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Aseph

What's with those zany Doom novels?


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What's with the doom novels? Why does the majority of the doom community hate them so badly? I've never read 'em, so it'd be nice to know.

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I don't know about the rest of you, but I liked them. It's too bad that the whole Doom story gets derailed like a motherfucker in the second book. It's like, wrong.

We should take the best fanfics from the Fan stuff forum, pool it, and make our own doom novels.

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The poll needs more impse.

EDIT: 2021st post. OMFGLOL it's a damn space odyssey in here so take off all your clothes!

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The poll needs a heh option, and no, I haven't read any of the Doom novels. Not really sure I'd like to, judging by some of the reactions I've heard to them around here.

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Grazza said:

Poll edited to make it less retarded.


And retarded it was. Thanks. I think I'm on some sort of drug half the time and I don't know it.

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I own all four, and liked all four. They take an extremely rough story concept and put some meat on it.

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Well, I've never read them, but I'll give them a failing grade out of spite. Also, I know that in pretty much every instance except D&D novels, books based off games or movies or TV shows suck.

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I liked them when I was a lot younger, like back when they were first published. Since then I've grown to hate them because they totally rape the Doom storyline.

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One can't really complain about the given storyline in the books when the original DooM didn't even have much of a storyline in the begin with. I give Dafydd Ab Hugh and Brad Linaweaver props for trying to fill in the lines, so to speak, and doing a half way decent job at it. If you notice most people don't like the novels based off of the fact that they aren't whey they wanted them to be, not that they actually really sucked. And what complaints there are for the most part is nit-picky stuff.

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Another Doom-that-isn't-really-Doom novels thread eh?

Well I'll give you the lowdown on my opinion. The storyline of the novels is actually decent (a few rearded ideas though, such as a pair of marines conveniently finding spare parts and a manuel on how to build a rocket and then they, two grunts, succeed in making a workable rocket that can transport them from orbit to Earth without killing them) if you ignore that it's based off of the game Doom, but as someone else already said, they totally rape what little storyline there was in the game.

And I disagree with Melfice that the books didn't suck - they do if you compare them to any novel written by a decent, more well-known writer, because many of the ideas make little sense or are plain childish (something you wouldn't see in a good novel) and the writing technigues leaves a lot to be desired - I think I've read enough good and bad novels by now to be able to tell. However, I will admit that haters of the Doom novels, including myself, tend to nitpick on it.

Filling the blanks in the original Doom storyline isn't really that hard - you just need to use your imagination (and common sense!) if you've got any.

I have a long list of reasons to...ahem...dislike the novels, but the most basic reasons I hate it are because it takes the Doom concept in a totally different direction and many of the story twists and ideas look like a fourteen-year old came up with them.
Contrary to most people, I hate the first two books the most - the first because it's plain dull and repetitive (and yes, it could easily have been done in a more entertaining way), the second because it's loaded with religious bullcrap so bad that it makes me puke (which is a shame because I really like the last half of it).

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Melfice said:

One can't really complain about the given storyline in the books when the original DooM didn't even have much of a storyline in the begin with. I give Dafydd Ab Hugh and Brad Linaweaver props for trying to fill in the lines, so to speak, and doing a half way decent job at it. If you notice most people don't like the novels based off of the fact that they aren't whey they wanted them to be, not that they actually really sucked. And what complaints there are for the most part is nit-picky stuff.


Not only was it not what I wanted, it was poorly written and chock full of stupid ideas and names. First off, Doom's monsters are from HELL, it is clearly stated in the storyline. They totally ignore that and make them aliens, but not just any aliens, aliens that want to take over planets because they believe in deconstruction of literary works instead of hyper-realism. So basically, they're zealots. Called "the Freds", which are some kind of weird alien with artichoke shaped heads and chopstick fingers. Wtf. The Doom marine has been turned from a badass tough-guy marine into a sniveling pussy that WANTS to be tough. His partner, Arlene is annoying and shouldn't have even been in the story. I mean, if he'd have been in there all alone, it'd have made the story sooooooooo much better.

This is the definition of Deconstruction, BTW :

A philosophical movement and theory of literary criticism that questions traditional assumptions about certainty, identity, and truth; asserts that words can only refer to other words; and attempts to demonstrate how statements about any text subvert their own meanings: “In deconstruction, the critic claims there is no meaning to be found in the actual text, but only in the various, often mutually irreconcilable, ‘virtual texts’ constructed by readers in their search for meaning”

Thanks to Dictionary.com

Hyper-realism, however, to me is probably that you're supposed to take the meaning of the text totally and 100% literally.

