Spoilers for the whole novel, mates! Nothing major plotwise, but as you’re about to learn, this novel is about the characters anyway.
Something I’ve come to learn over the years is that writing within an established universe is actually more difficult than simply writing within a universe of your own making. Warcraft seems especially difficult, as the universe has evolved over decades to include countless characters, locations, cosmic forces and an expansive history. To be handed such a complex world of factional disputes, personal vendettas and magical possibility must be daunting, but I’m pleased to report that Madeleine Roux does the job remarkably.
Not only does she step into the minds of countless established characters within Warcraft lore, she also advances them as characters despite the fact that many of them have multiple prior story arcs. Thrall, once Warchief, then Earthen Ring shaman, is now presented to us as an aging, exasperated warrior who wants anything but to be thrust back into a role of leadership. Anduin. the peacemaker prince turned reluctant war-faring king, is mentally strained, his shattered ideals compounding his sense of failure; he can hardly look at one of his soldiers without picturing them as a corpse, dying pointlessly on his orders. And it doesn’t stop there. As readers, we’re treated to the unique dynamic of light and void that is Alleria and Turalyon, and how they start down a dark path; we’re treated to Jaina’s perspective, another character who’s peaceful resolve was shattered, but is now mending; to Flynn Fairwind and Mathias Shaw, one of the most genuine gay romances I’ve had the pleasure of reading and in a universe notoriously lacking in LGBTQ+ representation until now; I could go on and on. Suffice to say, I’m highly impressed with the amount of points of view Roux juggles, without dropping a single ball.
Not only do the characters feel fresh, they feel genuine. When Bwonsamdi spoke, I could hear every single word in his voice, and yet the actual writing featured minimal accent stylisation. You could not only picture but hear the entire novel playing out in your mind, which must practically be the goal when writing franchise fiction; to deliver a story of cinematic quality within the length of a full novel.
I wasn’t initially sold on the actual plot of this book, as I, along with much of the playerbase for World of Warcraft, am greatly fatigued when it comes to Sylvanas twirling her villain’s moustache and getting into genocidal hi-jinks. It is for this reason, I think, that Nathanos takes the place of Sylvanas for the vast majority of the book; the scheme is still hers, but we see it enacted entirely through the eyes of her loyal champion, who is arguably more interesting for his devotion to her. His typically ruthless beliefs are actually challenged somewhat by his second-in-command, Sira Moonwarden, a character who is murderous to the extreme, literally craving murder as a means of feeling anything through the dullness of undeath. She’s a character who wouldn’t be interesting alone, but is used as a device to test Nathanos’ loyalty and, later, to provide Tyrande with a mirror of her own hatred. She’s exceptionally well handled in this novel and yet another example of how character driven Shadows Rising truly is. It’s so character driven that I began this paragraph as a segue into plot discussion, and here we are praising Sira Moonwarden.
I suppose, when you look at it from afar, this novel doesn’t really advance the plot of Warcraft. But that’s okay. We already know how the expansion ended, and we already know how the next one begins. It is, in fact, essential that important narrative isn’t told outside the game itself, as has happened with previous WoW novels. It produces good stories, sure, but the majority of the playerbase doesn’t read them, leaving them lost or misunderstanding critical story points. What we have instead with Shadows Rising is a deep, exceptionally done character study of many key characters in Azeroth’s present, as a story is told which is simultaneously interesting and skippable, which sets up the next expansion without alienating those who do not read it. I think, if anything, it’s to be praised for this.
I had a delightful time reading Shadows Rising. The only real major criticism I have with it lays solely on the publisher’s shoulders, as the Kindle version released in the UK two weeks after the US, for no discernible reason. You may say this has no bearing on the novel itself, but when you have to dodge spoilers from people who think they’re being subtle, surprises like Flynn Fairwind and Mathias Shaw get spoiled for you in sentences like, “Shadows Rising finally confirms a major fan theorised gay relationship”. It’s frustrating for the reader, it’s frustrating for the author. But hey, other than that – not qualms here. Shadows Rising only made me love World of Warcraft even more, and I cannot wait for Shadowlands when it launches this… “fall”.
Perpetually Perturbed 