Novels based on video games.

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.

cloud493

The halo ones aren't terrible.

Vegeta

Potatoeman wrote: »

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!

Don't get me wrong, they are fantastic books but just found it hard to love them. Funnily it's characters like Karsa who were easy to remember but it was all the human soldiers who kinda had a grey man thing going on for me. So many of them I found it hard to distinguish who was who at time

wandatowell

SeantheMan wrote: »

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

I thought "Wolves of the Calla" was pure tripe and the way King dealt with

Randall Flagg

was an absolute train wreck.

The above mention character is one of Kings biggest and he gets

killed off

in such a ****ty way. Nah not for me.


And the ending of the 7th book? Pure Steve king, bollox.


Loved the books apart from that. My teenage crush was Susannah

pablomakaveli

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.

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

I'm reading G+F at the moment and find it's a good series. I'm on the third omnibus now which i think is just before the author change. Bit dissappointed now knowing the quality is going to dip.:(

I would recommend them though for anyone who has any interest in the Warhammer Universe.

donspeekinglesh

James74 wrote: »

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.

Book first I think. Agreed on the rest. Read some reviews of a recent book based on a game. (Have forgotten the name) Terrible reviews.

riffmongous

pablomakaveli wrote: »

I'm reading G+F at the moment and find it's a good series. I'm on the third omnibus now which i think is just before the author change. Bit dissappointed now knowing the quality is going to dip.:(

I would recommend them though for anyone who has any interest in the Warhammer Universe.

Orcslayer and Manslayer almost ruined it for me.. I will never reread them, but it does recover after them, I would honestly suggest if you don't enjoy those two to skip them and try to read a synopsis somewhere..

calex71

wandatowell wrote: »

I thought "Wolves of the Calla" was pure tripe and the way King dealt with

Randall Flagg

was an absolute train wreck.

The above mention character is one of Kings biggest and he gets

killed off

in such a ****ty way. Nah not for me.


And the ending of the 7th book? Pure Steve king, bollox.


Loved the books apart from that. My teenage crush was Susannah

Lot of people have issue with the ending, it fitted the whole

Ka is a wheel

thing didn't it? Didn't mind Wolves personally as much as King

writing himself in to books

That really annoyed me :mad:

titan18

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

Nah, Malazan dwarfs it, some characters are contained within a particular plot but there's a lot who are present over several books, and because of the how they're meant to be read, will be missing for a few books before being brought back into the story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Malazan_Book_of_the_Fallen_characters

Wiki list of all the characters is quite long

Also, if anyone hasn't read them, you should, they're fantastic

super_furry

Whatever about based on books, I always thought that the Dark Tower series had a massive influence on Bioshock Infinite -

especially the ending.

pablomakaveli

riffmongous wrote: »

Orcslayer and Manslayer almost ruined it for me.. I will never reread them, but it does recover after them, I would honestly suggest if you don't enjoy those two to skip them and try to read a synopsis somewhere..

I'm reading Giantslayer at the moment and enjoying that a lot so far. I suppose ill give Orcslayer a try at least. I can always pick up the 4th omnibus and and skip them if i cant stand them.