Metal Gear Solid

by Raymond Benson

Book Overview

This explosive Metal Gear Solid novel ventures beyond the thrilling videogame and delves into the dark heart of Solid Snake's world Highly skilled former FOXHOUND agent Solid Snake is called out of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345503287
• ISBN13: 9780345503282
• Release Date: May 2008
• Publisher: Del Rey
• Length: 319 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.7" x 5.4"

Customer Reviews

Faithful to the Game and fun to read.

Usually I am not a fan of books based on video games, as they are usually not very great. I bought this, seeing as MGS is my favorite video game series of all time, to see how faithful it was to the actual game. To be honest, this book far exceeded expectations, it seems as though Raymond Benson either played the game, got his hands on the game's script, or watched someone else play it. The book is very accurate, with the exception of a few parts which needed to be changed, such as the Psycho Mantis fight (that would have been a good laugh if he hadn't written something new for that part.) As I read the book, I remembered playing every part I read, which made it more fun for me to read. I also could not put this book down, which is uncharacteristic for me as I usually hate reading. For someone who hasn't played the game, or knows little to nothing in the MGS universe, I can't say how much you'll enjoy it; its hard to gauge how good it would be having previously played the game myself. I recently got the book Benson wrote about MGS2, but I haven't had a chance to start it. If he can make that game's story great in book form, I'll pledge my allegiance to his writing.

An excellent novelization of a complex story

Can a book make you love the game it novelizes even more and get you more involved with the story? In the case of Metal Gear Solid by Raymond Benson, the answer is an absolute yes! Benson, who takes the excellent storytelling abilities that he displayed during his run on the James Bond series (for my money, the best author at it since Ian Fleming) and adapts it to the much more complicated story of Solid Snake in the 1998 Konami game for the Playstation 1: Metal Gear Solid. As a gamer who enjoys video games with stories in them, I have always liked the Metal Gear series above the rest. The point of this story is Solid Snake, an ex-mercenary/military operative (never really clear which), is dragged out of retirement to handle a hostage and ransom situation where the terrorists are threatening to unleash a nuclear device at the world that cannot be seen until it is too late. Sounds pretty simple, right? It isn't. There are plot twists, turns, and even backstory that comes in and takes the character in different and unexpected directions. Aside from just telling a good story, Raymond Benson's novelization does two really good things to Hideo Kojima's original work that makes this such a terrific read. First thing Benson does is step up the pace tremendously. The Metal Gear Solid game is quite well known for slowing its pace down with a lot of narrative. Some of that is necessary due to the interactive nature of video games, and some of it is just the way Hideo Kojima makes his games. I think it works really well for games, but when I first saw this novelization, I couldn't fathom how Benson would pick up such a notoriously slow-unfolding story and make it interesting as a book. Fortunately, he did and he did a fantastic job at it. This book could sit right next to every other action/thriller novel Raymond Benson has ever written. The pacing of this story is so good that I could see a person getting this book and thoroughly enjoying it without even having played the game. The novel is engrossing, engaging, and a sheer pleasure to read. Feel free to get this book and give it to the Metal Gear Uninitiated and fans of action/adventure novels. They will not be lost and can enjoy the book without playing the game. The other thing Raymond Benson did that really made the book click for me was place some of the backstory in the book that was added in later installments to the series. Things that would be impossible to go back and place in a 10+ year old video game are added into the story. Things that were added in subsequent video games to give the overall story more depth and character were inserted back into this novelization. For those that know how the overall story ends, reading these backstory passages really clicked and made you think, "yeah! This really is a part of the Metal Gear Universe!" I really have only one complaint about this book and it isn't a fault of the author's. The physical book is printed on very lightwe

One of the best book-to-game adaptations ever!

I thought that it was one of the best game-to-book adaptations I've ever read. Usually books that are based off of games are awful, but this book was great. I am truly excited for your release of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.