If you are not a fan of C&C then I would have to agree with all of the other reviews here and say that the book was pretty bad. Confusing dialect at times, and the sidestory about the reporter was pointless. Also, if you hadn't played C&C and weren't familiar with the system, you'd get completely lost at times.
However, if you are a fan of C&C then you will probably enjoy it. I haven't played C&C 3 yet (which is what the book is based off of) but having a background of the game will probably make it more enjoyable, since C&C games are notorious for B line actors trying to make a movie. If you like the game, it's worth the read. If you aren't a huge fan, forget it. Command & Conquer (tm): Tiberium Wars
Although the reviews for this book weren't that good from other people, I realized that since this book was written for a tweener I was willing to take a chance and buy it for my son. He loved it!!! He is not a big fan of reading books, but this book captivated him from the beginning. When I asked him what he liked about it the most he said that it was a Command and Conquer book....period. I watched him carry this book around throughout his Christmas vacation in case he was given an opportunity to read it. A book this size would have normally taken him a month of reading only 30 minutes a night a couple days a week. However, he finished this book in about a week and a half. He also said he wanted to find out if there were any more books like this available. Sure, it might not win a prize for best written or anything, but if it can hold the attention of a 12 year old "non-book reading" boy and make him excited to read another, then I say it is a GREAT BUY.
This book is designed to get you through the single player campaign and it does it fairly well.
Red alert 3 is very dynamic and the game is not 100% scripted so things can vary from fight to fight but i feel this guide gave me enough of an insight into the single player maps to get a head stasrt against the Computer.
In terms of multiplayer tips, they lay down the basics but it is entirely up to you to source out tips from other players and experiment yourself to be king of the hill.
Only draw back would be the colour scheme of the book, its very red. otherwise it was a good buy.
Story:
Ricardo Vega, son of the war hero Javier Vega, was just trying to blend in and be like any other new recruit when the brotherhood of NOD (led by a seemingly unkillable Kane, who wants to spread the leathal tiberium to all corners of the earth) decided to announce its come back by blowing up the GDI's Space station with all of the world's leaders on it. Now Vega and his squad are put on the front lines of the third tiberium war fighting a old enemy, that has found a way to summon a new hostile ally that may spell the end of the human race...
Annabelle Wu is a reporter for one of earth's major news networks, she is regulated to doing "people" pieces that may or may not get her ratings up. Begging her boss for something to report on that is actually news worthy Anna is given the assignment of reporting on how the people of a yellow zone (a area where the ever spreading tiberium has taken hold, turning the land toxic and making it difficult for people to live) deal with the toxic tiberium. Anna goes to the Yellow zone and soon finds out first hand the danger and tradgey that the tiberium causes. Haunted by what she has seen requests that she be assigned to report on Vega's squad as they lead the charge to take out the NOD once and for all.
---------
This is what I call a direct from the story outline video game translation. This book literally reads like FPS (First Person Shooter)would proably play if it was set in the C&C universe. First there is the background which is Anna, then there is the mission which is Vega, and then you have another Anna segment, which leads into another Vega segment in which he gets promoted and gets access to bigger guns. If you take it as it is the book is not that bad, if on the other hand you are looking for somthing more than a book based on a RTS (Real Time Stragety Game)with sometimes bad cut scenes to move the story forward then look at Halo, Doom, Diablo or Warcraft. If you are looking for a very light military scifi book or are interested in the C&C universe you may like this book other than that try Dave Weber or John Ringo,Keith Laumer, etc...
m.a.c
Ok, so when I first saw this book, I got all excited. It's been far too long before someone attempted to take the complex story of C & C and turn it into a novel. I imagined reading about brutal attacks on the Pentagon, expressing horror as an ion blast set off a store of liquid Tiberium, and gritting my teeth at how a slippery weasel like Redmond Boyle manages to stay alive. Instead, the first words that greet me are 'This novel takes place simultaneously with Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars", and just gets worse from there. The characters are cardboard, with one or two defining characteristics that get hounded on. McNeil from Tiberian Sun makes a few appearances. kane gets mentioned maybe three times in the entire thing. general Granger is only hinted at,and Sandra Telefair(or Telfair ive seen it both ways) has a handful of appearences via holo traffic. The action is slow and limited. The troopers dash into a building to rescue a hostage, the main character makes a once in a lifetime shot,and saves the day. Pitched battles really dont happen, at least as far as I could tell. the premise of the novel seems to be based off a reporter who has a huge realization that living outside the pristine Blue Zone is difficult.
I guess if I was going to sum it up I would say BUY THE STRATEGY GUIDES! They have MORE plot then this. Dont waste your money.
I am the type of person who usually is quick to praise, but extremely slow to criticize. As a result, if I can't give a book 5 out of 5 stars, I usually won't write a review. However, I felt compelled to write a 1 out of 5 stars review for this book, for a few reasons.
One, is that this book is an insult to the genre. Books written about video games take a lot of slack due to their subject matter already, and books such as this one just give this slack justification. It is sad really, because there are actually some very well written and great books based on game franchises. The recent Hellgate: London novel was great, and there are numerous books well worth reading set in the worlds of Warcraft, Diablo, and Halo, just for example. Hopefully somebody doesn't pick this book up as their first read and come to the conclusion that books based on video games aren't worth reading.
Two, this book is an insult to the franchise. What Keith Decandido was thinking when he was writing this book, only he knows. This book has almost absolutely nothing to do with Command and Conquer as a whole, nor the recently released video game Tiberium Wars. As a matter of fact, there is very little Commanding or Conquering actually being done. Action? Phsstt. The aliens? Phsstt. Kane? Phsstt. Technology? Phsstt. The entire book was in fact almost exclusively written about a boring news reporter who has nothing to do with anything, as she tours a boring yellow zone. It is well written and in a small way interesting...but this is a Command and Conquer novel! Hardly the setting for this kind of "experiment". What were you thinking?!?!
Three, this book is an insult to the author, Keith Decandido, because he is actually a very capable writer that has a few gems on his resume, such as his books in the Star Trek universe. Not only do I hope that nobody picks this book up and assumes books on video game franchises are awful, not only do I hope that nobody picks this book up and assumes that the Command and Conquer franchise is awful, but I also hope that nobody picks this book up and assumes that the author is awful. This book is a disgrace in every way conceivable way.
In the end, this book was a mistake, and never should have been written, not to mention published. Pass this disaster up at all costs, it is not worth your dollar or your time. - High Tech - Terry Johnson'
Detail Products
Detail Reviews
Click here for more information
