by Whitney "Neinball" Fairchild - 10 years ago     show comments

Today debuts the newest Diablo novel, Storm of Light, and we here Diablo.Blizzpro have you covered with a review. If you’re concerned about spoilers, don’t worry I’m leaving the review spoiler free. If you’d like to known more I’ll highly recommend you check back later in the week when we interview both the author Nate Kenyon and Blizzard publishing lead Micky Neilson about the book and story.

General Details

Storm of Light is written by Nate Kenyon in collaboration with Blizzard and is published by Simon and Schuster. The story takes place a few weeks/months after the events of Diablo III and is setup in the world that is freshly recovering from the events that took place in the game. Heaven is rebuilding after the onslaught of the Prime Evil and the Heavenly Hosts are having to adapt to the new mortal in their midst, Tyrael.

The Black Soulstone has been recovered and now sits within the chambers of the Angiris Council for safe keeping, but at what cost? How can something so evil be contained? At what lengths would you go to save your home from the corruption of such a profane artifact and what costs would you be willing to pay for it? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to walk through the Gardens of Hope? How a mortal might see the High Heavens? What an immortal turned human might feel like? This book has those answers and more.

Storm Of Light

The Review

Growing up I use to be really big into comics and the one thing you’d always dread is when a series got a new writer or your favorite character crossed into another story. Would the new writer know all of the nuances of the character(s) they were writing for? Would they change them to fit their vision of how the story should play out? In short, are they going to ruin some of your favorite heroes from past authors?

With so many characters from so many authors this was my biggest fear going into the novel, there are just so many personalities and some of the characters have extensive histories. These worries were for not though, as Nate Keynon has a masterful attention to detail in his writing. He really nails the personalities of long time favorites like Zayl to newly established characters like Jacob. If you’re a fan of the previous Diablo novels you really owe it to yourself to grab this book, Nate does the characters and their personal stories justice. As evidence even X’y’Laq gets a cameo in the book! The inclusion of all these little details really breathe life into the characters and makes it a lot easier to identify with them, which is an issue I find with the characters in many other fantasy novels. This amazing job at fleshing out the main cast also makes the book very approachable to new readers, so don’t worry if you’ve never read a single one of the novels before. A newcomer might not get all of the little references throughout the book but you’ll have no trouble understanding the motivations of the characters and you’ll never feel that you’re missing something, every detail you need to know is provided to you as you read through the chapters.

We know from the previews that the main story revolves around the Black Soulstone’s corrupting influence on the High Heavens and Tyrael’s plan to have the Horadrim steal it. This is no simple heist tale and a third plot of manipulation is introduced to the reader from the very beginning. An entity known as the Guardian is using the Stone’s influence to control the destiny of the High Heaven’s for his own benefit. It is around these three plots that the narrative of the story unfolds and the main basis of the narrative is the theme of faith. Tyrael has lost faith in himself and has lost sight of his place in Creation. The Angiris Council has lost it’s faith in Tyrael’s ability to be a part of the Heavens and they have lost their faith in humanity’s future in the Light. The Horadrim are faced with a challenge of faith in themselves and one another. Finally, the mysterious Guardian’s plot to continually sow doubt between everyone and play upon their lack of faith in each other acts the driving undercurrent of conflict for the characters.

Each character has their faith tested in different ways. Tyrael, now mortal, is attempting to fit in as an outsider in the only place he’s ever called home in his eons of existence. How does a once immortal being adjust to the needs to sleep and eat in realm where those concepts are foreign? We also look into the history of Jacob of Staalbreak. He was once the mortal aspect of Justice while Tyrael was lost in the years since the destruction of the Worldstone, but now he is again just a man. How does one go from being a normal human to being the embodiment of Justice and Light only to go back to being normal? Zayl and Mikulov are two individuals who have always been loners but are now thrust into the middle of a group where they must put faith in others and have others put faith in them. Gynvir, a barbarian who’s tribe was corrupted and controlled, betrayed by their own blood must now learn to trust strangers yet again. Thomas and Cullen have been studying the ways of the Horadrim for years but how are these two scholars supposed to react when faced with the reality of combat and the horrors of the worlds beyond ours? Shanar must face the reality of her gifts and accept her place in the destiny of the Horadrim.

The theme of faith and trust fits very well within the religiously inspired world of Diablo where Heaven and Hell battle it out for the fate of Creation. It’s a narrative that carries through all of the characters and actually allows you to connect to these people that live in such a fantastical world that would otherwise seem outlandish. There is always a feeling of dread or coming conflict within the book that keeps you engaged page after page, it was very difficult to put the book down and by the end you want more and therein lies the problem. The book itself literally leaves off moments before the opening of the Reaper of Souls, so to see more and what happens next we will just have to wait until March 25th. This is a book I can highly recommend to any Diablo fan and I think it raises the bar for the next author to pick up a Diablo novel.

Storm of Light goes on sale today at Amazon and booksellers nationwide.