I did a book review! I don’t want to spoil it for people just scrolling by, so find it here.
Review
Avatar: The Last Airbender – A Review
I recently watched the show Avatar: The Last Airbender for the very first time! A little late, but, well, does it hold up?
Spoilers inside.
My Emotional Rollercoaster | Scrubs Rewatch / Review
I’ve decided to start reviewing the shows I watch when I finish them, and I may extend this to books and movies as well. These reviews won’t necessarily be a critical evaluation so much as a personal opinion, but I’ll try to take objective flaws into account.
These posts will also contain some spoilers, so in order to avoid spoiling anything for those who are simply scrolling past, these posts will exist as unlisted pages, linked to only in blog posts like this one.
Here is the link to my review of Scrubs. Specifically, my thoughts on it after rewatching the entire series.
Anticipating 2018
There are a great many things I’m excited for which are due to release in 2018, and I figured it’d be dandy to go through them in a neat little blog post. And also to never say ‘dandy’ again.
I won’t go through everything, because else we’d be here all day, but I will point out a few highlights in each category I can think of. I’d normally discuss gaming over on my gaming blog, but I don’t think there’s enough really to stretch into a full blog post over there. That’s not to say that there’s nothing to be excited for, but that what I am excited for is a lot of little things that I don’t have much to say about.
Games
World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth
Well, duh. World of Warcraft is easily my most played game throughout my entire life, and it’s fair to say that nowadays I’m more excited for an expansion than I am for Christmas. And I’m no humbug.
Every two years we get a whole new expansion for World of Warcraft and, if the last expansion is anything to go by, the game is only improving with age. Whilst there’s no guarentee that Battle will match Legion‘s record, what has been announced has got me excited already. I’m intrigued by the island expeditions, apprehensive about warfronts, but most of all, dying to dive into the game’s new zones and experience a fresh round of Azerothian fantasy. And while the expansion probably won’t be releasing until autumn this year or later, there’s a patch on the horizon which will drastically improve the levelling experience and potentially include early access to some of the expansion’s allied races as a pre-purchase reward.
And WoW’s the one franchise I’ll always pre-purchase.
Dragon Quest: Builders (Nintendo Switch)
Initially dismissed as yet another Minecraft clone, I didn’t pay much attention to the game when it launched on Playstation platforms. Dragon Quest as a series is something I’m vaguely familiar with, having played the opening 5 or so hours of two of the franchise’s JRPGs on my DS but never delving much deeper than that. I enjoyed the games, but it’s not a genre that’s ever really hooked me into a full playthrough. After seeing some gameplay of Builders from a Youtuber I follow, however, I changed my tune and lamented its limitation to console.
That is, until it was announced for the Switch. Today I downloaded the free demo, which contains an hour’s worth of story content and unlimited access to the game’s first island thereafter. (I’m not sure how much gameplay you can get out of that without progression, but I’m sure I’ll go back and revisit it.) To my surprise I found myself having a brilliant time. The game is full of charm, iterating on the survival-sandbox genre enough to keep me interested (like Portal Knights), whilst feeling surprisingly polished in performance and control schemes (unlike Portal Knights). The questing system keeps me interested as opposed to losing focus like I would in Minecraft, and I found the story and characters to be enjoyable, which is probably the biggest surprise to come out of a survival-sandbox game.
It comes out on February 9th and I’m buying it the moment it’s available.
Ooblets
I know precious little about this game and I think I’ll keep it that way. Just know that it’s the treasured lovechild of Pokemon and Stardew Valley, all wrapped up in an adorable art-style that I can’t wait to live in for as long as the game will provide for me.
The continued existence of the Nintendo Switch
I’ll confess that the Switch’s strong launch with Zelda and Mario has left me with little to be personally excited for in 2018, besides the notable indies. I’m holding out for some announcements, and while I’m sure that any kind of Animal Crossing or Pokemon announcement would be for a game that’s not released until at least 2019, I’m keeping an eye out for whatever the hell they do with Virtual Console. Animal Crossing Gamecube on my Switch would be a best case scenario. The worst, I fear, will be a delay on any Virtual Console activity (bar the subscription based game a month) until they’re sure the Wii U and 3DS are dead and buried.
