Video Game Novels

[Scum Of Orion]

I've been reading a backlog of novels based off my favorite video games that I bought while I was a teen but didn't have time to read through them. It's funny looking at the Venn diagram of nerdy gamers and nerdy readers and how its basically a circle.
I recently read Bioshock Rapture and was surprised at how good of a novel it was on its own. Serving as a prequel to Bioshock 1 and putting in post release setup for 2 it fills gaps between both games, while also metaphorically and literally laying the foundations for Rapture. You get a true sense of the city as it was, and how it fell into horror. It's also just a really good dystopian political thriller and I was disappointed by the lack of an ending until I remembered a minute after that the ending is Bioshock 1 and 2, which I'm now rebuying and replaying.
What are some of your favorite video game novelizations or books set in a games universe?

 

[Nidstang]

Star Wars: Dark Forces has novelizations (they are really trade-style comic books in size, but it's all prose with some illustrations - not actually comics) which are cool. They're the only Kyle Katarn focused stories in the entirety of the old EU too.

 

[Skeleben]

I read a few of the Assassins Creed novels. I remember thinking Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag was a really kickass read. I was like 12 when I read it so maybe it doesn't hold up now haha, but I got a lot out of it. It covered a shit ton of events from before the game starts, which was really cool to read because it actually gave a lot of context to some dialogue exchanges in the game. It even goes beyond where the game ends which is a pleasant surprise, for like 40 more pages! Edward's my personal favourite AC protagonist, and I remember the book did a really awesome job tackling all the challenges of living at sea, and what being stuck on a boat for months at a time entailed. I think I also read the Assassins Creed 1 novel, but from memory it was a little bland and was mostly a one-for-one remake of the game story.

 

[Scum Of Orion]

Star Wars: Dark Forces has novelizations (they are really trade-style comic books in size, but it's all prose with some illustrations - not actually comics) which are cool. They're the only Kyle Katarn focused stories in the entirety of the old EU too.

I need those books.
I could've sworn he was more prominent, but it's been a while since I read my EU. Still cool that Dark Forces had a novel, though Star Wars was the big innovator in making heaps of novels for a brand AFAIK.
Maybe I should've included retro movie novels in the post, that and reread Zahn's Thrawn books.

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 1:24 AM

I read a few of the Assassins Creed novels. I remember thinking Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag was a really kickass read. I was like 12 when I read it so maybe it doesn't hold up now haha, but I got a lot out of it. It covered a shit ton of events from before the game starts, which was really cool to read because it actually gave a lot of context to some dialogue exchanges in the game. It even goes beyond where the game ends which is a pleasant surprise, for like 40 more pages! Edward's my personal favourite AC protagonist, and I remember the book did a really awesome job tackling all the challenges of living at sea, and what being stuck on a boat for months at a time entailed. I think I also read the Assassins Creed 1 novel, but from memory it was a little bland and was mostly a one-for-one remake of the game story.

I heard Assassin's Creed's books can go hard but that black flag novel sounds right up my alley. Love books about naval life and its challenges.
I heard 3's novel Forsaken reframes the whole story, its all of 3 from Haytham's perspective. I need to hunt it down too.

 

[sandogma]

I only read the first two books many years ago.

 

[Nidstang]

I need those books.
I could've sworn he was more prominent, but it's been a while since I read my EU. Still cool that Dark Forces had a novel, though Star Wars was the big innovator in making heaps of novels for a brand AFAIK.
Maybe I should've included retro movie novels in the post, that and reread Zahn's Thrawn books.

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 1:24 AM

Kyle makes some appearances in other books, but he's never a main character outside of Dark Forces/Jedi Knight. There are three books that roughly cover the events from the games, with some extra stuff.

I love the old EU.

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 1:32 AM

Also the early Warcraft books are pretty cool.

 

[Scum Of Orion]

I only read the first two books many years ago.
View attachment 48665

The only doom book I've read is the comic

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 1:35 AM

But I do own the like 3 of the doom books, I really need to burn through my backlog and find out about this Flynn Taggart guy

 

[Raziya The Seeker]

I had this, once upon a time.

Found it in my grandma's book collection, probably from my uncle when he was a kid. Got that and The Pigman by Paul Zindel, because Mom wanted me to read a real book. Both were fun. Other than that, never read any other books based off video games.

 

[TotzOnGaming]

Dunno if this counts but the last I've read recently was the Lost Sword Prequel to Ys IX.

