SC:L Reviews The Dark Templar Saga: Twilight [Spoilers]

[Gradius]

Full Article.

WARNING: The following thread contains several spoilers for the novel in question.

[Zero]

Any recommendations on where to find this book, or would the local Borders likely have it? I finished the first two books recently, and look forward to reading the third.

[Gradius]

Meh. My bookstore (Borders) takes weeks to get it in its inventory. I just have it shipped from Amazon.

[Drake Clawfang]

It was an honor to review the Saga with you guys, even if 33% of it was done posthumously. ^_^.

Seriously, if you don't want spoilers and don't wanna read the review, here's the bottom line - READ THIS BOOK IT EXPLAINS A LOT.

[Praetor_Ixab]

i thought the review was pretty much dead-on. pretty accurate description of the book, good succinct summary as well. in general, perfect prequel/novelization/lead-in to starcraft II. here's hoping beta starts soon...

[protoss wrath]

spoilers and questions:

Hidden Content:

Now that we know that Duran is not serving the Xel'naga, what is he serving? was Ulrezaj serving Duran or was he serving the same master as Duran and who or what is this master? An enemy of the Xel'naga? What does Kerrigan have to do with this? This also begs the question: now that Ethan Stewart is dead and she let him die, will she infest another terran to serve as her consort? Adun returning, this will be very interesting if he indeed returns but I think he will most likely return (if he ever does) in Legacy of the Void. Could Tassadar return as well? ohhh the possibilities

[Aldrius]

Adun returning, this will be very interesting if he indeed returns but I think he will most likely return (if he ever does) in Legacy of the Void. Could Tassadar return as well? ohhh the possibilities

God I hope not...

Stukov was more than enough people coming back from the dead thank you very much.

[Gradius]

This thread has plenty of warnings on it now so you guys don't have to use hide tags anymore.

I just finished the book & it was awesome! Despite the similar "final battle" as from Shadow Hunters, Twilight is still my favorite SC book so far! Also, I enjoyed the talk about "first contact" (woot!) and hearing about Tassadar's experiences after the events of SC:L's cinematic.

First, despite the passive retcon on the SC manual which makes these kinds of things hard, let me do a little gloating & point out all the things I got right in my Xel'Naga Storyline Projection.

Another theory is that the Xel’Naga were trying to speed up their own evolution by attempting to create a ‘perfect’ race to use as host bodies.

Close, but not quite.

An alternative is that the Xel’Naga might not be coming here as enemies, but instead as allies. The Xel’Naga have been described as peaceful, so it seems kind of strange that they would want to initiate this kind of experiment in the first place. Zeratul’s apocalyptic warning didn’t necessarily indicate that the Xel’Naga are coming here as enemies.

Just imagine, the Xel'Naga would return to heal the racial wounds they inflicted upon the Protoss those many eons ago. The Protoss morale would sky-rocket, to be able to fight alongside their ancient progenitors. It would also be a total surprise, since many of us were expecting the Xel'Naga to be evil.

I suspected that the seemingly malevolent things the Xel'Naga were doing in the caverns beneath Aiur were a red herring. Indeed, Zamara confirms that while the Xel'Naga were not as benevolent as the Protoss before the Aeon of Strife suspected, neither would they go to such extremes as Duran is with the hybirds. I'm still holding out hope that the events described my latter paragraph will come to fruition in StarCraft II. So now what do you guys think their involvement in StarCraft II will be like? Will they be direct allies or will we just see them in in-game cinematics, etc?

The Xel’Naga are hundreds of millions of years old; they most likely evolved when the universe was starting to take shape. When Duran said, “It’s role in the cosmic order was preordained when the stars were young.” he could have been referring to this method of control that the Xel’Naga may have set up. Perhaps this time around, as in many pieces of literature, it will be the human spirit that will be the determinant in irrevocably destroying this cycle.

Well it turns out that it was the Zerg spirit, not the human spirit that broke the cycle this time around. :P

Now that we know that Duran is not serving the Xel'naga, what is he serving? was Ulrezaj serving Duran or was he serving the same master as Duran and who or what is this master? An enemy of the Xel'naga?

That's the big question now - we have to wait for SC2.

What does Kerrigan have to do with this?

She "sped up Duran's progress". I'm guessing that it's something as simple as killing everyone, which makes it easier for Duran to acquire specimens amongst the discord.

Adun returning, this will be very interesting if he indeed returns but I think he will most likely return (if he ever does) in Legacy of the Void. Could Tassadar return as well? ohhh the possibilities

I had a theory that Adun's spirit was reborn in Tassadar. This "Anakh Su'n" then, would be a Protoss who continually taps into both khala & void powers, then disappears, and is reborn again & again to save the Protoss when they need him most.

Final questions:
- Is Zamara engaged with an eternal struggle with Ulrezaj inside the crystal? That seems like a cruel fate. It's a crystal - so you'd think that the memories, Zamara & Ulrezaj would simply be downloaded & that's it.

- Since Kerrigan expressed interest in heading towards the caves beneath Aiur, could those caverns be what we see in the Zeratul/Kerrigan cinematic trailer from BlizzCon? "I knew you'd find your way here, eventually..."

- I'm going to assume that Xel'Naga lifespans are thousands & thousands of years then?

- What in the world are those energy creatures? Are they the essence of the Xel'Naga? Locked away for millenia & waiting to take host bodies?

- It was still part of the Xel'Naga's plans for the Protoss to become infested/assimilated then? The two species are supposed to join via their natural evolution and this is the only way I see for them to join that way. So perhaps the Xel'Naga are evil, as far as the Protoss are concerned.

- Why do Hybrids have to be created to prevent Xel'Naga from being reborn? Presumably, the Hybrids fill up a space that would have normally been taken by the Xel'Naga. But the destruction of either Zerg or Protoss would accomplish the same goal. So the Hybrids serve two purposes then? They are being created to be used as both an army to destroy the Zerg/Protoss and to fill the gap the Xel'Naga would fill?

[Zero]

Without reading into the spoilers here, I'm happy to say I bought the book yesterday. Couldn't find I, Mengsk, but that can wait.

[LordArreat15]

Now that we know that Duran is not serving the Xel'naga, what is he serving? was Ulrezaj serving Duran or was he serving the same master as Duran and who or what is this master? An enemy of the Xel'naga?

Now that I looked back in I, Mengsk, there's was a quote that Duran said that I hadn't paid much attention until after reading Twilight.

"Believe me, I understand hatred very well."

Samir Duran (and Ulrezaj) could have some personal hated toward his Xel'naga masters. Why? Maybe being a 'servant' of the greatest power in the universe made him power hungry over the millennia. (Who wouldn't be.) Somewhere in Twilight, Ulrezaj mention about glory that was soon/will be granted to him.


Questions:
- Where did Zamara learn of the xel'naga's Cycle.
- Did she reveal all the xel'naga secrets.
- Will surviving Preservers try to find Shakuras after learning the memories of the dead protoss (Amur) whom knew the Cycle.
- What happen to Ulrezaj's xel'naga spacecraft. Are there more of them hidden on Aiur than we know.
- Are the uncovering temples (Eggs) and the 'new' awakening xel'naga (Seeded Hybrids) are the hybrids that Duran discussed with Zeratul in Dark Origin.
- Did the protoss learn anything thing of the Cycle from the crystal Zamara and Ulrezaj inhabit. A reason why Artanis sending protoss in recovering xel'naga artifacts/temples.
- Are the resent uncovered xel'naga artifacts protoss discover guarding them fanatically causing protoss becoming more tribal/fanatical. Extreme version of the ancient Shelak tribe in Firstborn.