Escape Artists

This is not about WoW. This is about WoW intersecting my commute to work. See, I don't listen to broadcast radio on my short 10 mile commute to work, I listen to audio books. (Commercials??) More to the point, I listed to podcast-books, free books often read by the author, or another party who enjoys that genre. Over the last month, I listened to two different podiobooks that made me think, hmm, that sounds like Warcraft.

The Warlock and the Good Man (by MK Hobson) - Think Red Dead Redemption meets WoW. Cowboys and goblins living together in a small town at the bottom of a mountain inhabited by an other-worldly goblin king. The visual of a priest/sheriff working together with a warlock was interesting. I liked the back story about how the warlock got his start, similar to the WoW lore (IMHO). This story was read back in September 2010, but is still on the site. (Yeah, I am a little behind these stories.) They've rated it "R" for content, gore and language.

(snippet) Mrs. Jorgensen ran the whores out of a big square building that had once been butter-yellow but had weathered to the color of chicken fat left out on a plate. The place was built sturdy, of white pine and fir, and had fine scrollwork supporting the eaves. The windows were covered with stretched oilpaper, ripped in places. At night, behind the oilpaper, shadows moved in the light of kerosene lamps. Some of the shadows had horns, some did not.

Planetfall (by Michael C Lea) - Think Starcraft and WoW. Here you have a home planet destroyed by a superior alien race, the civilation is looking for a new home and making friends (or is it enemies?) with the indigenous race. No direct WoW reference like Good Man, but a lot of magical references, including imp powered weaponry and use of runes to create barriers. I kept seeing orcs, warlocks and DKs in my mind's eye as this was being read.

Urjik’s greenish skin and jutting lower canines marked him as a charuk, his bloodline tainted by nether influences. Despite this stigma, and despite his temper, he had risen quickly in Rampart Battalion. Even the most burdensome battlesuit did not slow him, and no one was a truer shot with an inferno cannon or a hex-impelled railgun.
...
Urjik hefted his high-powered Vindocladian inferno cannon to his shoulder and aimed its sigil-carved barrel into the clearing. Inside the bulky rifle’s main housing, a nether imp was caged, writhing in immortal fury but jacketed securely in heavy-duty curse-proofed lead.

These are just two of the free stories put out by 2 of the 3 different Escape Artists websites. Each site puts out stories in a different genre (sci-fi, fantasy or horror). All excellent quality and listener supported. So, yes, you will get the PBS, style, please donate with each story, but that's for you and your pocketbook to decide. If you're tired of commercial/broadcast radio, I highly suggest checking out their content. Your MP3 player will appreciate it.

As the Mr Ely (EA founder) was fond of saying, "Have Fun".