Anyone who has ever played Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo franchise knows that the world of Sanctuary is detailed, creative and unique. They also know that the series is so deeply plot heavy and rich in backstory and legends that at times, the plot can get convoluted and confusing. The physical games do go into a lot of these stories but since you can’t cram everything in, Blizzard Entertainment has released series of books to cover all their bases, starting with The Sin War trilogy in 2006. In 2011, Blizzard released Diablo III: Book of Cain based on beloved character Deckard Cain’s notes. The tome also featured new stories and secrets as the scholar researched the End of Days. Now, five years later, fans are getting a sequel tome to Cain’s stories from Tyrael’s point of view in Diablo III: Book of Tyrael.
Former Archangel Tyrael knows that the battle between good and evil isn’t over yet. Using notes from Leah and excerpts from Cain, Tyrael writes his own tome as a call to arms for humanity and as an instruction guide for the dark days ahead.
It’s clear that Diablo III: Book of Tyrael had a lot of thought put into it. Like Diablo III: Book of Cain, it features letters from the character’s point of view, gorgeous illustrations and interesting backstories that will suck even a non-fan in. The writing reads like it’s from the past and comes off mysterious and mystical. That’s not to say that the book doesn’t have a couple of problems however.
It’s the book of Tyrael but it jumps mostly between Leah’s letters and Cain’s journals, so the title is a bit misleading. The other problem is that I sometimes forgot who was who when reading. Now, each character’s writing is in a different format so that wasn’t the issue, the issue was that the characters voices weren’t unique. I could tell it was written by the authors of the book rather than by three different characters. The language and style were too similar. The other problem was that some of the stories were a struggle to follow because they were rushing from one thing to the next or simply becoming a massive plot dump.
If you’re a fan of Diablo, can easily jump into the lore and want to add anything Diablo related to your shelf, Diablo III: Book of Tyrael is perfect for you. If you’re just starting to get into Diablo, I’d recommend playing the games first and working your way up to this one.
