Novels based on video games.

Josey Wales

I'm just after finishing reading all the currently available books in the A Song of Fire and Ice series. So I'm ready for something a little different now but as I'm browsing through the Kindle store nothing is taking my fancy.

I was wondering are there any good novels based on video games? I really loved the Mass Effect series so I was thinking about trying out the first novel to see what its like.

Are suggestions? Or are they all just basically fan-fiction in disguise?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

have you read any kurt vonnegut ?

read all kurt vonnegut

--edit

not actually vg related cos yeah, they're all fanfic in disguise

satchmo

Ready Player One. Not based on any existing game, but a great read nonetheless.

Retr0gamer

I'd kind of suggest staying away from books based on gaems and reading some good books instead.

Of course there's some great books about games out there. The best off the top of my head would be Racing the Beam, HG101 Presents: The Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures and Masters of Doom for starters.

Josey Wales

satchmo wrote: »

Ready Player One. Not based on any existing game, but a great read nonetheless.

Great. That's it. I was trying to think of a book that a friend recommended to me ages ago but I just couldn't think of the name.

SeantheMan

Go read "The Dark Tower" series by Stephen Kind. It's like a western with post apocalyptic science fiction.
They're brilliant.

Kilgore__Trout

Few books I've read recently that have stood out are:

The Postman (David Brin)
Hyperion (Dan Simmons)

While not based on video games, they are really great sci-fi reads.

Morag

I enjoyed the books based on boarderland and bioshock.
http://bioshock.wikia.com/wiki/Category:BioShock_Novels
http://www.amazon.com/Borderlands-The-Fallen-John-Shirley/dp/1439198470

GarH

Halo: The Fall of Reach is a great read.

And then there is Star Wars: The Old Republic - Revan. Though not strictly based on a game per se. It kinda tells of what happened to Revan after The Knights of the Old Republic game. Still a cracking read though; but you will have to have played the game to get the backstory.

Sarky

You're generally better off avoiding books of games. They're far more often terrible than not. Years ago, a young Sarky, not long after completing that utterly amazing gem of a game Planescape: Torment, bought the book of the game. It was the single worst piece of trash I have ever read outside an article from religious hate rag Alive!

Michael D Not Higgins

The Night's Dawn trilogy would be Mass Effect-y. Multiple races (humans dominate), ancient scourge that threatens to wipe out the galaxy (previously wiped out another race millenia ago), epic space battles as well as ground battles, etc.

Chazz Michael Michaels

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

have you read any kurt vonnegut ?

read all kurt vonnegut

--edit

not actually vg related cos yeah, they're all fanfic in disguise

?

calex71

SeantheMan wrote: »

Go read "The Dark Tower" series by Stephen Kind. It's like a western with post apocalyptic science fiction.
They're brilliant.

beat me to it !!!!! A lot of snobbery and down nose looking at some of kings work and could be fair in place but the dark tower series is truly epic, and dare I say I enjoyed it more than Song of Ice and Fire, now it's not without flaws but if you can overlook them you will get great enjoyment from them.

They also crossover with some of his other work like the stand and salems lot and a few others.

Maybe looking at it from the other side, books that were made into games and look for those to read? Metro 2033 is excellent!!!!!!!! There are some books of the The Witcher but I'm not completely sure how well they have been translated to english ....... anyone?

Angron

Connected kinda tenuously to video games (really it's the tabletop), but the Dawn of War series, as well as the more recent Space Marine, have a huge amount of background books, covering the history of the 40k game.

Gamayun

Slightly OT but I read Martin Adam's Sonic books as a child, I looked them up a while back to see if they were still available and they are.

However they're between £86.35 and £148.29 new on Amazon! Mental.

chrislad

I've read most of the older Halo series. If you like the Halo games, there's some good back-story that improves the playing experience, from a story point of view.

I tried the Assassins Creed books - found them fairly terrible, though maybe because I had already finished the game.

I haven't read Mass Effect, but have read a couple of books by Drew Karpyshyn. He's not bad, not great, but not bad. Light reads, would expect to go through them fairly fast.

The Walking Dead books, as they're in the same universe as the game, are pretty good so far - I've halfway through the second one. They mainly focus on the Governor, and some small side characters.

