Review: Liberty's Crusade - Shadow of Xel'Naga - Speed of Darkness - Starcraft

Title Liberty's Crusade / Shadow of Xel'Naga / Speed of Darkness
Author Jeff Grubb / Gabriel Mesta / Tracy Hickman
Pages 256 / 258 / 242
Year 2001 / 2001 / 2002
Publisher Pocket Books
Reading time 4 days / 5 days / 5 days (October 2009)
Rating 6 / 4 / 7

I've trying to read this three books but never had the disposition to read them because in total the trilogy had around 756 pages. But in October having read that Starcraft 2 was going to be release and trying to play again my old starcraft game I tried to read the books...

In the end what were my conclusions? The game is better.
With the first book, Liberty's Crusade, we are more into the characters of the game. We see how Raynor falls into the grasps of Mengsk. How the confederacy falls as well. We see the beautiful Sarah Kerrigan and how she is crossed and turned into the Queen of Blades. In the end I enjoyed the book. The book was a fast paced one and unfortunately the characters pay dearly with it being a bit more than two-dimensional ones with the sole excpetion of the main character, but what can you expect? In the end there were no surprises but one thing it was better than the second because it didn't feel like he was narrating a video game.

The second book was Shadow of the Xel'Naga written by Moesta (Kevin J Anderson and Rebecca Moesta) and it was awful. I always thought Kevin Anderson should be so good since he was writing Dune with the son of Frank Herbert but this book I read until the end because I forced myself. Grab some new and old characters and make a plot. Then add the names of every building and every creature and we've got 258 pages and a story. Now make some advances while inserting names and buildings. Bah... It reminds me of those games the south koreans play and someone is narrating as a football game. It was very bad book and I really hope that this is not the best Kevin can do...

The Third book was called Speed of Darkness and was written by Tracy Hickman, one of the founders of Dragonlance. This book was probably the best of them all but as the others they didn't do it for me... This story we get to know a bit more of all military aspect of the Terran Confederacy. Marines are a brainwashed conscript with no porpuse with the expection of following orders. The narrative is quick and the plot is throw at us briefly. At the middle book we get the zerg and the attack on the outpost. And the main character? Well he is a newly recruited with a dream/quest and this voyage is to reveal his true identidy. As he battles fragments of unknown memories start to surface and at a time he can't distinguish real from unnatural (implemented) ones. This book is no Dragonlance novel and nowhere the standart of them.

If you like Starcraft and want to read a book I would advice the last one, Speed of Darkness. Do not read Shadow of the Xel'Naga. Is worthless. Check the amazon and see the reviews from the three books...