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Has anyone read the GW books?


Amaranthe.3578

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They are decent enough

Edge of destiny isn’t the best writing but has a lot of back story, action and dragons

Ghosts of Ascalon is the best written with the most rounded out characters. Gw2 meets Indiana Jones

Sea of sorrows is a bit disjointed and the bland/uninteresting main character weakens the narrative but it has enough in it to warrant a read. It’s just a bit dull compared to the others.

If you enjoy gw2 they are all worth a read in their own way and do link in the world really well

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I read Ghosts of Ascalon and it was let's say 'readable' Then I read Edge of Destiny and it was very slow. Didn't make me excited enough to even try sea of sorrow (although I have the book)They were ok at best.I would prefer an actual novel of Guildwars story, a paper book not a wiki and not a bridge between one and two.

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I've read all three. Long, ramble-y, (mostly) spoiler-free, and highly opinionated reviews:

! Ghosts of Ascalon is a great one to read if you're trying to catch up on lore that happened between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 - the characters talk (sometimes to slightly absurd lengths) about tales and stories and lore within the universe, though it never goes so far as to yank the reader right out of the actual story, which is pretty solid and interesting. The writing style itself is fairly basic, but decent. I quite like the characters, too (and actually gave a fangirl squee right out loud when I ran into some of them in-game).!! Sea of Sorrows was hands-down my favorite. I love this book so much; my gushing can't do it justice. It's sort of like Pirates of the Caribbean meets The Walking Dead: mix those two together (pirates being pirates + very gruesome zombies), add asura, charr, and norn, and you've got a fairly good inkling of the action sequences and general setting. (Also another reason to be thankful this game is rated T, because if Risen looked like they did in Sea of Sorrows...this game would absolutely be rated M. Guhh. [shudder]) The plot is interesting, the climax of the book is seventy-five pages of pure adrenaline, the characters (even minor ones!) are well-rounded and memorable...like I said, can't do it justice with my rambling. If you don't mind some character development and slightly slower world-building scenes intermixed with the zombie-killing action, I highly recommend reading this one.!! Edge of Destiny...! ...exists.! [eye twitch]! The childish writing style made my teeth itch. The action was incredibly bland (and that's saying something - the situations are epic, but the way they're described is absurdly boring). The characters--what characters? Nobody had a distinct personality other than endless snark, no motivation for doing anything other than "that's what the plot said to do, so we're doing that now!" And the plot made no sense and seemed to be held together by a skritt's whiskers. If it were made into a movie, it'd have as much depth and substance as the average Transformers flick: explosions and cool CGI, something mindless to watch while munching popcorn, and nothing memorable whatsoever. The problem comes when this is one of the more lore-important novels (except "lore" in this book and "lore" in GW2 do not match at all), as it details what exactly happened to Destiny's Edge before the game's story begins. Honestly, though, you could get a more coherent understanding of the events just by playing this game and listening to the Destiny's Edge NPC's talk about it, because the way it's presented in the book makes absolutely no sense.

...naturally, all of the above is just my opinion. Some people hate Sea of Sorrows due to the slower pace (in between zombie battles), some people love Edge of Destiny due to the action and (admittedly amusing) snarky characters, etc. Nothing wrong with any of that; everybody likes different things. So take my commentary with with a grain of salt. :D

TL;DR: I thought Ghosts of Ascalon was basic but decent; Sea of Sorrows was a masterpiece; Edge of Destiny was not worth the paper it was printed on.

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I did read Edge of Destiny and I'm currently still on Sea of Sorrows (Didn't have enough time or motivation to read the past year though). i plan to read Ghosts of Ascalon as well (which i actually wanted to get instead of SoS) but unfortunately as I tried to have it ordered by my bookstore it was not available. I do hope however toget that one as well. In my opinion they are quite a great addition to the lore and I can imagine these actually like a film. The end of Edge of Destiny almost brought me to tears and this happens rarely to me. I have no biased opinion on each book actually and enjoy/enjoyed everything so far. I love lore and when I can get more information about lore I consume it entirely lol. ^^I'd definitely recommend reading them if you love the lore of the game!

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Randulf.7614 pretty much summed up my opinion, but I have to say I preferred Edge of Destiny for the fun of having characters you actually know in-game.

