BioShock: Rapture - John Shirley

Title: BioShock: Rapture
Author: John Shirley
Genre: Sci-Fi
Published: 2011
Formats: Hardback/Paperback/Ebook

Available at:
Amazon
The Book Depository
Amazon UK

Review:
As a fan of the Bioshock franchise I personally really enjoyed reading “Bioshock: Rapture” by John Shirley. It is probably ranks as one of the best video game based novel I have read and expertly links the events of both Bioshock & Bioshock 2 in an enjoyable and entertaining manner which helps to flesh out the world and backstory.

The novel itself starts at the end of World War II with the world now fearing the threat of annihilation after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Andrew Ryan, an incredibly wealthy industrialist believes nuclear war is inevitable and dreams of creating a place to escape the apocalypse. He also believes that such a place should be free of government, religion and censorship and so he decides to build Rapture, a city under the sea. The novel therefore takes the reader through the creation of the city right up until its collapse into civil war.

As the story commences there is a feeling of hope and ambition but as it progresses it begins to feel quite dark and violent as the reader get to see the ethically bankrupt actions occurring within the city. I quite liked this attempt by Shirley to take a mature look at the dangers of various ideologies and unrestrained science. These are things that were touched on in the game itself but the slower pace of the written novel and greater detail actually drives home the point.

I really appreciated the extra level of depth that this novel has given to the world of Rapture. It provides the reader with a different perspective for some of the events and bridges many of the gaps in narrative from the games. In addition I loved how Shirley has managed to flesh out many of the characters who may have previously just been a boss to fight or a name thrown in as part of the game’s narrative. These characters have been given back stories, personalities and relationships to the point that I felt a lot more empathy for many of them.

One thing to say is that if you haven’t played the video games then I doubt the book will appeal as much to you as it did to me. Yes, it is still an exciting and fun novel that takes an interesting look at the downfalls of extreme capitalism etc. but a fair amount of my own enjoyment came from seeing the events I heard about from playing the game and the greater understanding of Rapture’s lore. So if you haven’t played the games then there is probably still enough here for you to enjoy, but if you want the full experience you should consider picking up some cheap copies of Bioshock and Bioshock 2 first.

Overall, this is a superb example of what a decent video game tie in can be; entertaining, loyal to the feeling of the original games and full of interesting additional lore. If you have played the games then I advise you to pick up this book and delve deeper into the world of Rapture as I am sure you will love every minute.

Bioshock Infinite: Mind in Revolt - Joe Fielder & Ken Levine

Title: Bioshock Infinite - Mind in Revolt
Author: Joe Fielder & Ken Levine
Genre: Sci-Fi
Published: 2013
Formats: Ebook

Available at:
Amazon
Amazon UK

Review:
I really enjoyed playing Bioshock Infinity on my PC and upon completing it I realised that I wanted to know more about the world in which it was set. Therefore, when I noticed that the short story, “Mind in Revolt” was going to be made available I jumped at the chance to pick it up and further immerse myself in the world of Columbia.

The basic premise of the story is that it helps expand upon the conflict witnessed within the game between two factions known as the Founders and the Vox Populi. The story takes place prior to the events of the game and is told in the form of an audio transcript between a doctor and his patient/prisoner, the leader of the Vox Populi, Daisy Fitzroy.

Whilst I found this to be an interesting look at Daisy Fitzroy herself, it didn’t really do that much to enhance the readers knowledge of who she actually was. Even with the rather clever format and reasonable writing the short length and rather weak characters limited what could be accomplished. This meant that the entire thing felt like a bit of let-down and I can’t see it working as a hook to get someone interested in playing the game which is a shame.

Overall, whilst I did appreciate the journey back into the world of Columbia, it just didn’t capture my interest of imagination as much as I hoped it would. Personally, it felt to me that the entire story was just a collection of voxophone recordings that they had decided to omit from the game. To be honest, I find it hard to recommend the book on its own merits and it is probably something that only hardened Bioshock fans would want to read.

Starcaft II: Flashpoint - Christie Golden

Title: Flashpoint
Author: Christie Golden
Genre: Sci-Fi
Published: 2012
Formats: Hardback/Paperback/Ebook

Available at:
Amazon
The Book Depository
Kobo
Amazon UK

Back in the late 1990’s I discovered a PC game called Starcraft that I loved from the moment I installed it. Since then it has become a video game franchise that has continually entertained me although I never seemed to find the time to read any of the related novels. However, as the next game in the series was being released today I decided that I would read Christie Golden’s novel entitled “Flashpoint” which serves as a link between the newly released game and its predecessor. I probably did this mainly because I had to find some way to calm my anticipation that was running in overdrive.

