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.

Skerries

Kiith wrote: »

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

those books are just telephone directories as every new page introduces a new character for the first 2 books :eek:

nesf

Skerries wrote: »

those books are just telephone directories as every new page introduces a new character for the first 2 books :eek:

Hahahahaha.

Never read Jordon. They're like a Quiz show, a minor character from two books ago walks into the room with no introduction and everyone starts chatting to them normally not dropping any hints or clues to help you figure out who the **** they are. Then the character says something that might be important or not depending on who they are and then disappears for another two novels.

Reading these books before either Wiki or Google existed was a form of torture. :P

Skerries

The Witcher was a book series before it became a game

jasonbourne.cs

GarH wrote: »

Halo: The Fall of Reach is a great read.

yeap couldn't agree more really enjoyed it , also if its sci fi your looking for check out "the saga of the seven suns" by Kevin J Anderson

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

nesf wrote: »

Hahahahaha.

Never read Jordon. They're like a Quiz show, a minor character from two books ago walks into the room with no introduction and everyone starts chatting to them normally not dropping any hints or clues to help you figure out who the **** they are. Then the character says something that might be important or not depending on who they are and then disappears for another two novels.

Reading these books before either Wiki or Google existed was a form of torture. :P

*pulls braid*

sin0city

If OP likes the Dragon Age world and lore as well as the Mass Effect series, there are a number of books set in that world written by David Gaider. The first two are prequels to the events in Origins.

http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon_Age:_The_Stolen_Throne

http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon_Age:_The_Calling

Asunder is set three years after the events of Dragon Age II.

http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon_Age:_Asunder

There's a new one coming out this year too and it's written by Patrick Weekes, who is a senior writer at BioWare. It's called The Masked Empire.

http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon_Age:_The_Masked_Empire

I haven't read any of them myself but I plan to get into them before Inquisition comes out. I love the Dragon Age World and lore.

Another series that is going to have a game based in the same world is Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series. It's being written by Sanderson and is set for release some time in 2015. It's called Mistborn: Birthright. It's worth reading the first book to see if you're into it. Original magic system and the writing is decent. Sanderson is of course, the writer chosen by Robert Jordan's wife to finish Wheel Of Time. I'm looking forward to the game, it will have a good story and Allomancy should work really well in a video game.

Nothing to do with games, but if you liked Game of Thrones, I'd recommend checking out Robin Hobb's stuff. A lot of George R.R. Martin's characters and ideas are lifted directly from her work. I enjoyed his books but hers are in a different class. I've read a lot of fantasy and hers are up there with the best.

Start with The Farseer Trilogy, then The Liveship Traders and then The Tawny Man Trilogy. There's also the Rain Wild Chronicles but those are the weakest books set in that world in my opinion.

nesf

sin0city wrote: »

Nothing to do with games, but if you liked Game of Thrones, I'd recommend checking out Robin Hobb's stuff. A lot of George R.R. Martin's characters and ideas are lifted directly from her work.

Eh, what? I like Hobb and have read most of her stuff but I've never heard anyone say anything like the above.

Potatoeman

Kiith wrote: »

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

Im on book ten at the moment. Great series.

sin0city

nesf wrote: »

Eh, what? I like Hobb and have read most of her stuff but I've never heard anyone say anything like the above.

If you have read most of her stuff and Game of Thrones I don't see how you haven't noticed the similarities. She had finished the Farseer Trilogy before he wrote his second book in the saga.

Character wise, ones that spring to mind:
Sansa - Malta.
Jeoffrey - Prince Regal.
The Red Woman - The Fool.
Jon Snow - Fitz.

The Direwolves and warg concept is obviously developed from Fitz and Nighteyes. The dreaming and being with the wolf's consciousness in Game of Thrones is a huge part of the Farseer Trilogy.

She also used the "blood of my blood" phrase which Martin uses a lot concerning his blood riders. Hard to tell who used it first though as they were writing around the same time but my money is on Hobb. Of course, I'm biased because I prefer her writing and think it is generally just more elegant, emotive and polished. The 9 books from Farseer to Tawny Man are some of the best I've ever read.

Other similarities include:

Hobb had slave tattoos on faces, so does Martin.
Hobb talks about Ice Wraiths.
Hobb also used the whole heraldry thing, you know, the 3 horses on a field of grey and such. He just took it and applied it to all the great houses and to much greater effect it has to be said.
The way humans and dragons affect one another.
Important characters who are bastards and the challenges it poses. Jon Snow has manifest parallels with Fitz in this regard.