As someone who never bought a Wii U or a New 3DS… give me my Virtual Console, damnit. I’ll give you all of my money.
Also… Untitled Yoshi Title? GIMMIE ❤
Movies
Avengers: Infinity War
I’ll preface this by saying that the only reason Black Panther isn’t up here is because I’m not familiar with that story at all. I’ll see it, and hopefully I’ll enjoy it, but I have no idea what to expect. Knowing Marvel, I’m sure it’ll be good. (Also, I’m not a big movie guy, so expect a lot of comic book movies on this list and not much else.)
I’ve seen every MCU movie bar Iron Man 1 (I should really get on that) and Ant-Man. Oh, and the Incredible Hulk, if you count that. Infinity War is basically what all of it has been leading to, and I’m sure it’s going to be one epic, Thanos-sized treat. Marvel have yet to disappoint me.
Other than that, I’ve not much to say. I haven’t been looking that much into the development or planning of this movie, and I feel like I should be more excited than I am. It’s kind of been overshadowed by the next movie in this list, though.
Spider-Man: Into the Spidey-Verse
I’m not sure I’ve ever been this excited for a movie, and I couldn’t really tell you why. I’m not a big movie guy. I prefer series. But something about the animation style and the atmosphere shown in the trailer grabbed me, and as a Spider-Man fan that’s criminally uneducated on the Miles Morales side of the story (or the Spidey-Verse storyline), I couldn’t be happier that they’re finally exploring it in a movie. Plus, the decision to make this animated as opposed to live-action opens up a whole wreath of opportunities for spectacle, setting and scope.
I’m gonna go rewatch the trailer again.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
It’s Star Wars. Is there anything else to say?
Fine, fine. While Han Solo isn’t my favourite character in the Star Wars Universe, he’s still a good one, and despite the movie’s existence epitomising Disney’s mining the franchise for money, I’m not going to turn my nose up at potential for a good Star Wars story.
Series
Black Mirror Season 4
Oops, I’ve already watched it. I should have written this on January 1st. But seeing as it released on 2018, I feel like it’d be unfair not to include it. Season 4 contained some of my favourite episodes in the series – namely U.S.S Callister and Hang the DJ. Crocodile was fun too, despite the technology not being at the forefront of the episode so much as a mere plot device. I also quite enjoyed Metalhead due to the sheer absurdity of it… which I hope is what they were going for, else all the criticism is well justified.
But anyway, onto the stuff that is actually yet to be released.
Doctor Who Season 11
Despite enjoying Peter Capaldi as an actor, I never really got on with his Doctor as much as I got on with David Tenant and Matt Smith’s iterations. Plus, I’ve always found Steven Moffat’s plots to be very hit-or-miss and often riddled with plot holes. I won’t celebrate his departure as show-runner (as I’ve clearly enjoyed the show since season Russel T. Davies), but I’m very excited for Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor, as well as seeing what Chris Chibnall has in store for the series as new show-runner.
Not as excited for the new companions, but I’ll reserve my judgement for now.
Jessica Jones Season 2
Jessica Jones was my favourite of the Defenders series’, although given how underwhelming I found the actual first season of the Defenders to be, I didn’t particularly enjoy her last appearance. I’m also apprehensive about the trailer for season 2, which isn’t that exciting. Hopefully, the consequences of season 1’s finale won’t leave the second season feeling shallow, as I’ve been waiting for this for over 2 years.
Game of Thrones Season 8
Damnit. The rumours were true. HBO recently announced that Game of Thrones won’t be returning until 2019. And while that’s good news in the long run, it’s anguish knowing the wait extends until then.
Why did I put it on this list? Because I’m just that excited.
