Got sucked into StarCraft lore.

I had two WoW books before this, one of them being Arthas: Rise of the Lich King. Being a huge fan of that book I decided to look at what seemed to be its SC equivalent. This one really blew me away. Basically it characterizes Arcturus Mengsk (and his family) over the years from his senior year in prep school, all the way to tying in to StarCraft Episodes I and V. It's really heavy on character development and some of the changes are very interesting to see through the eyes of the Mengsks and their friends.

I've already bought this one properly as soon as I got back. I definitely recommend it to anyone who has played Brood War (and anyone who hasn't as well) and is at least remotely interested in the SC storyline. It's long but it's a very tight story

Hot shit. The book starts out almost completely positive, you've got this lighthearted story of Arcturus being an angsty teen, almost a carbon copy of Artemis Fowl, and rounding that whole year in prep school off by sending the principal to prison. I'm really amazed how smooth the author played that whole transition from that teen into pretty much his dad, except while his dad was portrayed as this "public hero" guy, Arcturus is made to look like this huge asshole who everyone still manages to at least respect. Kinda tragic in retrospect, although that conclusion where you've almost forgotten that he's talking to his son about his life story brings it back to relative happiness.

This book did exactly as promised. It starts right where you end Wings of Liberty, and ends at what seems to be the location in the Blizzcon 2011 trailer for Heart of the Swarm. Otherwise it's basically the adventures of Raynor's Raiders, with more emphasis on the Raiders part, plus Valerian and his bridge crew. Very entertaining, and you really get to see the role Valerian plays in this whole conflict.

Annabell is also a huge player in this given that before she was pretty much a starting portrait and an unnamed person who made her way around engineering in the campaign once in a while. Cade (the black guy) has a decent sized role as well and Kachinsky (the default starter) is mentioned a few times but he doesn't actually make it in. Rory is a space guido. Definitely my favorite part of the book is Rory the space guido.

Overall, I think this book is an answer to the whole "don't buy WoL for the story" series of complaints. It clarifies a bunch of things and explores others, and definitely adds depth to the SC2 timeline. If you were disappointed with the story of WoL, this book is for you.

I will buy as soon as I finish typing this.

I'm praying that they somehow use this development for good in Heart of the Swarm. I really like the differences portrayed between Arcturus and Valerian, and I'm hoping the latter becomes a good guy since Sarah hates Arcturus and Arcturus is pretty much at war with his son at this point.

And while we're at that, Blizz needs to keep Sarah's story arc moving in the positive direction as it was in Flashpoint. It's not a stretch from the WoL ending cutscene and it's much more satisfying than just making her evil again and saying "nope fuck you artifact didn't do anything permanent"

I'm going to lump this all into one and say that these books get progressively dryer as time goes on. The first one was decently paced, the second definitely had its crowning moments, and the third was a trainwreck except for the conclusion which was actually pretty good.

This one is about an archaeologist who gets semi-possessed by a Protoss named Zamara. He gets involved in shenanigans with some shady Terrans, Valerian and friends, Kerrigan, a bunch of different kinds of Protoss, and a Dark Archon on crack. Between all this, Zamara tells him (and us) a bunch of stories about the history of the Protoss and why they say "En Taro Adun".

The enjoyable parts for me were the story arc of Ethan Stewart (which needed way more showing time than it received, especially in the third book), the story of Adun and the founding of the Dark Templar, and the huge climax in the end.

A lot of the exchanges, however, were pretty vapid. Rosemary stopped being interesting after the first book ended, and Jake didn't really have any personality to him. Many of the Protoss also had the same generic Toss mindset - fairly dogmatic, condescending to Terrans, antifeminist (to Terrans, female Protoss are still elevated) because of Kerrigan.

I bought the second one beforehand but I'm not going to buy the first or third.

Again, Ethan. The whole thing between him and Kerrigan was a masterpiece. Particularly of note was how he died after falling off of his mutalisk, begging Kerrigan to help him, and Kerrigan psionically bitchslaps him and leaves him to die. And through all this, Ethan is still fiercely loyal to his queen and wants her to come back with his dying breath.

I was rooting for him the whole time because everyone else was so boring to pay attention to. I play Protoss and I was rooting for him.

This was a fantastic read that told the story of Jim Raynor signing up along with his hillbilly friends (arguably the best part of the Terran race is the hillbilly antics) into the Confederate Marine Corps. Then in parallel you have the fall and rise of Tychus Findlay trying to follow through with Operation Early Retirement and getting rich at it, and also a boy who gets drugged and illegally conscripted into the Marines alongside Jim.

Considering most of this book took place on the same planet, I'm amazed at the variety of atmospheres in this story. Not even really violating the one-planet-one-biome rule because we never really get much about the terrain or scenery of the planet. But there's all these exchanges going on amidst the Guild Wars on either side of the action.

Also Tychus is probably up there with Rory as one of the funniest Raiders.

Then the ending has enough plot twists for M. Night Shyamalan to roll over in his grave.

I like how they really built up Vanderspool so that when he finally gets his comeuppance, it's very welcoming after watching Hank and Ward die. Of course, Tychus's antics are awesome too, especially considering the amount of attractive women present in this story overall. It's got action and intrigue in huge amounts and keeps you reading.

Also, resocs.