Shadows Rising

World of Warcraft: Shadowlands

By: Madeleine Roux

Narrated by: Susan Wokoma

An all-new official prequel novel to Shadowlands, the next expansion for Blizzard Entertainment’s legendary online game World of Warcraft

“The Horde is nothing!” With those infamous words, Sylvanas Windrunner betrayed and abandoned the Horde she vowed to serve. The Dark Lady and her forces now work in the shadows as both the Horde and Alliance, including her own sister, Alleria, race to uncover her next move. Struggling to shoulder the crushing weight of leadership, King Anduin entrusts the void elf and High Exarch Turalyon to uncover Sylvanas’s whereabouts.

The Horde now stands at a crossroads. The various factions form a council, leaving the mantle of warchief to rest. Thrall, Lor’themar Theron, Baine Bloodhoof, First Arcanist Thalyssra, and many other familiar faces rise to this new challenge. But the threats are numerous, and the distrust runs too deep.

When the council is derailed by a failed assassination attempt on Talanji—the Zandalari queen and a key ally—Thrall and the rest of the Horde leaders are forced into action. They empower the young troll shaman Zekhan, still grieving the loss of Varok Saurfang, with a critical mission to aid Talanji and help uncover the rising threat against her.

Meanwhile, Nathanos Blightcaller and Sira Moonwarden have been tasked by the Dark Lady with a terrifying gambit: to kill the troll loa of death himself, Bwonsamdi.

As Zekhan and Talanji work to save Bwonsamdi, their journey will be a key turning point in bolstering the Horde against the coming darkness and finding themselves along the way. Failure to save their allies and the trickster god will surely doom them—but through success, they may rediscover what makes the Horde strong.

It was ok

It was like parts of the book were stolen from cringy fanfic. Some of the story lines felt like they were just rehashed from WoW. I didn't feel like anything of value was used to set up shadowlands unlike previous warcraft novels did for their expansions.

Great story, but..

Title, for the most part. Voice actor wasnt the worst I've heard, but she just didn't fit sadly. To many voices sounded exactly the same. They should have had the fellow who did the previous book, do this one.

HYPE

Narrator was incredible. Sets the scene for the expansion. can't wait to finally see what Sylvanas is trying to do. For the Alliance!

was great and I loved it

loved the whole thing voices were well done and the zones music was a nice touch

Pretty Great

After the frankly lackluster story of a previous expansion, this book comes off as a surprisingly good read or listen. The author knows the characters well, with interesting and for the most part believable dialogue. Several of the latter fight scenes are well done, and do a good job creating stakes and building up to several satisfying endings.

The story is mostly contained, that being said, so while it might offer readers or listeners greater context into World of Warcraft's Shadowlands expansion, it's ultimately, if you don't want to experience it, skippable. Additionally, while the author goes to great lengths to include basic summations and details on the lands visited in the novel, as with many WoW stories, it's best experienced by someone familiar to the world already. It name drops often, and at points is set in iconic BfA/WoW areas and uses the associated terms. Also, as a nitpick, I did notice a couple minor spoiler-y lore inconsistencies, but nothing too erroneous.

The novel, in audio form, is over ten hours, and almost 11 hours long, so make sure you set the time aside for it. Get some of those mount collections done I guess.

The narrator is the voice actor for Queen Talanji herself, so some people may have an issue with her accent and vocal range.
To me, however, Susan Wokoma performs incredibly well, and voices all the Darkspear trolls, Zandalari trolls, and Bwonsamdi himself with incredibly authentic accents and emotional range. If that still doesn't work for you, there's always just reading it yourself.

I think, as long as you weren't a Banshee Loyalist, you will enjoy this book.