When Azeroth was young, the noble titans appointed the five great dragonflights to safeguard the budding world. Each of the flights’ leaders was imbued with a portion of the titans’ vast cosmic powers. Together, these majestic Dragon Aspects committed themselves to thwarting any force that threatened the safety of the World of Warcraft.

Over ten thousand years ago, a betrayal by the maddened black Dragon Aspect, Deathwing, shattered the strength and unity of the dragonflights. His most recent assault on Azeroth—the Cataclysm—has left the world in turmoil. At the Maelstrom, the center of Azeroth’s instability, former Horde warchief Thrall and other accomplished shaman struggle to keep the world from tearing apart in the wake of Deathwing’s attack. Yet a battle also rages within Thrall regarding his new life in the shamanic Earthen Ring, hampering his normally unparalleled abilities.

Unable to focus on his duties, Thrall undertakes a seemingly menial task from an unexpected source: the mysterious green Dragon Aspect, Ysera. This humble endeavor soon becomes a journey spanning the lands of Azeroth and the timeways of history itself, bringing Thrall into contact with ancient dragonflights. Divided by conflict and mistrust, these dragons have become easy prey to a horrific new weapon unleashed by Deathwing’s servants . . . a living nightmare engineered to exterminate Azeroth’s winged guardians.

Of even greater concern is a bleak and terrifying possible future glimpsed by Ysera: the Hour of Twilight. Before this apocalyptic vision comes to pass, Thrall must purge his own doubts in order to discover his purpose in the world and aid Azeroth’s dragonflights as they face the Twilight of the Aspects.

As a bonus, Blizzard has released an excerpt of the novel on the official WoW site for those who want more of a preview of the novel. I’ve always been a fan of the novels since I’m such a lore nerd, and I have enjoyed Golden’s previous novels set in the WoW universe so I’ll be picking this up eventually. The book is available at local book stores as well as online at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

The Shattering

As a warning this review will contain some spoilers so if you don’t want to be spoiled with pre-Cata events, do not read further!

This book contains a lot of different aspects to the lore that I’m surprised that the length is so short. Even so, I think what I liked was the fleshing out of Anduin Wrynn, Varian’s son, as a character with thoughts and feelings. Reading the book you really get a good glimpse into his thoughts and feelings, and how much he dislikes his father. Now the dislike is too severe, but it’s definitely more than that teenage “I hate my dad because he has all the power.” We get to see Anduin’s reaction when Varian goes into one of his Lo’gosh fits regarding the massacre of some Night Elves by the Horde (or what seems to be the Horde).

On the flip side, we get to see more into why Thrall abandons his post as warchief and leaves Garrosh in his stead. Now after knowing that this was going to happen and that Garrosh has a hand in the death of Cairne, I was anxious to read about the backstory. In fact, the book opens with Cairne going to Northrend to bring Garrosh and his troops back home, and the juxtaposition between the two makes for some interesting plot points. In general you are able to get to know more about Garrosh and his personality. It made me understand his motives more, but I’m still not a fan of the guy.

Shattering also gives us a good look into the Tauren society with the massive takeover orchestrated by Magatha Grimtotem. It’s actually a pretty brutal scenerio where the Grimtotem tribe massacre any and all Tauren who are not of their tribe or supportive of their views. Thankfully Bane, Cairne’s son, is not part of the massacre and escapes with some others in order to return again and hopefully seek vengeance.

Within all this is the curious position that Jaina is in as a mediator between the Horde and the Alliance. She’s been known to meet and talk with Thrall regarding political issues, and in Shattering winds up talking with and advising Bane on his situation. Anduin even plays a role in this by giving Bane an ancient weapon that was given to him by Muradin. It’s actually a touching scene and it gives me hope that if we loose Varian, at least his son is diplomatic enough to handle dealing with members of the Horde.

End of spoilers.

All in all though I really do wish the book was a bit longer. It felt short to me, even with so much packed into it. Granted maybe that’s because it ends right before Deathwing bursts from the earth and starts burning the countryside. Now a book about what happens next is something I would like to read, even though it may encompass in-game events. Not sure if I’m going to make it to Loremaster right away with all of the new quests and I’d like to read about all the upheaval within the leading bodies of the Alliance and Horde, not to mention what’s going on with the different remaining dragonflights.

But if you’re a lore fan and want more of an insight into what happened before Deathwing came back? I highly recommend reading The Shattering.

The story that this novel could potentially tell should be intriguing to say the least. We may get more backstory on Deathwing’s thoughts and reasons. We may get a deeper glimpse into Goblin society and what’s happening in Gilneas. We could even hear more about the final fight with the Lich King since this novel is labeled as a “Prelude to Cataclysm.”

I’m also pleased that Christie Golden will be writing this novel. I really enjoy her writing, and Arthas: Rise of the Lich King is one of my favorite Warcraft novels. This novel should be a great read, and I think will really shed some light on the lore that we will see or that we should expect to see in the next expansion. The Amazon page shows it as being available for pre-order for $26USD, and you can order it now or wait on more details to be officially released.

Via WoW.com