My favorite books inspired by video games

Every nerd’s dream is to one day be swept away into adventure, and in this book it actually happens for Zack Lightman. Video game mechanics are used as the basis for interstellar combat, and the main protagonist gets to use his epic skills to save the world. How can any self-respecting gamer hate that?

It’s written by the author of Ready Player One, but instead of that, I chose this because this is much more singularly inspired by gaming. You learn that video games were specifically created in order to prepare humanity for a potential threat, and the better you are at gaming the better humanity’s chances are at winning. I know I’ve had that fantasy at least dozens of times growing up. It’s epic, funny, and has great music. What’s not to love?

This book is best listened to on Audible where the narrator is Felicia Day (queen of all nerds). It’s terrific for telling a story from the POV of an NPC in a world of heroes, and their journey to equality and justice. It’s inspirational to see a group of marginalized citizens (in this case Gearblins) stand up for equal rights and fight back against the supposed “Good Guys” who have been picking on them for years. The main character is sassy and funny, so you’ll get a chuckle or two along the way as well.

In James Dashner’s The Eye of Minds, you’re introduced to the VirtNet – a worldwide virtual reality server where anything is possible. It follows the story of three best friends who use their skills as hackers to bend this virtual reality to their will. They throw fireballs at each other, race across landscapes you could only wish to see in real life, and just plain have fun after school.

In this book, you get to read about how these three friends are called upon to use their hacker skills to help stop an assassin who’s targeting other users on the VirtNet. Government conspiracy meets epic gaming in this whirlwind of a digital adventure. We’ve all thought about saving the world with our gaming skills, and here they get to attempt to save their digital world. I couldn’t have been more excited by this premise!

Translated from Japanese, this is the novel that inspired the blockbuster movie Edge of Tomorrow starring Tom Cruise. While fighting on the front lines during an alien invasion, Keiji Kiriya finds himself stuck in a time loop after his death. He finds that every time he “dies”, he comes back twenty-four hours earlier with all his memories intact. It follows the formula of a player “dying” and then respawning, retaining all the knowledge gained up to their death with a chance to use that knowledge to prevent it. Learning from your mistakes is vital in any video game, and for Keiji, the fate of the world relies on him to learn from their mistakes and keep fighting.

It can get bloody and brutal, but it’s so thrilling and fun to see the action unfold. The movie honestly doesn’t do it justice, as they rarely do. You’d be doing yourself a disservice not reading where the story came from.

Translated from Korean, Solo Leveling is the story of a world where mysterious portals have opened and lead into caves full of nightmarish creatures. To combat these “Dungeons”, humans have harnessed magic in order to awaken what are called Hunters – people who are stronger, faster, and more powerful than the average person. One of these Hunters is named Jinwoo Sung, known across Korea as the weakest hunter to have awakened. Barely stronger than a normal human, he’s nearly died hundreds of times but keeps fighting in order to support his sister and sick mother. After a sudden encounter with a strange Dungeon, he’s gained the ability to Level Up, finally giving him the chance to prove that he’s not just some weakling who needs to be protected.

This story resonates with me because you can’t help but be envious of a power like this. The more the MC fights, the higher his level gets, and the stronger he becomes. Following the model of a classic RPG, Solo-Leveling is an adrenaline-fueled roller coaster of action, comedy, and (mild) horror. You can’t miss with a book like this.