for the game
Review: I was a little reserved when i picked up the book wondering whether it was a dud or not.But as soon as i started reading, it did not let up. This book gives great insite into the true nature of the orcs and its a great tale to read. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: this book kicks
Review: if you a warcraft fan or ever have been you will love this book and i happen to be a big fan of the orcs and this book revolves around thrall the new leader of the clans

Rating:
Summary: An excellent book, and my favorite of the series
Review: Many who have been long-time fans of Warcraft know about the 'Greatest Adventure Game That Never Was'. Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans was a complete departure from the traditional strategy formula of Warcraft. Becoming a point and click adventure, using cartoonish animated sequences, Blizzard Entertainment ultimately cancelled the ill-fated game due to quality assurance reasons. However, this story was far too important to the Warcraft Lore to ignore, hence it was transformed into a novel. And I must say, I am not only impressed with how the novel turned out, but I also personally feel that this is the best book in the series.

When a baby Orc, barely a year old, is found alone in the forests surrounding Durnholde, a cocky and scheming human named Blackmoore takes the baby in. Entrusting the baby to his servant, Blackmoore plans to use the Orc to his advantage. As 20 year pass, the Second War has long been over, and the once tiny and innocent baby grows up to become the mighty Thrall, raised in the care of cruel human masters, while his people whither away in deternment camps. This tale spans Thrall's life from his tragic beginnings to his final victory. Over the course of the book, familiar characters, such as the ferocious and mighty Grom Hellscream, play key roles in the development of Thrall and the story. While I do not wish to tell any more about the story than I already have, rest assured that many more familiar characters make surprising appearences in this book, as well as some of the new characters in this book making appearences in Warcraft III.

Although I must agree with what others have said about the book being somewhat predictable, I found it to be a very intriguing read. Much like Day of the Dragon before it, I found this book difficult to put down. Perhaps the strongest aspect of this book was the raw emotion that went into it. As I read this book, I found that I cared for Thrall so much that my emotions matched his. I can honestly say that this book did everything from make me laugh, to make me feel Thrall's rage, to utterly breaking my heart (and that's no easy thing to do). The fact that this occurred only further proves how well this book was written.

As with Day of the Dragon, all of the lore in this book was true to the Warcraft history. Despite being done by different authors, Day of the Dragon and Lord of the Clans had no differences from one another. Clearly Blizzard had controlling interests in the development of these books, and that is a very good thing. I found Lord of the Clans to be very similar to Gladiator, as well as a few other films and books. These similarities are not bad at all...they only lend to the overall quality of the book.

Those that took an interest in Thrall in Warcraft III and wanted to know of his humble beginnings will be able to do so with this book. It ties in completely to the game and true Warcraft fans will love this book. As a standalone book, once again I recommend that those not versed in Warcraft lore pass. If interested, it makes for a great read, but only those familiar with Warcraft history will understand everything that occurs in the book. This was definitely a great, moving book and I was very satisfied in the end.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent book, and my favorite of the series
Review: Many who have been long-time fans of Warcraft know about the 'Greatest Adventure Game That Never Was'. Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans was a complete departure from the traditional strategy formula of Warcraft. Becoming a point and click adventure, using cartoonish animated sequences, Blizzard Entertainment ultimately cancelled the ill-fated game due to quality assurance reasons. However, this story was far too important to the Warcraft Lore to ignore, hence it was transformed into a novel. And I must say, I am not only impressed with how the novel turned out, but I also personally feel that this is the best book in the series.

When a baby Orc, barely a year old, is found alone in the forests surrounding Durnholde, a cocky and scheming human named Blackmoore takes the baby in. Entrusting the baby to his servant, Blackmoore plans to use the Orc to his advantage. As 20 year pass, the Second War has long been over, and the once tiny and innocent baby grows up to become the mighty Thrall, raised in the care of cruel human masters, while his people whither away in deternment camps. This tale spans Thrall's life from his tragic beginnings to his final victory. Over the course of the book, familiar characters, such as the ferocious and mighty Grom Hellscream, play key roles in the development of Thrall and the story. While I do not wish to tell any more about the story than I already have, rest assured that many more familiar characters make surprising appearences in this book, as well as some of the new characters in this book making appearences in Warcraft III.

Although I must agree with what others have said about the book being somewhat predictable, I found it to be a very intriguing read. Much like Day of the Dragon before it, I found this book difficult to put down. Perhaps the strongest aspect of this book was the raw emotion that went into it. As I read this book, I found that I cared for Thrall so much that my emotions matched his. I can honestly say that this book did everything from make me laugh, to make me feel Thrall's rage, to utterly breaking my heart (and that's no easy thing to do). The fact that this occurred only further proves how well this book was written.

As with Day of the Dragon, all of the lore in this book was true to the Warcraft history. Despite being done by different authors, Day of the Dragon and Lord of the Clans had no differences from one another. Clearly Blizzard had controlling interests in the development of these books, and that is a very good thing. I found Lord of the Clans to be very similar to Gladiator, as well as a few other films and books. These similarities are not bad at all...they only lend to the overall quality of the book.

Those that took an interest in Thrall in Warcraft III and wanted to know of his humble beginnings will be able to do so with this book. It ties in completely to the game and true Warcraft fans will love this book. As a standalone book, once again I recommend that those not versed in Warcraft lore pass. If interested, it makes for a great read, but only those familiar with Warcraft history will understand everything that occurs in the book. This was definitely a great, moving book and I was very satisfied in the end.