Graphic Novel Reviews: Shadows of Ice (The Sunwell Trilogy Book 2)

*Special 3-day posting*

Warcraft: Shadows of Ice (Book 2 of The Sunwell Trilogy)

by Richard A. Knaak

art by Jae-Hwan Kem

The first book of this series was a nice introduction to the main story involving the bad guy of Dar'Khan, but this one suddenly veers off path. As a result of the authors veering off path this book becomes just a stand-alone flop. It does not seem cohesive to the first book in the franchise. The main reason that it gets three points instead of two is because this adheres to what can occur while playing the video game. While in-game you may suddenly have to veer off path of your main mission to take care of something that occurs in that area. In the game you may suddenly discover that a bad guy for another quest is nearby, so you go out to quickly take care of that quest. Here it does not lend itself to the story. It takes away from what could have been a pretty decent manga.

While Dar'Khan does appear in this volume as the villain near the end, the main villain turns out to be someone else. I will not spoil who it is since they are made out to be a good guy for a vast majority of the book. This sudden side villain detracts from the overarching story of the book and takes our heroes on an adventure between two warring factions: the scourge and dwarves. The leader of the scourge having obtained an orb to call the dead to life is attacking the dwarves and others. The heroes feel that they have to help them out, since they are called there trying to take off some collars placed on them. They believe there is a dwarf that will be able to help them remove them in the area. Little do they know about the fighting. 

Overall this book could have been signficantly better if Knaak had simply focused on telling more about the heroes and trying to reach Dar'Khan, but instead he does not cement a main story instead he decides to create a book that makes the series seem like it is poorly written. While I mentioned that the game does veer off this does not mean that the books/comics published in this world should do the same. Manga stories need to be somewhat cohesive, especially when I am pretty sure that the author and publisher always knew that it was going to be three volumes since they gave it the name of the Sunwell Trilogy. The author could have tightened this up a lot more and had a truly epic fantasy set in Azeroth, but instead we have a volume that falls flat on its face because it tries to be something it should not have. It is not a video game. It is a manga series explaining one aspect of the video game.

I have seen that other manga/comics have been released and I will try to read some of them to see if they are just as horrible as this second volume or if they are as interesting as the first volume was. I can only pray and hope that volume 3 wraps this up nicely, if not I do not know how I am going to stay optimistic about this series. 

Until next time... Stay Optimistic!!!

Graphic Novel Reviews: Dragon Hunt (Sunwell Trilogy Book 1)

*Special 3-day postings instead of regular content*

Warcraft- The Sunwell Trilogy: Dragon Hunt (Book 1 of 3)

Written by Richard A. Knaak

Drawn by Kim Jae-hwan

Published by Tokyopop

For many years I have been a fan of the game "World of Warcraft". I always thought I would appreciate the various additional media that Blizzard has released and I was for the most part correct. I have purchased several of the action figures and some time ago I had purchased the three books in the Sunwell Trilogy. Like almost every book I currently on I had not gotten around to reading it, but forced myself to finally complete the series because I have been trying to mark off the books that I have had around the longest. I felt it was time to get rid of these on my self and I finished them!! Over the course of the next three days I will be posting my reviews of this series instead of the other content. For one this is easier on me as I am in the middle of traveling. We will return to the regular content on August 13 (look for what next week will be on Sunday). 

There are numerous fantasy books out there. Some are bad and I mean BAD, nothing you can even be optimistic about. *hears the gasps from the readers* This is luckily not one of them. *hears the sighs of relief* This first book does a very nice job of setting up the team of adventurers, which seems to be an important part of the process of writing a successful fantasy story. In this volume we are introduced to all of the main players of the story and we get a nice grasp of what the ultimate storyline will be. Everything is clearly set-up and you are not going to be left scratching your head where this book should be headed.

One of the nice perks of the edition that I have (the single versions and not the ultimate edition) is the inclusion of the history of Azeroth (the name of the world in Warcraft). This makes the book slightly more accessible to a newbie of the franchise. It is easy to put all the previous pieces together of the puzzle, so you won't be lost coming into this. Spend the time reading it as well because several of the names that are contained within will come up in the pages of the manga. If you don't spend time to read the history you will be at a loss when certain names are mentioned for the first time. Save yourself the time of flipping back to read it as each is mentioned and just sit down and finish it. 

The artwork of the manga is beautiful. Jae-hwan creates beautiful landscapes that adds a rich layer to the story and helps cement it firmly in reality, but also in fantasy. It is rare that artwork is able to accomplish both at the same time, but because of his inclusion of foliage it does ground it in reality, but also the fantasy is clear when we see dragons and elves standing within. The other nice thing is that the characters are clearly defined and there is none of that "these two characters look so similar" going on in this volume. This is something that sometimes occurs in manga for some reason, but again luckily it isn't the case here. If you appreciate someone that spends time in their detaisl you will enjoy Jae-hwan's work here. 

The overall story is interesting as well. We are introduced to characters that walk in both the human world and the fantasy world. Several of the main characters are dragons that have the ability of transforming into humans. This allows them to interact with the various characters that they meet along their journey. Knaak creates a first dip into the pool of the Sunwell Trilogy masterfully. It makes you want to emerge fully and come out soaking wet!  

Until next time... Stay Optimistic!!!