After reading the Shadowking I was impressed by how well he'd turned from a games designer into a writer. However it seems he did a lot of improving between his second book and this one. It might just be the shadow of Malus Darkblade and the much more microcosmic scale of those books that allow for a slower, more detailed plotline and their incredible pace but this book doesn't sound as good at all compared to the Shadowking. What really annoys me isn't his broad brushstrokes that make it more immature like it was intended for a younger audience. It's the multiple errors of the book in regard to the game's history. It's an annoying fact that writers of even officially sanctioned fan books get things wrong. Anyone who's properly familiar with Halo will know the mistakes made even in the first book. But it really gets on my tits that he gets so many things wrong. This may have something to do with the story I heard when I tried to order it that the book was being recalled and destroyed. He just makes one mistake after another. First was just a pet peeve by spelling Dwarfs which is the Games Workshop spelling if not the one I and Tolkien prefer. Lothern was only an insignificant fishing village at the start of the reign of Bel Hathor and probably didn't even exist at the time of this book. The Cult of Pleasure worshipped Slaanesh, not dark Elven gods. Bel Shanaar poisoned himself, he wasn't murdered by Malekith himself. The Phoenix Guard only started to take a magically enforced vow of silence during the reign of Caledor the Second because of the events instigated by Malekith. Ellyrion horsemen became known as Reavers when they answered Caledor's call to arms during the war against Malekith, After a while this catalogue of errors makes the book almost unreadable. The older sources are more original and take precedent over newer ones or the writers will end up contradicting the background of the game itself.
This review is probably redundant as the book is no longer widely available but the lessons of it's inaccuracy should be noted by all writers and publishers putting out work based on games. Get it right.