 

[LiberoVulpes]

I highly recommend the Republic Commando novels.

 

[SolemnlyDoc]

The books accompanying the Division games are pretty good.

 

[happymasksalesman]

I've been reading a backlog of novels based off my favorite video games that I bought while I was a teen but didn't have time to read through them. It's funny looking at the Venn diagram of nerdy gamers and nerdy readers and how its basically a circle.
I recently read Bioshock Rapture and was surprised at how good of a novel it was on its own. Serving as a prequel to Bioshock 1 and putting in post release setup for 2 it fills gaps between both games, while also metaphorically and literally laying the foundations for Rapture. You get a true sense of the city as it was, and how it fell into horror. It's also just a really good dystopian political thriller and I was disappointed by the lack of an ending until I remembered a minute after that the ending is Bioshock 1 and 2, which I'm now rebuying and replaying.
What are some of your favorite video game novelizations or books set in a games universe?
View attachment 48637

I read undertale comics and majora's mask manga lately. They were so good.

 

[DunkeyKong]

Metroid manga, it's pretty good

Also, damn I hate Ridley

 

[fake-kun]

 

[Asian girls lover]

 

[Advil Lavs]

This might sound dumb, but...

I bought this book when I was 11 probably and I really liked it. I've read it a long time ago, and not in English but I'm still sure I would like it. And maybe you will to, I dunno.

 

[Scum Of Orion]

This might sound dumb, but...

I bought this book when I was 11 probably and I really liked it. I've read it a long time ago, and not in English but I'm still sure I would like it. And maybe you will to, I dunno.

I've read Max Brook's World War Z and really enjoyed his style, a Minecraft survival narratuve sounds interesting from him. I wonder if it's similar to Hatchet.

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 5:27 PM

I need those MGS books, I need them right now, and I need them like Ocelot needs to be pretty good.

 

[Leon_Squallhart]

I keep meaning to getting around to reading Final Fantasy XV -The Dawn of the Future-! I've owned it for years and never cracked it open. Maybe I'll find the time on my upcoming work trip/flight.

 

[Xdqwerty]

I think the Mother games had novels

 

[spectresfrommercury]

parasite eve nuff said.

 

[ZombieFish]

Surprised S D Perry’s Resident Evil novelizations haven’t shown up here yet. I loved the first four, but I was in jr High at the time, so I dunno if they hold up. The Allen Dean Foster novelization of The Dig kinda sucks. Incidentally, if I recall, Foster also wrote Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, the first Star Wars EU novel from before Empire Strikes Back, so the Luke/Leia romance is thick and gross. Oh, this one is dumb and terrible, but I still kinda like it:

 

[MasterEn]

the first set of dot hack games have a book novelization. i covers the same plot points of the game with some new ones since the books are told from the perspective of Blackrose while the games are from Kite's point of view. it was a pretty good set of books.

 

[Scum Of Orion]

Surprised S D Perry’s Resident Evil novelizations haven’t shown up here yet. I loved the first four, but I was in jr High at the time, so I dunno if they hold up. The Allen Dean Foster novelization of The Dig kinda sucks. Incidentally, if I recall, Foster also wrote Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, the first Star Wars EU novel from before Empire Strikes Back, so the Luke/Leia romance is thick and gross. Oh, this one is dumb and terrible, but I still kinda like it:
View attachment 49683

I've read some of Alan Dean Foster too, he did the first Alien novelization.
Its so strange to think about that brief gap between A New Hope and Empire where anything went. That romance subplot nowawadays is so , its hard to think it was a legit possibility before RoTJ.

That nintendo booklet looks like such a good collectible.

 

[Antilocal123]

Hmmmmm, Nhentai!

 

[ZombieFish]

I've read some of Alan Dean Foster too, he did the first Alien novelization.
Its so strange to think about that brief gap between A New Hope and Empire where anything went. That romance subplot nowawadays is so , its hard to think it was a legit possibility before RoTJ.

That nintendo booklet looks like such a good collectible.

It was a whole series called “Worlds of Power.” That one (and maybe all of them?) is about a kid being teleported into the world of the game. It’s Nintendo Power reader submission tier stuff, but charming for that reason. There’s a Metal Gear one I’d love to find to compare to the writing in MGS4…

Oh, did anybody ever read those godawful Silent Hill comics? I [PURCHASED FROM WALMART] them years ago and don’t remember anything about them except they could’ve been mistaken for a Something Awful shitpost.