Book Review: Mistborn & Audible First Impressions
No, this blog post is not sponsored by Audible. I’m legitimately talking about their service. But, firstly:
The following review contains no specific spoilers, though as always, if you wish to enter into a series completely blind then I recommend you skip this review. If you’re interested in the Audible portion of this blog post, scroll until you see the header text.
When casting around for something to read after Harry Potter some time ago I discovered that a series of books I’d kept my eye on – namely, the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson – was on sale on Kindle for £1 per book. Being the eager beaver that I am, I almost dived right in and bought all seven available books, but I decided on this one occasion to hold back and buy only the original trilogy, in case the series wasn’t to my taste and I wasted my money. Boy, was that a mistake. I need more. Not that the conclusion to the trilogy wasn’t satisfying – it was, and it was brilliant – and that’s all I’ll say on the ending.
I’ve seen Sanderson’s works described as avoiding fantasy stereotypes expertly, and I can only agree with this notion. The method of magic in the Mistborn novels isn’t something I’ve ever read about before. Not to spoil too much, I’ll stick to saying that it’s very logic-based and contains limitations which reach a balance of not being too restricting, whilst avoiding any deux-ex-machina type plot holes. If I was to write a self-indulgent piece of fantasy, I admit that I’d likely base magical power on will rather than skill. Skill-based abilities, however, make your characters more admirable when they’re badass. And Vin is certainly that.
I’ve always said that written works are inferior to other platforms of fiction when it comes to scenes of action. One notable moment when I’ve found myself wrong on this has been when reading the novel Stormrage. This is another one of those moments. Allomancy allows for very momentum based combat, with the ability to pull yourself onto and push yourself off of various metals, as well as being able to enhance your strength. One of the first fight scenes in the first book, The Final Empire, sees Kelsier facing off against a group of soldiers who are trained to kill allomancers. Limited to what he can use his powers for, he finds a metal paperweight at his disposal, and the way in which he manipulates its trajectory to attack these soldiers is something that you have to read for yourself.
The world is as unique as its magic. The premise presented on the blurb of the first book is of a world where the bad guy has won, and ruled for a thousand years. This is what drew me into it. Sanderson creates a world of mists, ash and little colour without making any of it feel drab or overly depressing. Flowers are a forgotten legend. Stars are known only to those with the power to enhance their vision, to part the mists. And the world makes do. Any action against the Lord Ruler is typically more to do with stopping his tyranny than with fanatical dreams of revitalising the world, for this is the world that mankind has known as home for a thousand years.
My favourite thing about this series is how intricately plotted it is. The powers, races and state of the world all add up together towards the end of the trilogy in multiple moments of revelation. You’ll race alongside the characters to the truth as they discover deception, lies, and world-changing secrets dating back a thousand years or more. And without giving away too much, I feel like it’s important to praise the ramping up in scale of events over the three books that’s both impressive and believable, right up to the climax of the series.
Branderson (that was a typo but I’ll leave it in) has written more Mistborn novels set some centuries after the original trilogy, around the time of industrial revolution with trains being made popular, skyscrapers being built and electricity being discovered. These are the next novels I need to read – I’m very interested in what a more modern world would look like in a world where metals can be manipulated by allomancy. What really excites me is that Sanderson has stated that he also plans to write more Mistborn novels set even further in the future, in a time further ahead in technology than our own. The prospect of a series graduating from medieval setting to a futuristic one is something I’ve never seen done before – unless you count the narrative in World of Warcraft slowly become more sci-fi-esque – and I greatly look forward to reading more.
And that’s the review. If you’re skipping this bit, you can read on from here.