CastorTroy

I remember reading the Blaster Master novelisation when I was a kid. Never played the game. Think I read another book in that series as well
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worlds_of_Power

penev10

Reamde by Neal Stephenson is a good read. It revolves around the players and programmers of an MMORPG as they get embroiled in a worldwide scam and subsequent manhunt.

Redlion

The Metro games are based off the books by Dmitry Glukhovsky. They are meant to be a great read. As far as I'm aware, the second and latest book in the series is available for free from the official website.

Pat Mustard

There is a series of books based on the Resident Evil video game series. The books get great reviews on Amazon.

I got halfway through the first one.

Awful stuff.

Fnz

Quite enjoyed the audiobook version of the 2 best reviewed Mass Effect books.

johnny_ultimate

The best post / thanks combination I've ever seen on boards. So it goes.

If you don't get why, you should really read some Kurt Vonnegut novels. Particularly Breakfast Of Champions.

Kiith

It's not video game related, but the Malazan series of books by Steven Erikson are absolutely fantastic.

riffmongous

Angron wrote: »

Connected kinda tenuously to video games (really it's the tabletop), but the Dawn of War series, as well as the more recent Space Marine, have a huge amount of background books, covering the history of the 40k game.

Blood for the Blood God! :mad:

Excuse me.. but yeah if you want sci-fi war books the Gaunt's Ghosts series from 40k is fantastic, but GW have a lot of good books. The Resident Evil book series does seem pretty awful unfortunately, I only read a little but it was pretty bland and never read more than a few pages. I have seen books based on based on Gears of War but never read them.

Angron

I couldn't agree more about the Ghosts series, but then Dan Abnett has been one of their most consistently great writers, alongside McNeill and ADB (in my opinion anyway).

riffmongous

Angron wrote: »

I couldn't agree more about the Ghosts series, but then Dan Abnett has been one of their most consistently great writers, alongside McNeill and ADB (in my opinion anyway).

Defo, there are about over 10 books in the Ghosts series now and each one is great, incredibly consistent. I havent read so much by McNeill and ADB, I liked the first few Heresy books but then the series just expanded too much.

I used to like the Gotrek and Felix and Commissar Cain series too, but the author change almost killed G&F and Cain was too light to compare to the Ghosts

jaxdasher

Read Metro 2033 amazing story and atmosphere. Highly recommended you read th novels before you play.

Read "Roadside Picnic" which the Stalker series is based on. Very different the book revolves more on life on the periphery of the Zone and is more pedestrian. Nonetheless it is still a worthy read.

eddhorse

Good Reads website or app is the answer.

http://www.goodreads.com/genres/video-games

Sierra Oscar

The Elder Scrolls series have a couple of books that helps fill in the storyline somewhat between Oblivion and Skyrim. I have one of them which is called 'The Infernal City' but I never got to finish it. They are not exactly easy reading, especially if you don't understand the Elder Scrolls universe. Interesting all the same.

Dave_The_Sheep

riffmongous wrote: »

Defo, there are about over 10 books in the Ghosts series now and each one is great, incredibly consistent. I havent read so much by McNeill and ADB, I liked the first few Heresy books but then the series just expanded too much.

The Heresy series is increasingly hit and miss, but still pops up with excellent additions (mainly Abnett and McNeill but still). Ghosts series is moving upwards and onwards too, they're still quality.

For a greater insight into the Ultramarines from Space Marine, there's the ... aptly titled "Ultramarines" series, by McNeill. They're all about a Space Marine who gets turfed out of the Ultramarines for having a personality... ok, I'm stereotyping a bit.


However, they're all based on the W40K universe rather than a specific game, really. Probably why they're actually good books and not total tripe (most of the time).

nesf

As others have suggested, the Metro books. But in this case since the books came first they tend not to have the same baggage as the average video game novel. Not strictly just video games but I know a few people who really like the Mechwarrior/Battletech novels. That's not really just a video game though but a broader hobby that's been going on for 20 years so you'd expect a better chance of a decent book or two compared to some of the newer franchises that don't have much to work with.


If you want to go back to a twenty year old game, Betrayal at Krondor was a game from 1993 on DOS that was based in Raymond E. Feist's Midkemia (and generally a well liked game) where he later created a novelisation of the game into a book of the same name. He didn't write the dialogue or plot for the game and the novel does suffer from working better as a game than a book but it's still fairly interesting and far from his worst book. It would be advisable to read the first three books first though, Magician, Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon. I didn't like Silverthorn much for what it's worth.