Diablo: The Order — An all-new novel in the groundbreaking video game series Diablo—“the Harry Potter of computer games” (The New York Times) — will be on sale May 29, 2012.

Written by Nate Kenyon (StarCraft: Ghost– Spectres) reknown as a Bram Stoker Award finalist (“Bloostone”, “The Reach”), and awarded with the P&E Horror Novel of the Year.

Nate Kenyon & Medievaldragon — 2011 New York Comic Con

I really want all of our visitors to pre-order Diablo: The Order. It’s a Diablo III tie-in novel serving as a prequel to the video game. In this story, Leah is age 8 and Deckard Cain has discovered there is a Horadrim cell hiding out there.

There’s a lot of lore to be learned in this canon novel from the pen of a gritty dark fantasy writer. No rainbows or unicorns to be found.

Something a Blizzard licensed product and lord nerd, like myself, might catch is that what I might assume to be the Horadrim symbol or glyph in the front cover of this book is the same glyph seen on the side of the Insight Editions’ Diablo III: Book of Cain front cover.

Curiously, this same glyph appears in the entry of Xiansai in page 145 of Diablo III: Book of Cain. Unless the editor misplaced the artwork, this might be a subtle hint that the Great Families of Xian are somehow connected with the Horadrim. Only time might tell. (Check back in case we have official word on the Horadrim glyph)

Update: Doomscream shared another interesting clue. The Diablo III cinematic unveiled during Spike TV awards a few months ago, shows Leah wearing a necklace with the same symbol seen on Diablo: The Order’s front cover. There’s a lot of consistency throughout the video game and these two licensed products.

      Description

      For more than ten years, Diablo has been one of PC gaming’s iconic and blockbuster franchises, with millions of players experiencing to this day all the adventure and terror in the world of Sanctuary. Now, to tie-in with the long-awaited release of Blizzard Entertainment’s all-new game, Diablo III, the original novel Deckard Cain will bridge the untold story of one of Diablo’s most popular characters.

      Now a much older man, Deckard Cain is on a mission to find the remnants of a rumored Horadric cell, and must call upon all of his knowledge and wit to teach and inspire those around him even as they face danger and death at every turn. Can he lead the return of a ragtag group of Horadrim and their ideals to Sanctuary…or will they die out with Cain himself?

      Gallery Books, May 2012
      Hardcover, 384 pages
      ISBN-10: 141655078X
      ISBN-13: 9781416550785

      Excerpt

      Deckard Cain made his way across the floor, following the footprints to an alcove in the far wall. Rotted boards clung to supports, the last remains of an ancient library. This had been a ritual chamber, many centuries before, used to summon things from beyond the human world. A portal to the Burning Hells themselves, perhaps. The shelves were empty now. He saw a speck of yellow underneath a splinter of wood and bent to pick up a corner of parchment paper, curled and speckled with mildew.

      Something moved in the shadows to his right.

      He whirled, holding the light up. For a moment it appeared as if the shadows themselves were alive, bunching and swirling like ink in water. At the same time, a voice like the distant moan of wind drifted through the empty room and raised the hairs on the back of his neck.

      “Deckaaaaarrdddd Caiiinnnn . . .”

      Cain felt a strange doubling, a memory of a night many years before, when he was just a boy. A whispered voice calling to him, just like this. He backed away, fumbling in his rucksack with one hand, holding the lighted staff with the other against the darkness. Already he was doubting himself: had it just been the wind moving through the broken remains of the building above him, a trick his mind had played after so long in the sun?

      The voice came again, a sound like bones scraping together in the grave.

      “Your ghosts are many, old man, and they are active.”

      A grating of metal over rock seemed to come from everywhere at once. Once again a pool of black smoke thickened and then dissipated, only to reassemble somewhere else: a shape carrying a sword, the form of a man, but with eyes that glowed red with the fires of hell.

      Cain knew what this was, yanked from the depths of his own mind and used against him: the image of the Dark Wanderer himself, conjured up to weaken his resolve. The smoke-shape swirled and shifted, reforming into two indistinct human shapes, one taller and clearly female, one small and delicate. Shock raced through Cain’s limbs as an older, familiar memory fought to surface. He closed his eyes against the darkness as the yawning pit of despair opened within him, threatening to pull him in. You must not listen.

      ***

      Deckard Cain is the last of the Horadrim, the sole surviving member of a mysterious and legendary order. Assembled by the archangel Tyrael, the Horadrim were charged with the sacred duty of seeking out and vanquishing the three Prime Evils: Diablo (the Lord of Terror), Mephisto (the Lord of Hatred), and Baal (the Lord of Destruction). But that was many years ago. As the decades passed, the Horadrim’s strength diminished, and they fell into obscurity. Now all of their collected history, tactics, and wisdom lie within the aged hands of one man. A man who is growing concerned.

      Dark whisperings have begun to fill the air, tales of ancient evil stirring, rumblings of a demonic invasion set to tear the land apart.

      Amid the mounting dread, Deckard Cain uncovers startling new information that could bring about the salvation—or ruin—of the mortal world: other remnants of the Horadrim still exist. He must unravel where they have been and why they are hiding from one of their own.

      As Cain searches for the lost members of his order, he is thrust into an alliance with an unlikely ally: Leah, an eight-year-old girl feared by many to carry a diabolical curse. What is her secret? How is it tied to the prophesied End of Days? And if there are other living Horadrim, will they be able to stand against oblivion? These are the questions Deckard Cain must answer . . .

      . . . before it is too late.

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Order Diablo III: The Order at a low price while this offer lasts.

Other Diablo books to consider reading (Hardcover, eBook, Audio Books might be available where applicable. Orders above $25 eligible for free shipping):