I’m a young writer who loves many genres such as mystery, romance, horror, and most notably Sci-Fi. My two greatest passions have always been writing and gaming. I’ve logged in thousands of hours across multiple platforms of gaming, specifically RPGs. My recent novel, Welcome to LEGEND, tells the story of two people finding love through their mutual obsession with video games. Right now, I’d like to introduce to you my top picks for books that are heavily inspired by the video games I love so much.
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?
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It's just another day of high school for Zack Lightman. He's daydreaming through another boring math class, with just one more month to go until graduation and freedom-if he can make it that long without getting suspended again.
Then he glances out his classroom window and spots the flying saucer.
At first, Zack thinks he's going crazy.
A minute later, he's sure of it. Because the UFO he's staring at is straight out of the videogame he plays every night, a hugely popular online flight…
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.
"Fun, funny, and full of heart."--Felicia Day, Actress, Gamer, and Goddess of GeekdomRaze is ‘just’ a lowly Gearblin, chained to the quest-giver desk at the only arcade in town.That sucks for her. It means that she’s a Non-Participating Citizen, someone who can’t see her stats or make opposed rolls against Heroes. It’s why her life’s worth less than the vendor trash she doles out.The old-timers swear it didn’t used to be like this—that their issues only began once RNGesus went AFK a thousand years ago, leaving the questionably-blessed Heroes to conquer everything without consequence. Fortunately, Raze is not about to…
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!
From James Dashner, the author of the New York Times bestselling Maze Runner series, comes an edge-of-your seat adventure. The Eye of Minds is the first book in The Mortality Doctrine, a series set in a world of hyper advanced technology, cyberterrorists, and gaming beyond your wildest dreams ...and your worst nightmares. To catch a hacker, you need a hacker. For Michael and the other gamers, the VirtNet can make your wildest fantasies become real. And the more hacking skills you have, the more fun. Who wants to play by the rules anyway? But some rules were made for a…
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.
When the alien Gitai invade, Keiji Kiriya is just one of many raw recruits shoved into a suit of battle armour and sent out to kill. Keiji dies on the battlefield, only to find himself reborn each morning to fight and die again and again. On the 158th iteration though, he sees something different, something out of place: the female soldier known as the Bitch of War. Is the Bitch the key to Keiji's escape, or to his final death?
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.
The weakest of the weak, E-class hunter Jinwoo Sung has no money, no
talent, and no prospects to speak of. And when he enters a hidden dungeon that
fateful day, he ends up being left to die in the aftermath of a horrendous
tragedy. At death's door, Jinwoo is suddenly invited to be a "player" by a
mysterious voice. Desperate to live, Jinwoo jumps at the chance...but what is
this strange new leveling system that only he can see?
Cole Matheson has dealt with depression and isolation his whole life, making it from one day to the next the best he can. The only escape he's ever had were video games, and when the largest VRMMORPG LEGEND was first released, he was immediately smitten.
It's on the LEGEND's servers that he meets Lady Oracle, another passionate gamer just like him. When they play together, Cole—in the form of his virtual alter-ego Castellan—feels a completeness he's never felt before. When he's with her he feels like everything isn't so bad. But Cole is not very good with romance and has many obstacles to face before he can admit his true feelings. He's going to need to level up his own game before he can advance any further in life.
Growing up in New England, my mother had a set of books that she kept in the living room, more for display than anything else. It was The Works of Edgar Allen Poe. I read them and instantly became hooked on horror. In the seventh grade, I entertained my friends at a sleepover by telling them the mysterious clanking noise (created by the baseboard heater) was the ghost of a woman who had once lived in the farmhouse, forced to cannibalize her ten children during a particularly bad winter. And I’ve been enjoying scaring people ever since.
In 1939, on a remote Pacific island, botanical researcher Irene Greer plunged off a waterfall to her death, leaving behind a legacy shrouded in secrets. Her great-niece Julia, a struggling journalist recovering from a divorce, seeks answers decades later.
Tasked with retrieving Dr. Greer’s discovery–a flower that could have world-changing properties–Julia unearths a story rife with hidden agendas and a missionary community unwilling to share the truth. As she confronts the eerie legends and a fellow traveler with his own motives, Julia finds that the longer she stays, the thinner the line between reality and the fantastical becomes until she…
From the award-winning author of Dead Souls and Poe comes an all-new bone-chilling novel where a mysterious island holds the terrifying answers to a woman's past and future.
In 1939, on a remote Pacific island, botanical researcher Irene Greer plunges off a waterfall to her death, convinced the spirits of her dead husband and daughter had joined the nightmarchers-ghosts of ancient warriors that rise from their burial sites on moonless nights. But was it suicide, or did a strange young missionary girl, Agnes, play a role in Irene's deteriorating state of mind?
