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Ryan Hughes
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Hard Crash (Unreal No.1) Mass Market Paperback – April 1, 1998

by Ryan Hughes (Author)
3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 6 ratings
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Set on a planet in a Bermuda Triangle-like section of space, "Unreal" presents readers with a gripping story line set in a fully immersive world dominated by alien technology and medieval fantasy. "Unreal" is set to become the biggest PC game phenomenon of 1997. Online promo (SimonSays.com).
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  1. Print length
    240 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Pocket Books
  4. Publication date
    April 1, 1998
  5. Dimensions
    4.25 x 0.75 x 7 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0671018817
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0671018818
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pocket Books (April 1, 1998)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0671018817
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0671018818
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.25 x 0.75 x 7 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 6 ratings

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Ryan Hughes

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Customer reviews

3.7 out of 5 stars
6 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Peter
5.0 out of 5 stars Unreal - Hard Crash
Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2014
Verified Purchase
As I am a big fan of Unreal franchise I just like that I have this book in my collection as I am very interested into this universe.
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K.C. Cool (feather@salisbury.net
5.0 out of 5 stars I give it 50 stars
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 1999
the book was absoulutly wonderful! Action packed to the teeth! It helps if you played the 3d action game "Unreal", it will give you a better picture. The chapter mess up left me confused for a while. Im just now starting to read Prophets Power Unreal #2. Make more great books Ryan Hughes!!!
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Gradient Vector Field
3.0 out of 5 stars Not really a masterpiece, but a fun and fast paced read
Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2008
I hadn't read this book in many years, but I recently decided to revisit it because I couldn't remember anything from it. It's also been so many years since I played the game that I figured it warranted a replay while I read the book to see how well they integrated. For the most part "Hard Crash" does a pretty decent job of adding onto the game. However, some of the same flaws I found in the game worked their way into the novel as well.

This book goes in tandem with the game in the sense that the main human character is from the prisoner transport ship we find ourselves on at the beginning of the game. In the game you wander around an empty ship and wonder if anyone else made it off, well apparently they did because "Hard Crash" is about three humans that made it off that ship and lived to tell the tale. Zofia, Gerick, and Boris (you actually find Boris' journal on the ship when you begin) wandered around the wilderness of Na Pali and apparently captured one of the native Nali named Melnori. One of the problems I have with this particular part is that there isn't too much background; all of a sudden they have a Nali prisoner? The reader doesn't really know what happened and it just feels a little incomplete at times. The book is written in a form where you're already well aware that the Skaarj have come to this planet and taken over. They have enslaved the Nali and use them to mine an element called Tarydium. The Skaarj basically look just like a Predator, so the novel plays up the hunter/warrior society concept with its Skaarj characters. I know, not exactly the most creative thing in the world. Anyway, Melnori ends up basically convincing his captors that he's not a threat and they end up joining in to destroy the Skaarj. Not much of a stretch there since the Skaarj seemed just as eager to kill the humans as they were the Nali. However, since the Nali are essentially a race of pacifists they're somewhat ill equipped to truly fight a revolt.

**Possible Spoiler: Just this paragraph**
Okay, I'm going to possibly ruin something about this book because I think it's actually essential to a reader's enjoyment of it. In fact without knowing this the book can get very confusing and make almost no sense until the very end! There are two stories that sort of work in conjunction in this book and each chapter is either about the "First Occupation" or the "Second Occupation." I suppose this seems extremely self explanatory after the fact, but it didn't feel as clear when I was reading through this. "First Occupation" actually happened a few centuries before the Unreal video game takes place. It's the story of a Nali named Haute who is considered to be the Prophet by his people. He prophesizes the end of the Skaarj occupation in his time, but also says the Skaarj will be back centuries in the future. The game and the "Second Occupation" are taking place in the future, where there are actually thousands of Skaarj on Nali. The "First Occupation" deals with a crashed Skaarj ship that only has a couple hundred on board. I don't quite know why I didn't pick up on this while reading it through, but the way it's written I thought they were in the same time frame, just different locations. Oh well, possibly a really stupid mistake on my behalf, but just in case no one else quite got it till the end. I think if it was a lot clearer in the beginning I would've enjoyed the book a lot more and felt less confused in some sequences.
**End Spoiler**

