I’m a huge World of Warcraft mark. I dropped $70 on the board game. I have a stupid ball cap that has an Exclamation Point on it. So I was all psyched out about reading this book. After the first chapter, I was sorely disappointed. But like a ridiculously long chain quest that you know has a blue reward at the end, I trudged on. Unfortunately, the reward at the end turned out to be bugged.

Keith R. A. DeCandido should go hang his head in shame that his name is on this one. The plot is toilet paper thin. A demon that didn’t get sucked back to the Twisted Nether after the last demon invasion is trying to force a war between the humans and the orcs. Jaina and Thrall must get to the bottom of the plot before that can happen. We are reminded about a dozen times of how Jaina turned on her father to stop him from waging war on the orcs. Apparently they feel we all have short attention spans and won't remember that fact unless it is mentioned a dozen times in the first chapter alone.

And all the women’s lib nonsense in the first chapter made my stomach churn. It’s Warcraft, not the Middle Ages. Considering the rich history of strong women among all the races of Azeroth, the constant ridiculous commentary about how the female characters had to work twice as hard to earn their positions is just insulting. If I want girl power, I’ll read chick lit.

It doesn’t get any better. The dialogue is predictable, as is the plot. Anyone who can’t see where this story is going doesn’t read more than one book a decade. In short, the Burning Blade is playing both sides against each other to start a war. And the fact that it takes until the end of the book for the characters to connect the dots makes them all look like idiots. And the ending is rather forced, contrived, and unfulfilling. Thrall just miraculously appears on the scene just in time to end the bloodshed at Northwatch, apparently someone finally thought to tell Thrall, “Oh, yeah, you’re advisor has one of those weird talismans shaped like a burning blade. I guess I should have mentioned that earlier, huh?” It isn’t presented exactly like that, but it just as well have been.

It’s a sad commentary that this book was released. Even sadder that I forced myself to finish it, just so I could say I could.