StarCraft: The Dark Templar Saga: Firstborn: Book One

The Dark Templar Saga #1

by Christie Golden

Jake Ramsey -- an unassuming, yet talented archaeologist -- has been given the chance of a lifetime. Hired to investigate a recently unearthed Xel'Naga temple, he knows this latest assignment will open up whole new possibilities for his career. Yet, when Jake discovers the remains of a long-dead protoss mystic, his hopes and dreams are irrevocably drowned in a flood of alien memories. Bonded to the spirit of the dead protoss, Jake has become the sole inheritor of the protoss's total history -- every event, every thought -- every feeling.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Gaming, Video Games, Fantasy, Military Fiction, Media Tie In

347 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 28, 2019

About the author

Award-winning author Christie Golden has written over thirty novels and several short stories in the fields of science fiction, fantasy and horror. She has over a million books in print.

2009 will see no fewer than three novels published. First out in late April will be a World of Warcraft novel, Athas: Rise of the Lich King. This is the first Warcraft novel to appear in hardcover. Fans of the young paladin who fell so far from grace will get to read his definitive story.

In June, Golden’s first Star Wars novel, also a hardcover, sees print. Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi—Omen is the second in a nine-book series she is co-authoring with Aaron Allston and Troy Denning. Also in June comes the conclusion of Golden’s StarCraft: The Dark Templar Saga with the release of Twlight, the third book in the series. The first two are Firstborn and Shadow Hunters.

2004 saw the launch of an original fantasy series called The Final Dance, from LUNA Books. The first novel in the series, On Fire's Wings, was published in July of that year. The second, In Stone’s Clasp , came out in September of 2005. With In Stone’s Clasp, Golden won the Colorado Author’s League Top Hand Award for Best Genre Novel for the second time. The third book, Under Sea’s Shadow, is available only as an e-book

Golden is also the author of two original fantasy novels from Ace Books, King's Man and Thief and Instrument of Fate, which made the 1996 Nebula Preliminary Ballot. Under the pen name of Jadrien Bell, she wrote a historical fantasy thriller entitled A.D. 999, which won the Colorado Author's League Top Hand Award for Best Genre Novel of 1999.

Golden launched the TSR Ravenloft line in 1991 with her first novel, the highly successful Vampire of the Mists , which introduced elven vampire Jander Sunstar. Golden followed up Vampire with Dance of the Dead and The Enemy Within . In September of 2006, fifteen years to the month, The Ravenloft Covenant: Vampire of the Mists enabled Jander Sunstar to reach a whole new audience.

Other projects include a slew of Star Trek novels, among them The Murdered Sun , Marooned , and Seven of Nine , and "The Dark Matters Trilogy," Cloak and Dagger , Ghost Dance and Shadow of Heaven .

The Voyager novel relaunch, which includes Homecoming and The Farther Shore , were bestsellers and were the fastest-selling Trek novels of 2003. Golden continued writing VOYAGER novels even though the show went off the air, and enjoyed exploring the creative freedom that gave her in the two-parter called Spirit Walk, which includes Old Wounds and Enemy of my Enemy .

Golden has also written the novelization of Steven Spielberg's Invasion America and an original "prequel," On The Run , both of which received high praise from producer Harve Bennett. On The Run, a combination medical thriller and science fiction adventure, even prompted Bennett to invite Golden to assist in crafting the second season of the show, if it was renewed.

Golden lives in Loveland, Colorado, with her artist husband and their two cats.

Reviews

[Zachary Wagoner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a random buy for me, though I am not disappointed by the purchase. Brought back some fond memories of playing starcraft back when I was a bit younger. For the most part I enjoyed the read. The characters and story were engaging. The only thing I felt that was a bit off is that it took a while for the story to take off. Some build up leading to all the discovery and action. But all in all a good read and will be looking into obtaining the rest of the series.

[Federico · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for any Starcraft fans out there...

