Krazy wrote:
Would you say anything from the SC books are actual must-reads? The only book I actually got through was the one of Michael Liberty, and that was mostly because it was pretty much just a novelization of the Terran campaign in SC1. I have the Queen of Blades but keep getting bored with it before I get past chapter three or four. Seems like there's a lot in the wiki based on the ghost books maybe, but I don't know anything really worth it?
That is kind of a tough question.... Although i thoroughly enjoy getting any bit of SC lore I can firsthand (and maybe eventually posting it myself on the wiki, if someone didn't beat me to it), but some of them definitely are wastes of time. The one you read, Liberty's Crusade, was an example of such a book. Everything that happened in it was already in the game, so it basically just gives you a little bit more context on the events.
Shadow of the Xel'Naga was a terrible story, but the concept of the xel'naga temple that is brought forward is actually seemingly very important (I won't spoil anything, but they are most definitely related to the xel'naga's role in SC2).
Speed of Darkness was a good story, but it doesn't tell you anything important. It is more just to understand what a resocialized marine's life is like and shows some of what the Confederacy did to strike back against the zerg on Chau Sara before it was destroyed.
Queen of Blades gets much more interesting, I find, in the later parts of the book. It's whole purpose was to explain why Raynor ended up with Tassadar on Char in the first protoss campaign and how Tassadar overcame the prejudice against the dark templar. It's a great story (despite some of the biggest canonical errors in any of the novels) and shows alot of great character development for Raynor, Tassadar, and Zeratul. It also shows the first appearance of Matt Horner
.
Ghost: Nova, in my mind, was a huge disappointment just because I was expecting something a little bit more action-packed and...... ghosty? It's more of a buildup to how Nova went from her old life, a daughter of one of the rich noble families of the terran confederacy, to her current role, an obedient killer (and the transition isn't that exciting. It's more..... depressing.)
I, Mengsk is actually pretty good. It gives you every detail about the Mengsk family history that you could ever want and then some. It starts with Angus Mengsk, Arcturus' father, at the center of the story and switches to Arcturus and then the new character, Valerian Mengsk. It portrays the birth of the Sons of Korhal, why Korhal was destroyed in the first place (with pretty much all the context you could want coming from Angus' story), and goes all the way to giving a very good intro to Valerian, his views, and his differences from his father. Arcturus' story can seem a little slow, but it shows a very drastic evolution from his teenage years to the way he is now. A good read, but can be boring at times.
The Dark Templar Saga is just great because it not only gives you some good insight into the future of the StarCraft universe (SC2), but it shows you some very important moments in protoss history, such as the story behind Adun. Plus, alot of protoss customs and the way they live are revealed (which I find to be fascinating). I don't want to give anything else away, because, out of all the books, these three are the
must-reads.
Oh, and I forgot a few things.
Uprising (which is only available in e-book form or in the Archive collection, which is one book that contains Liberty's Crusade, Shadow of the Xel'Naga, Speed of Darkness, and Uprising) was actually a really good book that follows Arcturus Mengsk and Sarah Kerrigan in the early activites of the Sons of Korhal. It reveals alot of significant (the less passionate could say "interesting") information about Sarah's past. It explains what the "experiments with the zerg" that Jim Raynor mentioned at New Gettysberg are, as well as many other unknown and surprising things. I also stress that none of this is mentioned in I, Mengsk (the entire occurence skipped over, actually), so don't think that reading that one will reveal everything you would learn from this one. I really like this one as well.
The Frontline graphic novel series is a whole bunch a very short stories with alot of nice artwork in them (if you have an appeciation for the manga art-style). None of them are drastically important and you could learn everything about them on the wiki, but they are nonetheless entertaining. Two significant series for the future, however, are one series where the son of a senator for the Dominion is a psychic and tries to avoid being forced into the Ghost Program (which will tie into the coming StarCraft: Ghost graphic novel series coming out next year) and another series where a Dominion scientist creates a terran-protoss hybrid (I know, I think it sounds stupid, too, but hopefully the Frontline series will kill it off before it sees the light of day on our computer screens). The biggest downside to the Frontline series is that they are expensive (at $11 for each volume, which there are currently 3 and a 4th coming in september). They bring interesting concepts to the table, but nothing I would say you MUST know for SC2. If you don't wanna pay the money for it just use the wiki.
Or if you don't want to pay the money or spend the time reading any of the books, the wiki will tell you really anything you would want to know about them.