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BBG said:

I mean, if he'd have been in there all alone, it'd have made the story sooooooooo much better.

Or if she had been less clichéed and more believable.

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I think it's that they tried to novelize a video game in the first place. I'm sure that if they stood on their own and weren't supposed to be "Doom", they could've been passible pulp science-fantasy.

I'm glad that the serial didn't get beyond four novels, though.

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i like the first book the best. in some parts, i can read and visualize the exact parts of the level hes at.

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The books start off on a 'lets please our licence-givers by making it vaguely similar to the game' line, then rapidly descend into 'I'm a mormon and everyone else should be too!!!11'

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I bought the first when it came out but didn't like it. The writing style was pure crap. So when I discovered eBay a few years later I sold it and got almost the same amount of money than I paid for it. That will forever be my whole experience with them.

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How do you feel about the Doom novels?

I've never even seen a Doom novel, let alone read one.

If there was a "I've never read the Doom novels" option, I'd check that, but based upon the descriptions writen by other people, I agree that the books are of poor quality.

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I made this so that I could use it whenever a thread like this came along.



Yes, I own and have read all 4 novels and the Doom Comic.

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I liked the first two books and read the last two books because I don't like watching half a movie and stoping. I read the first book a lot when I'm bored (it's either that or real LotRs for the 4th time. :D) and sometimes read the second book, pluging my ears and yelling out 'LA LA LA LA CREATURES FROM HELL LA LA LA LA' whenever they try and say that the hellspawn are aliens (I get weird looks while on the bus, but when I tell them why they understand. :). After the second book, it's a good idea to completely make up te rest of the story. Hell, it'll likely end a lot better and make more sense anyways. :D

As for all the unlikely stuff that happens in the books, I don't actually care much. Makes it all more like a cartoon then real life, which is good with me since real life doom would suck (I say a Doom movie would only be good if it were a full scale anime movie. Americans would screw it up (I don't think I really have to say why, but between pissy parents, religion and other more annoying things there's a bigger chance of the real thing happening then the movie ever being done right) and while Candians may be good at a lot of stuff, making movies is usually a bad idea (BUT, getting Canadians to act in a movie or using areas in Canada for the movie IS a good idea, but whatever. :).

(I just noticed that most of the stuff I've written is in brackets. (I think I should stop using them. (I agree. (Well I don't. (Don't look at me, your brain ended a foot ago.)))))

I'll stop talking now. No really.

(I like the first two books, then just make up the rest. :)

EDIT: Ok, I really don't like this new keyboard. ._.;

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DemonDemon said:

I say a Doom movie would only be good if it were a full scale anime movie. Americans would screw it up

Bleh. Obviously you've never seen Wizards (or the first Heavy Metal, but everyone I know hates that movie for some reason). Of course, this is coming from a guy who hates anime (with the exception of Helsing).

If they were to make a movie, I'd say John Carpenter would be my first choice as director. Sam Raimi could possibly pull it off, but it would probably be a bit to Evil Dead-ish what with the zombies and shotguns and chainsaws and all.

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the_Danarchist said:

Bleh. Obviously you've never seen Wizards (or the first Heavy Metal, but everyone I know hates that movie for some reason).


Actually I've seen both, and liked them (Heavy Metal is a weird movie, which is why I like it. I like anything that tries to move away from the norm, like the Half-Quake series (half-life) and one of the more recent doom maps made where everything was wonky, though I can't remember its name right now. :/). But at the same time, unless you got a five star cast/director/lack of pissy bitches that ruin game to movie scripts (YES, I'M TALKING TO YOU! YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! *waves* Hi mom! :), there's no way it would be good. Better to get someone from 'out of town' that both knows what they are doing and LIKE the doom series, as well as have no inhibitions on how to go along making the film based solely on a bunch of retarded kids and their guns (yarg).

As for why I think anime would be a good medium, most anime artists like to egsadurate(sp?), which what most of doom is anyways. One guy against the entire dimension of hell, with only his pea shooter and a few rounds to spare. Yet he somehow manages to not only take out the biggest of the bad, he then promptly saves earth from hell, again with only a pistol to start with (you would really think he could have at least gotten a bigger gun or something, but whatever. :). As well there was already a game to anime movie from Sin (fps), and while no everyone liked the movie, I sure did. Heck, if they got any good American directors for the movie, I’d still say they should not make it live action. It just wouldn’t work. Or at least that’s the way I feel about it. :)

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