For the longest time, I've avoided reading tie-in fiction as much as possible. Perhaps it was equal measures unfamiliarity with the settings and a broad contempt for reading stories based on movies or other media, but regardless I've avoided it. Until the past couple of months. First, it was news that two authors whose stories I enjoy greatly, Jeff VanderMeer and Brian Evenson, had respectively Predator and Aliens tie-in novels coming out this year. Then I discovered a link to this post by Paul S. Kemp, who has published a trilogy of books in the Forgotten Realms universe of D&D. A combination of reading his thoughts and remembering what a few others had said about his stories whose tastes are usually quite good convinced me to place an order for his trilogy opener, Shadowbred. And then today, I get a review copy of Matthew Stover's Star Wars: Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor and I thought enough was enough.
This weekend, I'm going to read the Kemp and Stover novels (I've already read VanderMeer and Evenson's) and then either Monday or Tuesday, I'm going to write a post that will be equal parts mini-reviews of each and an exploration of my thoughts on tie-in fiction after processing these four novels. Can't guarantee it'll be gushing or full of vitriol, but hopefully it'll be something worth reading.
Besides, school's out and I need something to do before I begin writing my planned series of Best of 2008 posts next weekend, right?
Knight Errant
4 days ago
Posts
4 comments:
Stover's Star Wars stuff is pretty damned good. Traitor's probably the best, but you might need context that you'd have to glean from some pretty terrible books in the same cycle. Karen Traviss' Star Wars stuff is also pretty darn good--shockingly so, given that much of it is a MFing tie in to the *Republic Commando Video Game*
Max,
One of the things I'm going to do is to see if reading these books without all the context robs me too much of needed information, or if one can persevere despite that lack and have an enjoyable reading experience.
Karen Traviss' wookiebooks are well thought of. She's also just brought out a tie-in to the XBox game Gears of War.
I know. My middle brother is a GoW junkie and I gave him my review copy of her book and he's loving it right now. Might read it myself in the near future.
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