World of Warcraft: Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects | a Review
originally published on 02/08/2023;
Hello everyone, I am the world-faring shaman/druid/mage-person, G.E.M.Simov, a goon of incredible knowledge concerning the World of Warcraft, and I am here to tell you about Christie Golden’s book: “World of Warcraft: Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects” (what a stupidly long name).
Simple review details - I rank books on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it.
Content
This book seemed as though it should have had more than what it had. Simultaneously with that, this book had more than one would expect. All the same, though, it was unnervingly silly.
This book is a game novelization. As such, it is prone to being bad, I suppose, or, rather, it is prone to being mediocre, campy and even cringe-y. When one thinks of that and considers that the name of the book is as spectacularly long and befuddling as it is, and one takes a look at the cover, it is easy to understand that there might be something that's off, right from the get go.
And it is so. The book is about World of Warcraft, so we jump into the high reaches of fantasy and don't get down. It's also a book about dragons, about a magical pickl– Orc. A very magical and very special orc, not a pickle, pardon my french.
As such, one can expect the book to be about high adventure, and it is. Unfortunately, this leads into two distinct possibilities - either the book is just the adventure and fails to explore any themes, or it manages to juggle themes and adventure well enough. This book attempts to do the second, even if it seems as though it was more successful at doing the first.
It does feature some concepts. The concept of unity, the concept of self discovery and self discipline, the idea of living in the moment and a brief speculation on what the past and the future are, as well as what the moment, itself, is. It seems to have something to itself, something that might warrant some thought on the reader's part, but…
But it really doesn't. Instead of provoking thought, by presenting conundrums and considerations that are then not treated as the end-all, be-all of existence, it does the opposite. That short exploration of the future and the past is short enough to allow the character experiencing a revelation to throw them to the wayside, all in favor of the true solution, which is presented as the one objective way of solving all problems - which is living in the moment.
Now, of course, there is merit to that. Focusing on the moment-to-moment life that a person leads will make it possible for that life to be enjoyed and experienced at a far higher frequency, or more in-depth, than previously. Taking note of little things that appear inconsequential in the grand scheme of history or the world is helpful with keeping oneself sane and content, maybe even happy with the life they live.
The expectation of BIG, memorable events that leave a mark is, indeed, problematic, because a person seeks them out, plans them out, dedicates their entire life to the pursuit of the grandiose, thus failing to take note of the little things. In fact, everything becomes a competition to see who can do the BIGGER thing, so as to leave a greater mark on history.
When I say history, I do not mean world history, or national history, or even city history. I mean the history of a person, and I'm talking about their biography. Having a life that's full of incredible events that one would find in a book is, probably, fulfilling, but seeking that kind of life is not fulfilling. After all, what one wants one can never truly have, can they? Especially if that thing relies on competition with others.
Either way, we've got this issue handled in this book, as the characters find that the moment is valuable, that the things that ARE, not that were or would be, are actually more important, for they ARE. One could say that they are present, that they are tangible, that they exist and are worth something more than just a passing glance, and indeed it is so. A thing in the moment can decide one's "fate" (more on that later), it can alter their life considerably. The little things can become big, if one pays enough attention to them.
So this book almost indicates that. It almost presents that. In truth, the book motions towards the idea of stress, of planning, of a need to prepare, of an incredible duty to whatever it is one person finds themselves dedicated to, such a duty that no one has any opportunity to even shake the dutiful individual from the sleep-deprived coma they fall into as a result of working themselves too hard.
There's a bit of that - working oneself too hard, to the point of breaking down and worsening in your performance. There's a slight nudge in that direction, but it is only that. A faint, possible interpretation.
The more pressing matter is responsibility, perceived or actual, and that responsibility is the root of most problems in the book. There's the responsibility of the main character, there’s the responsibility of some side characters, there’s even the responsibility of the villains. The most interesting thing, I’d say, is the duty, the responsibility of the main character - Thrall. That responsibility, that duty, was all granted to him. It was almost forced upon him.
He was made warchief of the Horde, he was made a shaman, he was, essentially, made who he is, and due to being a shaman, due to being warchief of the Horde, he has responsibilities and duties. However, those are simultaneously not his responsibilities, whilst also being his responsibilities.
