
Ever wanted to recreate your favorite video game experiences by reading about them? No? Too bad, you’re getting a chance to anyway! The publishing of novel tie-ins to video games is back on the rise, with the recent releases of the Bioshock prequel “Bioshock: Rapture” and the just-announced book adaptation of Dead Island.
Now you can experience the literary rush of reading about someone else murdering zombies, or the rise of Andrew Ryan to the throne of the soon-to-be battleworn city of Rapture. (Wait, wouldn’t a prequel to Bioshock just be Atlas Shrugged?)
The history of adapting books to video games is a long, if puzzling saga. While franchises like Halo can benefit from novels that expand their universe, the practice of reading the plot of the upcoming Dead Island doesn’t sound half as interesting as playing through it.
To be fair, they did a damned good job with that teaser trailer, so we know they could adapt it into a movie if they needed to. (Hey, wait a second….)
I’m worried about the Dead Island book, because a fan of the (admittedly awesome) Halo novels, the worst of the lot was easily the one that retold the story of the actual game. It was great to learn Master Chief’s backstory (and his name!), but it wasn’t as fun to read through fights that I’d already gone through.
But maybe that’s just me. Have you checked out any of these books?
<via Kotaku>
R Bryant Francis – who has written 271 posts on The Jace Hall Show.
R. Bryant Francis is a former contributing writer to the Jace Hall Show who specializes in gaming, pop culture, and all-around geekiness. Outside of the show, Bryant pursues a career in Hollywood as a producer and filmmaker.

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