[Stan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I read the book. I got a free copy of it at a convention, so I figured, "Eh, why not." Unfortunately, that's about all I can say about it for liking it.

Christie Golden definitely has writing talent, I will grant. Plausibility, dialogue, richness of details--all were what I would expect from a seasoned author. The thing was, "Firstborn" just didn't engage me, notwithstanding that I've played Starcraft, and that I like the backstory of that universe.

What I think it boiled down to was that despite the good plausibility, the book still felt... fake. Even for a work of fiction. Add to that the fact that I never really did relate to any of the characters, and I don't have any plans on seeking out the rest of the trilogy (book three came out just a few weeks ago, at time of this review). Jake, the main character,is brilliant (supposedly) but naive, and even though he had struggles in the book, I only barely came to like him. "R.M." Dahl--the oh-so-beautiful assassin, well... I cringe to think that I've used such a cliche in one of my own works, having seen it at work in "Firstborn." Though Golden didn't talk about Dahl's beauty *quite* as much as Stephanie Meyer talks about Edward's god-like attractiveness, it seemed she came close. I eventually stopped counting how many times Dahl's "raven eyebrow" was mentioned, for instance. Or her silky hair. Or porcelain skin. Or pouty lips. Need I say more?


Though there were some plot twists, and at least a couple of attempts at using "shock value" scenes, it still felt like something from the same old fiction mill. I don't *need* suspense and plot twist--in fact, it's good when things go a logical course--but there really *wasn't* any sense of rising tension for me. "Oh, look. They were betrayed. Hey, look! They were betrayed again, only this time by criminals. Moving on."

So... Golden is good, but Firstborn wasn't what I'd call "golden."

[Kryptomite · Rating 4 out of 5]

Firstborn is a great example of a "video game to novel" book because it lives in the universe that the game created without having a single actual reference to any of the attributes of the video game itself, which can't be said of many other books in the starcraft series. Christie Golden is an excellent author and does a great job of taking you along on a journey with elements from starcraft without ever feeling like you needed to play the game in the first place. While not perfect (there are a few dialogue and character niggles), the plot has a well conceived feel to it and genuinely keeps you intrigued as you travel with the main characters. This book can't quite stand on its own without the next one, but that is a good thing. I like trilogies that don't feel it necessary to end with three separate stories, but rather use each book as an intermission. I feel compelled to read the next book immediately, as I'm excited to find out more about the history of the Protoss and how it affects the future.

[Pavel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Какое же говно

[Stan Crowe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I read the book. I got a free copy of it at a convention, so I figured, "Eh, why not." Unfortunately, that's about all I can say about it for liking it.

Christie Golden definitely has writing talent, I will grant. Plausibility, dialogue, richness of details--all were what I would expect from a seasoned author. The thing was, "Firstborn" just didn't engage me, notwithstanding that I've played Starcraft, and that I like the backstory of that universe.

What I think it boiled down to was that despite the good plausibility, the book still felt... fake. Even for a work of fiction. Add to that the fact that I never really did relate to any of the characters, and I don't have any plans on seeking out the rest of the trilogy (book three came out just a few weeks ago, at time of this review). Jake, the main character,is brilliant (supposedly) but naive, and even though he had struggles in the book, I only barely came to like him. "R.M." Dahl--the oh-so-beautiful assassin, well... I cringe to think that I've used such a cliche in one of my own works, having seen it at work in "Firstborn." Though Golden didn't talk about Dahl's beauty *quite* as much as Stephanie Meyer talks about Edward's god-like attractiveness, it seemed she came close. I eventually stopped counting how many times Dahl's "raven eyebrow" was mentioned, for instance. Or her silky hair. Or porcelain skin. Or pouty lips. Need I say more?


Though there were some plot twists, and at least a couple of attempts at using "shock value" scenes, it still felt like something from the same old fiction mill. I don't *need* suspense and plot twist--in fact, it's good when things go a logical course--but there really *wasn't* any sense of rising tension for me. "Oh, look. They were betrayed. Hey, look! They were betrayed again, only this time by criminals. Moving on."