The plot picks up directly from where the single player campaign in “Starcraft 2 – Wings of Liberty” concluded with Jim Raynor carrying Sarah Kerrigan out of a cave on Char following her transformation back into partly human form. From then on, the reader gets to follow Jim & Sarah as they attempt to firstly flee from Zerg infested Char and then escape the continued machinations of Emperor Arcturus Mengsk who is more determined than ever to ensure their deaths. Of course there are hidden dangers as well, especially as some of those who help them in their journey are after more than just simple gratitude.

The writing and pace seemed tidy and competent which I was happy to see in a video game tie in novel like this one but unfortunately I felt that the plot itself was a bit limited. For example, whilst there are some interesting developments and revelations in the book, they are all rather minor and I can’t say that any of them really surprised me. In addition, due to the book needing to tie in with the games there was no real sense of drama or risk as I knew that all the main characters were going to survive. I will add that Golden does try to deal with this by killing off a secondary character but this just felt a little forced and therefore it didn’t really work for me.

Whilst the story itself may have been a little bit lacking I found that the characters themselves were captured perfectly. Golden has done a great job in making it feel like all the major and minor characters have stepped out of the game and onto the page. The main character element of the book however is probably the relationship between Raynor and Kerrigan and how both of them react to Kerrigan’s return to humanity. I specifically appreciated seeing how Kerrigan was no longer the same woman she had been before infestation as she was now troubled by desperation, guilt and rage. These elements have all combined to create a highly damaged persona which is very understandable considering the billions of lives she has on her conscience.

Overall, I found this to be an enjoyable appetiser for the new Starcraft game that captures the characters perfectly. However the plot itself was probably a little bit limited in scope which I suspect this may be due to the constraints enforced by the games it is linking. Without doubt, this book’s appeal is limited to fans of the Starcraft franchise only and I couldn’t imagine someone enjoying it without any of the background that playing the games can provide. However, even for fans I am not sure if it will add much now that the latest game has actually been released which will probably cover most of the limited points revealed in this book anyway.

The Dig - Alan Dean Foster

Published : 1995

Current Cost: Looks to be out of print now but Amazon do have various 2nd Hand copies for 1p and some rather expensive new copies as per link - The Dig

Well I had promised one of my more avid readers that I would review another Christopher Pike book but I must apologise to her as I got distracted by “The Dig” by Alan Dean Foster instead.

Anyway, “The Dig” is a novelisation of an old PC Game that was created by LucasArts. I would like to say that I have never played the game so I can’t tell you if it follows the storyline of the game or not.

In regards to the Author, Alan Dean Foster in my opinion is a good writer. He has written books based on numerous movies, including the Alien series. I have enjoyed many of these books and some of his original work in the past so I went into this book thinking that writing a book based on a computer game should have been nothing special for him. 

And indeed, the writing is well composed; however some aspects of the story suffer due to it being based upon an adventure game. There are multiple examples of a series of events occurring as follows; an object is found, kept, and used. Everything the characters find seems to end up being critical to the plot at some point, therefore you end up reading through the book trying to work out yourself how to “solve” puzzles.

But let me get onto the story plot itself, it starts out like a pretty standard asteroid on collision course with Earth story. As you can imagine therefore, at first I found it rather boring as I have seen & read this type of thing many times before. This boredom though changed to irritation as one of the characters was introduced. Believe it or not, for some reason in this novel, some bright spark decided that one of the small 5 person crew going out to save the world had to include a journalist! I mean come on! Our lives are at stake here and one of the limited places is going to a journalist!!! The only thing that could be crazier would have been for NASA to send a group of haphazard oil drillers to the asteroid but that would just be too far-fetched........

Besides this, the characters involved in the mission did seem to make sense, although I found the main character rather lacking. I assume that this would have been the character controlled by a player in the PC Game which may explain why he seems rather un-developed as a personality.

The story does begin improves as the crew quickly solves the asteroid problem, although the journalist being involved in a Space Walk after they solve it is even more crazier than her being there in the first place!  After this however, they end up being transported to some alien world. This is where the majority of the novel takes place, with the crew trying to solve a variety of tasks and challenges in an attempt to return back to Earth.

Whilst I enjoyed what the story had become, I was hugely disappointed by the ending. Never have I read such a mushy, happily-ever-after ending to a book! Basically, as you read through the book, you realise there is a problem that an alien race has being trying to solve for millennia. However, once the humans in the story realize this problem, it is solved pretty much straight-away in a most unconvincing and unsatisfying manner. And to top it all, to make the ending perfectly happy, even the dead are brought back to life...  I think the original writer of the game, assuming this is how it ended must have watched far too many Star Trek Episodes with their annoying “Reset” button plotlines.

Overall, I did enjoy parts of the novel, but I just feel that a good story was let down and it could have been so much more