The problem with the trilogy always lies in the second installment. Part one introduces a conflict with the resolution that whatever troubles exist are far from over and will be difficult to overcome. Part three ends the conflict completely; the resolution is one that feels earned with the troubles finally bested. But part two is nothing more than a bridge, and sometimes that bridge only ends with, “Continued in Part 3!”
The Demon Soul is the second installment of Richard A. Knaak’s War of the Ancients trilogy, and it is a bridge. The Well of Eternity saw Rhonin, Krasus, and Brox sucked backwards through time to the beginning of Azeroth’s first war with the Burning Legion. The novel ends after a large battle with the characters facing a very long and very bloody war for their survival. The Demon Soul continues the conflict, though the resolution is much the same: There’s more fighting ahead.
Some bridges are good, well built structures while others are flimsy and completely unnecessary. Catching Fire of The Hunger Games trilogy is a very beat-for-beat repeat of the first book and, barring the ending, doesn’t need to exist. Book one could have slid right into book three had Katness and Peeta escaped via the resistance.
The Demon Soul is a well-built bridge though; it justifies its existence.
The entire framing of The Demon Soul is one of war. No matter what is happening in Kalimdore, some group of night elves is fighting a group of demons. When Krasus and Rhonin are begging the night elven commanders to reach out to other races, soldiers are fighting and dying. When Krasus and Malfurion depart from the main host to solve some mysteries involving dragons, soldiers are fighting and dying. When Illidan is trying to win the approval of Tyrande, soldiers are fighting and dying.
This novel has a wonderful since of scale. The battles—and there are many—feel large and exhausting, and there’s always a since of dread that something worse will happen. In the case of the Burning Legion, something worse usually happens.
The superhero feeling of Knaak’s main cast of characters continues, but he solves their power creep by splitting them apart. As soon as Krasus and Malfurion depart, this strange feeling of, “but you can’t leave!” overcomes not only the rest of the cast but the reader as well. There’s a hopelessness to everything, especially when the Burning Legion starts animating the dead. This is the start of the Scourge, and players of World of Warcraft will know the undead well, for they wind up taking over large areas of Azeroth.
There’s something special in seeing what will create The Plaguelands.
The Demon Soul does more than just keep the conflict of its predecessor moving forward though; it also creates new ones. The Well of Eternity dwells upon Neltharion for brief moments, Krasus stressing over the black dragon’s growing madness, but it is in this book that Neltharion really comes into play. His plotline is fairly predictable, both because his alternate name of Deathwing is used a few times and because he’s a major player in the video games, but it’s a fairly enjoyable plotline regardless.
Illidan too is finally given more concrete moments to show his true colors. Once again, his character changes aren’t hard to see coming—he was the final boss in Black Temple after all—but he’s a fun character to follow along. He’s just tragic enough to feel bad for despite everything that he does in this book and in the following one.
The Demon Soul isn’t without its faults. Like its predecessor, there are very strange moments of bad writing. I recall early on a very tense scene with an almost joke thrown in for no reason whatsoever, and all it did was ruin the moment. Likewise, there are passages that just read like fanfiction. I really don’t understand the dips in writing as most of the book is very serviceable. The writing never approaches perfection, but it’s usually good enough to keep readers immersed in the fiction.
Magic remains a crutch in every since of the word, Knaak using it to better or hinder situations at will. It’s these kinds of fantasy novels that make me appreciate the ones who establish ridged rules in their magic systems early on.
Finally, Knaak has chosen a strange, and what I believe is deliberate, way of speech for his dragons. There are no silly accents or bouts of Middle English (thankfully), yet they don’t sound right. There’s just something off in their word choice, as if they are trying to sound ancient and wise but can’t quite manage the feat. This style choice manages to really hurt the climax of the novel, which involves a great many dragons.
This poorly-delivered climax is then followed by a Deus Ex Machina to buy a reprieve for the characters so the reader can await book three.
The Demon Soul is a strange book, but so was The Well of Eternity. Both novels are trashy genre fiction, yet both are just really fun to go through. There’s plenty of action and flashy magic to be had everywhere, and the superhero vibe to the cast is enjoyable. Flaws abound, but they are (for the most part), overshadowed by this crazy sense of stupid joy that is hard to shake.
