[Flutterby]

For those that would like to continue the discussion. Mind the usual forum rules, please.

http://www.gamesas.com/eng/news/pressrelease_042709-3.html

Bethesda Softworks?, a ZeniMax? Media company, and Del Rey, an imprint of Ballantine Books at the Random House Publishing Group, are pleased to announce that Del Rey Books will publish two novels based on Bethesda Softworks' award-winning, high-fantasy video game series, The Elder Scrolls?. The best-selling game series is known for giving the player the ability to choose how their story will play out and unfold, and for the incredible amount of lore and depth found in these rich game worlds. Penned by New York Times bestselling author Greg Keyes, the novels will be all-new, original stories based in The Elder Scrolls universe. The first novel – The Infernal City – is set to be published in Fall 2009. Among Keyes' prior works are the Age of Unreason tetrology (for which he won the prestigious "Le Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire" award), and three New York Times bestselling Star Wars novels in the New Jedi Order series.

"We've been big fans of Greg's work for a long time, and we're thrilled he agreed to bring his talents to The Elder Scrolls," said Pete Hines, vice president of public relations and marketing for Bethesda Softworks. "We see these books as a natural extension of the franchise and think fans will love the stories and characters Greg has created."

The Infernal City is set after the events of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion?, the latest game in the video game series, and finds the citizens of Tamriel once again facing an uncertain future. Floating high above the land is a strange and mysterious city that is casting a horrifying shadow – wherever it falls, people die and rise again as undead. It is up to an unlikely duo – a seventeen-year-old girl named Annaig and the Emperor's young son, Prince Attrebus – to rescue the kingdom from doom. Annaig and Attrebus' quest will take them through the Elder Scrolls universe and their adventure is sure to add to the series' already magnificent

http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=983446
http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=983631
http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=984032
http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1013535&st=0&start=0
http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1046946tp://

be aware, the first chapter of the book is posted http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780345508010&view=excerpt

[Benji]

Yes, Keyes seems to have hit the ground running. The portrayal of Black Marsh and the remnants of the Imperials there makes sense.

Yeah, I was thrilled when I saw the beginning putting characters in the middle of a situation. I HATE HATE HATE HATE when a story starts out and begins describing what will obviously become the main character for something like a whole chapter, describing their dreadfully boring life, history, hair color, and favorite M&M color.

And from the chapter we can easily infer that Anna?g is adventurous, although naive, and almost enjoys getting Glim into trouble. She's a practicing alchemist, with emphasis on 'practicing'. Glim is a cautious guy who'd rather keep his head than do something remotely dangerous. He's laid back, accepting his fate to live within Lilmoth, tending to believe that the Empire failed Black Marsh when it most needed it, instead being saved by its own people and the help of this "An-Xileel" (I suppose some sort of built in call-to-arms for the Argonians, when their homeland is under attack).

[Nathan Hunter]

Yeah, I was thrilled when I saw the beginning putting characters in the middle of a situation. I HATE HATE HATE HATE when a story starts out and begins describing what will obviously become the main character for something like a whole chapter, describing their dreadfully boring life, history, hair color, and favorite M&M color.

And from the chapter we can easily infer that Anna?g is adventurous, although naive, and almost enjoys getting Glim into trouble. She's a practicing alchemist, with emphasis on 'practicing'. Glim is a cautious guy who'd rather keep his head than do something remotely dangerous. He's laid back, accepting his fate to live within Lilmoth, tending to believe that the Empire failed Black Marsh when it most needed it, instead being saved by its own people and the help of this "An-Xileel" (I suppose some sort of built in call-to-arms for the Argonians, when their homeland is under attack).

I figured it was a new political alliance of tribes that banded together to fight a unifying enemy evil guy (Dagon) and realized that, since they're tough, why not proclaim themselves the ruling party?

[Blessed DIVA]

I figured it was a new political alliance of tribes that banded together to fight a unifying enemy evil guy (Dagon) and realized that, since they're tough, why not proclaim themselves the ruling party?

Yeah, or that. Since I think he mentions the An-Xileel in a ruler context. At first I thought it was a single person, but then he said "the An-Xileel[/b], so I suppose it is a fighter faction faction turned ruling party.

[Marquis T]

The link to Thread # 5 is broken.

Anyways, that was a decent read for Chapter One.

[Noely Ulloa]

cant wait to read this when I finish my readings for history!

:D

[R.I.p MOmmy]

The link to Thread # 5 is broken.

Anyways, that was a decent read for Chapter One.

Sorry. I have a touch-to-click mousepad on my laptop. Therefore:
:brokencomputer: :brokencomputer: :brokencomputer: :brokencomputer: :brokencomputer:
..... I hate tap-to-click. I'll go fix it.

EDIT: Fixed. I still hate tap-to-cilck.

[Romy Welsch]

Just based on the excerpt, I like Annaig. She's not the stereotypical rebellious-princess "My-dad-is-rich-but-I-just-want-to-get-into-trouble" character. I find it interesting how she wants to try to save the world. I like Glim a lot too. The slowfall scene was win.

[MISS KEEP UR]

Just based on the excerpt, I like Annaig. She's not the stereotypical rebellious-princess "My-dad-is-rich-but-I-just-want-to-get-into-trouble" character. I find it interesting how she wants to try to save the world. I like Glim a lot too. The slowfall scene was win.

Win via epic fail! I'm not sure if I get it, but that makes perfect sense!

"you were mostly invisible..."

[Cat]

The slowfall scene was win.

