The lore of the Guild Wars 2 universe is expansive but somewhat scattered with much of the information contained within explanations or comments on the official ArenaNet blog. This all changed on July 27th, 2010 when Ghosts of Ascalon was released which is a tome of knowledge about the events in the original Guild Wars, the 250 years between the two games, and Guild Wars 2. More importantly, it ties together the reason that all of the races can work together cooperatively in GW2 instead of against one another like the lore would seem to dictate.

Much of the book focuses on the exploits of Dougal Keane, a human adventurer who has done a little bit of everything along with his mismatched party of adventurers. It details their journey from the tombs under Divinity’s Reach, to the pirate capital of Lion’s Arch, and all the way to the ruins of Ascalon to retrieve a precious artifact that can be leveraged to unite the Humans and the Charr in a time when fighting the Elder Dragons is much more important than fighting against one another.

Peace through Exploration

Ghosts of Ascalon covers a large amount of ground when it comes to events within the GW universe. The mindset of the various races, descriptions of significant locations, and a good look at how the world has changed is found almost on every page. More importantly, the book focuses a great deal on the racism and amount of distrust between the various races of Tyria.

Each race is given a special care to explain their current mindset. When we last left GW we found all of the races united fighting The Great Destroyer in Guild Wars: Eye of the North. However, the 250 years between the two games broke that flimsy alliance apart and now each race has an entirely different view on each other. Humans hate Charr, the Sylvari are extremely ignorant of the world, and the Norn and Asura are well, Norn and Asura.

The world is detailed as well; many cities that we’ve heard very little about are given life with the words contained within the book. For instance, Lion’s Arch is described to be more of a pirate themed Tortuga that’s a cultural melting pot while Divinity’s Reach is the main Human hub with nary a Charr to be found within its borders. It’s explained in detail why each city is the way it is and what events happened to cause the change. For instance, Lion’s Arch was flooded when Orr rose from the sea and when the flood succeeded the pirates and corsairs moved in to claim it as their own.

Racism is a very important subject within the book and what we could also assume will show within the actual game. The book focuses on a ragtag group of adventurers who come from different races and different backgrounds in a world full of strife. Humans hate the Charr and each race has a very distinct opinion about each other (as you can see in our “The Races of Guild Wars 2” series viewable here).

The mindset of various characters and their corresponding race is given a lot of focus. Characters frequently explain in detail how they feel in any given situation and it often involves their wariness of a certain race or their disgust say with a Charr merchant in the Lion’s Arch Bazaar. Even while moving through the sewers in a life or death situation, many of the characters will either voice or think out their reaction to the opposite race.

Ghosts of Ascalon Review

Ghosts of Ascalon is exactly 370 pages which is a relatively quick read for a fantasy novel. It took me roughly three days of on and off reading to finish it, but a quick reader could knock it out in an afternoon or it could be casually strolled through over a few weeks of light reading. That’s my first main point with this book is that it’s written in a very casual and easy to understand way. The book flows from cover to cover without any confusing lingo or terms or much of anything to make you stop and think or reread passages.

That’s a great thing because even if you aren’t a hardcore Guild Wars fan you’ll still find a lot of enjoyment in reading the book. Many of the events that happened in Guild Wars or in the “Movement of the World” are explained in great detail as if you’d never heard of any of them before and many events that you’d never pay attention to if you just clicked “accept” on every quest are also given a fair explanation. Yet, the explanations are quick and to the point, so if you know nothing then you won’t be confused but if you know everything then you’ll move through the explanations quickly or find out a detail you never knew before.

While the book is accessible, flows well, and is easy to read I did find it slightly annoying that a lot of phrases were repeated a few too many times for my liking. That might be a personal preference, but I found a few times my immersion was ruined when I had to think “how many times have I heard this in the last few pages?” That’s nothing big or important, but it’s about the only flaw I personally found.

Overall the book was very compelling and difficult to put down for the duration. The characters were vivid and the world was described with enough depth that you were never confused or lost as to where everyone was. Characters moved around the world realistically and within the parameters that the game has already defined and from my point of view there was almost nothing that contradicted to the Guild Wars universe. Even better, like mentioned before, you wouldn't need to have touched a Guild Wars game to get into the book.

So if you like Guild Wars or even if you don’t, but like fantasy novels, then this is a great book to read. I’d personally recommend it for anyone who is interested in and it’s not hard to pick up. Both the softcover copy and the electronic copy retail for $7.99 which is a good deal considering most new books in hardcover are twice or three times as much. It’s short enough that you won’t get bored but long enough to satisfy you and provides a ton of interesting information, combat, politics, and more.

This is the first of three novels though, so if you like this one then be sure to look out for Edge of Destiny coming up sometime in December of this year (presumed released date). Although, as I am to understand, the second book will not continue this books storyline but will instead focus on Destiny's Edge, the group of adventurers that was talked about in the personal story reveal.

If you want to pick it up I suggest either visiting your favorite Brick & Mortar store such as Barnes & Noble or Borders or purchasing a copy on Amazon.com to be delivered to your doorstep. I do suggest you pick it up if you like the lore in GW2. There is a first chapter preview available as well.

Have any questions about the book? Come to our Ten Ton Hammer forums to chat with us about it. Do try to refrain from any spoilers though without proper notice, we wouldn’t want to ruin the book for potential readers.