[Books] WoW book suggestions

[RehabOC80]

Hey all, I just recently got my kindle fire and was looking for some good reading. I've always enjoyed the WoW more so I thought a good first stop would be to start reading all the official/unofficial WoW novels(and short stories?)

Anyway, is there a certain order I should start with and work my way through? Chronological maybe? Or by publication date? Or just a general preference of where to start and what to follow up with.

Thanks for any insight. I've played WoW since vanilla and followed lore pretty good, but thought this would be a greatwayto this history and insight on a lot of key characters.

I'm also horde and tend to find stories based aroundhorde point of view a little more appealing but I'm not biased and want to read them all eventually either way

--Outt

[Zoma]

I'd recommend the Chronicles of War, which is a combination of "Rise of the Horde", "The Last Guardian", "Tides of Darkness" and "Beyond the Dark Portal".

They're already in chronological order. RotH is about the Orcs initial corruption and war against the Draenei on their planet. TLG is about Medivh. ToD is about the second war, and is mostly done from the point of view of Orgrim, Gul'dan, Anduin Lothar and Turalyon. BtDP is about Ner'zhul re-opening the Dark Portal, putting both worlds in danger. Like ToD, it's fairly split between Horde and Alliance PoVs.

If you're interested in Thrall, his backstory in Lord of the Clans is pretty good.

I liked the War of the Ancients trilogy, though some of the main characters were introduced in the far less interesting "Day of the Dragon". However, those characters (Rhonin, Krasus) have probably been mentioned enough in game and on these forums that you don't need to read DotD to know who they are.

I haven't really liked any of the more recent Warcraft books, except maybe Arthas. You can probably guess what that's about.

[Anshinritsumai]

Personally, start with the "Warcraft Archive" of books, it was the original series of Warcraft novels. They're all relatively good books, but their subject matter has been (mostly) covered in WoW itself. Day of the Dragon is a bit boring, but it gives you a better understanding of Grim Batol, Deathwimg, Alexstrasza, Krasus, and Rhonin. Lord of the Clans and The Last Guardian on the other hand are both a bit more interesting as they go into detail about the stories of Thrall and Medivh respectively.
- Day of the Dragon
- The Lord of the Clans
- The Last Guardian
- Of Blood and Honor (unnumbered, not technically a novel).

Then there's the War of the Ancients trilogy, which was pretty much what the Dragon Soul patch in Cataclysm was based on. This series sheds alot more light on the subject of what happened 10,000 years ago during the first invasion of the Burning Legion; more so than any of the games ever did. There's also a huge focus on Malfurion, Illidan, Tyrande, Krasus, Rhonin, Deathwing, Alextrasza, Sargeras, Cenarius, and Azshara; as they all played huge roles in the first invasion of the Burning Legion. In addition, it also serves as an origin story for the High Elves, explains the immortality of the Night Elves (pre-WC3), and explains how Kalimdor and EK were split.
- Well of Eternity
- The Demon Soul
- The Sundering



After those 7, the rest we're printed under the "World of Warcraft" title imprint; and for the most part are all stand-alone titles and can be read in any order. The novels jump all over Warcraft history, ranging from the first war to Cataclysm. Take your time and read whatever seems interesting to you. I've personally only ever read Cycle of Hatred from the WoW imprints, so I couldn't go further into detail about them.

[Amirila]

I must say that I prefer the newer books, Arthas and foward. For me they are just easier to read, with the flow, not the language. But if you want to know more about the last than the present, you should read the older ones

[RehabOC80]

Thanks for the suggestions. Should I go for the chronicles of war first or the archives of war?

[Skarsguard]

I would get rise of the horde as your first book is a good read and probably my favorite one so far. (I mainly play ally so I'm not biased just because of the name.)

[Anshinritsumai]

The best way to go really depends on where you'd rather start, ie: "What bit of lore interests you the most?"