See, here’s the funny thing. Thrall is not characterized by the fact that he is warchief of the Horde. He is not characterized by the fact that he is a shaman. Those two things might have had some weight in defining him as a person, but only so far as he chooses to allow them to define him. Thrall is Thrall, and that’s all there is to it - everything else, those being his orcish heritage, his tragedies, his triumphs, his achievements and his failings - all of those things are simply specifications that do not completely encompass his being.
As an example, a plumber is not exclusively a plumber. That plumber right there is actually Mario, and he has so many more things to his life than just being a plumber. It isn’t his plumber-ness that defines him as a person, it isn’t that occupation of his that encompasses his whole being, but, rather, it only adds some spice to the dish that is Mario. The same applies to Thrall - he is Thrall, but he has allowed himself to become defined by his occupations.
They are the defining traits of his existence, rather than his own existence being its defining trait. He is consumed by the great duty, the tremendous responsibility, that he associates with being warchief or being a shaman, and that great duty piles on mountainous weight on his shoulders. Such staggering weight that it suffocates him, it makes it hard for him to BE.
That’s a very interesting thing to consider, especially in current times (October of the year 2022). In modernity, there’s a monstrous push for people to identify with their occupations, with their professions, and to be defined exclusively by said professions. If you work in IT, you are an IT guy. You don’t do anything other than IT - the nuance of your existence is not considered. The same applies for policemen, for fire-fighters, for anyone working anything. You are that thing that you work, you are not you.
I quite liked that, but I must admit that I could be giving too much value to the concept. Maybe it is me interpreting it, maybe it is me doing some mental gymnastics as a means of getting a break from the accursed Imanuel Kant’s writings, but it is what it is. It’s a good concept to consider, and it is topical for modernity (as specified, in the year 2022).
But what else does this book contain? As mentioned, there is fate. There is talk of destiny. That is very, very weak. So weak, in fact, that I do not think I want to talk about it in detail. In short, there’s mention of timelines. There’s travel through time, and there are alternate timelines. However, those alternate timelines - they can not exist. They are not the ‘true’ timeline, and, thus, they wind up destroyed.
The existence of a ‘true’ timeline confirms that there’s predetermination to everything. It says, in short: “in the event that you make this choice, the world will end and cease to exist, because that is not the true choice”. Why have the presence of timelines and time travel in your story if you’re going to explain away everything by taking away the agency of every single character and simply saying that EVERYTHING is going to go that way, and that it COULD NOT have gone any other way, because it DID go in every other way, and those worlds dissipated into nothing but the sands of time.
Instead of having Johnny and the Bomb’s pant legs, we have the Chinese finger trap of time theory - it’s just a straight line. Sure, one could argue that it is the Christian approach to it, that time is a line which we, humans, are situated upon, and God is outside of it, but he sees all of it and can interact with every part of it. The important part here is that time is, still, a line, indicating that there is no alternative timeline, because that would imply the existence of another world and of other Gods, and you can’t have that in a religion like Christianity.
So there’s fate, which says: everything is predetermined and all the choices made were predetermined and there was and will never be an alternative, or even the possibility for an alternative, because that just does not exist. The predetermination of everything in this story, and subsequently, as well as pre-sequently, every other story set in the World of Warcraft universe, makes the stories totally void of any emotional weight.
It’s not that these characters chose to do those things, those things were always meant to happen and it could have never been otherwise. Blackthorne was always meant to kill Taretha, Thrall was always meant to kill Blackthorne, Grom was always meant to succumb to Manaroth (twice), Arthas was always meant to fall from grace. Nothing actually matters, there is no free will - or so it feels. But, in reality, it isn’t just a feeling - it is a fact. There is no free will, just an illusion of it - at least in this book.
With those things considered - especially the fact that not only Thrall, but most other characters also share a predetermination of their lives - this book has a lot of bad in it. It has some good, interesting and curious stuff, but it also has a lot of wonky garbage. So much so that I was left with the impression that it was simply trying. It was attempting, rather than truly doing.
Let's not get into the fact that the villains seemed to have literally no motivation, or if they did, it was not fleshed out at all, that half the events mentioned in the book do not take place in the book, that a lot of the book is a relatively pointless exercise in recreating the quests found in the game "World of Warcraft"... Let's not get into that.
