Reviews for Doom #1: Knee-Deep in the Dead

The average rating for Doom #1: Knee-Deep in the Dead based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-09-04 00:00:00 Robert Coy The chief amusement of this book was that it made me nostalgic for all of that time that I wasted as a teenager playing the game on which this book is based -- but hey, it was an awesome game, so, y'know, I enjoyed reading this a lot. It wasn't The DOOM Comic of yore (comic reading link, youtube dramatic reading), of course, which is and always will be the DOOM adaptation against which all others must be compared, and I think that where it missed most of its mark was that, unlike the comic, the book tried to take the "oh noes, demons are invading our space station" concept in a semi-realistic way -- which meant that this was basically the novelization of the protagonist's trauma and mental breakdown mushed awkwardly with the demands of the plot that the protagonist blow a lot of demons the fuck up. These things can mesh instead of mush -- see, for example, Alien -- but this book seems a little too self-conscious of its genre conventions to really get you into the head of the protagonist where you need to be to make that work, at least if you're me. (I will grant that most of that self-consciousness was probably necessary for the nit-fixing of the original game elements for semi-coherent world-building.) Speaking of the protagonist, though: a lot of this book was the sensitive exploration of the feelings of the protagonist (a Marine named Fly, short for Flynn) for a fellow Marine named Arlene, who appears in person about halfway through the book. When Arlene isn't present, she's a kickass Marine who runs through the station well ahead of Fly, killing things, blazing the trail, and making Fly generally feel second-best; he spends his time day-dreaming about what great friends they were and how all of the Marines respected her so much. When she appears, Fly immediately goes into macho protect-the-little-lady mode, which the book obliges by setting Arlene up to be rescued a couple of times. And, of course, it's Arlene who's all we-must-rescue-the-homeworld in order to inspire Fly to do his part in the fighting. I think that the story of Arlene and her sidekick Fly would have made a much better book, especially because any concept of "chain of command" was pretty much blown out of the water from page one, so it wouldn't matter that Fly technically outranked her. Or maybe I just need to go digging through my old backups to see if I have a copy of DOOM which can be installed on a modern computer so that I can blow up a few demons of my own....

Review # 2 was written on 2010-09-07 00:00:00 Frances Drzewicki The original Doom is a rather mindless and repetitive game, so to see this novelized was quite the curiosity. To further my resolve to read this, my friend went so far as to tell me the novel was actually very good. Based on this, I thought it was time to give this a try! People expecting some grandiose literary work with a fully in depth story should probably look elsewhere. This book is written in the spirit of the game! Those complaining about the books sequence where the characters, mainly Flynn, go from room to room killing creatures have clearly never played this video game. Since I am writing this in 2008, Doom 3 has already come out, and I was appalled to see some reviewers comparing this story to that of Doom 3. This book came out long before Doom 3 was released AND it is based on the original Doom! How someone can sit here and attempt to make that logical comparison is absolutely beyond me. Doom is a very straight forward game, you have no idea what's going on, but you clearly have to shoot these creatures and get out. The book plays off this concept and the largest edition you get is a developed character who actually has the goal of finding his friend. Otherwise this book captures the essence of Doom perfectly, it's also done very jokingly, which is great. It keeps the book moving with the cynical character and I found myself chuckling from time to time at the sheer absurdity of it! When Doom was originally created there was basically no story-line and the main object of the game was to "get out." While the objective remained the same for Doom 3, Doom 3 had a much more developed story, just don't expect that kind of treatment with these books. If you're looking for an excellent adaptation in the spirit of the first Doom, then this is an absolutely must read. If you like dark and cynical sci-fi, this is also a must read. If you were looking for something serious, with detailed explanations about Doom and its background, or something scary... yeah stop whining about it and look someplace else. Enjoy this book for what it is; I sure did, and I consider myself to have a good sense of humor!