I was thinking it could go two ways: slowfall or Scrolls of Icaran Flight...

Also, this makes me wish TES V will have some Black Marsh in it... I've always been interested in the place--lots of nice corruption, etc.

[Lily]

...plus a very unique, shower-needed fast travel system

[Sxc-Mary]

This is amazing. A good video game book? Really? This is freaking awseme. And the argonian needs to stay in argonia, much better there than at the Imperial City.

[Marina Leigh]

be aware, the first chapter of the book is posted http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780345508010&view=excerpt

And I'm sold. If there were any doubts I had about the potential of this novel, they are dispelled with this excerpt. Maybe I'm too easy, but that svcked me right in. And I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Darlene DIllow]

Pretty good read actually.

[*Chloe*]

heyheyheyheyheyHEY! Listen up folks, you can usually tell if a book is going to be entertaining early on, and if that's still the case here then this book will be entertaining (like I expected), but remember, we're TES fans, we demand excellence! This is reassurance, of course, because one of my main fears seems to have been absolutely blown to pieces, but I still plan on holding out whether or not I show my support (translation: buy this book) until I've read it from the library first. I mean, figure this: Oblivion was a very good game, and that dissapoints us because TES has a minimum standard of ecxellence. Let's not forget that.

But it was a kickass way to start the book

[Tinkerbells]

I've only had a chance to read the first scene. So far it's a lot of meh for me. Opening sentence was pretty boring. Writing quality overall seems alright I suppose, but it reads just like a fan-fiction on the forums to me. *shrug* I guess I should read more before basis an opinion, huh?

[Mylizards Dot com]

I've only had a chance to read the first scene. So far it's a lot of meh for me. Opening sentence was pretty boring. Writing quality overall seems alright I suppose, but it reads just like a fan-fiction on the forums to me. *shrug* I guess I should read more before basis an opinion, huh?

I think we should get some fan-fiction reviewers like D.Foxy to check it out and tell us what they think if that's the case.

[Campbell]

I personally thought it read more like the first volume of an in-game book series than a fanfiction.

[Franko AlVarado]

I've read Keyes, seemed he dumbed it down so the non-tes fans could find their point of reference.
If indeed, it is Keyes.
I dunno, I'll reserve judgement until I have read the book completely.

[Cedric Pearson]

I personally thought it read more like the first volume of an in-game book series than a fanfiction.

Same here, i really liked it, plus it kept contact to the TES: IV world to a minimum.

[michael danso]

be aware, the first chapter of the book is posted http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780345508010&view=excerpt

*vomits* Dear Vivec, that is hideous. I couldn't make it past the endless dialog and poorly integrated prose.

[Andrew Lang]

I've only had a chance to read the first scene. So far it's a lot of meh for me. Opening sentence was pretty boring. Writing quality overall seems alright I suppose, but it reads just like a fan-fiction on the forums to me. *shrug* I guess I should read more before basis an opinion, huh?

agreed, I thought the writer was pretty sub-par. I'm still going to get it for the story, but I think the writing could be a lot better.

[Roisan Sweeney]

I think it is good writing, definitely on par with say Christopher Paloninis and such. It should sell well IMO.

What I am more interested in is that it seems the Empire is still around. Nice... I can sense a EPIC storyline coming out of this.

[Ricky Meehan]

Unknown K asked me to come over and give me my opinion on... the excerpt of Keyes' book.

So: here it is!

FIRST, I have not read Keyes before and hence have a completely open mind on the book. Thus the opinions which follow are those that I would have made on reading a piece of prose by anyone on this or other fora.

Short critique: Shoddy writing. I'm sorry, I read it twice, trying hard to find something good to say...and wondering if I had not succumbed to the 'build yourself up by taking a famous writer down' disease that frequently attacks critics...

...but the second time around was just the same as the first. It. STUNK.

...WHY???


First, the writing is immature - surprisingly immature.

Example one.

"...The Argonian was all silhouette, because behind him the white curtains that draqed the massive bay windows of the study were soaked in sunlight..."

Even I could do better than that...by writing, say, this -

"Sunlight poured through the massive bay windows, thwarted only by the white curtains at the sides and the silhoutted body of the Argonian.."

And this... ARRRGH...

"..."Here are some things we could do instead." He ticked one glossy black claw on the table.

"Stay here in your father's villa and drink his wine." A second claw came down. "Take some of your father's wine down to the docks and drink it there." The third. "Drink some here and some down at the docks . . ."

"Glim, how long has it been since we had an adventure?"

What? THIS is how to build up dramatic tension? A contrast between wine drinking and going on an adventure?

Again - here I am improvising on the spur of the moment..

"We could perhaps sit here, drink our wine in peace and thank our stars that we're not drinking swill in a dungeon under arrest. As nearly happened during our last endeavour, thank you not at all!"

"Oh come on Glim - risk is part of an Adventure!"

"For you perhaps, Miss Daredevil. As for me I find the prospect of my scaly hide rubbing against an even rougher stone wall quite revolting."

There: see? Add some wit, some snap to the back-and-forth between the two characters, for god's sake! Make us not only see their characters in our mind, but draw them bold and contrasting and interesting!

I better stop now, for already I can imagine that some people might say I have an inflated ego. And who knows....it might even be true, Keyes a brilliant writer, and I just some jealous hack whining about the graqes being sour...

But I for one don't think so.

[Prisca Lacour]

For berating him saying his writing is immature and then using Earth-terms like "Daredevil" in your own... you must not write much High-Fantasy?

Just thought I would point that out.