I’m kind of hoping that the other Mistborn books go on sale again. In the meantime, I found myself casting around for something to read again, and decided to finally use my Audible trial. Now, I could have used my free book to obtain The Alloy of Law, the next book in the Mistborn series, but I’d rather not own a continuation of a series in a different format. Brandon Sanderson has won my attention, though, and I decided to use my free Audible book token to grab The Way of Kings, the first book in the Stormlight Archive series. Well… more like the first two books, as in the UK it’s typically split into two 500 page paperbacks. So that’s 1,000 pages and 45 hours of listening I’ve just obtained for free. Except that when I went to cancel the subscription, they bribed me to stay with a second book token, so I claimed the sequel, Words of Radiance, which is equally as long. And then I cancelled my trial to no charge.
I’m going to be good for fiction for the next 94 hours of listening, then. I only hope that this still counts as a purchase on the author / narrator’s side of pay.
I’m like, 3 chapters in, so I have nothing to say about the story yet, other than it seems familiar and good. I’m here to discuss audio as a mode of listening. My first impression is that I have to pay attention. Not that it isn’t captivating, but if I’m on the edge of sleep and my mind begins to wander I have to either rewind by 30 seconds to catch the names of new settings, characters and powers I’m not yet accustomed to, or decided to switch it off for the night. I’ve also found that when reading, I’ll pause after being introduced to a new name – be it place, character or power – and go back and turn it over a few times in my head. You can’t control the pace so easily in an audiobook. I’m not sure how I feel about that yet.
I have listened to audio dramas before, though, and whilst it’s a bit different hearing everything being read by just one person, it’s also a welcome return to the experience of listening to fiction. There’s something about being able to lay back, close your eyes and allow your imagination to fully take over whilst hearing the story narrated to you. And at the end of the day, when I look back on the first three chapters and compare them to other reading experiences, I can honestly say that I’ve enjoyed them just as much as any other book. I look forward to enjoying these two long-ass books, and seeing how they compare to the Mistborn series.
2016 in Retrospect – Change
I find that change, in retrospect, brings out the most emotion in me. Whether it’s the loss of friends or the beginning of some new era of my life, I’m always struck by the ever-changing nature of life, and how, through tragedy and comedy, the world is ushered into new chapters and can never be the same as it once was. And I used to find that horrifying, but now, I find it quite the opposite. But, to be less vague and emotional:
At the beginning of this year, I acknowledged how it would be a defining year for me, as it’d mark the end of my time at University and, somewhat alarmingly to me at the time, was going to force me out into the “real world” in pursuit of a job. Which, yeah, I should definitely have gotten before leaving uni, but that’s a self-criticism for another time. My New Year’s Resolution for 2016 was ‘Actualization’, meaning… well, I’ll let last year’s blog post speak for itself:
I will write my dissertation. I will finish my degree. I will find a job and I will live with it and in it. I will write fiction, and I will work on a story, and I will learn to live outside of my comfort zone even if that currently scares me in irrational volumes. I have spent twenty years of my life hanging back, for multitudes of reasons, and it’s time to stop. And just saying it won’t make it any easier, or make me any less likely to fail. But it’s time to start trying to try.
I’m delighted to say that I managed to achieve this, for the most part. I most certainly finished my dissertation. I graduated University with a 2:1 in Creative Writing. And I’ve got myself a job that I actually enjoy going to, and that I’m pretty good at… or, so I like to think. Of course, I’ve not written or published any fictional works, and I’m certainly not financially independent. But this is a blog post for looking back on 2016, and my (self-inflicted) descent into penniless hell is 2017’s demon to tackle.
2016 has personally been a mixed bag for me. On the one hand, I graduated, achieved elements of the previously mentioned actualization resolution, and actively developed as a person in regards to maturing into the adult world and learning to get shit done. (Not that I’m by any means perfect.) But I’ve also had low points; creative stagnancy and personal emotions have caused many gloomy days. I’ve said more goodbyes than I’d care to this year, either through circumstances of natural change or of my own volition. I’ve had to introduce elements of frustration and negativity into my life to keep my head above water in certain situations. And the future is as unknown and as frightening to me as it was at the end of 2015, a feeling I’d hoped to have conquered by the end of this year.