Sea of Sorrows was based on the history of Lion's Arch and Captain Mariner. Ghosts of Ascalon had original characters adventuring in Tyria, with some known names cropping up as minor character cameos. So each of the three books took a completely different approach. I have to agree that Sea of Sorrows was my least favorite, not so much because it was 'boring' as because it felt like they were trying harder to make a historical framework and hit all the required plot points than to make an actually well-structured story with compelling characters. Ghosts of Ascalon definitely gave the impression that the writer had more freedom to tell a story than in either of the other two.

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@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

@"Cragga the Eighty Third.6015" said:Randulf.7614 pretty much summed up my opinion, but I have to say I preferred Edge of Destiny for the fun of having characters you actually know in-game.

I remain disappointed the GoA crew do not play a role in GW2, and just exist as easter eggs.

Dougal would have loved those dwarven crypts in Thunderhead for sure

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I've read only Sea of Sorrows so far. It was a very interesting read. It gave me the most information about actual distances and such about the world, great information on how the races interact with each other and themselves. Loved the lore coming to life essentially.

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@Weindrasi.3805 said:Sea of Sorrows and Ghosts of Ascalon are good books, and I recommend them.Edge of Destiny is horrible. The writing style is VERY childish, and the adult characters act like 12 year olds. It's like someone from Arenanet let their kid write it...

Pretty much this. (Although Rytlock in EoD WAS funny at times.)

Also, for czech speaking players - DO NOT read the translated books. It's the worst stuff that's ever hurt my eyeballs and brain. I think I'll never forget the publisher for what they've done to GW2.

(Edit: typo)

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Read all three books years ago.

Ghosts of Ascalon I really liked, shame that the characters in the book only show up as cameos in-game.

Edge of Destiny, the writing as been said, is kinda childish but it does tell the tale of what happend to the racial main characters and Snaff in a coherent way for the Dungeons to build upon.

Sea of Sorrows, liked it as well, shows the struggle of the rise of Zhaitan.

All three worth a read, imo

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Ghosts of Ascalon is my fav about the three. Despite the fact that at one point they confused Lion's Arch and Divinity's Reach.Edge of Destiny - well, it is readable. I never felt the need to skip pages, but 'hey, he said we should do X, so we do X' is kind of.. dunno. Caithe's introduction was pretty much the best part of it and from there on it is not that good. Not really bad either, more pulp than book tbh.Sea of Sorrows, I understand why some love it. It has some very nice characters, but the predictable plot twists and the author sometimes getting lost in describing some rather unimportant features in DETAIL can make for a very harrowing read.

I did enjoy finding the characters from GoA (and some of the places) when I explored the map. EoD at least explains the tension between R. and L.. After reading that book, I disliked Zojja even more than before - so I can still not fathom why some people want her back. SoS explains why LA is what it is. So from a lore point of view: go for all three. For some fangirl moments, go GoA.

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@Randulf.7614 said:

@"Cragga the Eighty Third.6015" said:Randulf.7614 pretty much summed up my opinion, but I have to say I preferred Edge of Destiny for the fun of having characters you actually know in-game.

I remain disappointed the GoA crew do not play a role in GW2, and just exist as easter eggs.

Dougal would have loved those dwarven crypts in Thunderhead for sure

I am not sure the Priory would let him even get close.

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@"VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.3618" said:

@"Cragga the Eighty Third.6015" said:Randulf.7614 pretty much summed up my opinion, but I have to say I preferred Edge of Destiny for the fun of having characters you actually know in-game.

I remain disappointed the GoA crew do not play a role in GW2, and just exist as easter eggs.

Dougal would have loved those dwarven crypts in Thunderhead for sure

I am not sure the Priory would let him even get close.

Pfft that wouldn’t stop him

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@Randulf.7614 said:

@"VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.3618" said:

@"Cragga the Eighty Third.6015" said:Randulf.7614 pretty much summed up my opinion, but I have to say I preferred Edge of Destiny for the fun of having characters you actually know in-game.

I remain disappointed the GoA crew do not play a role in GW2, and just exist as easter eggs.

Dougal would have loved those dwarven crypts in Thunderhead for sure

I am not sure the Priory would let him even get close.

Pfft that wouldn’t stop him

I don't want the Priory to recall one of my more... adept characters to keep him out.

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