i ve so far read legacy of blood and almost through with the black road and i only see minor similarities in the games vs book. I see no strong relationships worth mentioning. Anyone read the books? what titles are better reads for the gamers? The books ive read though are somewhat interesting. They almost seem like side quests of the diablo world instead of being directly related to the game itself. i guess that isnt such a bad thing thoguh. i dunno

The Sin War trilogy was really the beginning of what is now considered canon for the lore of the series. While the previous books certainly have a lot of great stories, information, and even bits and pieces that may indeed hold true in the series as it is now, they aren't held as canon and thus the events in them may not always hold true moving forward.

One specific case where they are being honored though was brought up a while ago on these forums:

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Q u o t e:
I've been reading the Diablo books since xmas. So far they aren't too bad at all.

I'm reading The Black Road right now. I've been checking on the map to visualize where they actually are.

There is a statement that doesn't make sense to me.
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Q u o t e:
At the end of the winding road lay the city of Bramwell, a suburb north northwest of Westmarch.
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This map indicates the opposite:
http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/world/worldmap.xml

Another quote
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Q u o t e:
No one in the city [Bramwell] could look southeast toward Westmarch and not see the church first
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That map has got to be wrong.

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That's actually an error we intend to correct with the map and are holding the descriptions from The Black Road as correct.

In no way would I consider the books prior to The Sin War trilogy false or not worth reading, I think Diablo fans can still get a lot of pleasure from them, but you can consider them to be... tales, and not necessarily reference material.

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Q u o t e:
One of these days I'm going to have to make the trek in to a bookstore to find these things.

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http://us.blizzard.com/store/browse.xml?f=f:2

(Archive + the three Sin War books and you've got everything)