As far as the state of the world goes, I can’t say it’s been amazing. Democratic votes such as Brexit and Trump have been a sour note for me and my world views; the spread of hatred and violence appears not to have slowed one bit, and the prospects for next year are, to put it simply, glum. That being said, one should never count their politicians before they’ve declared war (sorry, that was awful), and you can never tell what the future will bring.
As for the so called Curse of 2016, I’ve been somewhat lucky in not knowing many of the celebrities who have passed away, though the recent loss of Carrie Fisher has been a personal note of sadness. What is getting me down is the irrationality of those who lean too heavily on the idea that 2016 is a year to escape from death; comments on Carrie Fisher’s health during her hospitalisation that claimed that we merely needed to make it to 2017 for her to be okay caused me to grit my teeth on many an occasion. It’s hard to put into words exactly what irritates me about this, but the general gist of it is that while it has most definitely been an unfortunate year regarding the frequency of famous deaths, the notion that it will simply cease in 2017 is highly irrational; these years, these groups of months only exist because we perceive them to, and to base your feelings and expectations around this is exactly the kind of ignorance that this world cannot afford to entertain right now. Anyone over the age of 40 can’t so much as cough now without social media making jibes about hiding them away and keeping them safe until the passing of the year, which I’d personally find somewhat offensive were these comments directed at me.
But hey, rant over. 2016 is (almost) a closed book, to be either shelved or stowed away in the attic and forgotten, depending on who you are. We’re mere hours away from a whole new year, and, human perspective or not, it’s always exciting and intriguing to try and predict just what kind of retrospective I’ll be writing a year from now.
Happy New Year. I’ll see you on January 1st.
(Sidenote: This evening I discovered the song Soon Soon by Tom Rosenthal which put me into the state of mind to write this blog post. It is a charming song with a beautiful music video, and I highly recommend it.)
Revisiting Harry Potter
Kindle Unlimited is a service that’s been interesting me for some time now, and as my reading habits have been slipping more and more, I decided to claim my free month trial. Rather than using this trial to read new and interesting books, as was the plan, I was instead distracted by the fact that the Harry Potter books were on there, and thus set about re-reading Rowling’s famous series.
Now, whilst I’m comfortably familiar with the series thanks to the movies (which I’ve seen on multiple occasions), I’ve only read the actually book series once, and that was when I was around fourteen. Whilst it was enjoyable, I don’t remember being particularly blown away by the novels, and apart from filling in some of the gaps from the movies, they soon fell into obscurity. However, reading through the series a second time round has proven to be a splendid idea. I’m now positively entranced by the wizarding world that Rowling has created, and rather than taking the story at face value, my mind now reels with the possibilities of further stories told within that some world (perpetuated, of course, by the recent release of Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them, which I have yet to see). I’m enthralled by the idea of apparition; intrigued by the consequences of living in a world where things such as the polyjuice potion, the pensieve and invisibility cloaks exist; excited at the prospect of what other Dark wizards get up to and the potential narratives behind that; curious as to the magical governing of other countries; and, of course, tickled by the idea of the wizarding world existing alongside a 2016 world, where there are smartphones (and therefore cameras) everywhere.
There’s also a rich vein of rediscovery to be found from having foreknowledge of the series. Knowing the perspectives and plans of certain characters can be invigorating, enticing and exciting; the ability to understand why Dumbledore’s eyes light up “triumphantly” at a particular spot of bad news at the end of Goblet of Fire, for example, allows you to see the story from a whole other angle as it unfolds. Furthermore, reading this from an adult perspective offers even further insights into the behaviours of some characters, such as why information is withheld rather than shared, and what some unheard conversations between teachers and adult characters might sound like. And finally, I found myself taken off guard by the amount of comedic moments found in the series; some of them, like Fred and George bouncing snowballs off the back of Professor Quirrel’s turban, are even funnier with foreknowledge.
