Dragon Hunt (Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy, Book 1) [Paperback]

Based upon the enormously popular PC, video, and role-playing games comes this first part in the Warcraft graphic novel "Sunwell Trilogy" from TokyoPop. "Dragonhunt" opens with a prologue detailing the rich history of the Warcraft universe in which the Titans go about creating worlds and breathing life into them throughout the universe. They create the Well of Eternity upon the world of Azeroth, leaving flights of dragons to protect their creation. Azeroth soon becomes a battle ground as the Titans former champion, the Dark Titan Sargeras, corrupted by evil and with hordes of orcs led by the Lich King, seeks the Well for his own. The cataclysmic battle sunders the world into fragmented landmasses. The story begins as the Lich King, Arthas seeks to rebuild his citadel and humans and orcs enter join in an uneasy alliance to battle Arthas' undead Scourge.

An injured blue dragon, Kalec, now in human form is assisted by a young girl Anveena to escape those who are hunting him. Kalec explains that the dragons are seeking a great source of power and he was sent by Malygos, the Lord of the Blue Dragons, to find this power. But he's not the only one searching for it. An evil elf, Dar'khan, servant of the Lich King is also seeking the power which he reveals as the Sunwell, source of elven power, created out of the destruction of the Well of Eternity. Dar'khan captures Kalec and Anveena and only the intervention of another blue dragon, Kalec's mate Tyrygosa, allows them to escape. They soon learn that Anveena's home houses a secret...an egg which a tiny dragon hatches from. Could this be the source of the power that everyone is searching for? Where will their journey lead them from here?

Dragonhunt was an outstanding start to this trilogy. Having not been overly familiar with the Warcraft Universe, I found the history rich, colorful and detailed. There certainly seems to be some Tolkien influence, particularly in the prologue, but it still cuts a nice, unique world, all its own. A lot of action was tossed at you very fast and there wasn't a great deal of character development so hopefully we will delve into these various characters in the succeeding volumes. It's interesting to see the blend of heroic fantasy done with a Manga style. Since Warcraft is a known commodity with legions of fans, people may be predisposed of how it should look, but I thought the art of Jae-Hwan Kim was superb and fit very well. Kim is one of the best artists in Manga today, having worked on the terrific "King of Hell" series, also from TokyoPop. He's got a clean, yet very detailed style and handles action sequences deftly.

The story was written by Richard Knaak, one of the tops in the heroic fantasy genre. Knaak has written such huge hits as "The Legend of Huma" and The Minotaur Wars, set in the Dragonlance world, as well as Warcraft novels "Day of the Dragon" and "The Well of Eternity." In addition to Warcraft, Knaak has also written novels based on the "Diablo" PC game so he has a strong background in adapting gaming environments to novels. Knaak and Kim have succeeded in creating not only a gorgeous graphic novel, but a marvelous heroic fantasy story, with lively characters and an intriguing plotline. A must for fans of Manga, Warcraft, or heroic fantasy!

From what I've seen of Manga, the art in this book far exceeds the norm. Detailed and beautiful drawings capture the wonder of the world of Warcraft nicely. Characters are developed and defined by the expressions on their faces and the cloths that they wear. It is amazing that so much of the feeling behind the story can come straight from the visuals. It almost seemed like you could get through this book without even really needing to read any of the dialogue.

While I was a bit disapointed in the story as a whole, it may just be because I am so used to reading novels that I have a hard time appreciating the simplicity of the story, or it may be that much of this book was devoted to laying the foundation for more Warcraft mangas to come. Either way I will definitely get the next one as soon as I see it.

One thing is for sure though, the artist for this book deserves far more of the credit than Richard Knaak.. This seems like something Knaak could pound out in just a couple of days while the detail in the art makes me believe that much, much more time was invested in that part of the work.

Dragon Hunt was, by far, a disappointment. I'm sure I'm not the first to ay how excited I was to see the World of Warcraft franchise extending its hand into the world of printed media, but the result, while not horrific, was extraordinarily mediocre.

I received my copies of the first two volumes of the Sunwell Trilogy as prizes for winning one of the WoW comic contests this past year, and even the fact that I got them for free couldn't cover up how poor I thought they were. The art is impressive, I must admit, and is towards the higher-end of manga, but it's generic and in no way reflects the already gorgeous and well-established visual style within the Warcraft universe. Similarly, the writing style and storyline, as has been said in previous reviews, goes on and on like any typical high fantasy novel and has little or no reason to be set in Azeroth. World of Warcraft is renowned for its stylized design, clean gameplay, and a well-honed sense of humor- why would that then be stripped away to write a story about bishounen elves who can turn into dragons? Search me.

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