Ghosts of Ascalon - A Review
In World of Warcraft we had boring to mediocre authors writing subpar stories that featured boring characters. Rhonin, Vereesa Marysuelitmissfailure. Others, like Krasus, were at least somewhat interesting. The good thing about them however is that they were originally featured in novels set in a gaming universe and then made appearances in the MMO digital world. We had Rhonin in Dalaran, Vereesa at his side, Krasus besides Alexstrasza, and a couple others that made brief appearances.
Star Wars: The Old Republic, was the exact opposite. The books were okay in my opinion. They had interesting stories, interesting characters, and painted a good intro to the universe as we were led into the game. ...or did they? Are characters like Larin Moxla, Shigar Konshi, or Ula Vii featured at all in the game itself? I never saw any of them. That, to me at least, is an even bigger failure than WoW's boring novels and characters. They were at least in the game though. No Larin or Shigar or Ula as NPCs anywhere in Old Republic. No finding out if Ula managed to get with Larin despite him being an Imp Agent and she a Republic Trooper.
Disappointing.
So, even in novels, Guild Wars 2 proves superior to both.
Ghosts of Ascalon was interesting from beginning to end. We had interesting characters in Dougal Keane, Killeen, Riona Grady, Gullik Oddsson, Kranxx, and Ember Doomforge. All of them on a single quest, but not necessarily liking one another. For instance, we have Dougal and Riona, both former members of the Ebon Vanguard, one of the last human Ascalonian forces resisting the Charr invasion, and Ember, herself a Charr. Other conflicts arise between Kranxx, an asura engineer who comically gets miffed at the bouts of dumbness expressed by veteran norn warrior, Gullik, who himself had some issues with Dougal around the death of his cousin. Killeen, a sylvari necromancer, had an interesting talent for being honest with little in regard to tact, including moments where she would raise the corpses of recently killed humans as undead minions. She didn't think it was a big deal, but Dougal and Riona aren't exactly happy with her doing it.
These six are expected to work together for a common goal, the acquisition of an important artifact which could help bring peace between the besieged humans and the charr legions.
Two hundred years before the book took place, the charr launched an invasion on the human kingdom of Ascalon, seeking to reclaim lands that were taken from them ages ago by the humans. Kind of like what would happen if Native Americans suddenly got hold of superior technology and decided to use it to take back America from white man. But enough political RL comparisons.
With Ascalon City on the brink of destruction at the hands of the charr, King Adelbern unleashed what was known as the Foefire, a powerful magic that successfully destroyed the charr forces who were sacking his city. Unfortunately, it also killed all the humans in Ascalon as well, cursing them to live as vengeful ghosts who would see anyone still living as an invader, walking Ascalon for eternity.
The charr, having to deal with this ghosts, the renegade Flame Legion of their own people, and the elder dragon Kralkatorrik, have decided the best course of action is to make peace with the humans in order to shrink the number of fronts they have to deal with. The humans, who've fallen on hard times and now only have a single kingdom to call their own, agree, but before the charr will agree with peace, they want something. The Claw of Khan-Ur, an ancient charr artifact.
Dougal Keane, a master thief and expert at disabling traps, is the only known person to ever visit the haunted Ascalon City and make it out with his life. He is recruited by the human guardian, Riona Grady, on behalf of the Vigil, a guild dedicated to fighting the ancient power of the Elder Dragons. Also joining them is another crusader for the Vigil, the charr warrior Ember Doomforge. Needless to say, Ember and the two humans, who are former members of the Ebon Vangaurde, a group who are still fighting the charr on behalf of the lost nation of Ascalon. They reluctantly decide to put aside their differences for the benefit of the mission and for peace. Joining them along the way is the sylvari necromancer, Killeen, Gullik the norn warrior, and Kranxx the asura engineer. Standing in their way are bands of charr hating human militants, legions of still hostile charr, the crystalline minions of Kralkatorrik in devestation of the Dragonbrand, and the Ghosts of Ascalon themselves. Tension in their own group is also a problem, because not everyone believes in the concept of peace between humans and charr.
No spoilers on how things turn out, but I really, really enjoyed this novel. It held the air of a simply party adventure to a specific goal, something comparable to Dragons of Autumn Twilight, which was one of my favorite adventure type novels. Not all of the good guys are strictly good and not all of the bad guys are strictly bad, so that offers up some complexity with the otherwise simple go-to-place-and-kill-badguy-get-treasure adventure. Even the good guys who prove to be good you don't know all their motivations until the end. On top of that, some of them do not make it to the end, which I think is a good thing. Adds to the danger and adventure of their quest in my opinion.
On top of all that, some of these characters are set to appear in GW2 game itself! It's reported you'll be able to visit at least one character in one of the human cities and you'll be able to visit the grave of a character who didn't make it. Not sure if all of them will make appearances in the game itself, but I would like to think that they will be.
We'll see for certain when the game goes live.
Final word, if you are interested in Guild Wars 2 in any way, get this novel and read it. It's a great read and it offers up some good lore material for the GW universe. Next GuildWars novel on my read list is Edge of Destiny, which tells of the rise and fall of the famous guild, Destiny's Edge.