It had some good, but, overall, it was unsatisfying. 1/3
Richness of Expression
This is, ladies, gentlemen and N-bees, the wonky part of the book. While, overall, it was not a bad showing, it had a few cracks in itself. There was a high concentration of repetition of information - that was said once, already, but then it gets said again, and then it gets mentioned once more.
And then it gets said another time. It felt as if the author was not under the impression that their reader would be able to contain all the information that was being presented, and that’s something that I’d consider a problem. Whenever a book provides the reader with information that needs to be remembered, that’s important for the story itself, that information should be presented in a manner that highlights it.
In a sense, the scene should be leading up to the presentation of that information, and it should be free of other important content. However, what this book does is bombard the reader with just that - information. A lot of information, information that is connected to the events unveiling in the book, and information that could have been somewhat cut down so as to allow the reader to focus on the important things.
As it is, currently, it feels a bit bloated. Why is this being told to me? Why do I need to know this? Why do I need to know that this character (who is dead) had his wife (who is also dead) die? The impact of this knowledge is pointless. This is dead weight, or, rather, it is trivia. Trivia is cool to have, but it is not something one would want to be barraged with while reading a book that isn’t educational or encyclopedic in nature.
Unfortunately, this book does that. It feels as though there’s too much information that is just presented for the sake of being presented. As an example, why do I, the reader, need to know that this character’s identity is X, when the character X is neither mentioned previously, nor is he mentioned afterwards? Why do we need a whole paragraph dedicated to X’s identity being revealed, to no one but X and his master, which master already knew of X’s identity, when X does not do anything whilst regarded as X?
Why do we get a number of call-backs to a number of events that have transpired previously, but then they wind up being inconsequential? Does it matter that character Y helped character Z in the past in some convoluted way? Why must ‘the vision quest’ be mentioned, if it isn’t relevant to the story - and it isn’t relevant to the story?
Either way, that’s one issue. Another issue would be weird adjectives, having a lover’s thoughts describe their beloved’s face as strong - that’s an example, and it’s a baffling one at that. Then there’s the staggering fact that a certain character’s name gets shortened into something else, even if there’s no good reason for it to be shortened, and then other names that follow the same convention as that name do not get shortened. That’s just weird - why has this been done?
There are issues. There are bothersome parts, quite a few. It’s painfully obvious this book, even if it appears to be capable of being standalone, is not standalone - because the story in it doesn’t really conclude - and it calls back to many, MANY other stories as well as sets up yet more stories. Neither is it anything but a book based on a game, so… It's disappointing, because I distinctly remember another book about Thrall, a book that was very, very good. I might be misremembering, as I was a wee child back then, but it could be so.
It was not bad, but it was not good. It was good enough, however, to be decent. 2/3
Story
This book features a character who has been the main character of innumerable stories. Well, maybe not innumerable, but there have been at least 5 stories that feature Thrall, all 5 of those stories featuring some kind of character development or growth for that character. Interestingly enough, each of those seems to throw away a lot of the development that is accomplished in the preceding stories in favor of a vulnerable Thrall who can have growth and development.
At least that is the impression made by this book when compared to other books in which Thrall is the main character. There is a supposed connection to the previous exploits of the character, but then the growth the character has wound up disappearing. The coherence of the overall story, of the lore, is missing.
So, other than that, what else do we have? We have other characters doing certain things and being so and so, when there's little to no indication as to why these characters are doing those things. I mean to say that there are other races, or maybe species - dragons - who live differently from the other beings in the story. These dragons have specific relations, specific societal norms, they live seemingly infinitely, unless they get killed, and yet they behave exactly as if they were humans, even if a bit more conceited, though the vast majority of humans in reality is conceited as all hell, so there's no difference.
The fact that these creatures with certain specific and unique societal norms behave just like human beings is bothersome. Even moreso when one considers that their motivations are almost exclusively human. It's as if those characters - the dragons - are just humans with a funky coat of paint. That's bothersome, as it really takes away from both the fantasy of it, as well as from the story itself.
Fortunately, or not, there are other characters who also appear to have similar behaviors. The Night Elves, who are supposedly ageless, behave almost exactly as humans. The Orcs are straight up just green humans, Tauren and Broken are just funky looking humans - there's no true reason as to why they are such, and there's no discernible indication as to what the cultures and the societies these characters come from are.
That's not interesting, it's not compelling, it's not even fun. It's just fluff, but fluff of the most lackluster variety. It's so pointless that it makes the thing worse - which is something fluff doesn't usually do, and that's a bigger problem.
