EverQuest: The Ruins of Kunark (Paperback)

It's all printed in light browny colour, with 'rune' bands on each page, the maps look like pencil drawings, very nice presentation.

The book is an entertaining read, rather than just giving you plain tables, it also has many little stories based on the locale of each city, which also contains hints, and are fun to read.

The introduction explains that the book is intended for 'newbie 'players, well.. sounds to me like a 'newbie' is any character less than level 20 in their mind. That is to say that unless you played this game for a year, or have a printer and spent hours printing all the maps and information you could find on the web, this book is a useful resource indeed.

The book begins with a Jargon glossary, most useful to newbies, then a lengthy description of all the character types you can choose, their skills, deities, and a list of most faction groups.

Then comes the 'Exploring Norrath' chapter, listing every major zone and city with a map, entertaining little stories, and table of the local NPC's (creatures and inhabitants).

While the maps comes from the website and the website contains much more maps, this is still a useful resource if you dont have a printer, and you want to consult the maps while you are in the game.

This is followed by a collection of the most common items, containers, armors, clothing, etc. all with AC and average price.

The next chapter is 'Creatures of Norrath', which gives stats for only those creatures that venture closest to the cities.

Next is a complete list of spells for each character class, up to level 24, that's over 400 spells, with mana cost, effect, etc. this is a useful reference even for seasoned players.

Most of the staff behind the book are EQ players, and also they got some information directly from Verant.

The best with this book is that it will give you many hints but never spoil the game for you. It will give you descriptions of all the most common locations, items, spells, etc. but will leave the juicy bits for you to discover, just as was intended by Verant when they created the game, it is up to you to explore Norrath, and group with other players online to discover new horizons and extend your knowledge..

All in all a great book for any EverQuest player...

'Fabreece', 9th level Druid, 'Terris-Thule' server

Seasoned players will find little of use in the majority of the book (except for perhaps the weapon guide), although, for "casters" the final definative and descriptive list of spells is very useful - and could be seriously worth buying the book for this alone.