World of Warcraft: Arthas: Rise of the Lich King

If you played Warcraft III or Wrath of the Lich King expansion. You will love this book. It goes into details about Arthas and Jaina's childhood and their deep affection for each other before Arthas was turned into the Lich King. There were other important characters in the story as well you will recognize if you follow the lore. This book will walk you all the way up until the Start of Wrath of the Lich King expansion! Very much enjoyed it! This has got me hyped to play the upcoming Classic WOTLK expansion coming out Sep 26, 2022! Can't wait to make my DK again!

I don't know much about the World of Warcraft lore, but I found this book highly intriguing. The story of a prince who is corrupted by a lust for power, Arthas becomes what he hates, an evil entity bent on destruction and conquest. He finds a demonic sword called Frostmourne which is bound to the soul of the Lich King, an evil entity that poisons Arthas' mind. He eventually succumbs to the sword's demands for bloodlust and death. The characters were well written and the plot moved along briskly, though I thought some of Arthas' choices were downright stupid given the circumstances he was in. I recommend this book for anyone who loves high fantasy, intrigue, and dark characters.

First off I think Christie Golden has a lot of heart to take on the Arthas story in novel form. Being very recent history in Warcraft Lore there exists a great deal of source material. Despite only covering a few years the time of the Third War has the greatest number of events and details about those events in all of Warcraft. Short of splitting each of the three "acts" of the book into its own separate novel like the War of the Ancients Trilogy I don't think there was a possible way to bring the story together without having to skip events or be slightly fuzzy with some of the facts. I think she did a great job within the limits of what she had though. Minor Spoilers only, hopefully. The book is split into his childhood, his manhood, and his time as the Lich King before the end of the second expansion of WoW. The material on the First and Second War are few at best. The author assumes you already know the events of these wars and only offers snippets related to Arthas which I don't think is a bad thing. *Reading 'The Last Guardian' through 'Tides of Darkness' helps by the way* The relationship between him and Jaina Proudmoore is given much more import and detail than in previous material. Sadly, when the story progresses to the events of the Third War just short of half way in it there is a struggle to fit everything in and people will be disappointed that a character or event they really liked and thought was important was only given 2 pages of material in the book. It turns into a cliff notes version of Warcraft 3. That being said, I think Christie is one of the best writers they tap for these novels. Her writing is fun to read and respects the source material. She specifically excels at building a believable character and conflict, her stories involving the Horde are great. She does a good job at trying to give Arthas a personality and humanity you can understand. He severely lacked this in the source games where his transition from Prince to Lich King wasn't very believable and didn't give you a reason to like him very much before he turned.

My favorite books from the Warcraft and the WoW series. Brings back a lot of memories from the Frozen Throne era. Keep in mind that the paperback editions of this book come in 2 different sizes. This is the Blizzard Legends edition, which is larger than the Pocket Books ones.

Arthas is one of my favorite characters in WoW.

This was amazing ..can't wait for a movie adaptation

Guys, this isn't Christe Goldens fault. She is an excellent writer that explores a characters motivations more thoroughly than most. Her storytelling is hauntingly epic when it wants to be. Truth be told, this book wasn't hers. The details of an epic character were glossed over so heavily and quickly that the book lost so much meaning so quickly. Couple that with the fact that all the important dialogue is stripped right from the game (which fits for the game, but is so awful on the page) that it is just unfair to consider this mess the doing of the author. This is Blizzard's failure.

I've been playing Warcraft since before it was a MMORPG. Normally I avoid reading books like these though I thought I'd make an exception, as I loved the Wrath of the Lich King content. Christie Golden's novel sort of lets us all peek under the hood, see what happened to Arthas to make him who he is. We see this happen through the campaigns in Warcraft III, but reading it is very different. It also shows us how some of the other characters came to be who they are as we know them in World of Warcraft, as well as in the end of WCIII. I primarily read it during work breaks, but I would read it again. Golden knows how to turn a phrase, and was a great choice to author a book like this.

A questo libro non si può dire nulla. Ok, è in inglese, ma son andata oltre a questo "piccolo" dettaglio pur di averlo tra le mani. La versione è tascabile, ma se ne fa una ragione dato i prezzi delle prime stampe. Arthas è Arthas....personaggio stupendo!

You get to learn of Arthas the boy, the lover, the king-to-be, and finally The Lich King. This story will tug your heart in all directions and leave you wondering "Did I just try to justify mass murder?" 10/10

I'm sure that if you're here than you know a little about the book. Its fantastic. A little rushed towards the end, but I was there for Arthas' early childhood anyway. I definitely recommend the audiobook as well!

Es un gran libro, Christie Golden me parece una excelente escritora, es el segundo de WoW que leo de su autoría y me atrapa en un instante, son bastante dinámicos y nada aburridos, si aparte eres fanático de Warcraft, este libro no durará mucho. La historia de Arthas es excelente, para los que hemos jugado desde Warcraft III y la expansión The Frozen Throne, contendrá una explicación más a detalle de los eventos que ya conocemos, la personalidad de Arthas y su relación con Jaina, Muradin y Uther, algo que lo hace realmente entrañable. A parte a la mitad del libro viene una imágen a todo color de Arthas y del Lich King que se ven excelentes!

Parfait