I suppose my issue here is that instead of taking these varied cultures and exploring them, as well as their interactions with one another, in an interesting way, the thing that does get done is underwhelming and almost painfully plain. Even the dragons are dreadfully anthropomorphized, and thus they're less interesting - way less interesting - than they should have been.
Then there's the aspect of the story having an obvious conclusion and, thus, the weight of every action being totally lackluster. The reader knows that Thrall is alive and well, because he is in the game. The reader knows that these other main characters are also alive and well, because they are in the game, and there are almost no stakes whatsoever. Even if the reader does not play the game, there are a number of plot contrivances, or so they appear, that make the conclusion obvious.
An example would be why did that assassin, sent to kill Thrall exclusively, not kill Thrall, while the latter was completely unaware and defenseless, and instead opted to kill his companion, who was not even a target? Why was Thrall specifically dreamed of in Ysera's prophetic dream? Could he have not wound up finding himself in the right place at the right time instead?
Alas, things are presented in the most obvious way imaginable. Every moment that features a threat for the main character carries no weight, because of the prophetic dream. That emphasis on destiny, on fate, on predetermination also makes the rest of the story - the growth and the non-combat challenges - weak.
Because when the closest thing to a benevolent god - a Dragon-Aspect on Azeroth - has a prophetic dream, it is obvious that the prophecy WILL ring true.
Then there's the villain. Or one could say the villains, but it's so nonsensical that I've no desire to actually call them so. Somehow, a certain character from an alternate timeline was contacted by an unknown character by a character in the true timeline, and then that character from the alternate timeline made it into the true timeline, absolutely unnoticed by the guardians of time. Then, that character SOMEHOW manages to either evade or KILL the guardians of time who are in pursuit, whilst being an ordinary human with no magical abilities, and goes on to do a lot of stuff.
So much stuff, in fact, that it seems as if he's one of the main villains. Then, however, it turns out that he has no motivation. Actually. There's, apparently, some reward in it for him, or maybe there's a threat that is so great that he needs to comply, but it isn't explained. There's so much 'what' in relation to that villain that it's easier to describe said villain as a plot device, rather than a character. That's problematic.
Then there's another villain, who seems to actually have motivations, but then it turns out that said villain actually had no motivation. After all, the motivation that said character has is boiled down to: is part of the cult that wants to destroy the world. Why is that character part of that cult? No idea. Why is anyone part of that cult, aside from maybe being insane? No idea.
None of the villains, except Deathwing, seem to have a reason to be what they are. They've no motivations. They're just evil for the sake of being evil, for the sake of being foils for the good characters, and for the sake of the plot. And then the implied reason for their villainy is also messed up, because wanting to actively bring pain, misery and suffering to everyone WITH THE GOAL OF DESTROYING THE WORLD is not something anyone sane would do. It implies that every single one of the supporters of the villains, and the villains themselves, are insane.
And implying that all the villains are villains because they're crazy is not good, at all. But with the motivations provided, that's what the reader gets. These fellows are crazy and they want to destroy the world.
The good characters aren't much better, though they get to ride off of the fact that they're (morally) good characters, as a result of which they've been featured in more literature/stories/types of media, and that leads into them having more story behind them. They're more developed by merit of being present in more stuff, but they're not that developed in this.
Ysera has recently woken up and she's perpetually aloof. That's just it. She does her stuff - her aloofness - and doesn't change. She is so underwhelming that it seems as though she's more of an object, a plot device, than a proper character. Perhaps the one thing that does give her character is the way other characters treat her, but that's a foul characterization, as it seems to diminish the character of those other characters.
Nozdormu, who is timeless, but is also bound to time, and who also knows time so well, somehow has forgotten something relating to time. He has lost an integral, defining part of his BEING, and the way this has happened is not described to the reader. It's just said that it has happened, with no explanation as to how. It's bothersome, because it appears to be outside of what the so-far established character is. It is also bothersome, because it makes no sense. It is contrived.
The fact that Thrall, who is already so immeasurably special, solves this, is very bothersome. How a being so tiny and so young manages to impart some wisdom upon this timeless being who has seen every moment of the past and every moment of the future, which wisdom ought to have already been seen by the timeless being as it does occur in time… Makes no sense. And then there's the fact that Nozdormu is also not really a character. He is present, he supposedly does something, but it's not satisfying.