There are other similarities that occured to me while reading the books but I haven't read either in nearly a year at this stage.

So it seems to me that he got a lot of ideas and developed a lot of things she touched on. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy his books and all authors are generally inspired by other works and regularly take ideas and use them in different ways. There is nothing wrong with that. But there are way too many similarities to be coincidence.

Vegeta

Kiith wrote: »

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

Skerries wrote: »

those books are just telephone directories as every new page introduces a new character for the first 2 books :eek:

I've read all of the Malazan series and while I agree they are very good, I can appreciate them, I don't know if I can say I loved them. Utterly vast amount of characters and unresolved plot lines would be my two main gripes.

nesf

sin0city wrote: »

If you have read most of her stuff and Game of Thrones I don't see how you haven't noticed the similarities. She had finished the Farseer Trilogy before he wrote his second book in the saga.

Character wise, ones that spring to mind:
Sansa - Malta.
Jeoffrey - Prince Regal.
The Red Woman - The Fool.
Jon Snow - Fitz.

The Direwolves and warg concept is obviously developed from Fitz and Nighteyes. The dreaming and being with the wolf's consciousness in Game of Thrones is a huge part of the Farseer Trilogy.

She also used the "blood of my blood" phrase which Martin uses a lot concerning his blood riders. Hard to tell who used it first though as they were writing around the same time but my money is on Hobb. Of course, I'm biased because I prefer her writing and think it is generally just more elegant, emotive and polished. The 9 books from Farseer to Tawny Man are some of the best I've ever read.

Other similarities include:

Hobb had slave tattoos on faces, so does Martin.
Hobb talks about Ice Wraiths.
Hobb also used the whole heraldry thing, you know, the 3 horses on a field of grey and such. He just took it and applied it to all the great houses and to much greater effect it has to be said.
The way humans and dragons affect one another.
Important characters who are bastards and the challenges it poses. Jon Snow has manifest parallels with Fitz in this regard.

There are other similarities that occured to me while reading the books but I haven't read either in nearly a year at this stage.

So it seems to me that he got a lot of ideas and developed a lot of things she touched on. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy his books and all authors are generally inspired by other works and regularly take ideas and use them in different ways. There is nothing wrong with that. But there are way too many similarities to be coincidence.

You realise these are all well worn old character archetypes and commenting on someone talking about heraldry in medieval set fantasy is quite odd since it's very, very common? There are simularities but the book series are rather different to one another.

shruikan2553

If you played world of warcraft or warcraft 1/2/3 theres a lot of books based on that. Ive read most of them. Some are quite good, others not so good but you can pick out books on topics of the lore that interest you. The Christie Golden books would be better than the Richard A Knaak books though.

Havent read them myself but theres some of the dragon age books that look interesting. One of them is about how the factions react after DA2.

sin0city

nesf wrote: »

You realise these are all well worn old character archetypes and commenting on someone talking about heraldry in medieval set fantasy is quite odd since it's very, very common? There are simularities but the book series are rather different to one another.

Of course those sort of characters abound but it is the number of similiar characters that I was referring to. And it's the specific way heraldry is described by both authors.

Then you go on to agree there are similarities anyway while ignoring the vast majority of what I said and picking out those two specific examples? I don't really understand what you're trying to say. I never said the series were the same, it's patently obvious they're not and I think both are excellent in their own right.

nesf

sin0city wrote: »

Of course those sort of characters abound but it is the number of similiar characters that I was referring to. And it's the specific way heraldry is described by both authors.

Then you go on to agree there are similarities anyway while ignoring the vast majority of what I said and picking out those two specific examples? I don't really understand what you're trying to say. I never said the series were the same, it's patently obvious they're not and I think both are excellent in their own right.

I'm tired so I don't want to go through your fairly long post point by point. What I'm saying is you're talking similarities in pretty well worn areas, not particularly unusual character types (really, bastards are pretty common in this kind of stuff, mad kings/prices, aliens hiding amongst us, this is all pretty standard fantasy stuff). To say Martin was ripping off Hobb is really rather odd unless you can show whole plot lines being lifted or a bunch of unusual for the genre characters being copied over.

