BlizzPlanet has a nice tidbit from Christie Golden about her upcoming novel about Arthas Menethil (better known as half of the Lich King, that bad guy we're going to be spending a lot of time with in the expansion). The book is due out next year (so odds are that we'll be approaching the end of the story by the time it hits store shelves), but it'll offer a look at the bad guy way before he started being bad -- the book starts with Arthas as a 10-year-old Prince, and covers everything between there to his little meltdown we witnessed in Warcraft III. The romance with Jaina is supposed to get some good coverage as well, so the book should be a good read.

And there are some bonuses for close readers as well -- we'll have seen some scenes before (including one between Arthas and Muradin in Beyond the Dark Portal), but of course, in this book, they'll be from Arthas' perspective. Arthas is undoubtedly the villian of the next ten levels in WoW (they even named the thing after him), but it's really exciting to have a villian with such an interesting and twisted past behind him.

You've been reading Know Your Lore for a long time now, and since then, you've started checking out the WoWWiki's lore information. You've read the World of Warcraft encyclopedia and history. You've even gone out and bought all the Warcraft novels, comic books and table-top roleplaying games, and previous Warcraft games, just so that you could go through and feast your eyes on more WoW lore.

Or... maybe you've just read some of the quest texts every now and then. Everyone's got at least some idea of Warcraft lore just from playing the game, with some sense of what the story is about. Chances are you've also encountered many other fantasy stories of one sort or another, and perhaps started thinking about how WoW is different, or how it is the same.

What are some of the similarities and differences you see between the Warcraft lore and the lore of other great fantasy stories? Do you think it's just a cheap ripoff of Lord of the Rings? Or do you think it brings its own unique contribution to the genre of fantasy storytelling and cannot be fairly compared to any other story lore? Perhaps it even draws the most inspiration from a certain religion or philosophy! What do you think?

The Warcraft universe is constantly expanding. Trading card games, sound tracks and board games abound. It seems we can't get enough of Azeroth online or off. Blizzard has tried to meet this growing demand is by creating a series of fiction novels and comic books. One of those endeavors is a Korean manga title, Dragon Hunt, the first novel in the Sunwell Trilogy that was published last year.

Now, our friends over at the WoW Europe official site have made Dragon Hunt available to read online for free! Every week they are putting up a new chapter. So far there are three chapters to read and I already can't get enough. Head on over, check it out and tell us what you think.

Tie-in novels really aren't my thing, so I never read Rise of the Horde, but for those of you that are interested, there's a new Warcraft novel coming out. World of Warcraft: Tides of Darkness is written by Aaron Rosenberg, who wrote, among other things, Starcraft: Queen of Blades. If you couldn't guess by the title, this new book is going to be exploring the events of Warcraft 2, which was my favorite game by far of the three. Blizzplanet has the full story on it; it's going to be released in August 2007, and the author will be making an appearance at New York Comic Con if you want to meet him.

Regardless of whether I personally read these novels or not, I do think they're a good thing, in that they delve further into the lore than the games often have a chance to. Lore: it does a body good. What aspect of Blizzard's various universes do you think needs a novel treatment?

The latest novel set in the World of Warcraft has been released this week. While I haven't yet seen it in my local bookshop, it does seem to be available from Amazon.com.

Rise of the Horde is written by Christie Golden, who wrote (with Don Perrin) Warcraft: Lord of the Clans, as well as a couple of Star Trek: Voyager novels.

From Amazon's blurb:

Though the young Warchief Thrall ended the demon curse that had plagued his people for generations, the orcs still wrestle with the sins of their bloody past. As the rampaging Horde, they waged a number of devastating wars against their perennial enemy -- the Alliance. Yet the rage and bloodlust that drove the orcs to destroy everything in their path nearly consumed them as well.

Long ago, on the idyllic world of Draenor, the noble orc clans lived in relative peace with their enigmatic neighbors, the draenei. But the nefarious agents of the Burning Legion had other plans for both of the unsuspecting races. The demon-lord Kil'jaeden set in motion a dark chain of events that would succeed not only in eradicating the draenei, but forging the orc clans into an single, unstoppable juggernaut of hatred and destruction.

I've bought a couple of WoW novels in the past, but I've never really been drawn-in by them, preferring being in the game than to lazing on the couch reading about it. Rise of the Horde seems to be a little more interesting, as it may give some background going into The Burning Crusade. And hey, with a couple of weeks to go, and not a lot to do in-game, now might be a good time for me to give WoW novels a second chance.

So, are you going to pick this one up? Have any of you read the past novels, and do you find they add to your enjoyment of the game, or just give you a nice break from staring at the computer screen?

01/16/07 UPDATE! Christie Golden has written in (YAY! THE AUTHOR!) and clears up a few things:

Thanks for making people aware of the book! I do have a correction
for you if I may--I did not write Lord of the Clans "with" Don
Perrin. Lord of the Clans (as a novel that is, of course the
backstory and the world is Blizzard's!) is entirely my own creation,
I never saw any of the work Don had done on the project before I
started writing.

Also, I'm delighted to report that many things made it from the book
Rise of the Horde into the expansion, which is a real thrill for me
personally and doesn't often happen in the world of media tie-ins.
Blizzard is a fantastic company to work with. And yes, I play WoW.
:D

Thanks for the information, Christie, hopefully we'll see you in the Outlands!