That applies even to Alexstrasza, though her situation is a bit more understandable. She winds up experiencing something that she has never experienced before and then goes on to react in a way one would expect a person to react, but that ignores the fact that she is a dragon, who has lived for tens of thousands of years, who has gone through incredibly traumatic events, somehow winds up succumbing to sorrow and despair, only to then be brought out of that despair by, you guessed it, Thrall. At least he initially fails, so there's some understandability to the whole debacle.
That's the spirit with all the characters in the book. They either are just a brick that gets collected by Thrall to be used in the conclusion of the story, or they're a brickhead that goes along with Thrall.
The green pickle - the orc, Thrall - is a male version of a Mary Sue in this story. At least it feels like that. He fails at times, yes, but none if his failures really mean anything or have consequences, aside from maybe one, which failure was not really a failure of his own but, rather, a failure of another character.
Thrall, taking in the role of a Gary Stu, is incredibly capable - he manages to find a solution to every problem that presents itself before him, and it even seems as though sometimes these solutions come to him intuitively. An example would be his discovery of Alexstrasza, who goes missing. Thrall immediately knows where to find her, and the only reason he doesn't just materialize next to her is the fact he needs to travel to the location.
Then the failures that he does experience are really unfounded and make no sense. He fails in a nearly controlled environment, surrounded by many other shamans, all of them doing the exact same thing, only to then go off, alone, and do the thing that he was supposed to do (but failed at doing) without any issue. In fact, he does it so perfectly that he winds up getting a Mcguffin.
The ridiculousness of the situation is that there's no reason why he could not have just succeeded the first time he failed, and why he succeeded when he did, instead of failing. The magic system is so inexplicable and so clearly not present that it's just hand waving and saying: "He did that, he didn't do that!"
The first failure was when he tried to soothe and calm the elements alongside the greatest shamans of Azeroth. The time he succeeded, he soothes and calms an element by himself. His state of mind is not different - it hasn't improved and, if anything, it has only deteriorated, because he gets in an argument with his love interest, he feels that he has disappointed everyone, that he has let everybody down, and he is filled with doubt.
But, SOMEHOW, he manages to calm the elements. His inability to do the thing is only a factor in the very beginning of the story, and it is immediately forgotten. He is in tune with the elements perfectly, from the moment it starts mattering.
Then there's his failure with dealing with Alexstrasza. The first time he tries to bring her back, he fails to convince her. That, however, does not mean anything - she doesn't die, no overbearingly bad thing happens because of her absence. In fact, it's very strange how the dragon who wants to be alone and has decided to starve and dehydrate herself to death does not burn the orc that's pestering her.
Other than that, Thrall really doesn't fail anywhere else. No failures of his matter - and, in fact, the failures he does suffer are all very beneficial for him. He fails to hold onto Kalecgos' back, but that allows him to find a way of convincing Alexstrasza AND allows him to get rid of a villain.
I can go on and on, even though I need not do that, nor do I want to do that. I might have spoiled some of the story, but I don't really care. I'm so lacking in desire to deal with this that I won't even provide you, dear reader, with a good synopsis of the story. I'll just say that the bad guys get beaten and everything is lovely once again, but, actually, the BIG Bad guy is still well and good, and the other bad guy is also very healthy.
But let's spoil it all!
Thrall is working with the Earthen Ring to soothe Azeroth's elements after the Sundering. Thrall is not fit for the job, because of stress, and so he gets put on leave.
Meanwhile, Wyrmrest Accord is attacked, and Alexstrasza, Ysera, their flights and the blue dragon flight are attacked by the Twilight's Hammer. It's a distraction, though, and the Sanctums, where the eggs are kept, get destroyed… By Krasus (Alexstrasza 's beloved consort). That sows dissent, Alexstrasza despairs and flees, and Ysera goes and finds Thrall, because he has dreamed of a way to stop the Hour of Twilight.
Ysera appears before Thrall and gives him a quest. He goes to Feralas, stops a fire from burning a grove of Ancients, who give him an acorn in thanks, and a green dragon takes him to the Caverns of Time.
They get let into the Caverns, but Nozdormu is missing. The green dragon gets killed by an assassin, who almost gets to kill Thrall, too, but the bronze guards intervene and urge Thrall to enter the timeways so that he may find Nozdormu.
