Guild Wars 2

heard that there are 3 novels of Guild wars

- Ghosts of Ascalon
- Edge of Destiny
- Sea of Sorrows

I want to know if it’s worth buying
Is the story good / better than the game ?

thank you

I read them and they’re good for what they are. If you’ve never read a novel based on a game, you may be disappointed, but if you read some of this type of novel, such as the WoW novels, you may be impressed.

Read the first loved it but I have yet to read the other 2 that are in my wall unit.

Edge of Destiny was rather poor. Hilariously inconsistent writing that isn’t helped by the general blandness of Destiny’s Edge as a group. The only thing I could really recommend it on is the Logan + Rytlock friendship, which is actually rather witty at times. It’s just unfortunate that the most important of the three novels was also the weakest link.

Ghosts of Ascalon was well done. It had some great characters, and I’d go as far as to say that the under-use (and that’s an understatement) of Dougal Keane in Guild Wars 2 is just criminal. I’d wholeheartedly recommend the novel.

Sea of Sorrows was at least on par with Ghosts of Ascalon – probably better. My one criticism of the novel was that the undead were almost always a deus-ex-machina for Cobiah’s every problem, but, for all of that, the novel had effective action and suspense with a better cast of characters than the actual game has.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Edge of Destiny was rather poor. Hilariously inconsistent writing that isn’t helped by the general blandness of Destiny’s Edge as a group. The only thing I could really recommend it on is the Logan + Rytlock friendship, which is actually rather witty at times. It’s just unfortunate that the most important of the three novels was also the weakest link.

Ghosts of Ascalon was well done. It had some great characters, and I’d go as far as to say that the under-use (and that’s an understatement) of Dougal Keane in Guild Wars 2 is just criminal. I’d wholeheartedly recommend the novel.

Sea of Sorrows was at least on par with Ghosts of Ascalon – probably better. My one criticism of the novel was that the undead were almost always a deus-ex-machina for Cobiah’s every problem, but, for all of that, the novel had effective action and suspense with a better cast of characters than the actual game has.

Totally agree. I actually dropped reading edge of destiny when they were doing some gladiatorial stuff because it got so tedious to read. The other two books were great.

other than these three books

are there more books that relate about these three stories ?

I’ve read Edge of Destiny multiple times and love it. Haven’t got around to the others yet though.

Ghosts of Ascalon, really enjoyed it.
Edge of Destiny, uhg. Skipable unless someone wants to know about their back story… still skipable.
Sea of Sorrows, liked this one as well.

I agree 100% with Duke Blackrose, I’ll just add a bit of my opinion.

Edge of Destiny: The weakest of the books, but have the most lore and the background to our game, so sadly it is the most “important” of the 3.

Sea of Sorrows: Good reading, but it starts kinda slow imo, then it ramp up really fast and the … let’s say information, we learn near the end is amazing about a character from the GW universe.

I read edge of destiny and ghosts of ascalon. If you are into lore stuff they will certainly be statisfying, but I do have to say that edge of destiny is the by far better written book and both of them suffer the curse of every videogame-fantasy-novel, of including way to many combat scenes that get a little repetatative after some time. Cant say anything about sea of sorrows yet, have to find a place to buy that thing first, for some reason it didn’t make it never made it to the bookstores in vienna, at least not the ones I visited at the time.

To me Ghost was the weakest. The story was good but the style was “poor”. Note that I read than in their original version (english) which is not my mother language. I remember finding some inconsistencies and being bored by the writer style.

Destiny’s Edge was a really nice read, mainly because it is like a big introduction to story dungeons in game. I liked it a lot.

The best for me by far was Sea of Sorrow. Not only the style but the story was really good. I read it last summer, and I had really images of Cobiah on a boat and was almost felling the smell of sea. I read it more like a real independent book than a game novel though I’m not particularly fond of pirate stories…

meh wrong topic

I haven’t gotten to read Sea of Sorrows yet, but Ghosts of Ascalon is definitely a good read. It was a good introduction to the Vigil especially and has some very significant backstory for Tyria today. Importance-wise, I would put it on even footing with Edge of Destiny.

