Metal Gear Solid by Raymond Benson Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Metal Gear Solid
Book Review: A Must for the Fans!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is the one to one reflection of Metal Gear Solid video game which tells the story behind the Shadow Moses incident.. Enjoyed every page of it. Easy to read and the flow of the story is perfect..
Looking forward the following games to be written by R Benson already..
Book Review: A Solid Snake of Crap
Summary: 2 Stars
You know when you take a really long crap, and when you stand up and look in the toilet and it looks like you just pooped out a snake? Well that sums this book up pretty nicely: a solid snake of crap.
Both as a book and as a video game adaptation, this book was a solid snake of crap.
The concept was interesting enough: turn a video game with a movie in production into a book. But, it just didn't translate well.
Boasting 321 pages, this book was actually a very short read, because it was an easy read; I was able to complete the book in about twelve hours. The font size is larger than most books, and there are a lot of one- or two-word "sentences." The vocabulary and sentence structure in the book is really simple, reminding me of my days in third grade.
There is a lot of discontinuity in the book, also. Right from the start, where a chapter reads "Two Days Earlier" and the characters say they have only 24 hours to complete the mission, so their 24 hours have already expired by "Now." Then the author randomly changes Snake's equipment, giving him things he never found and taking away things he once had. Maybe people who aren't so sensitive to details won't notice, but I did.
And so for that reason, the author's really vague descriptions of areas is really frustrating. The only way I could even imagine what the environment looked like was because I had played the game, and so I had a sort of idea what the environments should look like. But there were some environments the author just completely redid (the place with the Ocelot fight, the M1 tank canyon, the Metal Gear hangar). Also, the "villain redemption" scenes after Snake kills off the Fox-Hound members are incredibly forced and sort of, "What the frag?" Again, if I hadn't played the game, I wouldn't have a clue what's going on here.
So, that leads me to comparing it to the video game.
First of all, okay, I understand the author was trying to make this story "realistic" by taking out video game elements of health bars and stuff. Fine. And tie up some loose ends, such as what happened to the civilians and where Otacon went after the "Meryl ending." And there were some instances where the author tried to tie in elements from the other games (Revolver Ocelot mentions his fight with Big Boss in MGS3, Psycho Mantis predicts Snake to grow old and put a gun in his mouth in MGS4). And the whole incident with Master Miller was explained a little bit more realistically.
But what in the blazes did the author do to Solid Snake? The author turned him into some kind of lunatic who kills everyone, instead of a sneaky guy who waits and then makes a move. And to top it off, Snake is constantly spewing one-liners as he kills off people. And sure, Snake is a sort of idiot at times, but he's just downright stupid in this book.
And then the ending. The author tries to tie in the "Meryl ending" of finding a bandanna in the snow. After trying to make the book be realistic, this element suddenly comes out of nowhere.
There was maybe one fun part in reading the whole book, and that was the fight with Psycho Mantis. After all, it's not like Snake can "plug the controller in a different socket," so the approach with Psycho Mantis undergoes a very big change. And it's definitely the best scene (and probably only good scene) in the entire book.
Metal Gear Solid: A Solid Snake of Crap
Book Review: A Solid book
Summary: 5 Stars
With MGS4 just around the corner, it's time too take a look back. Being the 11 year old that am, I never got to play Metal Gear Solid.I just got the book. And I have to say I'm really impressed. One thing you might notice if you played the game is that the script wasn't changed. At all.
This book is about a secret agent called Solid Snake. He's sent to shut down a nucleur warhead[Whatever that is]. While there, snake is pretty busy[Who knew a nucleur warhead would have so many gaurds?].Snake rescues a girl named Meryl, fights a cyborg ninja, and liberates bad guys from thier painful existense. Just like the game the story is deep and confusing. All in all, it's a good book. If you already beat the game, there's a small chance that you may not love this book. Hey some people like apples and some like bananas. I like satsumas. At this point, I can't wait until Raymond writes the second.
Book Review: A book not worthy of its title.
Summary: 1 Stars
I'll admit that I'm a sucker for book adaptations of my favorite video games and Metal Gear Solid is definitely high up on that list, but this book let me down. After the boring prologue, the author tries to keep up with the energy of the video game, but instead fails to inject any sense of intensity or, dare I say, action into the pages. All the dialogue from the video game that has story significance is present and the rest (that the author has taken artistic license with) is comprised of humor that I could not stop rolling my eyes at. It's sad to see this didn't turn out well, especially since Splinter Cell, Halo, Gears of War, and even Resident Evil by a small margin, have fared better. Skip it.Book Review: An excellent novelization of a complex story
Summary: 5 Stars
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 lightweight, recycled paper. I find the book itself to be a little flimsy and not very durable. For a $7-$8 pocket edition-sized book, I come to expect that lack of physical quality, but for a $10 larger paperback like this one, I tend to expect those books to be made of more durable materials. And if I could make a request: I'd love to get this book on my Kindle. That too would solve the poor physical quality of the book and allow me to take it with me and read it again later on.
That one complaint aside, the book is truly a joy to read. It contains action, suspense, good writing, and as both an isolated story and as a part of a larger saga, the book works on every level. No fan of Raymond Benson, Metal Gear, or just plain good action novels should miss this book.