That and, eh, the scope of the two series are very different. Hobb's trilogy is one of the best examples of small cast tightly focused character driven fantasy that we have whereas Martin is doing epic fantasy with a huge cast and broad strokes. Both very enjoyable but very different books.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

surprised no one has mentioned tad williams - otherland. geat mix of sci fi and fantasy. the bulk of the story takes place in a massive VR world the characters are trapped in so williams can pretty much take the story to whatever genre he wants. It's probably the best series I've ever read, kicks ASoIaf in the sack repeatedly

oh, i just remembered
it's game related too, as someone is making an mmo based on the series. itll probably be awful, but at least the books are incredible.

http://www.sfsite.com/04b/oth31.htm

spoiler free review

sin0city

nesf wrote: »

I'm tired so I don't want to go through your fairly long post point by point. What I'm saying is you're talking similarities in pretty well worn areas, not particularly unusual character types (really, bastards are pretty common in this kind of stuff, mad kings/prices, aliens hiding amongst us, this is all pretty standard fantasy stuff). To say Martin was ripping off Hobb is really rather odd unless you can show whole plot lines being lifted or a bunch of unusual for the genre characters being copied over.

That and, eh, the scope of the two series are very different. Hobb's trilogy is one of the best examples of small cast tightly focused character driven fantasy that we have whereas Martin is doing epic fantasy with a huge cast and broad strokes. Both very enjoyable but very different books.

I was actually talking similarites in some areas that are not at all well worn but seeing as you're tired...

I already agreed with you that many authors use similar character types, and yes, it may have been over the top to say they were lifted from Hobb but there's no getting away from the fact that there are more than a few similar characters in both books. Althea Vestrit and Asha Greyjoy is another, as is Kyle Vestrit and Theon Greyjoy.

I'm not accusing anyone of plagiarism. As I already said in my fairly long post is that authors borrow from one another all the time. I was pointing out that there are a lot of similarities.

I don't agree about the scope either. The Tawny man is effectively a continuation of the Farseer Trilogy and events in the Liveship Traders are a huge part of the Tawny Man books. All three trilogies are based in The Realm of the Elderlings and are intertwined. The cast and scope are definitely not small. But hey, that's how I see it and you're entitled to your opinion. It's all very off topic anyway.

Potatoeman

Vegeta wrote: »

I've read all of the Malazan series and while I agree they are very good, I can appreciate them, I don't know if I can say I loved them. Utterly vast amount of characters and unresolved plot lines would be my two main gripes.

Thats one thing I like. Takking to other people about their take on events is interesting.

Potatoeman

Vegeta wrote: »

I've read all of the Malazan series and while I agree they are very good, I can appreciate them, I don't know if I can say I loved them. Utterly vast amount of characters and unresolved plot lines would be my two main gripes.

I like the way it doesnt spell things out. Taking to other people that have read it an picked up suttle things you missed is interesting. I think a second read will make some things clearer.
I read this after Game of Thrones which had loads of build up but little payoff.

Also: Witness!

nesf

sin0city wrote: »

I already agreed with you that many authors use similar character types, and yes, it may have been over the top to say they were lifted from Hobb but there's no getting away from the fact that there are more than a few similar characters in both books. Althea Vestrit and Asha Greyjoy is another, as is Kyle Vestrit and Theon Greyjoy.

I am tired so I don't want to argue with you I'd just like to know how you think a character published in 1996 (Theon Greyjoy) was lifted from a character in a trilogy whose first book came out in 1998. I get that there are similarities, I'm just not seeing the whole "lifting" thing, the chronology doesn't fit. I don't doubt for a minute that the Assassin's Trilogy influenced Martin to some extent because it was quite a big deal in the mid 90s but you're drawing in characters and trilogies that couldn't possibly have influenced the first books of A Song of Ice and Fire because they hadn't even been published when the first few books came out (depending on which of Hobbs books you're talking about) and like I said you could not hold up the contemporary novels, i.e. the first book of the Assassin's Trilogy and the first book of "A Song of Ice and Fire", and say they were very similar, they read rather differently.

James74

I don't know if the book was based on the game, or the game based on the book. But the very first (and only the first) Rainbow Six novel, surprisingly enough actually written by Tom Clancy and not one of his minions, is pretty good if all the techno-military thriller stuff does it for you. It sort of ties in with the larger Jack Ryan story and is referred back to quite a bit in the later Ryan novels. As expected the plot is a bit mad, the terrorists are complete clichés, but the military-fighty-fighty-shooty-shooty bits are all very well done and very exciting. Forget the Rainbow Six sequels though, awful stuff altogether.