World of Warcraft: Stormrage

By: Richard A. Knaak

Narrated by: Richard Ferrone

Length: 15 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

When the world of Azeroth was young, the god-like titans brought order to it by reshaping its lands and seas. Throughout their great work, they followed a magnificent design for what they envisioned Azeroth would become. Although the titans departed Azeroth long ago, that design endures to this day. It is known as the Emerald Dream, a lush and savagely primal version of the... World of Warcraft.

Many are the mysteries surrounding the Emerald Dream and its reclusive guardians, the green dragonflight. In times past, druids have entered the Dream to monitor the ebb and flow of life on Azeroth in their never-ending quest to maintain the delicate balance of nature.

However, not all dreams are pleasant ones. Recently the Emerald Nightmare, an area of corruption within the Emerald Dream, began growing in size, transforming the Dream into a realm of unimaginable horror. Green dragons have been unexpectedly caught up in the Nightmare, emerging from it with shattered minds and twisted bodies. Druids who have entered the darkening Dream lately have found it difficult -- sometimes even impossible -- to escape.

Nor are these the Nightmare's only victims: more and more people are being affected. Even Malfurion Stormrage, first and foremost of the druids on Azeroth, may have fallen victim to this growing threat. As uncontrollable nightmares spread across the world, a desperate quest begins to find and free the archdruid.

Soon nature's enemies will learn the true meaning of the name.

©2010 Richard A. Knaak (P)2010 Simon & Schuster

Poor narration, great story.

I'm a new lore nerd of Blizzard's World of Warcraft, and this book, for the most part, has been a wonderful delve into to the lore that happens outside of the game. The story had a decent pace, but had a habit of jumping from one thing to the next a little too much. One moment you would be in the Emerald Nightmare, and the next, an unrelated moment in the Undercity. I do wish the author stayed a bit longer with each part of the story instead of jumping from one to the other every chapter, or so it felt that way. Other than that, it was a great trip into the world of Azeroth.

I wish I had the same feelings for the narrator. Their delivery felt bored, and unimaginative. It reminded me of an annoyed parent reading the 20th book to their child, hoping they would stop asking for another story, and fall asleep. This, however, is not my main complaint; it's jarring to hear names of characters, and places mispronounced so terribly. It got to the point that I dreaded when the story went back to Teldrassil as just to name one example. Most, if not all, of these mispronunciations could of been avoided if the narrator had done proper research on the source material. Like, how do you so badly mispronounce Sylvanas when she's a very popular and important character to the lore? Over all, the narrator almost killed my enjoyment of the book, and lost it a whole star.

Pronunciation Horrible

I wish the producers and directors would at least make sure the names of characters and locations were properly pronounced. BEFORE releasing the audio books.

pronunciation and emphasis issues

Great story, however, the narrator routinely pronounced the word "dour" as "door" and emphasized certain key phrases incorrectly (BURNING legion instead of burning LEGION). Not the worst things in the world but somewhat jarring on first hearing.

Better if read from the physical copy

I love the World of Warcraft book series, especially any installment by Richard A. Knaak, but Richard Ferrone's voice was excruciatingly boring. He couldn't pronounce anything correctly. I couldn't focus on what he was saying most of the time, and found myself just wanting the book to be over so I wouldn't have to listen to him talk. Overall, it's not a bad read, I have a physical copy at home that I hadn't gotten to yet but I thought I would listen to it instead since I drive a lot for work. I'll continue to read and listen to the series, as long as Ferrone doesn't narrate.

Fun Adventure

The story is fast paced and thrilling. Some minor repeating themes can be annoying and the narrator butchers a few pronunciations but it's alright.

WoW gamers WARNING!

Narrator fails at pronouncing prominent names! Although the overall book was enjoyable I found my self annoyed and frustrated by the names miss pronunciation

The narrator really ruins it

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Maybe someone who has never heard any of the names in Warcraft lore pronounced appropriately would enjoy this? It's not Knaak's best work, but it's likely an enjoyable story if you can get through it. I had to quit half way through because the narrator ruined it for me.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The lore was what interested me. I'm a long-time player and fan of Warcraft lore. I've read and/or listened to almost all of the books - some of them more than once. So I wanted to like this audiobook.

How could the performance have been better?

As others have pointed out, the narrator mispronounces so many of the names that it became incredibly distracting. I should have paid more attention to other reviewers who brought up this point, but I thought, "how bad can it be, really?"

Bad.

Distractingly, cringingly bad. And that on top of the constant mangling of practically every name he encountered, I really disliked how he reads female character parts. It was not the absolute worst narration I've heard, but it was right up in the top (bottom?) 3 of my list.

Any additional comments?

I will probably get a hardcopy cover of the book to read, to finish the story, as I'd like to finish it.

Amazing story, Terrible Narration

It's like the guy reading has no clue who or what he's reading about. He literally mispronounces almost 80 % of the names. Slyvanas is Silvah Nas. ???? Every novel has been amazing. Stormrage is one of the best of them, but he slaughtered it.

Mispronunciation Galore

The book continues the very well though out lore around the Warcraft Universe but the Narrator constantly mispronounced names. Sure not all names in the Warcraft Universe has a set pronunciation but there are general agreements about how to pronounce Krasus and Tyrande. I started fearing chapters with these characters just because each mispronounced I found myself ripped out of the audio book.

Great story, cringed from the reader

I have listened to nearly all of the World of Warcraft lore. What makes this a bit cringe is how the reader says a lot of the names incorrectly. Other then that overall story was amazing, but the reader should know the correct pronunciation of the names of the places and the people.