Product Description

Far in the future, 60,000 light-years from Earth, a loose confederacy of Terran exiles is locked in battle with the enigmatic Protoss and the ruthless Zerg Swarm. Each species struggles to ensure its own survival among the stars in a war that will herald the beginning of mankind's greatest chapter -- or foretell its violent, bloody end.

Danny Liberty was a good reporter...too good. When his investigations struck too close to the heart of the corrupt Terran Confederacy, he faced a simple choice: continue his current series of exposés, or take a hazardous new assignment covering the Marines on the front lines of the Koprulu Sector. It didn't take him long to decide....

Behind the attacks of the Zerg and the Protoss lies the story of a lifetime, but every piece of information blurs the mystery further. Thrown into the middle of a war where the outcome will determine mankind's very survival, the only thing that Danny Liberty knows for sure is that the only person he can trust to keep him alive is himself.

Liberty's Crusade
The first in an epic new series of space warfare novels set in the world of the bestselling computer game!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #136040 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 256 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780671041489
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Customer Reviews

Good in some areas, but sorely lacking in others
Being a fan of the Starcraft games and an avid reader of junk sci-fi (when I have time to kill) I thought I'd love this book. Unfortunately, I feel that the book really does not live up to the game. I will give the author credit for doing a great job of bringing the characters to life. He does an especially good job of developing Kerrigan. Telling the story through the eyes of Liberty was a great idea. But that's where the good stuff ends. Although he does well with the narrative style and the characters, he fails miserably in fleshing out the conflict and writing an exciting war story. He more or less completely ignores the strategic element of the battles and he doesn't bother writing ANY colorful descriptions of the full scale combat that makes Starcraft exciting. He seems much more interested in writing background info and character interaction than in describing the war. In my opinion, that is unforgivable in a novel based on Starcraft. Although he describes the fact that there are massive Zerg attacks going on in the sector as well as Protoss extermination missions, he does nothing to put us in the midst of this chaos. Plus, even with all the effort he put into writing the background info surrounding the story, he still didn't fix certain important plot holes found in the story. But oh well, the next book in the series is written by a different author so hopefully it will be better.

Be Careful What You Wish For
The game Starcraft has been almost universally lauded for its storyline. While playing the game years ago, I couldn't help but wish that someone would turn the storyline into a novel. Apparently, someone heard my wish and sent me Liberty's Crusade. I also realize that I made a mistake.

The novel is the serialization of the first 10 missions of the computer game. Which is fine, except that the most interested readers probably already beat the game and know the storyline. The novel doesn't add anything to the Starcraft mythos and manages only to revisit a path that has already been followed. I was hoping for so much more then this novel delivers. The characters that weren't in the original game are at best two-dimensional.

Hopefully, the next novel in the series will continue where the game left off and rekindle some of the excitement of the computer game in time for the inevitable (but never soon enough) sequel.

Sucessful Game to Book Transition
History has taught us that games don't translate well to movies, television, or books. Thankfully, Jeff Grubb's first crack at converting the award winning Blizzard Entertainment, Starcraft, into a major novel was very successful, and very enjoyable.

Those who are familiar with the game and the story line between the characters throughout Starcraft and Brood War will feel right at home. Events that you played out in the game will either be mentioned, or gone into great detail, and give you a better understanding as to why things happen as they did. The real threat is watching Arctus Mengsk turn from dignitary to ruthless killer in a matter of chapters. You know it is going to happen, and you know he will betray certain characters (I won't spoil who for those who haven't played that game).

The style of the writing is excellent, and Grubb wasn't pressure to, or choose not to, fold under scrutiny of the government tearing away at the entertainment business because of some incidents in schools where the perpetrators played "Doom."

Grubb creates, and fleshes, out new and existing characters with grace that makes this book an easy and fun read, that you will be coming back to every now and again. Pocket Books is doing well with the established Resident Evil series, the new Starcraft series, and the fledgling Alpha Centuri and Diablo series. I can only hope Gabriel Mesta is able to continue the excellent series alive with the second Starcraft book.

--Erich Becker signing out...