Finally, as somebody who was once caught up in the popular idea that J.K Rowling’s actual writing is overrated based on her popularity, I have this to say: that is incorrect. I’ve found her writing to be easy to read, excellently descriptive, accurately characteristic through applications of free indirect style, to contain very slight and clever foreshadowing, and most impressively, to be thoroughly well-plotted and consistent throughout a myriad of fully-constructed characters, events and in an extensively designed world. There are some minor plotholes that I’d raise, such as why Harry doesn’t see Thestrals pulling the magical carriages at the end of Goblet of Fire, but none of these compromise the story when pulled up for closer inspection, which is a rare trait to find in a lot of fiction nowadays.
Series Review: The Shannara Chronicles Season 1
Mild spoilers for The Shannara Chronicles Season 1 (and likely the book series) below! If you want to approach this series with no preconceptions, avoid this blog post.
So I’ll preface this by saying that I haven’t read any of the Shannara Chronicles books by Terry Brooks. I have no idea as to the quality of content that lies within them, or how closely the Netflix show follows them, though from the blurbs of the books it would seem to be quite loosely. As somebody who normally reads the books first, this was actually a welcome change, though I do wonder how much enjoyment I’ll be able to get from reading the books now that I’ve watched the series.
I found this series simply because I was browsing Netflix for something to watch, and I almost passed over it. I’m not saying that it didn’t appeal to me, but show adaptions from novels don’t have the best track record and it was only as a last resort that I decided to give it a try. But from the opening shot, I could tell that the middling 3-star ratings had nothing to do with the budgetary commitments, and that this was a world that at the very least had plenty of care and effort put into it. This was one of my main fears, as a novelist never has to worry about budget or realistic scope of setting and scale, and the scale issue only showed in a few battle scenes… but even the big-name novel adaptions like Game of Thrones have 50 warriors where there are meant to be 50,000.
Season 1 of the Shannara Chronicles is a quest. It reminds me of Lord of the Rings, in a good way, and I’m not even very familiar with LOTR. (I’m working on it!) Having only seen the first two Lord of the Rings movies and having started reading The Fellowship of the Ring last night, it probably says something when I can immediately identify it as a direct influence and continual referral point in the Shannara Chronicles. The world is made up of Humans, Elves, Trolls, Gnomes and the notably absent Dwarves. The latter three races are descendants of humans (or at least that’s what I’ve gathered base on the incredible intro), whilst the existence of elves remains a mystery… at least, to me.
But here’s where it really hooked me. The Shannara Chronicles are an indeterminate (though later specified) few thousands of years after modern mankind’s downfall. So, while you have elves and magic and so forth, you also have decaying fallen skyscrapers and abandoned wastelands that form the backdrop of the series as a grand narrative; humanity is still recovering from this downfall even thousands of years later. The series balances this portrayal of present day society as ancient lore perfectly, making it not a main plot point or even a readily discussed matter, but a background that rarely comes into play and brings a sense of intense wonder and discovery when doing so. It is possibly my favourite part of this narrative. I often have to remind myself that this takes place on a future Earth, and that’s wonderful. I want to learn more about Earth’s fallen civilisations, and I say this in a world which is currently wrought with the same almost idealised apocalypse story over and over.
The series has its flaws, though. Most notably, the pacing takes weird jumps and skates over important developmental issues. Sometimes it’s forgiveable, such as travelling from point A to point B – a travel of weeks – over the course of one single cut. Other times, you have characters entering environments that should make their jaw drop, but they are instead already at home. You have characters lose loved ones and fail to even grieve or be affected by it. And I am 100% certain that this comes down to cut content. But even this is, as worst, merely jarring, and whilst I recall it being particularly bad at around episode two or three, it didn’t come close to deterring me from the series.
I’d also say it was somewhat predictable. Whilst it may be set in a vastly and commendably unique world, the events that take place within it are far from having never been told before. I found myself predicting events which were meant to shock me, and I can’t particularly think of any one moment that felt like a huge revelation or surprise. But perhaps that is simply me being jaded or having a foresight that any writer of the same genre might have themselves.
