SCII Flashpoint novel

[l33telboi]

From that point of view, StarCraft II: Flashpoint opens your eyes of what really happened throughout the span of Wings of Liberty concerning Valerian, Arcturus+Tychus deal, and Valerian's Moebius Foundation. You literally go: "huh? Whoa?! damn!" Even after you are done reading, you go in your mind through the events of the video game, and things start to make sense. Take in mind also there is a traitor among the Raynor's Raiders. It's never implied how long -- before Tychus vs Raynor skirmish or after.

This bit sounds very interesting.

Novels have always been a better venue for explaining stuff that was left vague in the games, and if the novel manages to deliver on this aspect, then Golden will definitely get more respect from me as an author.

[Medievaldragon]

This bit sounds very interesting.

Novels have always been a better venue for explaining stuff that was left vague in the games, and if the novel manages to deliver on this aspect, then Golden will definitely get more respect from me as an author.

There are many loose ends in Wings of Liberty. Flashpoint addresses them subtly. You don't even know until you finish reading the book, and you meditate on the video game + this novel. two and two.

Loose ends:

• Tychus has a deal with the devil (Arcturus).
• Go back. Tychus enters the cantina in Mar Sara. What's the first proposal
• Tychus offers Jim a mutual venture paid by who?
• Wait ... but that's Valerian's sponsored team.

::Trout-slap::

Reality check ---

[l33telboi]

Well, I've started reading the novel, and it truly is silly when it comes to Battlecruiser numbers.

Not only is it confirmed that Valerian had 25, which contradicts the ending cinematic, but it gets oh so much worse. It's also confirmed that it was literally half the fleet, pegging the total fleet at 50 battlecruisers before the engagement at Char... and afterwards? 26. 26 whole Battlecruisers in the entire Dominion left after the battle of Char, at the very most, divided between Arcturus and Valerian. At most because we don't know what sort of casualties Arcturus took. It's possible the fleet is below 10 ships.

I truly wonder if the author or no one at Blizzard realized just how magnificently stupid those numbers are, and how much of a corner they've written themselves into if they're going to follow it. I also wonder whose those Battlecruisers in the HotS trailer belongs too, because they're neither Valerian's nor Arcturus's, according to these numbers.

I'm at chapter 5 and this novel certainly hasn't gotten off to a good start.

[Visions of Khas]

I'm waiting for my copy to ship. Between the elections, not being able to play Halo 4, and Leetleboi's review, today's off to a terrible start for me. =[

[l33telboi]

The novel is decent enough if you don't care about the numbers. So far at least.

It's just that those numbers are brought up ever five minutes or so, as if to remind you just how silly they are. And they keep dropping too, the earlier 26 Battlecruisers I mentioned? Pfft. That's old news now that I'm on chapter 9, and the Dominion doesn't have such an excess of them any more.

...I imagine there won't be any Battlecruisers left after this novel.

[Shadow Archon]

Why was the Cyrus such a dump then if they only had fifty? Not to mention the ones that get destroyed everywhere else in the fiction. Heck, there's around 30 or 40 above Char in the ending cinematic in Starcraft 2.....

I'll just treat it just like the Protoss Expeditionary fleet. They have hundreds of capital ships in LC, fifty in the manual, and two in the short story.

[Kimera757]

Just finished reading the novel. There's quite a bit of new non-plot info (eg crew size of a battlecruiser, etc), and some repeated info (we already knew mutalisk blood was acidic).

[Kimera757]

I can't actually find the original source which said bucephalus was a minotaur. But you guys know what this means right? We've seen three classes of battlecruiser in SC2, behemoth, minotaur, and gorgon, and they all use the same exact model.

It's now listed as Gorgon class on the wiki (since the clearest source says so).

[Hawki]

What did you actually think of it as a novel (quality, writing style, etc.)?

[Medievaldragon]

The writing is fast paced. You move from scene to scene, and not stagnant on the same thing for more than a chapter, which is alright for a sci-fi.

there is suspense which is good. Except for some suspense that are never fully explained and rather left as cliffhangers. Who is really Emil Narud? We are never told if he is really Duran nor hints whether he is Duran or not.

If he was Duran, does he have powers other than shapeshifting or psionic spirit possession? He pretty much acted like running like a sissy in some dangerous scenes.

There is a very powerful scene with Kerrigan toward the end of the novel which gives you just an idea of how tough she truly is as a mere human.

Makes me wonder what she will be capable of gameplay-wise in Heart of the Swarm in those missions where you don't mine minerals and vespene gas.

Quality -- I can't give it a 10/10 for the Battlecruiser numbers inconsistency. Other than that, if we are open-minded about mistakes happening, it was a good read. The only thing I could add is why wasn't this a trilogy? I want Moar