Reddit reviews WarCraft War of the Ancients Archive

Warcraft Archive includes:
Day of the Dragon (post-Warcraft 2, alliance perspective)
Lord of the Clans (pre-Warcraft 3, horde perspective)
The Last Guardian (non-combat Warcraft 1 perspective)
Of Blood and Honor (pre-Warcraft 3, alliance perspective)

War of the Ancients archive
Well of Eternity, The Demon Soul, The Sundering
Background on the conflict surrounding the Burning Legion that led into their motivation in Warcraft 3.

Rise of the Horde for pre-all Warcraft games, Horde perspective.

Probably the War of the Ancients trilogy.

To get addicted? I would say the War of the Ancients trilogy, it covers a period in Warcraft known as the sundering but from a different perspective from Warcraft 3 as it focuses on 3 characters 'created' by the author (technically you can say it was blizzard/knaak) which in turn heavily influence the current story and timeline in World of Warcraft (WoD excluded to a point).

If you aren't looking for a long read, as mentioned by /u/disaace, Arthas: Rise of the Lich King is fantastic and covers Arthas Menethils descent in to 'madness' as he takes up the mantle of 'The Lich King'. The internal struggle in that book was one of the best things in any of the Warcract/WoW series i've read.

If you enjoy either of those, you can go in a few directions but i'd recommend covering the history of/between Orcs and Humans which you can read in World of Warcraft: Chronicles of War which covers 4 books and gives you a really solid grounding.

Some people have issues with some of the writing styles but if you just take the story for what it is and you've grown up around the Warcraft games then it's hard to not geek out a bit!

Even though it's Knaak, I'd war to go with the War of the Ancients Trilogy.

http://www.amazon.com/WarCraft-Ancients-Archive-Richard-Knaak/dp/1416552030/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1289248642&sr=8-1

If you're friend is more Horde-centric, try Rise of the Horde by Golden.

http://www.amazon.com/World-Warcraft-Rise-Horde-No/dp/0743471385/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1289248710&sr=8-1

Could also try delving into the prelude to the upcoming expansion pack, cataclysm with The Shattering by Golden.

http://www.amazon.com/World-Warcraft-Shattering-Prelude-Cataclysm/dp/1416550747/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1289248859&sr=8-1

You have got several options here:

| Book/Bundle | Content |
|:------------|:----------------|
| Chronicle: Volume 1 | "This definitive tome of Warcraft history reveals untold stories about the birth of the cosmos, the rise of ancient empires, and the forces that shaped the world of Azeroth and its people." |
| War of the Ancients Trilogy | This trilogy covers the initial invasion of the Burning Legion some 10,000 years before the First War/Warcraft 1. Eventhough it is slightly tainted by Knaak's infamous writing and it has become hard/expensive to get your hands on a new copy; it remains essential in WoW's canon. |

 

 

| ALSO: | |
|:------------|:----------------|
| If you are looking for a recommended reading list before Legion hits | Go to our friends at Blizzard Watch |
| If you are looking for a nerd with a soothing voice, summarizing lore for you | Go watch all Nobbel's videos |
| If you are looking for a subreddit full of helpful lorewalkers | Go visit r/warcraftlore ! |

If you want to know what happens between now and the start of WoD, you should definitely read "War Crimes" by Christie Golden.

If you'd like to go further back, I suggest the "War of the Ancients" Saga which explains how the Elves initially interacte with Demons and what caused the Maelstrom. I believe that this trilogy edition contains all 3 books together.

It's not the best to start with because two of the characters come from a previous book.

I recommend starting with the [WarCraft Archive] (http://www.amazon.com/WarCraft-Archive-WORLD-OF-WARCRAFT/dp/1416525823). It has four books in it:

• Day of the Dragon (This book introduces two of the main characters from the War of the Ancients)
  
• Lord of the Clans (The story of Thrall)
  
• The Last Guardian (which is the story of Medivh and Khadgar, a great backstory to WoD)
  
• Of Blood and Honor (a story involving Tirion before he was the badass paladin he is today, and Eitrigg, one of the most honorable orcs to live)
  
  You can get all 4 of those books individually, but if you're going to read War of the Ancients, read at least Day of the Dragon first.
  
  From there, read War of the Ancients (it's a trilogy, but they have a "single print" edition).
  
  And as a stand alone, read Rise of the Horde! It tells the story of the original Horde and how the developed on Draenor. Makes a lot of the events in WoD make more sense.
  
  From there, there are tons of books, I can't say they are all good, but I've not been disappointed in any of them. But those are what I started with, in that order, and it gave me a MUCH better sense of the lore pre-Warcraft III.

Well, as many are posting already, you can go through them in a very stringent chronological order if you'd like to... or, you could do what I did, and try to dive right in to the core-lore, the oldest and most central stories: [Warcraft Archives] (http://us.blizzard.com/store/details.xml?id=110000002) is a book containing 4 original stories that cover topics ranging from the origin of Thrall to Medivh and the opening of the Dark Portal. I loved all of them! The next one I plan to read is the [War of the Ancients Archive] (http://www.amazon.com/WarCraft-Ancients-Archive-Warcraft-Series/dp/1416552030) which contains the three War of the Ancients books. Lot's of Night Elf lore! I personally find these collected tomes a perfect way to satiate my hunger for the real meat of Warcraft lore.

I would ask for their the Warcraft archive or War of the Ancients Trilogy.

That ends up being 7 books for around $10-15 total, so it wouldn't eat up the whole budget, and all of them are great.

I would say read Rise of the Horde then Lord of the Clans then Day of the Dragon then the War of the Ancients trilogy. Those are the best of the books in my opinion

Legends of the Dragonrealm series are a great first start. I started with just getting the volumes, which includes about 3 books per volume. You'll see the unique style he has there. If you have any interest in diving into Blizzard lore (Starcraft, Warcraft, etc), which personally I'm a sucker for some good lore, check out those series. They do a great job of putting a story behind the games.

I dunno how you read but here are some Amazon links:

War of the Ancients


Dragonrealm Vol. 1

The War of the Ancients trilogy is amazing. You can buy it in a paperback form that has all three in it.

http://www.amazon.com/WarCraft-Ancients-Archive-Warcraft-Series/dp/1416552030/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373381529&sr=8-1&keywords=war+of+the+ancients+trilogy

Great starting point for anyone who wants to get into WoW Lore.

Whatever order you choose to do, I definitely recommend picking up The WarCraft Archive as it contains 4 books: Day of the Dragon, Lord of the Clans, The Last Guardian, and Of Blood and Honor. Saves you a little bit of money as opposed to buying them individually.

Edit: It looks like there's a second WarCraft Archive for the War of the Ancients Trilogy as well.

my favorite lore books are in trilogy format - war of the ancients.

http://www.amazon.com/WarCraft-Ancients-Archive-Richard-Knaak/dp/1416552030

Also

WarCraft War of the Ancients Archive https://www.amazon.com/dp/1416552030/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_IZyGAbCYPGT9Q

All three in one binding. This is what I have, but it makes for a large unwieldy book IMO