Video Game Books

Video gaming is of my hobbies, though I'm pretty choosy when it comes to how I spend my gaming time. I tend to research titles thoroughly before making a purchase. Even though I've been gaming for most of my life, my collection isn't very large by most standards.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I'm also an avid reader. This post is about what happens when these two seemingly disparate hobbies meet.

A few books worth reading.

Books based on video games are (so far) generally much better than movies based on games. Allow me to point out a few I have enjoyed. Be forewarned, the books on this list are extremely geeky. I hate being caught reading these so I generally keep them to myself at home. I guess that makes video game books a guilty pleasure?

• The Doom series by Dafydd ab Hugh and Brad Linaweaver. The first two books in this series are really fantastic (disclaimer: I love the Doom games. Hard.) The latter two books are lower quality, to the point where book 4 finishes the series with a completely outrageous and irreconcilable twist. But you just have to read them all so you can talk about it with your gamer friends at parties.
• The Mass Effect series by Drew Karpyshyn. These are great stories faithful to the ME universe. Except the fourth one by William C. Dietz. Skip it, as it butchers ME lore even worse than adding ammo to Mass Effect 2 & 3.
• EVE: Empyrian Age by Tony Gonzales. I was skeptical at first. A book based on EVE? Where could that possibly go? It turns out to be a great novel. It builds upon EVE lore and really paints a picture of the EVE universe. But watch out - it'll make you want to play EVE. A lot.