Eroldren continues his spotlight review over Blizzard’s Heart of the Swarm short story series.

“A nicely paced, but somewhat flawed outing set apart from the sector’s familiar war-torn territory.” – The Founding Fields

Coming up next for us is another well-known zerg who are making their presence felt in the StarCraft fiction and they’re this time around the masters of the skies: Mutalisks.

 

The backwater moon of Choss has everything: clear skies, gentle winds, deep canyons. Tourists flock there every summer. But as Marshal Rin Shearon is about to find out, this peaceful little vacation spot isn’t just the perfect getaway; it’s also the perfect feeding ground.

For the most part of “Frenzy” after I got into the grove of things in this like the previous HotS short stories that have come beforehand. The dramatics and relationships that Rin shares with both her friends and those strangers felt it was being conveyed genuine. Although Rin’s inner dialogue at times was at times disconcerting the pacing of “Frenzy” on the other hand kept me reading forward without spending too much time on those moments.

Even though Mutalisks are a recognizable old school unit back from the original days of StarCraft, like any other mindless zerg creature they’re one who beyond describing their ferocious nature and utter devastation they bring upon.  At least from what I’ve recollect from previous fiction. Despite being also part of the “Big Four” who are normally portrayed and represent the Zerg Swarm in whichever outstanding Blizzard cinematics they feature in I just felt their alien nature and bloodthirsty action in print was something else I didn’t found quite all that interesting. ”Frenzy” not a hands down fan favorite, its still a story that’s nonetheless memorable and I’ll rank in the upper levels among from Blizzard’s wide range of short stories published online.

Apart from the author fleshing out Choss as another curious new terran world placed in the Koprulu sector, nothing else on the lore front of things weren’t so intriguing except for minor mentions that expand upon the StarCraft universe in small and subtle ways.

However, we have a couple neat in-game references manage to crossover into the overall expanded universe of StarCraft in regards to Mutalisks: stacking and the curious longtime lamenting of scientists who are unable to obtain corpses before dissolving. Plus, apparently also “Frenzy” had a very, very distinctive shoutout to H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of which has now found itself embedded with the StarCraft universe.

Until next time, more lore and more zerg!

Overall Verdict: 7.5/10