Popular belief holds that any book based on a film, board game, or even more so a computer game is nothing more than an attempt by the writer and his employers to suck money out of a popular brand.

In most cases, this is true. But those who categorically turn their noses up books based on games do not act much smarter than those who are not familiar with Pasternak’s work but condemn him in every possible way.

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Fiction books to inspire writers based on PC games

The first stone

Books based on popular games began to appear even when hard drives were small, and the Internet was still just a dream. The first to be novelized was the Wing Commander series, which never complained about a weak plot and had all the qualities of good space fiction. It started in 1992.

The people in charge of the novelization took the matter as seriously as possible. If such movie stars as Mark Hamill and Malcolm McDowell starred in the Wing Commander intermission commercials, then the most venerable science fiction writers were invited to write the books – Mercedes Lacey, Christopher Stasheff, William Forstchen. They coped with their task excellently.

The very first novel of the cycle (“Flight to Freedom”) retells the events of Wing Commander Secret Missions 2: Crusade. The other two books (“Heart of the Tiger” and “The Price of Freedom”) are considered novelizations of the third and fourth parts, respectively, but many episodes from the games did not get into them, and as a result, the books do not fully correspond to the original source and make you look at familiar events from a completely different points of view. For example, Admiral Tolvin, who looked like the embodiment of evil in games, appears in the books as perhaps the most humane of the Confederate command ranks.

But if in the books mentioned above, the focus was on the heroes familiar to us from the games, led by Colonel Blair, Maniac and Paladin, then in other novels in the series their role is not so great and much more attention is paid to new characters. And the rest of the books have no direct connection with games. Which, however, only benefited them – the authors could create almost freely and fully demonstrate their talents. Both “Reckoning”, which tells about a desperate attack on the capital of Kilrathi, and “Battle of the Fleets”, in which we witnessed the battle for Earth, can rightfully be considered high-class combat fiction, they can be safely recommended to any connoisseur of this genre.

The novel’s Action Stations and False Colors, have become the swan song of the cycle. The first tells about the very beginning of the war, the second – about the last kilrathi who did not surrender. These novels were released in 1998, when the fame of the series gradually began to fade, and the unsuccessful 1999 film adaptation (based on which a mediocre book trilogy was still written) drove the last nail into the coffin of the once so successful Wing Commander brand.

Away game

It’s 1993, fans of role-playing games are still enjoying the famous games of the Gold Box series, which are set in the most popular D&D worlds. To push the Gold Box off the pedestal, an unexpected move is needed, and the developers from Dynamix are looking for one. They offered collaboration to Raymond Feist, one of the most successful fantasy writers of the time. Feist agrees – now there was no need to worry about the plot of the future game.

The game came out and turned out to be very successful. This is where the story could have ended if Betrayal at Krondor had not been set in Midkemia, a world created by Feist himself. And he, without hesitation, writes a full-fledged novel “Krondor: Betrayal” based on his own script. Subsequently, the sequel to the game Return to Krondor will be released, which will also find its literary embodiment in the novel Krondor: Tear of the Gods.

Although, perhaps, it would be better if Feist did not write these books. The legacy of the game was conspicuous, and the novels did not benefit from this. Fascinating game plots turned into banal fantasy adventures, which by no means adorn the generally very worthy and well-developed Feist series. So all those who at one time had the pleasure of getting to know the above games can be advised not to read books based on their motives, but Raymond’s independent novels, which are set in the same world.

Jack-of-all-trades

The authors of Myst, one of the most popular quests in history, which has sold about 12 million copies around the world, took a slightly different path. The games of the Myst series themselves were often criticized for the lack of drive and action (which, generally speaking, is strange – that’s why they are quests in order to be leisurely), but the plot did not cause any complaints.

The brothers Randy and Robin Miller (the founders of Cyan Worlds, which, in fact, made the Myst series) understood their responsibility, and therefore decided to write the books themselves. Very soon, however, they realized that they could not cope, and resorted to the help of the professional writer David Wingrove. Nevertheless, their names appear on the covers of all three novels in the cycle: The Book of Atrus, The Book of Ti’ana and The Book of D’ni.

The brothers’ contribution is really great. Book trilogy Myst is not accidentally considered one of the closest to the original game novelizations. It describes the fate of the protagonist of the Atrus series from birth to the beginning of the first game, describes in great detail the background of events and characters, and some things that first appeared in the novels are then mentioned in games. The books themselves are written in an easy and pleasant language – this is what competent interaction between writers and developers means! At the moment, the team of authors is working on the fourth part of the cycle.

