From Page to Console: What books would make great games?

There are many many books that could make some fantastic games. Yet, here we are in the 21st century and we’re still facing a plague of mediocre plot lines lacking any imagination or intelligent thought.

There is an epidemic of games who’s discs should never have marred my CD Drive’s tray. Storyboard’s that should have been burned along with their creators before ever hitting a shelf. (Too much?).

I know, I know. A lot of people are purely in it for the action, some good dungeons and they’re contented. But, I play for the twists and turns of good creative writing. Characterization that doesn’t wholly revolve around a characters job, gender or race. The stuff that makes long cinematics to sink your teeth into and a cutscene to make you scream – yes Dragon Age, YOU.

So what I’m really saying is, everyone take a leaf out of the Bioware playbook.

But, Bioware can only do so much. So, what books could up, all the rest of you slackers, game (so to speak)?

Here are my ideas…

• The Malazan Book of the Fallen Series by Steven Erikson (Fantasy)
  -> This series is both colossal and epic. There are dozens of different characters, settings, classes, races, battles and, most importantly, characters with some actual DEPTH.

Steven Erikson draws on twenty years of experience as an anthropologist and archaeologist. Vast legions of gods, mages, humans, dragons and all manner of creatures play out the fate of the Malazan Empire, with brutal action and battle scenes.

• The Mistborn Series by Brandon Sanderson (Fantasy)
  -> Extremely well written, action packed and a series spanning two life times if you decide to read the spinoff set 300 years after the original trilogy. What more could you want?

Mistborn is an epic fantasy trilogy and a heist story of political intrigue, surprises and magical martial-arts action. The saga dares to turn a genre on its head by asking a simple question: What if the hero of prophecy fails? What kind of world results when the Dark Lord is in charge?

• Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey (Science Fiction/Post Apocalyptic)
  -> If you like extreme societies and the psychology of the masses, this is definitely your read.

This is the story of mankind clawing for survival, of mankind on the edge. The world outside has grown unkind, the view of it limited, talk of it forbidden. But there are always those who hope, who dream. These are the dangerous people, the residents who infect others with their optimism. Their punishment is simple. They are given the very thing they profess to want: They are allowed outside.

• Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin (Period Drama/Supernatural)
  -> Not one of his more well known novels, it still holds a lot of attention. Now, it’s not perfect for a direct game adaptation, but the settings are gorgeous and the plot, intriguing.

Abner Marsh, a struggling riverboat captain, suspects that something’s amiss when he is approached by a wealthy aristocrat with a lucrative offer. The hauntingly pale, steely-eyed Joshua York doesn’t care that the icy winter of 1857 has wiped out all but one of Marsh’s dilapidated fleet; nor does he care that he won’t earn back his investment in a decade. York’s reasons for traversing the powerful Mississippi are to be none of Marsh’s concern- not until the maiden voyage of Fevre Dream, when Marsh realizes that he has joined a mission both more sinister, and perhaps more noble, than his most fantastic nightmare—and humankind’s most impossible dream.

What do you think? Leave suggestions of your own favourite books below!