Review: Pearl of Pandaria

Pearl of Pandaria by Micky Neilson

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



The story reads like it's for younger readers, but there's quite a lot of hack n' slash that doesn't match the perceived age range. It was an ok way to pass the time, but not terribly good. The panel arrangement can be confusing, confounded further by speech bubbles that seem to be in the wrong place. In one panel, Li Li has an item, and the speech bubble is the male saying he has something for her, then a panel has him giving it to her (the thing, she already had..). On the very first page, in three consecutive panels the riding tortoise has one shell ring, then three, then two that might be tree, then two again. There are other smaller inconsistencies. A character starts with green eyes, then has yellow eyes later in the page. The notes in the back say that the Pandaren had green eyes until they were all recolored yellow, so they may have just missed those two green-eyed panels.

There is one tiny racist stereotype, and it comes from the bad guy. He basically comments that since two characters are both Pandaren, they will have equivalent fighting skill. It doesn't help that both of the characters the villain is talking about look nearly exactly alike. Seriously.

The only saving grace of the book is the zone lore Li Li and Bo retell as they cross into new areas.

So, a little flat, confusing panel arrangements, but little bits of lore. I say don't go out of your way to pick this one up.



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