Cutter Isaacson
Minmatar
Hollow World Mining Corporation
QUANT Hegemony
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Posted - 2008.07.17 10:35:00 -
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Edited by: Cutter Isaacson on 17/07/2008 10:36:22
So far I've read the novel three times. I wish I could say I was bowled over by it but I'm not. It isn't that the book is lacking in any one thing in particular, but that it just doesn't shine the way I expected an EVE book to shine.
But, having said that, Mr Gonzales does do a very good job of bringing life to the characters, as well as eliciting a feeling of foreboding. I have tried explaining to various friends over the years, exactly what it feels like to play EVE. That feeling of tension, of mystery and even awe that one gets from piloting massive starships around a vast universe, but I always failed.
Now however I can just lend them my copy of Empyrean Age. Tony has done a fairly good job of putting those feelings down onto paper, thus finally giving non EVE players a chance to glimpse what it is that we all love. I have some problems with the book in that there do appear to be some rather obvious inconsistencies, as well as some quite awful typos ('Jamyl Saturn' anybody?) but the majority of these can be over-looked.
Sadly there is one thing that cannot be over looked. This novel costs ú10.99 for the paperback and ú18 for the hardback, which I am normally happy to pay without question, however on this occasion I have doubts. I stated that the novel is good, great even in some respects, but for me its biggest failing is that it feels like a short story. It doesn't read like an ú18 novel should.
This isn't entirely down to Tony's ability to write, but more due to the fact that his novel had to be shoe-horned into the history and future of this game. If there are to be more novels like this based on EVE, I would hope that much more thought would be put into how, or possibly even why, they should be written.
For the tl;dr crowd: I like the novel, its a good read but it feels like an epic story that's been split up into short stories, re-written and then crammed back into a novel again. My advice? Find someone with a copy and read theirs before you decide to buy or not.
 Originally by: Haks'he Lirky
Some people should just stick to Pac Man.
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