Writing a review isn’t always fun, you know, because every review, be it for a game, a peripheral, or even a book, comes with its own unique challenges.
And so it is with the review of Diablo – Legends of the Necromancer – Rathma by Titan Books, written and illustrated by Fred Kennedy and Adam Gorham.
The challenge I face is this: can I write around 800 words for a book that contains maybe a quarter of that number of words? Yes, as you might have guessed, Diablo – Legends of the Necromancer – Rathma is a graphic novel, with a very strong emphasis on the “graphic” side of the coin.
Another challenge I always face when writing a book review is how much of the story should I give away in the course of my notes? Of course, my first instinct is to say, “Not very much!” because there’s nothing worse than reading spoilers for something, but I also need to make sure I convey the scope of the narrative contained in the book.
Suffice it to say that this book is about Rathma, the first necromancer and son of Lillith, the great villain of Diablo IV. At the beginning of the book, Rathma has buried his origins and taken the name Linarian, leaving his old life and destiny behind. Of course, fate is not so easily thwarted, and soon it comes and kicks down his front door – and he must accept who and what he is if he wants to survive.
Sounds exciting, right? Well, if there was ever a universe that was ripe for expansion through books, it is the Diablo universe – there are so many characters that are mentioned almost in passing and deserve their big appearance. We have that at I discussed the story of Bul-Kathos some time agoand this is another worthy entry in the series.
The book is a handsome hardback with an illustration by Rathma himself on the cover. It is a slim tome, only 80 pages long – but the page count does not give any indication of how much adventure and excitement has been crammed in. It deals with the theme of the death of innocence and how it can either crush a person or make them grow. The themes throughout are quite interesting.
The main thing I took away from Diablo – Legends of the Necromancer – Rathma is the quality of the illustrations on display. On many pages, the images do all the work of explaining the story, with words only used when absolutely necessary. The scope of the story, the design of the creatures and characters in the book are all beautifully realized as you read – the ghosts of the undead, the shambling corpses (I don’t think it’s a spoiler that a necromancer has an army of undead at his disposal, is it?); everything looks terribly detailed, and the way Linarian slowly comes to terms with who he is is all very well illustrated.
The images don’t tell the whole story, though, and while there isn’t a lot of dialogue to get caught up in, the ones that are there are well thought out and tie everything together. The story here was hinted at in the games, but fleshed out (pardon the pun) through the combined efforts of the writers. After all, the images need to tell a story, not just look pretty. The way both have been woven into a narrative arc is masterfully done, and never have I enjoyed reading a book with so few words.
As an expansion of the world of Diablo, this definitely brings a new perspective to my favorite class in Diablo 4, the Necromancer. I thought my guy would just enjoy dealing with corpses and protecting himself by sending skeletons into battle so he wouldn’t get hurt, but it turns out there’s a lot more to it than that. I won’t wax lyrical about the pros and cons of Necromancer, but after reading Diablo – Legends of the Necromancer – Rathma, you can certainly feel a little more sympathy for the plight of Rathma and his entire kin. It’s not that they wanted to, but in order to save Sanctuary from the forces of evil, sometimes a small evil can be used to prevent a greater one. Honestly, this is all getting a little too deep for a book review!
In short, Diablo – Legends of the Necromancer – Rathma is a fantastic new entry in Titan’s Diablo – Legends series of graphic novels. It looks great, it tells a great story, and I highly recommend checking it out if you love the world of Diablo as much as I do. I can’t wait to find out who the next star of a story is!
Big thanks go to Titan Books for providing a copy of Diablo – Legends of the Necromancer – Rathma. Get a copy
