Tides of Darkness (World of Warcraft) Mass Market Paperback – August 28, 2007

For timeline purposes, this book takes place right after the first war between the humans and orcs. This book is the 3rd book you should be reading if you want to go in chronological order. It takes place right after The Last Guardian and you will see more than a few familiar faces carry over from that story. Rosenberg takes the story of the game, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and does a solid job of putting it into a novel that serves as a refresher on events that happened years before the setting of World of Warcraft. It also gives you a glimpse into some of the characters that you'll find in the World of Warcraft and give you an idea why there are statues of some of them outside of Stormwind. Some major characters that appear are Turalyon, Khadgar, Lothar, Doomhammer, Gul'dan, Terenas (Arthas' dad) and Zul'jin. Even brief appearances by Arthas and Varian. I understand some of the plot holes people complain about are annoying (Distances traveled, some characters, unrealistic strategies, etc.) but I got what I expected and enjoyed it. If you're looking for the proper order to read the Warcraft books I suggest the following:Rise of the Horde (book) - Covers approx. a 10 year period prior to WC I.The Last Guardian (book) - Touches on the closing days of the First War with bookends set prior to WC III.Tides of Darkness (book) - Covers WC II in continuity.Beyond the Dark Portal (book) - Covers WC II expansion in continuity.Day of the Dragon (book) - Wraps up some dangling threads from WC II with Deathwing and the Red Dragonflight.Lord of the Clans (book) - Covers a wide swath from just before WC II all the way to prior to WC III. Should be subtitled All You Wanted to Know About Thrall But Were Too Much of An Alliance Lover to Ask. ;) J/k.Of Blood and Honor (book) - Set just prior to WC III.Warcraft III Battle Chest (game) - Reign of Chaos covers the origin of the Scourge and the return of the Burning Legion. The Frozen Throne covers the exile of Illidun, the rise of the Forsaken and the crowning of a new Lich King. Founding of Durotar covers the most recent conflict between Horde and humans prior to WoW.Arthas: Rise of the Lich King (book) - Recaps material from Tides of Darkness all the way up until the end of Frozen Throne with bookends just before the WotLK cinematic.Ashbringer (comic) - Covers the fallout from Arthas dissolving the Order of the Silver Hand and the rise of Argent Dawn and Crimson Crusade.Cycle of Hatred (book) - Picks up after Founding of Durotar and begins to set the stage for WoW Vanilla.Well of Eternity (book) - Try and follow: characters from current Azeroth are sent back to the War of the Ancients 10,000 years before by the Bronze Dragonflight to make sure what was supposed to happen happens. Part of War of the Ancients TrilogyDemon Soul (book) - See above, part of War of the Ancients Trilogy.The Sundering (book) - See above, part of War of the Ancients Trilogy.Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy (Comic) - This is just before WoW vanilla since some Horde holdings (Tauren Mill) are still Alliance held. Sets up Kalygos and his motivations mostly.Warcraft Legends Vol. 1-5 (Comic) - These are all over the place, but primarily just before WoW Vanilla with some flashback stuff.The Dragons of Outland (Comic) - Trilogy set between Vanilla and TBC. Running a bit late, second volume should be out later this year.World of Warcraft Books 1-4 (comics) - Set between TBC and WotLK, covers a lot of plot spillover. Ever why the Missing Diplomat questchain ends so quickly in Thereamore? The answer is here.Death Knight (comic) - Set before and during WotLK. Sets up Thassarian.Mage (comic) - Set before WotLK. Sets up why Dalaran is a floating city over Northrend.Night of the Dragon (book) - Set before WotLK, deals with some stuff spilling out of TBC, especially dealing with Kalygos and the two new dragonflights in Outland.Stormrage (book) Set after WotLK. Sets up Malfurian Stormrage and Tyrande and the status of the Emerald Dream corruption.Shaman (comic) - Set between WotLK and Cata.The Shattering (book) - Covers all the details between WotLK and Cata that were going on while we were doing the pre-launch events.Wolfheart (book) - Details the Worgen and Gilneas' recruitment into the Alliance after the Cataclysm.Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects (book) - follows the former War Chief of the Horde as he struggles with the ongoing repercussions of the Cataclysm.Jaina Proudmoore: Tides of War - The ashes of the Cataclysm have settled across Azeroth’s disparate kingdoms. As the broken world recovers from the disaster, the renowned sorceress Lady Jaina Proudmoore continues her long struggle to mend relations between the Horde and the Alliance.Dawn of the Aspects - The former Dragon Aspects are on the brink of going their separate ways to forge new destinies...Vol'Jin: Shadows of the Horde - Follows Vol'Jin as he travels to Pandaria, where the troll chieftain's loyalties are put to the ultimate test when a member of his own faction moves to assassinate him. . . .War Crimes - Centers around Garrosh Hellscream after the Siege of Orgrimmar. It provides a bridge between the events at the end of the Mists of Pandaria expansion and the upcoming Warlords of Draenor expansion.Hope this helped i tried my best to get it right but as always there may be some mistakes just try to look into it on wowwiki or wowpedia. Special Thanks to Kordd on the battle.net forums for creating the original part of the list.

I bought this for my son in law. He enjoyed it.

I had a little trouble getting into it at first but the book takes shape about halfway in and proves to be an enjoyable read.As others have mentioned it is not written on an adult level which is fine since it is intended for fanboys of World of Warcraft. It can get a little frustrating if you are expecting deeper characterizations and more engaging plots but if you are looking for background lore in playing World of Warcraft (which is what I was doing) it fills the bill.

I think this book is great. I enjoyed the story from beginning to end. If you are a world of warcraft fan then you are going to love this book. I wish I read this book when I played the mmo game.

I don't like to give out any details. I will say that the WarCraft series is worth every cent! Whether a fan of the WarCraft games or simply into fantasy genre (knights, orcs, elves, dragons, magic, etc), this series will keep you wanting for more.

If you're interested in Warcraft lore then this book isn't too bad. The writing is very average, and the text is riddled with missing words and errors. In addition, the word "grin" was used so many times that I've come to despise the word. I did a search and the word appeared almost 100 times in the book's 370 pages. That's way too many. The pacing is poor, with battles happening out of nowhere, and the characters are very flat. They don't grow on you and you don't care about them, nor does Rosenberg provide you with a reason to do so.Still, I was entertained by the book and enjoyed seeing familiar lore characters and locations. It was interesting to see how events played out in further detail, even if that detail was written at a middle school level. If you're interested in Warcraft and don't know much about the events of the Second War, then I recommend this book. Otherwise, you can skip it.

This was an epic tale of alliance vs horde! Very well written I think. If you play Warcraft you will love it, and even if you do not play it is still a great story.

Lots of great story even for those that don't play the game. I wanted to read this to my 10 yr old but it was a bit to graphic.