Just give it a watch. These last two paragraphs have been criticisms, but they’re the only bad things I have to say about an otherwise pleasantly surprising show. I highly anticipate season 2.
Book Review: Wolfheart by Richard A. Knaak
I strongly recommend that you read my other review on Knaak’s book Stormrage before reading this one, as I use it as a reference point multiple times.
Mild spoilers for Wolfheart by Richard A. Knaak below! If you want to approach this book with no preconceptions, avoid this blog post.
As may be apparent by the timing of this review, I’ve taken to reading the World of Warcraft novels in chronological order, and after reading Stormrage I moved on to Christie Golden’s The Shattering, which takes place shortly after the events of Stormrage. However, I didn’t write a book review for The Shattering as I didn’t feel like I had much to say about it. As usual, Christie Golden delivered an enjoyable reading experience which, whilst not surpassing the masterpiece of Arthas: Rise of the Lich King or War Crimes, was still a wholeheartedly wonderful novel.
I was less apprehensive when I then started Wolfheart than I was with Stormrage, though I’ll admit I didn’t expect the former to trump The Shattering. But in my opinion, it did, and it definitely surpassed Stormrage and avoided most of the issues I had with that book.
Getting right into it, Wolfheart is set not so long after the events of Stormrage (during the events of the World of Warcraft expansion Cataclysm), and features many of the same characters, albeit under somewhat different circumstances. Not to give too much away, war has now officially broken out between the Alliance and the Horde, both of whom are still reeling after the cataclysm wrought by the mad black dragon Deathwing, leaving much of the world in a state of peril. The repercussions of such an event heightened the need for resources and opened new opportunities for taking territories, and has such led to the re-ignition of old rivalries.
This novel focuses mostly on the Alliance side of matters, with a few different sub-plots. In the city of Darnassus, the recently forgiven Highborn night elves who have been welcomed back into night elven society are being murdered, in a series of attacks which threaten to destabilise the summit called to debate the introduction of the Worgen into the Alliance. This in itself is a separate plot point, one which focuses on human King Varian Wrynn, who is trying to come to grips with the two halves of himself warring within. And finally, the war for Ashenvale, which is told mostly through the eyes of Haldrissa, also plays a key role in the novel.
The concept of a World of Warcraft murder mystery written by Knaak was probably the least appealing plot line to me before I started the novel, largely because as a WoW player I already knew the answer to the whodunit riddle. Despite this, though, Knaak delivered a fully intriguing narrative that not only keeps the reader guessing, but also does a superb job of introducing the Highborne and the still largely unwelcome Worgen into the overall narrative, as well as introducing Jarod Shadowsong as a very well likeable character.
Whilst I was originally not all that fussed with him, it was after reading War Crimes (set after the events of Mists of Pandaria, roughly two years ahead of this novel) that I became a huge fan of the character of Varian Wrynn, a thoroughly complex character who goes through a myriad of character development over the years and truly shines in the latest expansion. (May I direct you to this trailer? Spoilers in the comments.) The events of Wolfheart depicted a massive turning point for his character, and it was not one that Knaak took lightly. This was a shining gem of the novel to me, and for that I commend him.
The war for Ashenvale took a while to warm up, for me, which is admittedly a criticism I had with the previous novel Stormrage. But it was a slow burn, and it truly paid off from the middle to the climax of the novel. One thing that I discovered in Wolfheart was Knaak’s ability to write a clearly understandable and enjoyable battleground, with sound tactical decisions and believable hindrances. Tying into this, Knaak is a master of the fight scene, with numerous skirmishes being described in crystal detail, and one particular fight in Darnassus during the novel’s climax that I hold above all other fight scenes in writing. Perhaps this is more of a comment on my ability to imagine than it is on writing, but I find it a rare occurrence that I am able to completely visualise every move and blow of a fight and how it leads into the next. As invested as I was in this point of my reading session, it felt more like I was watching a Monty Oum animated fight scene that reading a book.
