Yes, despite constant bashing by friends, I read game tie-ins. I'm talking about Halo, WarCraft, Diablo, and whatever else you can think of - I was even ready to read the Crimson Skies novels at one point, even though I'd played the game for all of five minutes.
I have an inexplicable affinity for enriching the lore of game worlds I enjoy in any way I can. Check out Ilovebees if you doubt that there are others like me.
City of Guilds does an adequate job of bringing life to the cards upon which it's based. As you might've gleaned from the title, Ravnica is a rather chaotic city filled with various guilds vying for power.
Golgari, a guild centered around the decay of nature, has a major bone to pick with Selsenya, a guild of "life churchers." Machinations ensue, and before long the above-pictured "Grizzled Veteran One Day From Retirement" (part of the law-enforcing Boros guild) is put on the case to figure out what's really going on.
All in all, fairly standard plot devices are used as a good excuse to get a better feel for the types of situations one might expect to encounter in Ravnica. Seedy goblin cultists, skyknights, half-demons, zeppelins... you know, that type of thing. If I end up enjoying Magic a bit more for having read it, I'm satisfied.
ed/Pub:NB
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
thanks for tackling all these elements of the gaming world, Jonathan, and sharing them with us. It is that much more interesting to me because it is all as alien as a non-carbon-based life form
2 - DrPat
My next-door-neighbor is addicted to these (the books, not the games). He recently caught me in the yard raking leaves, and proceeded to bend my ear until it fell off about how good they are.
He knows I write for BlogCritics, because he asked why the UPS truck stops at my house so often. He was fascinated with the whole idea of getting Free! Books! via UPS! He's a BC-in-the-shell - as soon as he hatches, I'll have him writing book reviews!
He's 8. Gad, I feel old!
Fap!
3 - Dave Nalle
These tie-in books are one of the best ways available these days to discover new writers who are having an increasingly hard time selling entirely original work without a resume of past publications. Admittedly a lot of it is hackwork, but some is much more. A good example of how this can launch a career is Christopher Golden whose earlier novels were relatively unknown until he started writing Buffy novels and his career more or less took off.
Dave
4 - Victor Plenty
The Elemenstor Saga is an interesting example of some work currently being done along these lines.