In the same 1995, when the first novel of the Myst series was released, a book based on the famous fighting game Mortal Kombat appeared (in the same year the film adaptation was released, so the moment was very good). It’s hard to imagine a genre that was less suited to novelization than fighting games (except sports simulators), but you do a lot of crazy things for a long dollar?

It was hardly surprising that, apart from the names of the characters and the general idea, the novel had almost nothing to do with either the film or the games. However, as an independent work, it turned out to be quite good: a living language, vivid descriptions of fights, an interesting interpretation of the plot about an eternal battle. You can read it, only little is left of the original source.

$tar War$

One of the most striking events in the still relatively short history of game novelizations can be called the beginning of the release of game novels in the Star Wars universe. LucasArts got down to business from the start – during 1996-1997 two book cycles started at once.

The first was based on the popular X-Wing series of space simulators at the time. Its authors, Michael Stackpole and Aaron Allston, although they turned out to be more fruitful than most of their colleagues, wrote as many as nine novels, practically ignoring the plots of the games of the same name. Which is not surprising, because they were devoted to the events left behind the scenes of the original trilogy, and the action of the novels unfolds a few years after Return of the Jedi.

Initially, such a long series was not planned, everything was to be limited to the first four Stackpole novels. He was able to organically combine colorful descriptions of space battles with a dynamic plot, flavored with a fair amount of political thriller. The focus of the novel “Rogue Squadron” and its sequels was the eponymous unit of pilots led by the legendary Wedge Antilles, which was entrusted with the mission of capturing the capital of the Galaxy (planet Coruscant) and destroying the closest assistant of the late emperor.

Stackpole became the first author to prove that books about a galaxy far, far away can be wildly popular, even if the famous trio of main characters is present in them only in episodic roles. Moreover, the series was so successful that numerous Star Wars fans immediately began to demand a continuation. The continuation was not long in coming, but it was written by a new author, recommended by Stackpole himself. He invented the story of the Phantom Squadron, Antilles’ new combat unit drawn from naval losers and unrecognized talents. With the arrival of a new author, the list of the main characters practically changed, and the number of space battles began to tend to zero – they were replaced by covert operations behind enemy lines and ordinary gun-fighting.

Subsequently, one more novel came out from each of the writers, who summed up the development of the plot lines of both “Squadrons”. Although in the future, both of these units were repeatedly mentioned in the literature based on the “Star Wars”.

The second project turned out to be less ambitious and did not receive as much fame, although, unlike the previous one, it was closely associated with the original game. Writer William Dietz was tasked with writing the canonical (read: light) story of Kyle Katarn, the protagonist of the Dark Forces series. In general, Dietz quite clearly followed the storyline of the games, but this was not the main feature of the books. The fact is that all three books came out small in volume, but with a lot of magnificent illustrations from leading artists, and then they began to make radio shows based on Dietz’s books. The novels, however, did not receive significant recognition, it is not for nothing that the last games of the Jedi Knight series were left without novelizations. Fortunately, this is not the end of the history of play literature on the world of Lucas.

Other people’s roles

No game genre seemingly lends itself to literary adaptation as easily as RPG. After all, both in role-playing games and in books, an extraordinary plot, bright and deep characters of heroes, atmosphere are appreciated, first of all. Nevertheless, almost until the end of the last century, Feist’s novels remained the only game novelizations of this kind.

This continued until 1999 and the resounding success of two legendary RPGs at once – Baldur’s Gate and Planescape: Torment. Literally immediately, novels based on these games are published. The language does not turn to call them full-fledged novelizations – they are so far from the original sources both in content and quality.

The responsibility for writing the novels for the first two parts of Baldur’s Gate lies with Philip Athans, one of the editors of the Forgotten Kingdoms series. He may be a wonderful editor, but as a writer, Athans proved himself from the worst side, turning a multifaceted epic plot that made you literally live a game into a tedious retelling of the main storyline. The author did not hesitate to throw out from his work many of the characters beloved by the players and leave almost all the side storylines behind, and in fact many of them were no less interesting than the central one. The result, naturally, was disastrous. The trilogy was completed with the novel Throne of Bhaal by the more talented author Drew Karpyshyn, but, of course, he was no longer able to save the cycle.

