Arthas

I read this book as part of my duties as a good mom.  Colin desperately wants to read the WOW books, so I dutifully sat down and read this one for him, to make sure there was nothing "inappropriate."  Final call, not a great book, but nothing inappropriate for a ten year old.   My first impression was that science fiction as a genre uses a huge number of adjectives.   Everything is well described.  My second impression is that there are only a few stories in the world.  There is so much of this story of Arthas's turn to evil that parallels that of Anakin Skywalker.  Arthas was a good boy, on the side of right, then showing a temper and having a great loss (Arthas, a horse (really!), Anakin, his mother), he turns to the dark side.  All his friends are, of course, in his mind, against him, and he continues this path, mostly as the pawn of the greater evil.  Eventually he merges with that evil, and becomes the "Lich King" himself.   It reminds me of Propp's analysis of Russian fairy tales, that said that all stories were built up of the same elements, just perhaps in a different order and of a different number.  This analysis has extended to an anthropological analysis,  with Star Wars being a retelling of the Wizard of Oz.  

Overall, this is not a terrible book.  Neither is it a great book.  But if it pleases the WoW fan in your house....let them read it over break when they aren't reading for school.  I handed this to Colin this morning.  He complained that he already KNEW this story because of Warcraft 3, and could I get him a different one.  There is no winning.  Even when being a good mom.