Doom Novels

[Killamangiro91]

Are they worth a read?
Thoughts on them?

[Koko Ricky]

I own two of the (the first and the third) and they are not at all worth your time if you value strong writing skills. While at least the first two novels derive much of their influence directly from the games, they are exceedingly poorly written and very boring.

[Use]

AS reading doesn't take much effort why not? You should be able to pour through them in a weekend. I enjoyed the first two and the last two are odd but I've read worse.

[Aldaraia]

I've read the first novel about a year ago and I hardly remember anything about it now. Read a few pages of the second one and didn't bother going any further.

[chungy]

the Doom 3 novels are actually pretty decent.

[Technician]

Yes. The first two books are pretty close to the games. The third and fourth are completely fabricated and downright hilarious. They are an interesting read.

chungy said:

the Doom 3 novels are actually pretty decent.

I read the first book and was very pleased. I haven't picked up the second book. Sadly the third installment was canceled, so I don't know if I want to read a second book to come to a dead end.

[Koko Ricky]

Am I the only one here who read a couple of the novels as a kid, but can't finish them now due to how utterly un-immersive they are?

[Technician]

GoatLord said:

Am I the only one here who read a couple of the novels as a kid, but can't finish them now due to how utterly un-immersive they are?

Whoever can survive a SyFy movie can tolerate the novels just fine.

[Xaser]

NEWBIES

*ahem*

It's been ages since I've read them (I own all four), but I remember them being a lot of big dumb fun. They certainly get downright goofy near the end, though.

[Koko Ricky]

Technician said:

Whoever can survive a SyFy movie can tolerate the novels just fine.

Hah, reminds me of how I was only able to get through the first 10 minutes of the Dune miniseries before calling it quits.

[Porsche Monty]

Doom was deliberately left without much of a story...just not looking good for novels.

[DoomUK]

Only read the Doom 3 novels. They were pretty good.

[Aldaraia]

Sounds like the Doom 3 novels are worth a try. What makes them worth reading?

[Waffenak]

I read first 4 in the conscript army and enjoyed them, you just have tune your brains to right mood and not assburger with it. recommended

[Koko Ricky]

How does one "assburger with it"?

[Creaphis]

By getting obsessed and frustrated over details.

[General Rainbow Bacon]

I think he means "asperger" with it.

[Walter confetti]

i've got the first 3 books, i don't read endgame yet... Nice books, but way too far from original game... Also, talking imps lol

[PRIMEVAL]

Read the first one, worth the read. Definitely not the best novel out there...

[geo]

Could someone tell me what the books are about? I'm just curious since I've never read them. Perhaps I should read the back cover of them.

So if Doom doesn't have much of a story for a reason (because its a game), I wonder if a Mario Bros novel would be good or laughably bad as the Doom novels (from what I hear).

[Splatter]

The first novel reads mostly like the author was playing through the first game, pausing occasionally to Alt-Tab to his word processing app and type up whatever had just happened on-screen. "But the fireballs were the main problem; the brown demons were a lot tougher than the zombies. Suddenly, I was grateful for the pillars; they provided cover, at least. Making a mad dash for the nearest, I fired off the shotgun at the remaining zombies."

The second is about Hell on Earth, with the Doomguy, a female Marine, a Mormon, and that kid from Aliens going on a covert mission. It's probably the the most respectable in the series, though only in very relative terms.

The last two leave sanity behind by making the demons out to actually be artificial creations of aliens named Freds designed to wipe out mankind, partially out of fear because humans are the only intelligent species in the universe that can die while every other race is totally immortal, partially as part of a twelve-million-year war over literary criticism. People will turn into giant hairy masses of protoplasm and two-bodied entities named after department store chains will officiate weddings on Pluto.

The above paragraph was in no way sarcastic.

[Koko Ricky]

Creaphis said:

By getting obsessed and frustrated over details.

I think the problem with the novels is not that one should avoid geting "frustrated over details" but rather, that they are written as if by a middle school student who has a bit of background in military history. They're corny, but in the worst way.

[wildweasel]

geo said:

So if Doom doesn't have much of a story for a reason (because its a game), I wonder if a Mario Bros novel would be good or laughably bad as the Doom novels (from what I hear).

Funny you should bring that up...

[Super Jamie]

Use3D said:

AS reading doesn't take much effort why not? You should be able to pour through them in a weekend. I enjoyed the first two and the last two are odd but I've read worse.

This. The first two are Doom, the last two are completely batshit crazy.

[Coopersville]

They're sweet. Some of the better video game based novels, actually.

[Waffenak]

By assburger behaviour I mean people who take everything too seriously. Go with flow and there wont be problems reading these novels.

[ptoing]

I don't owe it to them to find a proper vantage, a painless point of view through which shit shoveled in my face is magically alright. I will NEVER ADJUST MY EXPECTATIONS. It's either good or it's not.

This is a quote from a good friend of mine, which was on the topic of bad hollywood blockbuster movies, and I guess it can work for books as well, even tho books do not quite shovel stuff into your face, seeing as you have to be active to consume a book, even a bad one.

I have not read the books, but I doubt they are worthwhile. And by that I mean in the sense that there are TONS of really good books out there one can read instead of wasting time with these or other bad books.

Don't get me wrong. I have a liking for trashy movies and really bad b-movies which are so bad they are good again. But there are also those movies which are just shit and have no saving graces. I kinda fear this would apply to the Doom novels, at least from what I've heard. And if the only reason you might wanna read them is because you are a fan of Doom, I dunno.

[Koko Ricky]

This is how I feel as well. When I tried to reread the first novel a year or two ago, I didn't go in expecting an untouchable masterpiece like "Dune." I just wanted to read something decent that was a good translation of the game. In some ways, it was. But with no interesting dialogue, lifeless characters, plain descriptions and juvenile scare tactics, I didn't get far before I completely lost interest. I wasn't really thinking about it from a "serious" standpoint, it just had nothing going for it.

[Clonehunter]

I have the second Doom novel, the Doom movie novel, and the first Doom 3 novel. I've only read the latter two, and the Doom 3 one is worth a read. The movie one is a better spin on the film too.

But yah, read the D3 ones if you can.

And also, weren't there like two polish novels too?

[Cire]

If you wanna read a few chapters of the books, but are not sure if you wanna waste the money on them, go to http://www.simonandschuster.com/ and go to a book of your choice, click on 'Browse Inside', and you will be able to read the first few chapters of many of their book for free. I did with Knee-Deep in the Dead, Endgame, Worlds of Fire and Maelstrom. I don't read much books, but since those are based on Doom I figured why not? And I quite enjoyed it too. Though I wonder why Infernal Sky isn't there, when all the other Doom novels are..?