Gears of War (Book Series)

Books based on video games are often hit or miss, and I generally avoid them aside from a few franchises that have high praise for their story telling. In many cases, these read just like a solid fantasy or sci-fi book would, and I forget that I'm even reading a book based off of a video game. This was very much true of the books based on Gears of War, known primarily for their gritty, bloody, depressing world in which a humanoid alien species has wiped out 99.9% of the human population in the last 15 years. Atypical of these kinds of games, though, the characters are deep and introspective, shaped by the tragedy of the events that they have had to live through for so many years. This is all the more true in the 7 novels that make up the Gears of War series. I read all of them within the last month, and can speak to their quality as page turners.

The books, 5 by Karen Traviss and 2 by Jason M. Hough, connect the dots between the games and provide context for events that happened in the past which have previously only been mentioned briefly. Characters that barely get any development in the game are fleshed out in full here. The books by Traviss in particular could essentially be read without ever even having played one of the games; she does an excellent job of making you care about the characters and fate of humankind in the face of annihilation. Every conflict feels more tense, and each tragedy is genuinely impactful. The main character, Marcus Fenix, is typically thought of to be a stereotypical "guy" character from video games. Here he is shown to be a broken man, who has been forced to shut down because of the countless horrors and tragedies he has endured, now trying to protect the few friends and comrades he has left in the world no matter the cost.

Likewise, his childhood friend, Dom, has been forced to find a reason to carry on after losing his parents, siblings, and children within a one year period. His wife has been missing for 10 years during the first couple of books, and he is searching for her desperately, unwilling to cope with the idea that she, too, is most likely dead. The bond between him and Marcus is written well, illustrating a familiar story about those who go through the same trauma are able to help one another when it seems to hard to go on. This is true of all of the remaining humans, who have all lost most of the friends and family they grew up with. Despite this, each of the characters do their best to find hope and help one another do the same.

The novels by Karen Traviss were all equally excellent, and work together perfectly, carrying on story lines that happen both in the games and those that are exclusive to the books. I had heard bad things about this author before, but I have absolutely no complaints whatsoever. I thought that she stayed true to the spirit of the game series while finding dozens of ways to make the world of Gears feel like a real, lived-in place, as a talented author would do with any book. Knowing that she has written series for Halo and Star Wars definitely makes me interested in checking those out as well. Jason M. Hough picked up the writing after the Gears series returned several years after the 5th book and 3rd game. I felt like he didn't quite have the grasp on the world that had been so well crafted by Traviss, and the books suffered for it. The scope of his two novels feels much smaller, something I had a hard time getting used to. I would still recommend them, but with less enthusiasm than the first collection.

Overall, I would recommend this series pretty much only to fans of the games, but I thought that I'd do my part to further validate video games as a medium that goes beyond "a complete waste of time" as it tends to be thought of. I've enjoyed my time with this series and countless others, which all have impacted me and created fun and interesting worlds to immerse myself in just as a book or movie would.