Wednesday 14 April 2010

Tor Books and EA team up on Dead Space literary prequel...


From the press release...

New York, NY – April 13, 2010 - Tor Books, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC—the largest publisher of science fiction in the world—and Visceral Games™, a studio of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), today announced Dead Space™: Martyr (A Tor Trade Paperback; $14.99; July 2010), the first novel based on the award-winning Dead Space videogame franchise. Dead Space: Martyr delves into the back story of the fiction including the history of the Church of Unitology, the discovery of the enigmatic “Black Marker” and the mysteries behind an alien artefact of unknown power. Dead Space: Martyr will be available in July 2010 at select retailers worldwide.

When geophysicist Michael Altman learns of a mysterious signal emitting from deep within the Chicxulub crater, he cannot resist the lure of an undiscovered artefact. He soon learns that being in close proximity to the artefact causes strange occurrences - visions of the dead, vivid dreams, and violent murders. Altman’s experience with the alien artefact leads to this crucial first chapter in the Dead Space saga.

“One of the most compelling storytelling aspects of Dead Space has been the Church of Unitology: its origins, power, and role in Dead Space,” says Tor editor, Eric Raab. “Writer B.K. Evenson gets into the terrifying aspects of mob mentality like no other writer today. This isn’t only a great story within the Dead Space universe; it’s a great novel on its own.”

“The Dead Space world is incredibly vast and rich -- expanding its fiction into a novel lets us share parts of the story that just can’t fit into videogames,” said Steve Papoutsis, Executive Producer of Dead Space 2. “We hope Dead Space: Martyr will be the first of many books to let fans dive deeply into Dead Space’s secrets and immersive lore.”

B. K. Evenson is the award-winning author of Last Days, voted best horror novel of 2009 by the American Library Association and The Open Curtain, a 2006 Edgar Award finalist and Time Out New York best book of the year.


I've never played the game and I wasn't so keen on the 'Dead Space' comic book that I read but... Brian Evenson is pretty special in my not so humble opinion :o) I'll be keeping an eye open for this one.

2 comments:

logankstewart said...

I just finished my second full play-through for Dead Space and I still loved it just as much this time around as I did the first time. The gameplay truly is spectacular, mixing just the right amounts of horror, FPS action, and story to create a perfect game. While I agree that the comic version was rather dull, I'm excited about this novel. And if you've never played the game, I highly recommend it.

Thanks for sharing!

Convectuoso said...

Too right, the game is an absolute immersive horror masterpiece. Desolate,terrifying solitude with hideous, mutating babies jumping from the shadows onto your face... loved it:) I've heard the sequal is due to be more 'action based' however, which probably means they're selling out to go balls-out action and attract the CODheads. Hopefully not though. I bought the manga DVD prequel thing too, although it left a lot to be desired, especially after the genius of the game.