Baldurs Gate Novels: Anyone read them?

[Pirengle]

Originally posted by Imrahil: The books are really dull, IMO. They follow the basic plot, no sidequests, no interesting NPC's. Imagine playing the games as a dim-witted Human Fighter with no imagination with just Imoen, Jaheira, & Khalid (especially if you know what happens to Khalid). Do no side-quests, get no special items, and leave out the banter. Then you'll get a pretty good idea of what the books are like. If you've read the Dragonlance books or Avatar books, you'll likely be very disappointed with the Baldur's Gate books.

Basically what Pullman did was take character stat sheets, a basic outline of the game's plot, and write a novel. Ditto for SoA and ToB.

I own all three, have read all three, and quote frequently from all three about how NOT to write a novel. (I'm majoring in English with a concentration in creative writing and I hope to publish major works someday. [img]smile.gif[/img] ) I remember a discussion on the BG1 board about the books, and read a couple pages at Amazon.com. By the bottom of the second page, I was howling in laughter pains. The author broke so many rules...

The main character is a human fighter (sellsword, aka mercenary, and you'll wince when you see "sellsword" in any other work when you get done with this book, believe you me). While it's true that Khalid and Jaheira tag along, they're incredibly out of character. Jaheira acts a lot like Skie. Khalid lacks personality--he doesn't even stutter. You'll also meet Xan and Yeslick, but Xan isn't very gloomy and Yeslick, well, Yeslick's kinda there. Hard to explain. (And Gorion's a weenie! Worse, he's a super-weenie! NO!!!! :sob

The book's sole redeeming factor are its evil characters. Xzar and Monty are there. And evil. Armored Figure and Sweetheart are there. And evil. Ish. The book's split between the PC's adventure and cutscenes of what Armored Figure and Sweetheart are doing. Those are my favorite parts; it really seems like what would be going on if those cutscenes were in the game.

[RoSs_bg2_rox]

that summed it up very well Peringle. There are certainly a lot better books out there. I recommend Robin Hobbs books, they are very good

[HolyWarrior]

I don't know what it is with novelizations of Black Isle games, but they are uniformly dull. If you thought the BG novels were bad, try the book for Planescape Torment.

[Nerull]

Originally posted by HolyWarrior: I don't know what it is with novelizations of Black Isle games, but they are uniformly dull. If you thought the BG novels were bad, try the book for Planescape Torment.

[img]graemlins/repuke.gif[/img]

I skimmed that one in Barnes and Noble one day, and it was really bad. I really wonder if these authors actually play the game before they write this stuff.

[Link]

Pullman wrote them? That probably means he can't work with other people's material that well.. I thought his "His Dark Materials" trilogy was fantastic! It was even elected third best book according to an English tv program.

[RoSs_bg2_rox]

Sorry about that, I just checked my book, I meant Athans not Pullman. Yeh Pullman did write some good books

So just for everyone, dont want Pullman to get wripped any longer

PHILLIP ATHANS WROTE THE BG NOVELS!!!

[Xen]

Arhg ! My eyes hurt me so much ! Be easy on the font will you ?

[CerebroDragon]

Originally posted by Xen: Arhg ! My eyes hurt me so much ! Be easy on the font will you ?

Ahh, who's spamming up the topic then eh? [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Nice to have that information cleared up about the writer and also to get a general gist of how the novels seem to some people. I figured that I shouldn't be too hopeful about them. To paraphrase ol' Xan, sometimes it seems that "writers are soooo hollow".

Thanks both to Ross and Pierengle in particular for assisting me to come to the verdict that whilst I probably won't hunt down them down directly, I'll no doubt not be able to resist getting them if I see them cheap, if only for the Xzar and Montaron action. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I know R.A Salvatore has featured the city of Baldur's Gate in his stories, so I wonder if he was ever approached with the idea of writing any of them?
He'd have at least done a more respectable job with the characterisations by the sounds of things...but oh well.