I may have evaluated the different plot lines separately in this review, but do not for a moment believe that this is a fractured narrative. These plot lines often meet and diverge, influencing each other, and by the end of the story they’ve converged into a most natural coalescence. The only issue I have with this novel is that the actions of one of the character’s doesn’t line up with how they are betrayed in the wider World of Warcraft story later on, but I firmly believe that Knaak is not to blame for this. This novel has kindled my faith in him as a writer and I look forward to reading his other works.
Bleach Is Ending
Bleach is the name of a manga / anime which I began watching (for I started with the anime) at around the age of 14 or 15. It was introduced to me through a friend, and was my first ever anime… though to this day, I’ve not branched out into many others. But as immediately taken aback as I was by the exaggerated emotions and actions that are often found in anime, I’d soon found myself hooked onto this ridiculous idea of this character leading a double life, attempting to maintain a typical teenage lifestyle at school whilst running off every 5 minutes to slay monsters (Hollows) with his oversized sword (Zanpakutou).
If this sounds like it might appeal to you, then you live in the wonderful age where the entire series is viewable for free on Crunchyroll. Bear in mind that some story arcs detract from the manga in order to give the manga a chance to get further ahead in the plot, before the anime caught up with it. If you’d like to only watch canon material, your guide to avoiding filler episodes is here. What an enlightened age you live in.
So, back to my personal Bleach experience. Whenever I watch the first few seasons of Bleach (often referred to as the Soul Society arc), I’m catapulted back in time to when I was going through my GCSE’s, and the sense of wonder, entertainment, and non-reproducible exploration into the culturally varied tropes of anime plot never fails to make me smile. The idea of swords having their own souls and magical abilities greatly appealed to me, and is something that has stuck with me to this day when considering any fantasy character’s possible magical range of abilities. While this theme, alongside the overall narrative of people with swords fighting demonic monsters, is not exactly the most original basis for a story, it was my first encounter with such material and I therefore escaped any disillusionment because of this. In other words, I managed to enjoy the material instead of going “typical Shonen plot lol”.
Many will tell you that after the Soul Society arc, Bleach began its decline, and honestly, as much as I love the series, I wouldn’t argue with that. What I would argue with is the idea that it’s no longer worth watching. I believe that the subsequent ‘Arrancar arc’ is still enjoyable and engaging, although the climax of this arc certainly does feel like it would be an apt place to finish the entire series. It is after this point that almost the entire Bleach community is in agreement that the manga began its sheer decline. With the ‘Thousand Year Blood War’ arc, the manga (the anime now cancelled) began to descend into an over-saturated mess of characters, ill-explained abilities, one-note enemies, retcons out the wazoo, awful pacing and just a general lack of a cohesive or believable narrative. The fights spiralled into a playground world of “my ability is more suited to kill you than yours,” and the deus-ex-machina grew so out of control that the word ‘asspull’ now gets your comment automatically removed from r/Bleach, more from an exasperated “WE KNOW” than as an overly offensive or unfair remark.
But even the Thousand Year Blood War arc managed to give us some awesome moments and character revelations. Whilst the arc as a whole hasn’t made sense (and still won’t, unless the final 20 pages have the depth and cohesion of a hundred issues), individual fights and moments have still ignited my now mostly forgotten feeling of hype and anticipation for the next week’s issue. It’s something I’ll sorely miss.
I’m not just here to slam the final story arc, though. Bleach as a whole actually contains some expertly crafted leitmotifs and character relationships, as well as a plethora of unique and enticing abilities and fights. The anime in particular has some very well animated fight scenes, and had I the option of experiencing it all for the first time again, I wouldn’t shy from it at all – even the final story arc. It’s been an absolute pleasure to follow the story of this cast of characters over the years, and whilst it’s sad that the manga is ending (presumably) with a whimper rather than a bang, it’ll always hold a place in heart.
Perpetually Perturbed 