Chronological Order by Book Release:
If you don't care and would rather follow chronological order of book release dates, start with the Warcraft Archive, then go to the War of the Ancients Archive, and then hit up the Chronicles of War archive; after Chronicles then hit up all the remaining World of Warcraft books in whatever order you see fit as there's no real connection to each other aside from the general "theme" of the expansion they're tied to.


The Warcraft Archive (Day of the Dragon, Lord of the Clans, The Last Guardian, and Of Blood and Honor) are all WC1-2 stories, all of which help understand practically everything in WoW upto Cataclysm; ranging from the Burning Legion, to Deathwing's corruption, Thrall's escape and rise to leadership, and Medivh's corruption.

The War of the Ancients Archive (The Well of Eternity, The Demon Soul, and The Sundering) are all pre-WC1 stories that help you greatly understand the entire Dragon Soul patch in Cataclysm, as well as some huge lore pieces throughout the entire Warcraft mythos.

And the Chronicles of War rchive (Rise of the Horde, The Last Guardian (same as Warcraft Archive), Tides of Darkness, and Beyond the Dark Portal)


Chronological Order by Warcraft Lore:
- The War of the Ancients Trilogy starts during the Third War (Warcraft 3), but takes a time-travel approach to 10,000 years before the Third War
- The Rise of the Horde has a lot of flashbacks that tell the Orcs story throughout history.
- Arthas: Rise of the Lich King takes place over a very long period of time, but is widely suggested to be read prior to WotLK content.


Pre-First War
- War of the Ancients 1: The Well of Eternity (time-traveled)
- War of the Ancients 2: The Demon Soul (time-traveled)
- War of the Ancients 3: The Sundering (time-traveled)
- Rise of the Horde

First War (Warcraft: Orcs and Humans)
- The Last Guardian

Second War (Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness)
- Tides of Darkness
- Day of the Dragon

Invasion of Draenor (Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal)
- Beyond the Dark Portal
- Lord of the Clans

Third War (Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne)
- War of the Ancients 1: The Well of Eternity (actual time)
- War of the Ancients 2: The Demon Soul (actual time)
- War of the Ancients 3: The Sundering (actual time)
- Cycle of Hatred

World of Warcraft
- Rise of the Horde

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
- Night of the Dragon
- Arthas: Rise of the Lich King

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
- Stormrage
- The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
- Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects
- Wolfheart
- Jaina Proudmoore: Tides of War

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria
- None here yet

[Amirila]

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria
- None here yet

We'll get the Vol'jin book in April though *yeay*

[Kathranis]

I'd personally suggest reading these in this order:

Chronicles of War [Rise of the Horde, The Last Guardian, Tides of Darkness, Beyond the Dark Portal]
Lord of the Clans
Arthas: Rise of the Lich King
Cycle of Hatred
The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm
Wolfheart
Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects
Jaina Proudmoore: Tides of War

Chronicles of War will give you a pretty complete view of the first two wars and what lead up to them. Rise of the Horde is also frequently considered to be one of the best books in the series.

Lord of the Clans, Rise of the Lich King, and Cycle of Hatred will give you some good insight into the events surrounding the Third War, though the Third War itself hasn't been novelized yet, apart from sections of the Alliance and Scourge campaigns in Rise of the Lich King (which also happens to be one of my personal favorites).

The Shattering through Tides of War will give you pretty much everything you need to know about the modern era of World of Warcraft, along with the motivations and inner workings of most of the current major players.

All together, they'll give you pretty complete character story arcs for Ner'zhul, Gul'dan, Thrall, Garrosh, and Jaina, as well as mostly complete character arcs for Arthas and Varian.

You can supplement them with the various free short stories, which mostly serve to fill in minor gaps and provide a bit of additional backstory.


You can also read the War of the Ancients Trilogy, the ____ of the Dragon books, and Stormrage to get information on the ancient history of Azeroth, the night elves (Malfurion in particular), and Knaak's various original characters like Rhonin. You'll have to decide yourself if you can stomach Knaak's writing style; not everyone can. The only Warcraft book he's written that I would personally recommend is Wolfheart.