No less lamentable destiny comprehended literary incarnation of Planescape: Torment. In the book, written by one Ray and Valerie Wallis, only a pitiful piece of the genius story of the Nameless has survived. Not even the Nameless One was left – the main character was called Thane and turned into a dumb victim of amnesia. There are no sparkling dialogues there either. They seemed to be easy to rewrite from the game, but, having decided to go their own way, the writers together embarrassed themselves.

It would feel so strange that more than inexpressive novels were written for such outstanding games, the plots of which literally ask for the pages of books. And the answer is simple: the books were prepared and published by Wizards of the Coast, which owns the rights to the Dungeons & Dragons worlds and the literature based on them. Wizards of the Coast has long realized that, if you could say, fiction books are bought by not the most selective readers: the majority of consumers are simply led by a familiar brand. So, why bother and make unnecessary efforts, if “people are already eating it up”?

Russians aboard

The massive distribution of games in Russia began after the fall of the Soviet Union. Among the first gamers, there were many whose novels are now read by fans of science fiction and fantasy, so it is not surprising that some computer games are reflected in the works of these authors.

A passionate gamer is most easily guessed in Sergei Lukyanenko, the most popular Russian science fiction writer of our time. Now, on the basis of his books, game projects are being created, and before he recklessly quoted his favorite games in his works. Of course, first of all we are talking about his “virtual” dilogy. For example, Labyrinth of Reflections, the favorite attraction of Depth users, Lukyanenko almost completely copied from DOOM. Moreover, the writer took the liberty of voicing through the lips of his hero a list of three “not obsolete” computer games: DOOM itself plus Command & Conquer and Mortal Kombat.

Vladimir Vasiliev, known to the general public mainly as a co-author of The Day Watch, went even further. Releasing a novel based on the game X-COM: UFO Defense in 1998, he wrote down his name in history as the first Russian writer to make a literary adaptation of a computer game. It was published under the title “The Enemy is Unknown” and is interesting at least because of how consistently and clearly Vasiliev describes the entire game campaign (any XCOM fan will feel great nostalgia). At the same time, for those who are looking in books not only for dynamic battle scenes, “The Enemy is Unknown” is far from the best choice.

Alexey Pekhov, a young star of our science fiction, has never hidden his love for games. The protagonist of his first cycle, The Chronicles of Siala, was none other than Garrett from the Thief series. True, having borrowed from the game the image of the character, attributes and part of the entourage, Alexey created his own world and history. As a result, The Chronicles became a remarkable example of the fusion of originality and borrowing and also helped the author take the first step on the path to glory.

Here and now

The game literature did not lose its position even after the onset of the millennium. Moreover, new players are striving for this business. The most serious newcomer is by far Blizzard. In order not to waste time on little things, Blizzard begins to work simultaneously on book cycles for all of its main brands – Diablo, Warcraft and Starcraft. True, with varying degrees of success: if some novels are great without exaggeration, others (and most of them) leave much to be desired.

Among the books still biding its time, it is especially worth noting Richard Knaak’s Sin War trilogy, which is dedicated to the fateful events for the Diablo universe, and the beginning of the publication of books on World of Warcraft.

Yes, yes, online games are also following in the footsteps of their single-player counterparts and acquiring their own novelizations. At the moment, the most ambitious project is considered the book EverQuest – such stars of inter-author fantasy as Robert Salvatore and Elaine Cunningham, known from novels in the Forgotten Kingdoms universe, are involved in the work on it.

But the book based on Star Wars: Galaxy turned out to be a failure, which, however, does not prevent LucasArts from churning out such literature on an industrial scale to this day. Only the novels of the British journalist Karen Travis about the adventures of clone troopers familiar from Star Wars: Republic Commando keep the mark. At the moment, two novels have been written and as many more announced, but the wild success of Travis’s works allows us to count on the appearance of sequels.

Games in comics

If there is anything mysterious about the average American soul, it is an ineradicable love of comics. The impression can be made at least by the fact that almost any popular product in the United States sooner or later ends up in a graphic novel. Same happened to electronic games that did.

Most often, console projects become victims, but computer games also get it. The word “sacrifice” in this case is by no means an exaggeration: if the quality of a drawing depends solely on the artist’s talents, then the plots in nine cases out of ten do not stand up to criticism. In general, despite the fact that there are many good graphic novels, most of them are mere slag, that is, they quite fall under the common stereotype.

Only the Street Fighter series and the Warcraft manga stand apart (primarily due to the outstanding graphics at the intersection of Eastern and Western traditions), plus X-Wing comics. Plots for the latter were written by Stackpole, who also worked on novels of the same name.