Customer Reviews

Liberty's Crusade (StarCraft, Book 1)

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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.

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.

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...

If you have ever played the Starcraft game, then you will find this book simply a treat. It carefully follows the storyline played out until about the end of the Terran campaign, while throwing in some background information on the Protoss as well. If you have never played the game, the book is still an enjoyable read and an excellent start for a new series.

It seems Jeff Grubb did a lot of research to get this book set up. Surprisingly to me, he knew how to describe everything from ships to weapons in the way that you could visualize the actual item. If you never played Starcraft itself, this book was a wake-up call-a book that would tell people: "Gee, this is a game? I can't believe I haven't played this". Since the entire book focused mainly on the Terran Campaign of the original game, and the use of descriptions was required to avoid it from becomming too textbook and boring, I was impressed by the way Grubb expanded on the missions; a sort of view of what you didn't play. Then there were the passages before the chapter,all comming from "the Liberty Manifesto", which made me wonder; did Grubb get this great description from imagination or did he piece together the ideas of other works? It is just that good! Describing the characters and their actions was also very much impressive. Kerrigan and Raynor's description immediatly rang a bell in my head and for those who never was introduced to these people in the game it gave them a good idea of what they may look like. General Duke immediatly came in as the villian while in this series' second installment it took a while to guess if he was good or bad. As the main idea of the book is the journey of a reporter from a Confederate loyalist to a rebel, the transition came well. I was surprised at how Grubb pieced together ideas that made you say to yourself: "oh, now I understand why this mission led to this one", or "yea, this all makes sense now, I remmeber that. Wow, this quote brings back memories". The scenes of battle were written really well too, as Grubb described all the vehicles and creatures-Zerg, Terran, and Protoss-as if he was actually looking at them. Detail apparently was important to him. Battle was created to the point that you could hear the creak of the Arclite Siege Tank moving its shock cannon, or hear the Zerg hydralisks moving about. Mainly though, this book-other than its sequel-led to the events of the expansion game: Brood War. The conclusion was very nicely created, as well as added a bit of thought to the very end. Altogether though, I would deffinetly give this book to anyone that is into sci-fi games or is a Starcraft fan-since this book alone is a must have to any fan interested in what really happened before the fall of the Terran Confederacy in the Koprulu Sector.

Those two words completely sum up the book. If you're a fan of the StarCraft series, then READ THIS BOOK! The book is about the war with the Terrans, Zergs, and Protoss, like in the game, but from the point of view of a reporter named Michael Liberty. All your Terran favorites are in this book including Kerrigan, Raynor, Arcturus Mengsk, and Duke. It follows Episode One of StarCraft, the Terran missions. So what are you waiting for? BUY THIS BOOK.

I bought this book because I am a fan of Starcraft. If you are also a fan of Starcraft, chances are you will like this book. It brings you back into the wonderfully designed game with the ongoing war between Humans, the Protoss, and the Zerg. If you want to pick up this book solely for your love of SciFi or you are looking for a well-written novel, then I would definitely not recommend this title. The descriptions of the Zerg are almost non-existent, and unless you actually played the game, you will not get a full understanding of what the Zerg look like or how menacing they really are. The character depth is almost adequate, but I would have expected more from an author that actually creates these worlds in his imagination every day. Suspense is also at a minimum since some of the scenes in the novel are glossed over so quickly you don't even get a chance to feel any emotion at all. There are also some very serious grammatical errors in the book which, at times, confuse the reader. I agree with the guy above - I think the author just wanted to get paid for doing almost nothing. He should stick to creating games.

I stopped playing Starcraft some months back, which is perhaps why I found it refreshing to read. I think some of the other reviewers must have been disappointed because they were looking for something which characterized the explosions and gore of the multiplayer game, instead of the drama and tragedy of the campaign game. When I first played Starcraft, I was amazed by the depth of the story. Someone had really put a lot of thought into this, unlike Diablo. The characters were engrossing, and Jeff Grubb has done an excellent job of fleshing them out, especially Arcturus Mengsk.

The one complaint I had was a rather petty one, concerning the protagonist's name. 'Michael Liberty' sounds not only hokey, but almost smacks of 1940s pulp comics (no offense to all you Michael Libertys out there). I just think that when you are going to create characters the reader should empathize with, and more importantly that you're going to name the book after, you should find something that has a bit more umph. Like I said; petty.

When I first heard that Blizzard was turning the game of Starcraft into a book series, I was elated, as the game itself already possessed an excellant storyline. I think that overall, Jeff Grubb did a fine job transposing the Terran campaign into a novel, but I found that as the book went along, the author seemed to almost tire of writing, rushing hastily to the ending. This is not to say that the book wasn't enjoyable, as it was. The first 100-odd pages I found to be excellant, with Humanity making first contact with the Protoss and Zerg. There is a sense of mystery and confusion among the Terrans as they seek to understand their new neighbors. However, I found that the novel went downhill from there. Large battles are vaguely described as taking place, but are started and finished within a few pages, without explanation of how many units were involved, or over what span of territory. Also, several key aspects of the game are ignored, or left out. One of my favorite levels in the game is the 3rd Terran mission, having to survive until Korhal dropships arrive to rescue you, and there is no action in the book concerning this. I might just be picking here, but there also is no explanation of how Raynor gains control of the Hyperion, which happens in the game. Despite these shortcomings, the book gives an interesting portrayal of the characters, bringing more depth to them, especially Kerrigan and Raynor. I guess that I would recommend this to people who enjoyed Starcraft, especially playing as the Terrans. It is a decent novel that could have been more, perhaps if it had been another 100 or so pages longer.

StarCraft for the PC was an extraordinary game in which players have to use strategy and battle in great wars against the Zerg and Protoss (which most of you should know). The book on the other hand has about two fights and absolutely no strategy. You kinda lose the feel of the game when this occurs. The author brings the storyline and characters to life very well... unfortunately he couldn't do that with the battles and the strategy behind the fights. The whole Michael Liberty view was brilliant but still not enough. I rate this 3 stars frankly for the well written character profiles and storyline. If the action was there it would be a definite 5. I suggest only for the fans of StarCraft.