So... Golden is good, but Firstborn wasn't what I'd call "golden."

[Chris The Lizard from Planet X · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first time I ever ran into StarCraft was in one of the two gaming magazines I got as a kid, many, many years ago now. I recall reading a review of the game in the magazine and thinking, “I’d like to play that”. But that didn’t happen until I got into college. And you know what, I loved the game. It was sort of similar to WarCraft (strategy games were all similar to me back then) but more nuanced I suppose. Then the obsession went further in junior year of college when my friends and I played the StarCraft board game on weekends and had a ton of fun playing it. It wasn’t until just three years ago though that I read my first StarCraft novels, Graham McNeill’s I, Mengsk and Keith R. A. DeCandido’s Nova that I truly fell in love with the setting.

And that brings me to Firstborn, the first novel in Christie Golden’s Dark Templar Trilogy, which I finished reading a couple days ago. It is my first StarCraft fiction in three years, and it was as great an experience as I, Mengsk was. It isn’t as rooted in the original lore or even the games as that novel, but it does some amazing work to expand on the setting and the lore. I haven’t kept up with the game unfortunately, so I don’t know how the bits of lore in this novel came about and whether Christie has shepherded it all, but I don’t care either way, because Firstborn was ultimately a fantastic novel that much to increase my fascination with the Protoss and the mysterious Xel’Naga.

Dark Templar Saga 01 Firstborn
Firstborn focuses on a (I believe) new character, that of archaeologist Jake Ramsey and chronicles his adventure on the dirt-planetoid Nemaka where he and his team investigate a recently unearthed Xel’Naga temple and where everything goes wrong for him. During his investigation and exploration, he irretrievably becomes psychically bonded with a Protoss Mystic female, and from there starts his journey in uncovering a rather large mystical secret, something the likes of which Valerian Mengsk, the son of Arcturus Mengsk, is willing to kill to acquire.

Personally, I loved almost everything about this novel. For me, it was an interesting continuation of I, Mengsk in that Valerian makes for some great scenes, interacting with a wide variety of characters. He has grown in personality and attitude since those days of his early youth and is now very much the kind of man that his father, the Emperor of the Terran Dominion, wants to have as his Heir.

The novel starts off innocently enough, but soon as we hit the planetoid of Nemaka, it becomes clear that nothing is as it seems and that there’s a big deception in place on part of some of the characters. That ultimately provides the lightning rod that throws a rather quiet and unassuming novel into high gear as a full-on action-adventure in the world of StarCraft. Christie Golden has written numerous novels for Blizzard, whether we talk StarCraft or WarCraft, and in this novel, it very much feels as if she is right at home. The ease of her prose in her WarCraft novels is present here as well because Firstborn made for a great read that I plowed through in short order. It also helped that I was a bit familiar with the setting and that references here and there to some events weren’t entirely lost on me as might otherwise have been the case.

I wouldn’t recommend Firstborn as an entry-novel for StarCraft, because it focuses on completely different characters from the game, though it does delve into some of the lore introduced in them. It is far more an exploration of Protoss culture, of how it was before the Protoss came together as a species, in a time where the different (primitive) tribes constantly warred against each other and held any one not of the tribe in distrust. In all of this, Firstborn is also a novel that focuses on a message of peace. It deals with the legacy of the Xel’Naga, the mysterious greater alien species of the setting and their influence on the Protoss. It deals with being accepting of ideological and cultural differences.

That’s what the second half of the novel is all about, as Jake Ramsey learns to his fascination. For an archaeologist like him, what he experiences at Nemaka is a dream come true, but it is also a nightmare, because when he gets infused with the consciousness of a dead Protoss female, he has to contend against the requirements and urgency of her last mission, a mission that is vital for her species. How Christie brings all of that about, or at least how she sets up the foundations for that, in this novel is really an experience.

