Product Description

Darrick Lang is coming home. Years ago he left the town of Bramwell to walk the wide world as a soldier of fortune and champion of the realm. But Bramwell is not as he left it. Something dark and terrifying has ensnared the townsfolk, something very old and very patient, tangling innocents in a web of malice and profaning the very earth itself. Now that same power calls to Darrick and his only hope may be to walk the same perilous path of damnation. Darrick Lang is coming home. Years ago he left the town of Bramwell to walk the wide world as a soldier of fortune and champion of the realm. But Bramwell is not as he left it. Something dark and terrifying has ensnared the townsfolk, something very old and very patient, tangling innocents in a web of malice and profaning the very earth itself. Now that same power calls to Darrick and his only hope may be to walk the same perilous path of damnation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #347778 in Books
• Published on: 2002-12-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 368 pages

About the Author
Mel Odom has written over 60 books which include the novelization of the movie BLADE and original novels for both the Buffy and Angel series. Mel Odom has written dozens of novels over the past eleven years in several fields: fantasy, game related fiction, science fiction, movie novelizations, horror, young adult, juvenile, computer strategy guides, action-adventure and comics. He began writing in the Joss-verse of evil and demonic amusement at Pocket Books when he wrote his first Angel novel, Redemption. He currently lives in Moore, Oklahoma with his wife and five children.

Customer Reviews

Definitely avoid
If I had one word in which to describe Odom's venture into the world of Diablo, it would be Avoidable.
Being a die-hard fan of the game and of medieval fantasy, I read the book. But frankly, it dragged. It was a bad combination of a boring storyline and bad storytelling.

Bad storyline - I should really be fairer to the storyline, because frankly it wasn't the worst story ever conceived. It deals with a demon Karbraxis, who competes with the Prime Evils (Diablo and his brothers) to take over the mortal realm. Unfortunately for us, Karbraxis is not really confrontational, and uses more insidious means to achieve his goals - through religion. ***Yawnnnnn***
The story is entertaining in small patches, which stumble into accidental action and heroism. But as if apologetic for breaking the pattern of boredom, the story immediately relapses into tedium.

The storytelling - Perhaps another author might have done good things with the weak story, but Odom seems to embrace the lacklustre storyline with unusual gusto and quickly makes the transition from the pedestrian to the tedious.
The story drags on and on without any seeming end to the reader's agony. The uninspiring storyline is outdone by uninspiring characters. The Freudian psycho-babble the author engages in adds to the poor readability of the book. The only good thing about an unsatisfying and quick end was the fact that it was an end. An end to one of the more boring books I've read. What a waste of time! The only thing which stopped me from giving this book only one star was the possibility of an off-chance that somebody might accidently not find this book apallingly boring!

If you like medieval fantasy, if you are a fan of Diablo, avoid this book like you'd avoid a fanaticism aura-enchanted boss-pack of undead stygian dolls in the Durance of Hate while you are cursed.

Diablo: The Black Road
This was clearly one of the best books Ive ever read. It is as good if not better than #1, The Legacy Of Blood. The story doesnt have anything to do with the game, or the prime evils. It has to do with Kabraxis, the builder of the black road. Darrick Lang departs in a quest to save a kidnapped prince, and ends up fighting a demon warlord O_O. This book was veyr good, and I reccomend it to any Diablo/fiction fans. It kept me wanting to turn the page out of anxiety.

not bad
I have to go mid way between other reviewers here, this is definately not the best book you will ever read, but also it is not terrible either. Good start slightly dull middle, very good towards the end, but i found the very end a bit of a dissapointment. Stands up on its own as a piece of fiction but as with all the warcraft books i have read they lack a bit of true excitement.