God of War

I don't know if I've properly conveyed my feelings about Matthew Stover's works...because it's hard for me to go back through and search every article here. But his work really is important to me. His ability to make me instantly aware of what's going on inside his characters' heads is astounding...and frightening. His stories have a lot of action, but they're never about the physical turmoil, it's all mental. You care for his characters' mental state, which is a rare thing for me to experience.

Some writers think it's enough for their characters to lose arms or other various limbs, tricking their readers into thinking Well, that's pretty drastic and life-changing and stuff. But that's not necessarily the case with Stover's works. Sure, people lose limbs (plenty), but there's something tragic about seeing Jacen Solo lose his connection to the Force, seeing Mace Windu helpless or Anakin Skywalker lost in emotion. The real drama doesn't exactly spring up from these people trying to save their own lives, it's about them trying to preserve who they are, which was always much more dramatic to me.

I remember reading his Star Wars books and rejoicing, wondering how a freaking STAR WARS book could make me feel so engaged with what was going on with its story (but I guess that's no real surprise (KotOR)). Star Wars: Shatterpoint was an amazing book to me. The battle at the end was a little much, but absolutely everything before that had me in awe. His novelization of Episode III was just plain inspiring to me. In fact, it was only after reading that book that I decided to write Revan's Shadow. The third book of his that I read, Heroes Die, was brilliant in concept, buuuuut wasn't quite my thing. Traitor helped me remember what I love about his writing, though, and I think said writing benefits from the restraint of the franchise.

Anyway, I love Stover's works, and I have Buch to thank for that. MWS is one of the few writers who inspired me to actually try my hand at novels, and I owe him much more than the ass-kissing that I willingly give him both here and his blog. To that end, I am very excited for the upcoming release of his next novel, a novelization of God of War, which sees its release date on MAY 25th.

Sony has put out a small excerpt from the novel, and I already like what I'm seeing. This is how much I love Stover: I've not played a single second of any of the God of War games and I'm going to be buying this book. He does his research, so I know I won't be lost. Not sure who this other author is who is listed as the co-author, though...hmm.

Here's the link to the excerpt: LINKY!

If you like what you see, you can purchase it at all good bookshops on the 25th. I'll be going the Kindle route this time, so yeah.

Amazon.com|Amazon.co.uk|Book Depository