Book Review: Legacy of Blood by Richard A Knaak

Legacy of Blood by Richard A. Knaak
My rating: 7 of 10 stars

Well this book deserves 3.5 stars. Not Four but neither Three. Why? (Goodreads rating system)

The book gave what I hoped. A fast pace story about a world fill with wonders that you learn as you play. This book only added to that "history".

You've got three guys fighting through a labyrinth when one of them dresses a red armour that belong to Bartuc, the warlord of blood. As he puts in on he kills his friends and wanders the land as the armour leads him somewhere he does not know. From this moment on you've got two main characters. One, Norrec, the Armour's puppet. Two, Kara Nightshadow, a necromancer than wants to find Norrec and there are a couple of characters inbetween by Galeona, a sorcerer, and General Malevolyn.

The good part is that everyone wants to find Norrec and the Armour. Each with his own motifs. Kara Nightshadow wants to destroy or at least remove the armour from Norrec, Galeona wants to make Norrec is puppet, Malevolyn wants to wear the armour and Xazax, a daemon, wants Malevolyn to be his puppeteer.

At some point each main character was a puppet from others but they evolved, and that's the main focus of the story. I really enjoy Norrec powers, or at least the armour powers and how he tried to control the armour. I also enjoy Kara and her own masters, the wraiths that were killed by Norrec. Quite interesting.

I enjoy the travels around the world we know and also the backstory and their motifs. If there was one part that I hated was the end.

In my opinion it was a bit of Deus-ex-machina. I hoped for a unhappy ending but it seems that all went well. The bad were rewarded with death and the good guys lived happy ever after. I really hope for a grim ending (like in warhammer fantasy) because there wasn't any "Good" characters in the book. Even Norrec was not that good and Kara was doing what was right (not good or bad). To achieve the balance as she put it.

Overall, advisable to anyone who loves Diablo and a good short fantasy novel.

View all my reviews