[Review] Of Blood and Honor by Chris Metzen

 

Title: Of Blood And Honor
Series: Warcraft (Book 0.5)
Author: Chris Metzen
Genre: fantasy, video game tie-in
Format: Physical, Archive, 68 pages
Publication Date: December 1, 2000
Published By: Blizzard Entertainment Inc.
Source: Purchased

Synopsis from Publisher

The world of Azeroth teemed with Elves and Dwarves walking among tribes of man in harmony. Now comes the demonic army known as the Burning Legion. Orcs, Dragons, Goblins, and Trolls all vie for supremacy over the scattered, warring kingdoms -- part of a scheme that will determine the fate of the world of Warcraft. The noble Paladin, Tirion Fordring, must decide who are the men, and who the monsters.

About Chris Metzen

Christopher Vincent Metzen a.k.a. "Thundergod" is an American game designer, artist, voice actor, and author known for his work creating the fictional universes and scripts for Blizzard Entertainment's three major award-winning media franchises: Warcraft, Diablo and StarCraft. On occasion, Metzen has published his art under the alias "Thundergod". Metzen was hired by Blizzard Entertainment as an animator and an artist; his first work for the company was with the video game Justice League Task Force.

Metzen was the Senior Vice President of Story and Franchise Development at Blizzard Entertainment and assisted the company's projects by providing voice talent for a number of characters, most notably the orc character Thrall, as well as contributing to artistic character design. Outside Blizzard Entertainment, Metzen authored a graphic novel series based on a futuristic second American civil war. Metzen retired in September 2016 to spend more time with his family. (From Wikipedia.)

My Thoughts:
I have been playing a lot of World of Warcraft lately, especially with the newest expansion, Shadowlands, now live on servers. I thought it would be interesting to dive into the novels. It's been hard to dig up some of the earlier ones. I was lucky to find the first 7 (the entire Warcraft series) in 2 archive books, although still a bit pricey. I am going to have a very hard time it seems finding books 1 and 3 of the World of Warcraft series, and maybe others as well. I am following this reading list.

This introduction into the series seems odd. It actually takes place after other stories in the archive so I am surprised it was listed as the first book in the series. It was short but sweet. A very good story about how appearances can be deceiving. I found the similarities in some parts to our struggles with racism very relatable, and scary, similar to how new settlers first felt about the native Indians.

The crowd cheered wildly for Barthilas and screamed for the orc's blood. Tirion marveled that his own people could be so savage and vile. He felt sick and overwhelmed by their smothering, collective hatred.

 In Of Blood and Honor we are first introduced to Tirion Fordring, a holy Paladin who was one of the first five paladins of the Knights of the Silver Hand. He is an honorable man and well respected. But all of that changes quickly once he meets an orc who behaves honorably and forces him to rethink his priorities. This of course surprises the man who has always believed all orcs to be savages and evil. There are several twists and turns in this story and I enjoyed it.

The Pros:

• The story itself was very good.
• A man comes to understand that members of a different race aren't always evil.
• The moral, different is not always bad.
• The length was short, but perfect for this story.
• Reading about familiar characters.
• The ending.

The Cons:

• Unfortunately, for me, the writing was not very strong. A lot of telling instead of showing. The flow just wasn't there. Everything felt very awkward. As much as I enjoyed the story, the writing kept distracting me from it.