TomeAlone reviewed DOOM: Knee-Deep in the Dead by Dafydd ab Hugh (Doom, #1)
The Gates were there on Phobos when mankind first arrived. Inert, unyielding, impossibly alien constructs, …
None
3 stars
I read these books over a decade ago, but I guess I never logged them, so here we go.
As I recall, the series gets pretty bizarre, but this one follows the three base episodes of the game(Knee-Deep in the Dead, Shores of Hell, and Inferno) pretty closely. There are boss fights against the Hell-Knights from Knee-Deep, the Cyberdemon from Shores, and the Spidermastermind from Inferno. There are even key-card searches, mazes, hidden doors, teleporters, computer maps, and crushing ceilings. All recognizable stuff.
But, it isn’t just a dry retellling(though the prose is kinda dry). It’s kinda hard to explain, but the book manages to interrogate the nature of the game and setting in unexpected ways.
That’s not to say that it’s a really good book, because it isn’t. But it’s a bit more interesting than I remember it, and it does some things that I didn’t anticipate. It’s a tentative recommendation for OG Doom lovers, and beyond that, I don’t think anyone would find much to like. Even if it fails, I like that it tries to be a bit more than it needs to be.
As I recall, the series gets pretty bizarre, but this one follows the three base episodes of the game(Knee-Deep in the Dead, Shores of Hell, and Inferno) pretty closely. There are boss fights against the Hell-Knights from Knee-Deep, the Cyberdemon from Shores, and the Spidermastermind from Inferno. There are even key-card searches, mazes, hidden doors, teleporters, computer maps, and crushing ceilings. All recognizable stuff.
But, it isn’t just a dry retellling(though the prose is kinda dry). It’s kinda hard to explain, but the book manages to interrogate the nature of the game and setting in unexpected ways.
That’s not to say that it’s a really good book, because it isn’t. But it’s a bit more interesting than I remember it, and it does some things that I didn’t anticipate. It’s a tentative recommendation for OG Doom lovers, and beyond that, I don’t think anyone would find much to like. Even if it fails, I like that it tries to be a bit more than it needs to be.