Edge of Destiny was less impressive, but still a good read. As for the story, well, I don’t think it’s a secret as to why every “Rune of Thackery” idea includes swiftness duration as a bonus…

I enjoyed Ghosts. I read it before GW2 launched so it was a nice primer as to the state of Tyria 250 years after the original games left off.

Edge was read during or shortly after GW2 Launched. It gave me some context as to who these ‘dungeon people’ were and why they were a big deal. Didn’t really enjoy this book as much as Ghosts

I was surprised as to how much I enjoyed Sea of Sorrows. It again gave me background context to Lions Arch’s history since the original game series, and I found the characters to be enjoyable.
There were a few ‘forced’ parts, but generally it worked.

They are certainly worth the read (more so if you can get them on sale or borrow them from a library).

Seishiro.7468:

Cant say anything about sea of sorrows yet, have to find a place to buy that thing first, for some reason it didn’t make it never made it to the bookstores in vienna, at least not the ones I visited at the time.

I’m from Brazil and I bought SoS from www.barnesandnoble.com , it arrived without any issues.

With Lions Arch still in ruins Sea of Sorrow is a very sad read.

from the little I have seen, they are rather good for what they are… but mind you, we live in a world where D&D novels consist of lines like “Mystra cast Bigby´s Crushing Hand”, so that is not saying very much.

Ghosts of Ascalon, in my opinion, is better written than Edge of Destiny but I still enjoyed Edge of Destiny more, for it’s direct links to the game. Sea of Sorrows I thought was good.

As you can see, and is true with all things, everyone is going to have different opinions.

Vayne.8563:

Ghosts of Ascalon, in my opinion, is better written than Edge of Destiny but I still enjoyed Edge of Destiny more, for it’s direct links to the game. Sea of Sorrows I thought was good.

As you can see, and is true with all things, everyone is going to have different opinions.

GoA does link directly to the game. Dougal’s group was responsible for bringing about the Human + Charr treaty that is so important in facing the dragons today.

The only real weakness of GoA was that it contributed no characters of import to the game. Even Dougal, the main character, is nothing more than a random Vigil trainer npc with a few lines of text dialogue in Lion’s Arch. Wasted potential. Simply… wasted.

Then again, given that Rytlock seems to be the only consistently liked member of Destiny’s Edge, perhaps that’s not such a terrible thing.

Sea of Sorrows was great, the other two weren’t quite up to snuff, but still fun reads if you’re really into the game.

I understand that these 3 books are the story between gw1 and gw2

if i want to know other timeline like gw1 / gw2
are there any books ?
or I just have to play gw1/gw2

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Vayne.8563:

Ghosts of Ascalon, in my opinion, is better written than Edge of Destiny but I still enjoyed Edge of Destiny more, for it’s direct links to the game. Sea of Sorrows I thought was good.

As you can see, and is true with all things, everyone is going to have different opinions.

GoA does link directly to the game. Dougal’s group was responsible for bringing about the Human + Charr treaty that is so important in facing the dragons today.

The only real weakness of GoA was that it contributed no characters of import to the game. Even Dougal, the main character, is nothing more than a random Vigil trainer npc with a few lines of text dialogue in Lion’s Arch. Wasted potential. Simply… wasted.

Then again, given that Rytlock seems to be the only consistently liked member of Destiny’s Edge, perhaps that’s not such a terrible thing.

I’d call that indirectly linking into the game. Though you can meet Dougal in the game, he’s not significant. The truce between Charr are Human are a year before the game starts. It predates the game.

But the members of Destiny’s Edge are in the game, they’re current. That’s what I mean when I say a direct link. It’s the difference between background and actual experience.

The events of what happened in DE are events that affect my personal story after I’ve started playing, no matter what race you start as.

