Thinking about Picking them up tommorow

Well, they are.. kinda okay, if you have a massive TES itch. To be frank, they imo don't stand up to proper literature at all - no offense to the author -, so if you are expecting to get, say, George Martin / Tolkien / Asimov / Hamilton / Bradbury levels of writing and style, you won't find that at all.
The books are reasonably short - you can rip through each one in a few hours easily... So for their length, at least the Kindle versions are very pricey.

Content-wise, there's a bunch of good stuff, and the novels do expand the lore faithfully and nicely. I suspect a good part of why Argonians are so popular this time round is due to the books.

P.S. Imo, the second book was more engaging and fun, but mind that it is a direct continuation, you need to have read the first before the second.

Thanks ALMOST got lord of souls before the infernal city, glad i didnt

I just finished Infernal City myself. If you've played previous TES titles, specially Oblivion, its kinda a trip down memory lane. The writing isnt top notch buts far from unenjoyable. I'm half way through the second book, but i'm liking it. A little drama, a little action... 7/10 i'd give it. definitely an itch scratcher.

I just finished The Infernal City yesterday, and started Lord of Souls today. So far I'm enjoying them. It's not epic writing on the caliber of Tolkien or George R.R. Martin, but the story is pretty good. The characters are fleshed out enough where you care about them, and wonder what's going to happen to them. The story while it might not be gripping, will keep your attention, and keep you wanting to continue the story.




I know what you mean by this, the first book seemed to just introduce you to the characters and get to know a little about their personalities, set up most of the plot points, then ended. The second book in the first 100 pages alone, picked up the pace and got even more interesting.

One of my biggest gripes about the books is at times the characters talk as if it's modern times, then other times they talk like it's medieval times like they should.

The TES Universe could benefit from more of these novels, although something more EPIC, and more than a combined 500+ pages.

I enjoyed them both. Don't expect too much of an idea of where things are at the time of Skyrim though. The books end like 170+ years before Skyrim.

Good point, but it DOES however give you a little insight as to whats happened between oblivion and Skyrim. Skyrim is even mentioned a couple times, only in reference of course. Nothing important from what i can tell.

One of the coolest pieces of information we get about Skyrim, comes in the form of a probably fictional story that is popular among assassins. It's about a boy being born with a knife instead of a right hand...... I don't want to spoil it, but if you have the book and think you missed that part it's right in the beginning of chapter 2 of The Infernal City.

JackKlompus, what exactly does the story of Dalk have to do with Skyrim? Do you feel that the Dark Botherhood will talk about him in Skyrim or something? Sort of like their folk hero.

Good but not great books. They will scratch some of the itch for :tes: though. They do give some insight on what has happened between the games and if your a argonian or dunmer fan you'll like them a bit more.IMO they also give insight to possible expansion for skyrim

^
If you're a Dunmer/Morrowind fan and unaware of what's gone down in Tamriel since Oblivion, you're going to like them a bit less, I'd say.

The chapters with Malacath and Clavicus Vile pay for themselves, IMO.

I actually liked that. TES is not "medieval times," though the games obviously draw off of some of the stereotypes people think of when they think of past times on Earth. The Ayleids built White Gold Tower about 1442 years before Skyrim. TES history does not correlate with any medieval timeline in the real world. Add in magic to the mix and it really mucks things up. Considering magic is their equivalent to technology, I think it's neat how the jargon comes off that way in the book. They didn't need technological advances when they have magical advances. I admit after looking it up the real world Middle Ages lasted longer than I thought though, about 1000 years.

I'm not saying you're wrong with your opinion, but why mine differs.

TES is not our "medieval era", for sure. Although it *would* be nice to get more consistent lingo from the setting, and while I wouldn't mind some archaic speech, I'd prefer weird and alien tongues like Morrowind offered.

And yeah, the Middle Ages are roughly the millennium from the fall of western rome to the renaissance; 400-500 to around 1500, usually. It's the period in the middle of ancient time and modernity :spotted owl: . "Medieval" even comes from the latin from "middle".

1442? More like 4500+

Okay, I read the timeline wrong.

I used Google and found this. That was the base line for measuring time since I just wanted to show how long (at the least) documented civilization has been going on.


Either that Wiki was edited by someone that did not know what they were saying or it just meant the Ayleids used the tower for their empire at that time and I read it wrong.

That wiki was edited by someone who doesn't know how to string together a sentence From the Nu-Mantia Intercept:



Even if the White-Gold was built the year before 1E 1, that would still make it about 4500 years old (counting Dragon Break). The first era was 2920 years, the second 896, third 433, and Skyrim is at 4E 221 (iir).

In the book it says the story is thought have originated in Skyrim. I just thought it was a cool little folk lore tale, that is passed around amongst assassins, and maybe even children. It would be cool if someone in game would make a reference or mention the story of Dalk.

I've gotta say, personally I think that what we think of as 'modern' turns of phrase fit well with TES. Obviously not things that are obviously descended from technological or scientific advances - although it should be noted that the NPC's in Oblivion do go around shouting about how 'There's a psychopath on the loose!' - but just in the general way the sentences are constructed. There's no reason that the speech of Tamriel's residents should sound archaic to us just because its appearance is to some extent Medieval.

I've read both and enjoyed both. The writing isn't amazing but the story and lore kept me hooked. I'd recommend them if you're a lore fanatic.

i finished both of them in a couple of days, i actually do like the books, and most of the characters. Its a decent read, the second one being better than the first one

I really failed at looking up that time line. I made the mistake of counting the last listed event of each era as the end of the era.

That reminds me they aren't even supposed to be speaking English (or the localized languages) anyway. There are still other languages but if I read the lore correctly (and I'm starting to doubt that based on my total lack of understanding of the time line) the dominant language in the Empire is actually a derivative of the Altmer language.