Following on from Diablo: Book of Cain, comes this volume, written from the point of view of the former angel, Tyrael. As we all know, in the third game of the Diablo series, Travel gave up his angelic status and became mortal to assist humanity in its fight against the Prime Evil Diablo. After this, he then went back to the High Heavens and took over the role that Malthael vacated, becoming the Angel of Wisdom, even though he was still a mortal. Of course, we know what happened to Malthael, don’t we?
Now, writing a review for a book is a bit of an odd experience, as this is an entirely subjective thing, and in my way of thinking, people react to books in a different way than to, say, a video game. Some couldn’t care less about the lore and background that Blizzard have constructed around their masterpieces. Others, like me, love finding out more about the backdrop to the events in the games, and it is really those latter folk that Titan Books’ Diabo: Book of Tyrael is aimed at.
Tyrael is very much in the tradition of Deckard Cain and the rest of the people who wrote the lore in the first book – he is a collector of knowledge, and the idea of the tome this time around is that since Deckard has popped his clogs (minor spoilers for Diablo III, beware!) Leah, his niece, is in need of guidance. And so Tyrael starts to gather information that may be of use to her. Of course, a lot of this information is of interest to the reader, such as where Leah’s mother, Adria, came from and why she turned into the woman she became. There is a lot more to this book, however, mostly involving the new Horadrim that are starting to come out in the wake of Deckard’s death, the founding of Westmarch and so much more.
As with the previous book, Book of Tyrael is beautifully illustrated throughout, with great hand drawn pictures depicting the parts of the lore being told. There are pictures of a family tree, almost from Mad King Leoric through to the present day with Leah, there are fantastic landscapes and illustrations of fantastic creatures, and as a whole, the presentation of the book is absolutely top notch. This comes from the moment you first pick it up, with the deeply embossed hard back cover hinting at the quality of what is inside. The rest of the book doesn’t disappoint.
Diablo: Book of Tyrael is also much easier to read than the previous one, with the writing being much more legible. Whether this is because Angelic writing is neater than messy human scribbles, I’m not sure, but it is much more pleasing on the eye. Of course, Leah has the odd passage in the book where she scribbles notes in the margin to comment on what is being written, and it appears that scruffy handwriting runs in the family; her scribblings are as bad as Deckards! Leah’s writings do read a bit like a teenage angst kind of writing, as she seems to be constantly searching for answers about her mother. I almost feel like shouting at her to give it up.
Diablo: Book of Tyrael is, again, quite short, at only 148 pages, and also quite expensive for what it is, running at the same price as Book of Cain at some £27.99. However, the information this time around seems to be much more dense, more more packed in than the first, and it feels like a much more weighty tome.
All in all, Diablo: Book of Tyrael is a good read, it contains a lot of information I didn’t know, and so if you have an interest in the lore of the world of Sanctuary, I can recommend that you pick this up.
Huge thanks go out to Titan Books for providing a copy of Diablo: Book of Tyrael for review. Titan Books will provide a copy. As will Amazon if you prefer.