Once this big twist happens, there are essentially two ongoing narratives. The first deals with Jake Ramsey’s own journey from being a (decently) recognized archaelogist to a fugitive on the run from the Terran Dominion. It is not a great place to be and all of a sudden Jake is thrown into a world that he never knew, and never wanted to know either. Criminals, gangs, mercenaries, back-room dealings. It is all too much for him. But as I love to read, Firstborn is also about his test of character and how he rises up to the challenge in the end.

Of course, Jake and Valerian aren’t the only primary characters in the novel. There’s also a delightful femme fatale-styled mercenary R. M. Dahl aka Rosemary Dahl. She is the leader of the mercenary team that Valerian sends with Jake and his team to keep them safe on Nemaka and when things go south in the middle of the novel with Jake, she is both the instigator and the solution. At first I didn’t take so well to R. M. but by the second half, I really got into the flow of her story. Part of that of course is the fact that Christie has to build up the character and set the foundations for what happens later, so I didn’t mind that overmuch. In fact, by the end of the novel, she was one of my favourite characters in the novel.

StarCraft as a setting is full of some great female characters, not the least of which is Sarah Kerrigan aka the Queen of Blades, or even Nova, among others. I can happily say that R. M. Dahl is a great addition to that line-up. Firstborn is a fairly straight-forward story in many respects and that’s where she comes in, without much artifice and a great no-nonsense attitude to her coupled with street smarts and years of experience as a merc. Loved her.

All in all, I’d say that Firstborn is a great read. You get the best of two worlds with this novel and is a great start to the Dark Templar series. I have some inclination of where the story might be headed, given what little I know of the Protoss known as Dark Templars, but it is an exciting experience nonetheless and is very much in the typical StarCraft mold, which cannot be faulted in any way.

[B.buiscut · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of the best books I have ever read. Some may not understand if you don't know what in the world is Starcraft (its a video game, a strategy one I think), then maybe you don't want to read it. I personally am a gamer (so I know Blizzard's awesome games [like WoW, Warcraft and there is a big difference, and Diablo III) who likes to pick up a book every once and a while to read. All in all, this book is an awesome book for gaming readers.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun book for fans of Starcraft lore. A well done story, though the writing is (as should be expected) somewhat sub-par. Only a few cringe-worthy lines however, and on the whole an enjoyable if quick read.

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

“Jake has thought it would be an uncomfortable adjustment, sharing himself with an alien consciousness at so deep a level. It was just the opposite. While Jake was utterly unfamiliar with such bondings, Zamara was well accustomed to it, and took a gentle lead. Instead of losing his identity, Jake felt himself... augmented.”

So as someone who has a) never played the games and b) knows nothing about the Starcraft universe I started with a book that isn’t necessarily the starting point. Smart. in my defence my friend let me borrow the Dark Templar Saga and I was very curious to read them. Firstborn is Book #1 of this particular series and (after some googling) is set in 2503 after the Brood wars (2500) and before Wings of Liberty (2504.) You follow Jacob Ramsey, a small time archeologist in a ragtag group based in Gelgaris.

After almost no recognition in his field despite dedicating his life to his work, he and his team are rescued by an opportunity from Valerian Mengsk, son of Arcturus Mengsk, Emperor of the Terran Dominion. Asked to uncover the secrets of a Xel’Naga temple on the backwater planet of Nemaka, Jake becomes psychically linked to a long dead ancient Protoss who aspires to make him a Preserver for the ancient lost knowledge of her race.