Looking forward to it. It's on the way via Amazon and hopefully here some time this week. Right now I'm reading The Gathering Storm: Wheel of Time Book 12, which is a brick, but it's going smoothly. After that, more Guild Wars 2.
Have a good one!
Star Wars: The Old Republic, was the exact opposite. The books were okay in my opinion. They had interesting stories, interesting characters, and painted a good intro to the universe as we were led into the game. ...or did they? Are characters like Larin Moxla, Shigar Konshi, or Ula Vii featured at all in the game itself? I never saw any of them. That, to me at least, is an even bigger failure than WoW's boring novels and characters. They were at least in the game though. No Larin or Shigar or Ula as NPCs anywhere in Old Republic. No finding out if Ula managed to get with Larin despite him being an Imp Agent and she a Republic Trooper.
Disappointing.
So, even in novels, Guild Wars 2 proves superior to both.
Ghosts of Ascalon was interesting from beginning to end. We had interesting characters in Dougal Keane, Killeen, Riona Grady, Gullik Oddsson, Kranxx, and Ember Doomforge. All of them on a single quest, but not necessarily liking one another. For instance, we have Dougal and Riona, both former members of the Ebon Vanguard, one of the last human Ascalonian forces resisting the Charr invasion, and Ember, herself a Charr. Other conflicts arise between Kranxx, an asura engineer who comically gets miffed at the bouts of dumbness expressed by veteran norn warrior, Gullik, who himself had some issues with Dougal around the death of his cousin. Killeen, a sylvari necromancer, had an interesting talent for being honest with little in regard to tact, including moments where she would raise the corpses of recently killed humans as undead minions. She didn't think it was a big deal, but Dougal and Riona aren't exactly happy with her doing it.
These six are expected to work together for a common goal, the acquisition of an important artifact which could help bring peace between the besieged humans and the charr legions.
Two hundred years before the book took place, the charr launched an invasion on the human kingdom of Ascalon, seeking to reclaim lands that were taken from them ages ago by the humans. Kind of like what would happen if Native Americans suddenly got hold of superior technology and decided to use it to take back America from white man. But enough political RL comparisons.
With Ascalon City on the brink of destruction at the hands of the charr, King Adelbern unleashed what was known as the Foefire, a powerful magic that successfully destroyed the charr forces who were sacking his city. Unfortunately, it also killed all the humans in Ascalon as well, cursing them to live as vengeful ghosts who would see anyone still living as an invader, walking Ascalon for eternity.
The charr, having to deal with this ghosts, the renegade Flame Legion of their own people, and the elder dragon Kralkatorrik, have decided the best course of action is to make peace with the humans in order to shrink the number of fronts they have to deal with. The humans, who've fallen on hard times and now only have a single kingdom to call their own, agree, but before the charr will agree with peace, they want something. The Claw of Khan-Ur, an ancient charr artifact.
Dougal Keane, a master thief and expert at disabling traps, is the only known person to ever visit the haunted Ascalon City and make it out with his life. He is recruited by the human guardian, Riona Grady, on behalf of the Vigil, a guild dedicated to fighting the ancient power of the Elder Dragons. Also joining them is another crusader for the Vigil, the charr warrior Ember Doomforge. Needless to say, Ember and the two humans, who are former members of the Ebon Vangaurde, a group who are still fighting the charr on behalf of the lost nation of Ascalon. They reluctantly decide to put aside their differences for the benefit of the mission and for peace. Joining them along the way is the sylvari necromancer, Killeen, Gullik the norn warrior, and Kranxx the asura engineer. Standing in their way are bands of charr hating human militants, legions of still hostile charr, the crystalline minions of Kralkatorrik in devestation of the Dragonbrand, and the Ghosts of Ascalon themselves. Tension in their own group is also a problem, because not everyone believes in the concept of peace between humans and charr.
No spoilers on how things turn out, but I really, really enjoyed this novel. It held the air of a simply party adventure to a specific goal, something comparable to Dragons of Autumn Twilight, which was one of my favorite adventure type novels. Not all of the good guys are strictly good and not all of the bad guys are strictly bad, so that offers up some complexity with the otherwise simple go-to-place-and-kill-badguy-get-treasure adventure. Even the good guys who prove to be good you don't know all their motivations until the end. On top of that, some of them do not make it to the end, which I think is a good thing. Adds to the danger and adventure of their quest in my opinion.
On top of all that, some of these characters are set to appear in GW2 game itself! It's reported you'll be able to visit at least one character in one of the human cities and you'll be able to visit the grave of a character who didn't make it. Not sure if all of them will make appearances in the game itself, but I would like to think that they will be.
We'll see for certain when the game goes live.
Final word, if you are interested in Guild Wars 2 in any way, get this novel and read it. It's a great read and it offers up some good lore material for the GW universe. Next GuildWars novel on my read list is Edge of Destiny, which tells of the rise and fall of the famous guild, Destiny's Edge.
Looking forward to it. It's on the way via Amazon and hopefully here some time this week. Right now I'm reading The Gathering Storm: Wheel of Time Book 12, which is a brick, but it's going smoothly. After that, more Guild Wars 2.
Have a good one!