One other issue I had with this novel, and maybe this stems from Unreal itself, is that none of the alien species really seem to be all that alien. They feel, they talk, and they interact with each other in very human ways. They just seem like an everyday human being, nothing interesting. I never felt like I was really interacting with a non-human species other than a couple comments Melnori would make when he interacted with the humans. Such as when they came up with battle strategies that the Nali just couldn't think of because in their pacifistic society it had just never occurred to them. A lot of this might stem from the game because in the game you stumble upon all kinds of journals from the various kinds of beings and they all have a very human tone of voice. The only element that seemed kind of lacking was the Nali's very religious convictions. They were there, but they felt more downplayed in comparison to what we saw in the game. Not to mention the Nali castles don't look any different from our castles from medieval times. Furthermore I have to ask the question of why the Nali have castles since castles were usually built to defend from attackers. If they're such pacifists what do they need the castles to defend? I'm sure there could be some answer, but we're never presented with one. It feels more like a story of "what if an advanced alien species landed on a medieval level society". Another issue that others may have with this book is that there is very little mention of other monsters or species from the Unreal game outside of the humans, Nali, and Skaarj. Other than that there are a couple mentions of the Kraal, but they never even play a role, they're just killed on the way by the humans. So, the book is disappointing in that regard because we never learn about any other species or how they've gotten involved.

Overall this was an okay book. I really tore through it pretty quickly, mostly because it's an incredibly easy read. I would warn some people that this isn't a kids novel. The video game, after all, is rated M, so you can expect to find profanity, lots of violence, and even some pretty gruesome scenes. Despite its obvious influences, I still enjoyed the world of Unreal. The concept story is somewhat tiresome and overdone to death... you know the whole oppressed society revolting against its rulers. You see this happen a lot, Star Wars, U.S. Revolution, Hebrews leaving Egypt, 1984, etc. Once you accept these things the novel is very fast paced and action packed. I think the fact that there was so much action was what really saved this book from being terrible. It didn't spend an undue amount of time working on being a literary master piece, instead the author was well aware this was about a fast paced First Person Shooter and gave the readers that kind of feeling throughout the book. If you're a fan of the original Unreal video game then I would say this is worth reading, but it doesn't have a lot of long lasting value in terms of video game novels.
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Top reviews from other countries

mashed4ev
1.0 out of 5 stars So bad it was unreal
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 30, 2012
Verified Purchase
As a person who is a great fan of the Unreal universe having played the videogames a number of times including the unreal tournaments, I can safely say I was very disappointed by these lacklustre and tedious books. I say books as it is almost impossible to read one without the other due to a monumental blunder in there publishing which allowed chapters to be placed in the wrong order and the two stories of each book to be combined instead of two separate stories. This shows a lack of passion and professional care concerning the source material and is instead a quick cash-in of a poor story hiding behind a well known videogame title. Even if you take into consideration the mix up of the chapters and confusing arrangement in which the stories are ordered, the tales themselves are bland, uneventful and do nothing to expand or enrich the narrative from its source material. This book fails to capture the atmosphere or sense of uncertain adventure portrayed in the games and carries little to no excitement, character development or fundamental meaning. It was only my blind hope and reminiscence for my teenage imagination that kept me turning the pages trying to recapture the delight and pleasure I took from playing the videogames. In conclusion I cannot recommend this book to anyone not even hardcore Unreal fans looking for a quick stroll down nostalgia avenue. There is fan fiction available on the web with more depth and enthusiasm that portrays a greater level of affection and understanding of what the Unreal games were about for free.
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