By Ned Jordan
If you've played Diablo III yet, you'll be familiar with the characters of
Deckard Cain and his adopted daughter, Leah. Not only are they both
important characters in the game, Cain's extensive knowledge about the demons
that plague the world of Sanctuary help to build the world of Diablo III and
make the game a more immersive experience. Some of this knowledge is
communicated to players through books and tomes discovered while making their
way through the game, and almost certainly many of them have thought about what
it would be like to actually find one of those tomes in our world, and to sit
down, leaf through its pages, and discover all of the secrets that Cain has
spent his life discovering. Well, it turns out that in a way you can do
just that.
Diablo III: Book of Cain is available in a hardbound edition that you can
purchase and add to your own bookshelf, perhaps in the hopes that an adventurer
will one day smash the shelf and be rewarded with the discovery of your book.
Or you could just spend hours delving into its nearly 150 pages of text and art,
learning more of the fascinating world of Sanctuary than you can get from
several play-throughs of the game. The book's cover is embossed with the
familiar demonic skull that serves as the logo for the game and is made to look
like an ancient volume of great importance. The book's pages have a
weathered, antiqued look and have rough edges that evoke the look of linen
paper. The real treat, though, is the book's contents which feature
extensive lore on the world of Sanctuary and its demonic pantheon. Also
included are handwritten notes from Cain himself, as well as his warnings and
advice for Leah. If you enjoy the game, then this book is an absolute
must. It is not only the perfect companion to the game's story, it will
also feed your hunger to know about all things Sanctuary.
Making the book an even more fascinating read for the Diablo III fan is the
inclusion of hand-drawn line drawings and pen and ink illustrations provided by
eight different artists (Brom, Mark Gibbons, Jim Gurney, John Howe, Alan Lee,
Iain McCaig, Jean-Baptiste Monge, and Adrian Smith). Anyone with an
appreciation of fantasy art will thoroughly enjoy the illustrations that appear
on the majority of the book's pages. Rounding out the experience is the
inclusion of a hand-drawn foldout map of Sanctuary that will let revisit the
game's locations in your mind or let you see the parts of Sanctuary that remain
to be explored.
Final Rating:
