It's been a while since I've penned any words for Netto's Game Room, so forgive me if my writing is a little rusty. My life has become quite hectic, between work and family dynamics, including the literally imminent release date of my second child; he was due on January 30th, so he could arrive at any moment. I have largely cut back on my gaming recently, partially due to this lack of free time, and completely erased my social media presence a few months back, as it was a negative time-sink in my life, and I wished to free myself from its clutches. Naturally, between cutting back on gaming and carving out the time that social media once occupied from my day, I did find some free time in my schedule.
I used to be a voracious reader. I would lose myself in a good fantasy book and devour its pages within a few days of starting, no matter the page count of the book. There is nothing like entering into a fleshed out, lore-filled, classic fantasy universe like Warhammer, Dungeons & Dragons' Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance settings, or Tolkien's Middle Earth and enjoying stories from those worlds. Fantasy can be a powerful tool for those who seek refuge from the stresses, trauma or mundanity of our real world. And while it's obvious that you can't truly lose yourself in a fantasy story, lest you completely forsake your duties and responsibilities of your real life, it is a nice, temporary escape when you can allow it to be. I've been wanting to let myself be carried away by fantasy tales again, but I'm finding that with the constant interruptions and distractions that modern technology brings, I'm having a difficult time really allowing a novel to grab me like they used to. But, I'm not giving up. I try to set aside time to read, even if only a chapter a night, to whittle away at a good story.
You're probably wondering what any of this long prelude has to do with this book review. I've been wondering how I can still contribute to Netto's Game Room, as I still love writing; and gaming, though currently not a large part of my life, will no doubt become more relevant again down the road, as I seek to show my children the incredible adventures and experiences that the medium can offer. I thought I could attempt to review some gaming-adjacent stories: namely adaptations of gaming franchises into novels, comics or television/film. So I decided to review a really solid spin-off novella set in the League of Legends universe. This is the first book review that I've ever done, but I plan to do more, so I hope that this strikes some sort of interest with the Netto's Game Room reader base.
Strangely enough, for a game as popular as League of Legends, we haven't received much by way of expanded fiction, at least not until very recently. Riot Games semi-frequently puts out short stories and lore tidbits that have given more context to the characters that we've seen for the last sixteen years in the core game. We also have received a few spin-off games in the last few years that have gone a long way into fleshing this universe out. They never really pursued print media to explore the League world though, beyond some comics. Finally, in 2020 we received Garen: First Shield, a digital-only novella, which released to little fanfare; an outcome that no doubt arose due to Riot's decision to not sell the book physically.
Being a hardcore fantasy genre fan, and enjoying the visuals and world design of League of Legends, I was intrigued to pick up this e-novella and see if the author could add some much-needed context and detail to a universe that seemed like it had a world of fascinating characters, kingdoms and lore just underneath its surface.
Note - The events of Garen: First Shield occur after two short stories; one from Riot Games' website: Shield of Remembrance (also by Anthony Reynolds) and The Weight of Expectations, which is featured in the official League of Legends lore compendium - Realms of Runeterra).
The story largely centers around Demacia - one of the key nations at play in this setting. This kingdom is militaristic, noble, and appears to be a largely positive, morally righteous force in the world of Runeterra (the League of Legends universe). They are a somewhat isolationist, inherently defensive nation who are proud of their ideals, their culture and their people. Their ethics and mores are perhaps best embodied and exemplified by their elite warriors, the Dauntless Vanguard. This order of soldiers serve as the main characters of the story, namely their leader, Garen Crownguard.
Garen serves as the protagonist of this story, as the name of the novella would suggest. The stoic leader of the Dauntless Vanguard blames himself for the recent death of Demacia's king. He is training constantly and tirelessly to prove to himself and to his soldiers that he is still the highly capable warrior that has defended this kingdom for years. It is revealed that Garen's leadership of the Dauntless Vanguard has recently resulted in an uncharacteristically high number of deaths for their order's otherwise impeccable reputation, amidst an unexpected rebellion in Demacia that his team was ill prepared to quell. These preceding events to the story serve as a shadow over the Vanguard, with Garen's guilt heavily weighing on him. He is Demacian through and through; a living example of their ethos and culture. If you carry yourself with dignity, strength, loyalty and honor and live those values, you are an unstoppable force, or at least you should be. Garen often repeats a family motto, "Strength through discipline. Honor through diligence." This motto serves as a mantra for Garen and a thesis statement of sorts for Demacia.
Garen and the Dauntless Vanguard are sent on a mission to the distant frontier regions of Demacia, to a region known as the Nockmirch. This region has long been friendly and allied with Demacia, but there is some suspicious activity afoot that Garen's team must investigate. The Demacian ambassador to the Nockmirch recently sent a letter back to their kingdom, but the letter seems like it was faked. This obviously raises the question to the Demacians of what befell their ambassador, and why would something happen to him, when they have had an amicable relationship thus far?
Their journey largely is by ship, and this more passive mode of transportation allows for the supporting cast of characters to develop, namely the deuteroagonist - Cithria, a brand new recruit to the First Shield of the Dauntless Vanguard. The First Shield is a regiment of the larger overall fighting force. It was a clever decision to include Cithria's perspective, as she's something of an audience surrogate. Garen, though currently muddled and shaken by recent events, is not unsure of who he is or the mission of the Vanguard. Cithria on the other hand is a completely fresh face and has idolized this team since she was young. Her insight as an outsider helps the reader connect, as we've all been in situations similar to her; the new blood joining a seasoned team, hoping that you fit in and don't bring the team down. Her interactions with the rest of the named Dauntless Vanguard characters add a much needed splash of color to this otherwise faceless and uniform group of warriors. You'll find yourself rooting for some characters and absolutely hating others, due to the way they treat their teammates. There's also a minotaur in the Vanguard, named Kriel, who is an awesome character. I had no idea that Demacia had non-human citizens before reading this story, so this was a cool surprise.
Their journey, while organized and largely uneventful for the first stretch, is winding and spans large swaths of the Demacian territory. The journey is a critical need for any good fantasy story. It allows for the author to flesh the tinier details of the world out and capture the spirit of adventure. You need characters sitting around campfires, sharing meals together, witnessing grand sights and seeing diverse, awe-inspiring wildlife and creatures. Even in this relatively short novella, we do get a great instance of this where the traveling party passes a Demacian settlement that is the training fortress for the raptor-knight wing of the kingdom's military. I wasn't aware before reading this that Demacia even had an endemic species of gryphon-like birds, much less that they had a regiment of their military that breeds, trains and rides these amazing creatures.
I do not want to spoil too much of the story, as it's already short and easily digestible. But, I will add that some proper action does unfold in the last act. A warlike rival nation confronts them in the Nockmirch; soldiers of Noxus - essentially the de facto bad guys of Runeterra. The Demacian Dauntless Vanguard and the Noxians have a proper, pulse-pounding skirmish atop a bridge. The author, Anthony Reynolds, aptly portrays the highly trained Vanguard, how they utilize their shields in tactical battles and prove to be more than a match for a considerably larger Noxian warband. The entire battle has a sort of Battle of Thermopylae feel to it, with this elite fighting unit having to tactfully navigate a battle against all odds and I think Reynolds' storytelling really shone in this section of the story. As you would expect, we get to see our hero, Garen, redeem himself and really show his prowess in battle against the Noxians.
I greatly enjoyed reading through Garen: First Shield. I've played countless hours of League of Legends and loved some of the characters and flavor text scattered here and there, but never could really get a proper idea of how the Runeterra universe worked and what that world was actually like until I read this. Personally, I think Riot Games waited way too long to start fleshing this series out. League was the most popular game in the world for nearly a decade and those were all years that they could've been trying to expand the universe and add fiction to it. They started a few years ago trying to make spin-off games starring various League of Legends characters. The games were of myriad genres and art styles and all largely were well-reviewed, but I don't think any of them sold very well. I think a large part of that is that they just waited too long to start releasing these games. There are too many other games out nowadays, stealing peoples' attention. From what I heard, Riot has almost entirely put the kibosh on their spin-off projects, save for their upcoming 2v2 fighting game 2XKO, which might be the worst title for a video game that I've ever seen.
There is another book, a proper full length, physical novel, Ruination, that came out in 2022. This story, focusing on a completely different region and story in Runeterra, was also written by Anthony Reynolds, so I anticipate it being quite good and look forward to reading it. The wildly successful Netflix League of Legends TV series, Arcane, also has a novel coming out in a few days - February 18, 2025 to be exact. Named Ambessa: Chosen of the Wolf, the book looks be centered around the titular character, a Noxian general who we first met in the streaming series. I hope that we continue to see more League of Legends novels, as they've shown Runeterra to be a very unique, intriguing universe that is rich in lore and filled with fascinating stories and characters.
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