Christie Golden has written for Blizzard before and it shows why they wanted her to come back for this series. The ease of her prose and the way she crafted the universe through descriptors made this book so easy to understand despite me not knowing a lot of the source material. No doubt some things will have been lost on me but I enjoyed the whole experience regardless.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Considering the fact I've never played StarCraft, especially not StarCraft II, which these books are a prelude to, I was surprised how engaged I was with the story. An archaeology team having to work with a military one is familiar territory, but somehow works. Funny enough, there's a character named Owen Teague, long before the actor of the same name became prominent. And I kept thinking of Terminator Salvation whenever I read Marcus Wright's name. That film would've been in development around the same time I believe, but it's surely a coincidence. I still imagined Sam Worthington, though. Anyway, this idea of being filled with alien memories from the past is so compelling. I feel invested enough to see where the rest of the trilogy goes. I'm kind of ping-ponging between these Dark Templar books and Golden's Voyager trilogy Dark Matters.

[DJNana · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're into the Starcraft universe and the lore, this book is fascinating - dealing with the ancient Xel'Naga, that founded/forged the Zerg and Protoss races.

It features a lot of ancient Xel'Naga temples, as well as a deep dive into the history of the Protoss - especially the schism that led to the Dark Templar and their whole culture, on their own planet, and the story of the noble Adun.

If that paragraph meant anything to you, you might enjoy this book.

But - and it's a big but - the two books that follow this one are just abysmally bad. If you're really interested, read this first book, and then find a synopsis of the next two online to see how the series wraps up. Really, you won't be missing anything.

[Marcus Nordberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Picked this up for cheap in a Humble Bundle and as I have poured way too many hours into StarCraft 2, I figured it'd be fun both to read a story set in the StarCraft universe but also to learn some lore.

The book is mostly a disappointment though. I can't say my expectations were high but the story isn't very creative or interesting. The characters are very flat and bland. The writing is okay but there are some words Christie Golden likes to use way too much (whenever a character is pointing a gun at another, they are "training their gun on X"? Might just be because I'm not a native English speaker but that phrasing caught me off-guard even the 87th time she used it)

[Nerd_Pilgrim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really gripping! Will definitely read more in this series. I liked many of the other Starcraft books but so far...this is one of the strongest ones. Jake and R.M. are interesting and the universe interesting enough to add mystery to this otherwise somewhat predictable story. I'm hoping that now that the necessary groundwork has been lain we can build upon this in the next books. Really strong start though.

[Sean McKenney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the Dark Templar Saga. I liked how it introduced us to some elements in SC2 and even drew upon the Enslavers Campaign (part one and two) from good old SC1. Following Ramsey, Dahl, and Zamara through all three novels was fun, entertaining, and very enjoyable. Christie Golden has written many books and this series was a definite favorite of mine.

[Jonas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just the kind of book I needed to read right now. I mean sure, there's tropey characters and plot-lines. It's fairly predictable, and it's not breaking any new ground in terms of ideas. But it doesn't have to! It's a well-crafted story, everything comes together really well, Golden's writing is clean and effective, and I had a good time. This is some enjoyable, light sci-fi reading. I'm glad I picked it up.

[Sierra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was awesome! There is one thing I'm kind of sad about, but I ain't spoiling anything, as this is worth the read. Jake is an awesome character, I hope he becomes a little more confident in the next book, without losing that awkward geek side. Zamara and all the history was amazing. StarCraft is a surprisingly deep series that I'm just loving exploring.

[Jared Delcamp · Rating 5 out of 5]

She wasn’t the lead, but Rosemary Dahl made this for me. Her control over her emotions despite enraging circumstances and commitment to doing what needed to be done in the face of horrible odds were plain great. RM is up there with Sarah Kerrigan in Liberty’s Crusade and maybe more impressive. These non-leads are carrying this series.

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first look into sci fi and specifically StarCraft game literature. Talk about bad freaking ass. This book really got me into the different novelties that the StarCraft universe offers like the different tribes of protoss and the amazing world building. Definitely recommend for someone who is into series or just wants a cool sci fi book with lots of action and gore.

[Sivarg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book but i will say this: the whole expedition crew part got me super excited but that they then got killed was super dissapointing. I was looking forward to it becoming bigger later in the book.

