Your Favorite SC Author?

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Originally Posted by Alar

Shadow of the Xel'Naga was also quite good.

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Voted for Grubb and Liberty's Crusade, though I was tempted to select Ditz and Heaven's Devils.

Liberty's Crusade mentions the Magistrate at some point, doesn't it? When Raynor and Liberty want to upload Liberty's report after the infested CC is destroyed.

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Originally Posted by Telenil

Liberty's Crusade mentions the Magistrate at some point, doesn't it? When Raynor and Liberty want to upload Liberty's report after the infested CC is destroyed.

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Yes, but Liberty more or less replaced the Magistrate in that novel. The magistrate only helped in the evacuation of Mar Sara and that was it IIRC. So like I said, Grubb is one of the perpetrators of this "player character doesn't exist" retcon. Otherwise a solid book.

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Originally Posted by Telenil

Voted for Grubb and Liberty's Crusade, though I was tempted to select Ditz and Heaven's Devils.

Liberty's Crusade mentions the Magistrate at some point, doesn't it? When Raynor and Liberty want to upload Liberty's report after the infested CC is destroyed.

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Devils' Due mentions Myles Hammond, who becomes one of (or possibly the?) Mar Sara magistrate.

As Gradius mentioned, the magistrate is very briefly mentioned in Liberty's Crusade. I wanted to say the book pretty much made a reporter (or other non-governmental figure) mandatory as the focus of the book, but the magistrate could have appeared as a background new Sons of Korhal figure, had Grubb so chosen. I suspect that didn't happen for several reasons, one being the magistrate had no personality (for fear of conflicting with the player's).

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Originally Posted by Hawki

"Painful memories" is a trope as much as "ancient species" or "McGuffin, let's grab it!"

Anyway, it's kind of academic, in regards to how a story fits in the universe - I mean, it should conform to canon and the like, but my personal philosophy for writing and reading is that story generally comes before lore. Ergo, Speed of Darkness is good IMO, because while it doesn't influence the wider lore much, it's well written. Ergo, Liberty's Crusade is okay because while it does give insight into certain characters, the story felt...average, not helped by Liberty being an example of "Forest Gumpism" IMO. Ergo, Shadow of the Xel'naga is terrible, because while it had key pointers towards future plot points, the fact is that it's terribly written.)

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Couldn't have said it better myself (No seriously, I really couldn't).

Re: Liberty's Crusade; I just can't understand exactly what it is people see in it. I mean, it was okay IMO, and it provided good insight into the motivations of the various characters, as Hawki said, but it wasn't an exceptional novel by any stretch, and Mike Liberty is a card-carrying 'Watson.' He never struck me has having a genuine personality, why exactly he's still a re-occurring background character in the EU, I have no idea.

Decent, but forgettable is how I'd ultimately describe it.

I liked Liberty's Crusade a lot because it stayed true to the game while giving valuable details about the campaign. It explains what the Confederate did with the Zerg, for instance, which was never fully developped in the orginial game. Liberty has a role in the story but never steals the show, and the story is perfectly consistent with the fact that we never saw him in any briefing. True to the game + additionnal development on the main characters is exactly what I am looking for in a novel.
I would have liked Haven's Devils even if it hadn't been Starcraft, but I really enjoyed that it had a believable description of the Guild Wars and gave more of a personnality to Tychus. Speed of Darkness was an interesting read, but it didn't really interact with the story of the game. It's a matter of what you are looking for in the novels, I suppose.