They are the only books. The wiki is the best place to read lore outside those.

Edge of Destiny is the worst written, but is a better portrayal of the characters and at least has more dragon champions and the appearance of one elder dragon too.

Ghosts of Ascalon is the best by far. It also does more justice to Ascalon than GW2 does.

Sea of Sorrows is a mixed bag. It fills in some nice gaps and ties into some things in Lions Arch like the monument hunt, however the central character is so bland and uninteresting, it brings the story down.

They are all worth a read if you like the lore and they are better than the in game story imo. They just aren’t great literature, but I doubt anyone expected otherwise.

As gaming novels, they’re fine. They do what they need to do, ie deliver lore and a tour of the world/races/professions. On their own merits, I really couldn’t recommend them.

For perspective, I enjoy authors such as Willis, Bujold, Tepper, Gaiman, Weber, S.M. Stirling, Weekes, Sanderson, Abercrombie, Wells, Willey, Francis, Diana Wynn Jones, Beagle, and the like.

Edge of Destiny — Very poor read. Unfocused, shallow characterization (Rytlock and Logan come off as whiny modern Terran teenage human boys), constrained by the need to showcase one of each race and some of every area in the game and containing a number of unbelievable character actions. Worth reading only to get some Tyrian lore and history to put in-game things in context.

Ghosts of Ascalon — Better. It has a focused story (a group of adventurers assemble to go on a treasure hunt in some old ruins) and while it also has to showcase one-of-each it does so with a bit more depth and better dialogue. On its own might suffice as light beach reading or for other times when you don’t need to pay much attention to what you’re reading.

Sea of Sorrows — Rises to good enough to read for its own sake, though hardly on par with the authors I listed above. Occasionally trite but generally far more immersive, it made me care far more about what happened to the characters in the story than the other two managed. An excellent source of history of LA and it explains LA’s government and political place in the world. The go-to source to refute those who think Ellen Kiel is some sort of powerful dictator, or that Gnashblade would have had any more control than she does (though his financial clout might have given him more sway).

I read the first two when they came out, before game launch, without knowing anything at all of the GW1 world. By the time the third arrived I was much more steeped in the game and had a lot more context for the lore I was getting from the book. This may have affected my opinions of each novel.

takk.5698:

I understand that these 3 books are the story between gw1 and gw2

if i want to know other timeline like gw1 / gw2
are there any books ?
or I just have to play gw1/gw2

If you want to know the timeline for both games I advised you to read the lore section of both wikis. Beware tough as you might spend a lot of time for each articles and subarticles. For now I think they are the most complete sources.

Mostly agree with all that was said, will just reiterate for the sake of my own talking :P

I loved Ghosts of Ascalon, the adventure was more interesting to me. Writing style may have been somewhat more juvenile in the sense that they tried to mention specific game classes and such at the start, but turned into an actual adventure towards the end.

Edge of Destiny again tried to link specific abilities, skills, classes, and people into the book. It is the most book to game lore filled, so it is worth reading for the sake of better understanding the personal story. I liked Rytlock and Logan a lot more after reading it, and understand why Zojja and Eir are a bit off at each other now. I kind disagree with how Caithe was written, but overall it was fine. She is very different and naive in this, but much more determined and in control in the game. Maybe due to the hardships.

Sea of Sorrows was a more mature book in the sense of storytelling. Yet the big sea adventure didn’t pull on me the same as Ghosts of Ascalon. Still well written and explains Lion’s Arch in a great way. Actually made my appreciate the location in game a lot more afterwards.

All in all, if you like the game and you like reading, then those books are fun additions and worthwhile for enjoyment.

I’ve read the first 2 (GoA, DE) and have the more recent one on my Kindle (not gotten around to it yet).

I would recommend them, but don’t expect anything groundbreaking in terms of fantasy literature. They certainly give some good GW2 lore and background that any GW2 fan would appreciate.