[Brian Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the primitive origins of the Protoss, to the dangers of universe-ending technology, The Dark Templar Saga contains thought-provoking excitement and adventure for science-fiction-loving teenage readers.

[Ryan Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

very exciting would recommend it to others

[Ryan Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Does start a little slow, but evolves into a great story. Great Job Christie Golden; next to book two of the saga: Shadow Hunters.

[Bogdan Popa · Rating 5 out of 5]

From a very subjective view I really liked the book.Really, really good, because it introduced me in a fictional world of dark templars. Me being a huge fan of Zeratul.

[Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a good book. Well written and the story flowed nicely. I look forward to reading book 2 in the series in the near future.

[Nathaniel Creed · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a more detailed discussion checkout our podcast: https://podcast.wordsaboutbooks.ninja...

Actually a solid book. I didn't expect this to be as good as it was. It's still ham-strung by having to be part of the Starcraft universe. It's beholden to the lore that we all already know, because it was told to us upfront in the video game that was released 10 years ahead of this book. But if you haven't played Starcraft and you picked up this book for some reason, it's filled with a lot of new and interesting information. If you have, then the book slows down a ton after the initial excitement of the first act. The first act has a cool Lovecraftian temple and some body horror. Then it slows way way way down to talk about some past history, briefly picks up for a climactic battle at the very end, and ends before much of substance happens. Solid in-the-middle pick if you're looking for a decently paced sci-fi book that you don't have to think much about.

[Aykut Elmas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Starcraft çok sevdiğim bir oyundur. Kitapçıda öylece gezerken bu kitabın ikinci eline denk geldim. Merak edip aldım. Bu kadar beğeneceğimi tahmin etmemiştim. Aksiyon anlamında tamamen tatmin oldum sadece italik olarak yazılan anı kısımları biraz sıkıcıydı. Oyun bir çalıntı bunu biliyorum. Ama boynuz kulağı geçti. StarCraft çok büyük bir marka oldu ve kendi evrenini yarattı. Bu kitapta da bu evrenin esintileri var. Bu kitap üç kitaplık bir serinin ilk kitabı ve bu seri bulunması çok zor. Öyle ki yayıncı ile mesajlaşıp ikinci kitabı nasıl alabileceğimi sordum. Bana artık üretmediklerin Amazon’a bakmamı söylediler. Sonra zor da olsa elektronik olarak buldum. StarCraft oyununu ve fantastik dünyaları seviyorsanız kaçırmamanızı öneririm.

[Abhinav · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can read the full review over at my blog:

http://sonsofcorax.wordpress.com/2014...

The first time I ever ran into StarCraft was in one of the two gaming magazines I got as a kid, many, many years ago now. I recall reading a review of the game in the magazine and thinking, “I’d like to play that”. But that didn’t happen until I got into college. And you know what, I loved the game. It was sort of similar to WarCraft (strategy games were all similar to me back then) but more nuanced I suppose. Then the obsession went further in junior year of college when my friends and I played the StarCraft board game on weekends and had a ton of fun playing it. It wasn’t until just three years ago though that I read my first StarCraft novels, Graham McNeill’s I, Mengsk and Keith R. A. DeCandido’s Nova that I truly fell in love with the setting.

And that brings me to Firstborn, the first novel in Christie Golden’s Dark Templar Saga, which I finished reading a couple days ago. It is my first StarCraft fiction in three years, and it was as great an experience as I, Mengsk was. It isn’t as rooted in the original lore or even the games as that novel, but it does some amazing work to expand on the setting and the lore. I haven’t kept up with the game unfortunately, so I don’t know how the bits of lore in this novel came about and whether Christie has shepherded it all, but I don’t care either way, because Firstborn was ultimately a fantastic novel that much to increase my fascination with the Protoss and the mysterious Xel’Naga.