Thrall sees a few events of his life - namely his parent's death - takes part in it, too, fights the mysterious assassin and then ends up in an alternate timeline where he died in infancy. He is discovered by Taretha, who gives him an exposition dump, he manages to convince her that life is good, then they go to Dalaran and find Krasus. Thrall gives him the acorn, Krasus believes him, gives the acorn back and then they do more exposition. The assassin, it turns out, is this timeline's Blackmoore. Thrall resolves to fix things and goes on to find Nozdormu, who is stuck in all moments in time, simultaneously.
He teaches Nozdormu a valuable lesson and then gets sent to find Alexstrasza. He immediately knows she's in Desolace, and gets brought there by Tick - a bronze dragon - but Alexstrasza ain't having any of it. So he goes to the Nexus, in Northrend, to deal with the blue flight.
There, he is not warmly greeted, as a lot of the blue dragons are still in agreement with their ex-Aspect Malygos' view on mortals, but he manages to stick around. The blue flight is trying to figure out how to get themselves a new Aspect, and Arygos - Malygos' direct descendant (though aren't all dragons in a flight descendants of their Aspect?) - claims the title.
Interspersed are scenes of the big villain - the Twilight Father - plotting and being evil towards Kirygosa, as well as unveiling plans and allies. Arygos is working for the Twilight's Hammer, so is alternate timeline Blackmoore.
They then do a VERY CONVENIENT moon/celestial body alignment which occurred when Malygos was made aspect. Arygos tries to claim the power, but Kalecgos gets to be Aspect. Then Arygos uncovers his treachery, a band of Twilight dragons attacks and a scuffle ensues. Blackmoore kills Arygos and makes use of his blood to turn on a Mcguffin which revives Chromatus - a big, stitched together dragon in Deathwing's employ.
Kalecgos and the blues pursue the Twilight dragons and fight Chromatus, but they take an L. Thrall, riding with them, falls off of Kalec and has two visions. He sees Aggra - his girlfriend, essentially - and he also sees what transpired in the Sanctums. Turns out Krasus destroyed them because the Twilight's Hammer had corrupted the eggs. He's actually a hero.
Thrall wakes up, fights and kills Blackmoore, and then gets found by the blues. Meanwhile, Kirygosa escapes and flees on wyvern's back. Thrall gets brought to Alexstrasza again, and shares the vision of Krasus with her. She gets hope and they go back to Northrend. The green dragonflight, the blue and the red join forces and decide to assault the Twilight's Hammer. Bad call, Chromatus is very, very strong.
Nozdormu and the bronze dragonflight join in, while calling for retreat, and the four flights retreat. Turns out they can only beat Chromatus through their unity, but because Deathwing is not among them, they can't. Thrall gets the genius idea of emulating Deathwing, because he's a shaman and can wield the element of earth, which is what Deathwing was master of.
They do that, the four Aspects get a massive power up and then win. Thrall goes back to the Earthen Ring, asks Aggra for her hand in marriage and things are all well and good.
I'll mention that there was a romance which didn't really get all that explored - the characters just already loved each other, then Thrall realized just how much he loved Aggra, and they got married. It was there, maybe for the sake of being there, but it definitely was not developed.
I derived some twisted sense of joy from reading this book, because I am a fan of World of Warcraft. I am, however, not a fan of bad stories, and I felt as though this story leaned more towards being bad than being good. Still, the story featured some interesting things. Some neat stuff.
Though a lot of that neatness came from the fact that it was all a big reference. Hey, you know how that place looks, isn't it cool that it now looks like this? Or HEY, you know that character, isn't it cool that they're in this story? Or WOW, look at that, it's a wholly unexpected revelation! A character that was, at best, minor, suddenly got a role! Still relatively minor, though.
It was amusing. It was not horribly incompetent, and with all its issues, I'd still like to say it was okay. 2/3
Legendary Point
Does this book get the legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time? Does it get the point, judging from what I said about it? NO, it does not get the Legendary point. It wasn't even close, there wasn't any consideration. I could just feel that the book was not it. 0/1
Conclusion
5/10. A generously average score with no great achievements to be found. I'd warn against reading this book unless you are a fan of World of Warcraft.
I tuck it under my belt, another shining achievement that I proudly display.