World of Warcraft Chronicle: Volume 1 by Blizzard Entertainment
Recommended: yesssss
For fans of WoW, for a look at the incredible world building from a game, for incredible illustrations, for all the lore you could wish for
Summary
World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 1 is a journey through an age of myth and legend, a time long before the Horde and the Alliance came to be. This definitive tome of Warcraft history reveals untold stories about the birth of the cosmos, the rise of ancient empires, and the forces that shaped the world of Azeroth and its people.
This beautiful hardcover features twenty-five full-page paintings by World of Warcraft artist Peter Lee, as well as a cosmology chart, half a dozen maps charting changes through time, and other line art illustrations by Joseph Lacroix, and marks the first in a multipart series exploring the Warcraft universe; from the distant past to the modern era.
Thoughts:
My favorite part about video games, and especially World of Warcraft, has always been the story. The game has plenty of that, but forces me to run around and kill things in order to get more story, which sometimes I don’t want to bother with! Here, finally, I have my hands on a condensed version of the whole story (for the first 10,000 years or so, anyway).
Honestly, the world is incredible. I always think about how hard writing a book series is, to have all the details and the richly envisioned customs and minutiae. A video game of this scale is very similar. This first volume captures the earliest lore of creation and dang did I learn a lot! Sargeras was a GOOD GUY? Vindication that the haughty night elves are no better than trolls, since they evolved from trolls after all!! And I finally understand the idea of a titan world soul (mostly…). BFA was killing me with the whole Heart of Azeroth thing.
Yo, the pictures in this! I would love to have some of these in huge print format because they are absolutely stunning. Even someone with no background for them would be enraptured by their incredible design and coloring. The tension and drama and majesty is amazing. It’s a lot to do with the bold coloring in each one, paired with excellent use of shadow and light.
The lore with the images here is a joy to have on my shelf. I’ll probably wander back to this every now and then just to admire the images again or remind myself of some tidbit of lore that I found fascinating (like why goblins love money). However… writing this now is a bit tainted because of the horrifying truths of sexual assault and harassment that have come from Activision Blizzard, and particularly the World of Warcraft development team. It’s so bad that I’ve left the game, and really hope they’ll get it together sooner rather than later and make some drastic changes. In the meantime, I suppose, I have my trio of Chronicle books where I can sink into the lore once again, even if it’s the only place I do so for the future.
My Book Joy 