Firstborn focuses on a (I believe) new character, that of archaeologist Jake Ramsey and chronicles his adventure on the dirt-planetoid Nemaka where he and his team investigate a recently unearthed Xel’Naga temple and where everything goes wrong for him. During his investigation and exploration, he irretrievably becomes psychically bonded with a Protoss female, and from there starts his journey in uncovering a rather large mystical secret, something the likes of which Valerian Mengsk, the son of Arcturus Mengsk, is willing to kill to acquire.

Personally, I loved almost everything about this novel. For me, it was an interesting continuation of I, Mengsk in that Valerian makes for some great scenes, interacting with a wide variety of characters. He has grown in personality and attitude since those days of his early youth and is now very much the kind of man that his father, the Emperor of the Terran Dominion, wants to have as his Heir.

The novel starts off innocently enough, but soon as we hit the planetoid of Nemaka, it becomes clear that nothing is as it seems and that there’s a big deception in place on part of some of the characters. That ultimately provides the lightning rod that throws a rather quiet and unassuming novel into high gear as a full-on action-adventure in the world of StarCraft. Christie Golden has written numerous novels for Blizzard, whether we talk StarCraft or WarCraft, and in this novel, it very much feels as if she is right at home. The ease of her prose in her WarCraft novels is present here as well because Firstborn made for a great read that I plowed through in short order. It also helped that I was a bit familiar with the setting and that references here and there to some events weren’t entirely lost on me as might otherwise have been the case.

[Dino · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all, i'd question my objectivity on any book that's related to StarCraft, simply because i consider myself to be a HUGE fan of the series and the story. Bearing that in mind, this is my opinion on the book.

Now, despite it being written in 3 separate books, it's basically 1 story, and as such i will be giving my experience and impression of it as a whole, not book by book, simply because it'll make a lot more sense this way.

The story takes place in the year 2503, after Brood Wars (2500) and slightly before Wings of Liberty (2504), and it follows a human called Jacob "Jake" Ramsey and a protoss conscience within him, Zamara, and a lot of other characters who've had the (miss)fortune of living this epic adventure with them.

I will try to word this as best as i can, but i have to say right away that i was BLOWN AWAY at the sheer awesomeness that is the Dark Templar Saga and the way Christie Golden presented it. This is, hands down, the BEST and most enjoyable chunk of lore that i've learned. I shit you not, i've read all 3 books within 3 and half days, taking some downtime to charge my notepad and read more.

The story is so captivating, heartfelt, action packed, there are multiple stories and plot lines being told (phenomenally, i might add) simultaneously, plot twists (some predictable, but you would have wished for them to happen so you won't care!), solid pacing (never a dull moment), character depth (i bet you'll care and understand about the protss a whole lot after reading these. And don't even get me started on R.M Dhal <3). Reading these books have been the most enjoyable thing that i've done in recent memory, constantly wanting more, and finding myself quite sad after finishing them, simply because there's no more :(

I've read 9 novels/books so far from the StarCraft universe (all within the past...2 months i'd say), and i haven't disliked any of them so far, just different degrees of like. The Dark Templar Saga blew all of that away and has easily become my favorite, which i didn't think would happen because it's a Protoss based story, and i only really like humans (Terrans). I must admit, after reading these i have developed a HUGE amount of sympathy, respect, grief, liking and admiration for the Protoss. And just in time for the Protoss based expansion, Legacy of the Void (a coincidence, in truth). Now, you might find this a bit ridiculous because it's a fantasy setting, but i've grown quite fond of and attached to this franchise and i look at it from a different perspective, i feel for it.

This might seem more like me expressing my fanboy-ism, rather than a review, but i think that if i express how i felt while reading it, and being able to share that to future potential readers (who i assume are fans of the franchise) might enforce your will to purchase/rent this book and "live" it the way i have.

[Isaac Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book, plot is very well-formed, and it just keeps you reading waiting, for what happens next and making second guess what will happen next. Absolutely riveting