This is Christie Golden's sequel of sorts to her novel "Rise of the Horde". this one chronicles the early years and coming of age of Thrall, the might Warchief and Shaman, of the Horde.

The writing was well enough for a genre expanded universe novel. My only complaint was perhaps the overly repetitive nature of certain character traits of the central three characters. I'm sure it was meant as a way to be certain that we understood pivotal character traits, but by the third act it felt as if it was less than subtle padding to achieve a page count.