Guild Wars 2

I just finished reading all three of the books currently released. Curious if any more are planned as I’d love to continue reading more about Tyria outside of the game.

Also, anyone else feel like Edge of Destiny was lacking compared to the other two books?

I felt like Edge of Destiny had more potential, like it was rushed. For example Logan teaching Rytlock to swim would have been a neat thing to see, but it's treated as "oh yeah Logan taught Rytlock to swim." Some of my favorite parts of the book were actually when Rytlock was caught off guard and his "mental armor" so to speak dropped for a moment, and I liked the contrast at the end where the characters that took everything the worst and were inconsolable were the one that usually acted cold being brought to hysteria (Zojja) and the one who acted tough falling to his knees and wallowing in grief as Caithe accused him of doing (Rytlock).

There are a lot of nuances to the characters that were shown but not really explored much. I thought the end of the book was by far its strongest part.

I liked Ghosts of Ascalon, even if I had (and have) a thirst to hear more about the members of Destiny’s Edge. I hope we find out how Rytlock got that sword eventually for example.

Now Sea of Sorrows was just astoundingly amazing. I will probably re-read that some time. I was really impressed. I really hope Ree is the one that writes it if there is another book. The Charr having retractable claws was not something I’d have known without the books either. It’s a minor detail but I find it amusing considering how they look in game. I wasn’t expecting the book with the most distant connection to the current game lore to be my favorite, but it wins easily for me.

For me, Edge of Destiny became repetitive, especially the fight scenes. I agree that the ending was its strongest point. I understand why Logan did what he did but it still made my blood boil. Even though I knew what was coming because of the game, it was still an enjoyable read.

I think Sea of Sorrows is arguably the best of the three books. Although pacing could be slow, I felt it had the strongest story and overall character development.

Hoping a new book is announced soon!

No new books on the horizon, alas.

As for Edge of Destiny, yeah it did feel lacking in storytelling, but it had the most lore – arguably to SoS.

I feel like it could have done better as two novels – one to show the rise of Destiny’s Edge, and one to show its fall from glory. There were just too many time skips with the constant weeks/months of preparation between each dragon champion, and us only seeing the dragon champions after they formed. The first half was rather good in pacing, IMO, though it could have been a bit better in wording and writing – but that’s often a downside to external writers being brought in. Everything after the celebration of the Dragonspawn’s death until Caithe collapses just… needed great improvement.

What bothers me the most however is that in game, we see a few mentions of Destiny’s Edge doing things unrelated to what we saw in the novel, and the novel supposedly only timeskips over the preparation of fighting the dragon champions, and Edge of Steel’s arena matches. For example, there’s an ogre in Hoelbrak who mentions seeing Destiny’s Edge in full – this is including Eir particularly – in the Blazeridge Steppes. But according to the novel, only Logan, Rytlock, and Caithe were there – well before Destiny’s Edge formed. Most oddly, is that he only mentions one asura…

Personally, I liked GoA best, although I know that a lot of people these days find the chunks of exposition that’re by now well-established bog it down. I feel it actually had the best characters; I loved Killeen and Dougal, and Riona was a great and all too rare look into what makes a Tyrian villain tick. The plot was pretty predictable, but that just meant the emphasis could be shifted off what was happening and onto who it was happening to.

EoD was too formulaic for my tastes- the first half felt like it had too many pieces being moved simply so that they’d be in position, and the second was the same process of slaying repeated four times. The characters weren’t great either, and while some of that may have been a symptom of writing a group with a host of dysfunctions lurking just beneath the surface, they also just felt flat. Honestly, Eir and Caithe aside, none of them have any motivation or stake beyond Snaff’s handwaved “You’re heroes. You should be fighting real monsters.” Can you really blame Logan for leaving? Combined with the differences in the major cities and a couple elements that just felt off (human caravans in the Blazeridge mountains? Dwarvern cities underground? Horses? :P), it feels like the least connected to the actual game to me.

Sea of Sorrows was much better, and I applaud the content, but the structure robbed it of a lot of its punch. Jumping straight from momentous moment to momentous moment meant we didn’t get to see most of the character development, instead only observing the results. I would’ve loved to see the fight between Cobiah and Isaye, but instead we jump straight to the slow reconciliation years later. It’s kinda the opposite of GoA- all focus on the what at the expense of the who.

As far as future books go, we haven’t heard any plans. I’d like to think that there’s enough demand for them, but maybe their numbers showed differently, or maybe they’ve just decided to keep their writers busy with the game instead.

Konig – good catch with the Hoelbrak ogre! I also noticed some dissimilarities between the book and game. Like you said, this is likely a disconnect from having an outside author.

Aaron – Ghosts of Ascalon is a close second for me, after Sea of Sorrows. I liked some of the added lore that I didn’t find in the game (particularly the foefire – could be in the game, I just never stumbled upon it). TBH, I didn’t see Riona turning on the group like that. I knew she had her doubts with Dougal and Ember but I didn’t expect it.

As for Edge of Destiny, why do you feel that the group had little motivation? Also, were dwarvern cities not underground? I always pictured them to be similar to Asuran cities before their race came to the surface.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

the differences in the major cities

This is because the descriptions that the book gives are the beta appearances of the cities – Hoelbrak, Rata Sum, and Lion’s Arch all got overhauls during development. If you watch the first GW2 trailer which shows all three cities, they actually are closer to the book’s description than what we saw at release.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

human caravans in the Blazeridge mountains? Dwarvern cities underground? Horses? :P

How’s this weird?

Ebonhawke had no asura gate, so they had to get supplies somehow. Only path that’s really there thanks to the Shiverpeaks is through northern Ascalon or the Blood Legion Homelands (it’s established gw1 lore that there should only be two safe passages into the Shiverpeaks from its east side – Anet flubbed it a bit with Fireheart Rise giving access to Frostgorge Sound but hey).

Dwarves had pre-established underground cities – it’s just that most of them that we knew were above ground.

And we knew of horses. :P

bigpoy.8205:

Also, were dwarvern cities not underground? I always pictured them to be similar to Asuran cities before their race came to the surface.

Technically, we only saw one underground city of the dwarves in GW1 – Sorrow’s Furnace – which by the time we go there had long been conquered by the Stone Summit (evil dwarves) and turned into a mining fortress.

But there’s a well-if-not-obvious established connection between the dwarves and underground. We just never see it first hand.

Well, let’s take Rytlock, for example. He’s a Blood Legion soldier who’s serving with the Iron, when circumstances force him out of charr territories and then into the gladitorial pit. So far, so fine- he’s had precious little control over things and made a great show that he doesn’t like where they’re going. Then, in the pit, he discovers he has a love of luxury and hero worship, both of which he now receives on a regular basis. Now he has something to drive him, even if it isn’t particularly heroic. But then… Snaff gives a speech and he hares off to fight dragon minions, a choice that leaves him with less of his new-found wants. Why? Because he’s “a hero”, and apparently that’s what heroes are supposed to do. The decision doesn’t feel consistent with the character.

As for dwarf cities, not that we saw in the first game. There were some very vague hints hints in EotN that there might have been a long time ago, and of course we do see several small dwarvern ruins in caves in GW2 (mostly tombs or hidden refuges), but all of the recent big settlements were very much on the surface. There are a couple reasonable explanations that could excuse the book’s liberty, but it still is the sort of thing that jarred me out of the experience a bit.

@Konig I know why the differences are there, but the point is they open up a gap between book and game that the other two don’t. Same with living horses and underground dwarf cities- regardless of reasonable explanations, every other source treats them as obscure to the point of unseen, whereas this one book treats them kitten usual as not to bear much interest. As for the caravan, that means it’s taking the same routes that in GoA are considered too risky for even a stealthy party, which makes it hard to believe they’d survive, and in any case shouldn’t take them anywhere near the eastern edge of the basin. This is probably more of a case of ANet writing themselves into a corner with their geography, again, but in that case they should have just kept the gate intact. It feels like it served only as an excuse for Logan to meet Rytlock and for Jennah to be in Ebonhawke, which loops me back to the reason the book falls flat for me- things occur for narrative reasons, not in-universe ones. Like you mentioned above, it’s the cost of outsourcing your novels.

Edit: Spoiler tag and all formatting stopped working. I had to delete the post and repost.

About Rytlock’s motivation, don't forget the whole reason he fought in the arena to begin with was because he agreed with Caithe that they were being cruel to the animals, in fact he personally set the arena on fire. I think it's pretty obvious Rytlock got very attached to Logan too, and he was jealous of the Queen from the first time Logan got all googly eyed for her. Now it could be jealous as in attention as a friend, or war companion, or something a bit more than that, but in the end the reason doesn't matter because Rytlock is quite obviously jealous of Jennah. I think he has many motivations beyond that, but he liked Logan a lot, and he even freaked out and urged them to call off the attack out of desperation, because "Logan was always by his side." (To which Eir replied "Well he's not now, or some such.") More than that, it's not like he only cared about Logan. I think his grief was second only to Zojja, if not equal to it. He was pretty much paralyzed after the battle at first, Caithe accusing him of "wallowing in grief" when they needed to be planning their next move, to which he replied with something along the lines of "Wallow?! Two of our companions are dead!". He didn't even know Glint long before making that statement either. I say this to emphasize there is a lot more to him than simple vanity. He wouldn't have been one to just leave without them. They were his friends after the months in the arena. I don't think we ever learned just why he wasn't with his warband either have we? Regardless, he was not as bold at the start of the book. He didn't press the issue warning about the trap at the start of the book for example. I'm not saying Rytlock at the start was timid, but he certainly wasn't nearly at the point of his reputation by the start of the game.

Hm. Not convinced of the need for spoiler tags when the book is four years old, but I hadn’t thought about it, and you’re right. I got too caught on the remark that things between Logan and Rytlock were still bad until the trek to the Dragonspawn, but taking a step back, some kind of investment would’ve been necessary for that to matter, and Rytlock does seem the sort to take a surrogate warband.

I’d love to read more novels. Jeff Grub who is involved with Guild Wars, wrote novels and shorts for Dragonlance. I’m a tad surprised Anet didn’t commission him to write a couple of books at lest if not a trilogy.

Edge of Destiny felt so generic and cliche that it was painful to read.

Let’s group up, now kill one bad guy, then second bad guy…At this point I was just skipping every dragon champion “fight”. Then there’s the Most Bad Guy. Oh snap, something went wrong, one got shot, rest lament and disband.

Now if they got back together in the book and defeated the Most Bad Guy, with thr Power of the Generic Plot, it could’ve been a masterpiece, showing exactly how not to write a fantasy book.

For what they were, they were all enjoyable, although Sea of Sorrows wasnt great. Mostly due to an extremely weak lead character.

Loved Ghosts of Ascalon and whislt EoD was the worst written, it was packed full of lore and is one of the best sources on the Dragons we havent encountered.

Id be interested in reading more though.