Hughes, Ryan Books

HARD CRASH UNREAL 1 (Unreal, No 1)

Ryan Hughes

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Not really a masterpiece, but a fun and fast paced read 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

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.

Editorial Review:

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).

YOU ONLY DIE TWICE SHADOW WARRIOR 2 (Shadow Warrior, No 2)

Ryan Hughes

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Not as good 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book is good but alas not as good as the first. The main reason is the fact that there are no "WANGISMS" without them it sounds like Lo Wng is two different people in each book

pretty good 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book was ok. Althoe it did get kind of coffuseing when he started to look back at his past. I liked this book better than the first one. It deffently could of used some more work. Like the first one it keeps you guessing! If you liked the first one you will probably love this one. And, if you are like me. You wont be able to put it down.

pretty good 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book was ok. Althoe it did get kind of coffuseing when he started to look back at his past. I liked this book better than the first one. It deffently could of used some more work. Like the first one it keeps you guessing! If you liked the first one you will probably love this one. And, if you are like me. You wont be able to put it down.

Editorial Review:

Lo-Wang is the Shadow Warrior. He is a legendary assassin so feared that his underworld employers have conspired to assassinate him--a feat easier said than done.

THE DARKNESS BEFORE THE DAWN (Dark Sun)

Ryan Hughes

List Price: $4.95 By: Wizards of the Coast Amazon Marketplace: 36 new & used starting at $1.35

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Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Authors, A-Z -> ( H ) -> Hughes, Ryan

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Simple review 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I thought it was a pretty good book even though in my opinion the first book in The Chronicles of Athas was better. I liked the way they could fight using psionic power without having to do it physically. Its a good book if you enjoy reading about fantasy worlds where dwarfs, elves and all sort of other things live and can use magic and mental powers.

Another informative expedition to Athas 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Ryan Hughes's The Darkness Before the Dawn represents my second foray into the essentially defunct roleplaying game setting of Dark Sun. Like the first book in the Chronicles of Athas series (Lynn Abbey's The Brazen Gambit), the novel stands alone and along with telling its story serves as an introduction to some facet or facets of Athas, the Dark Sun world. The novel's primary function is to provide an overview of the prominent role that psionics plays in the Dark Sun setting (and we are also given a glimpse of Athas's elvish culture--a real deviation from the usual, existing as it does in a world with no forests).

The story concerns two psionically-gifted individuals who discover that their power increases exponentially when they work together. We follow them through capture by elves, apprenticeship to an insectoid master psionicist, psychic exploration of entire worlds contained within tiny crystals and ruled by petty gods (one of which appears to be our own world, though this isn't specifically confirmed), and forced service in a gladitorial arena. More importantly, we are witness to their struggle as they decide whether or not falling in love with each other is to be desired or to be dismissed as dangerous folly.

Some would argue that I've given away too much already; I disagree, as it isn't necessarily where the protagonists go that matters here, but how Hughes gets them there. However, in deference to such criticism, I will refrain from writing more specifically about the adventures of our hero and heroine, and likewise, I will not explain the book's title, except to say that you will read a long time before discovering what the darkness refers to and for whom a new dawn approaches. Let it be enough to say that there's more going on here than just the actions of the two protagonists.

Although certain events lead me to speculate that this novel occupies a proximate position to some turning point in Athasian history, whether this is officially true I cannot say; I am utterly unfamiliar with the milieu except for this novel and its predecessor. Generally speaking, it would seem to be a dead issue, as the setting has not been officially supported for some time. I would, however, point interested gamers to athas.org, as I did in my review of The Brazen Gambit. The site is an active repository of resources for the Dark Sun setting, and has the approval of Wizards of the Coast. Should this novel pique your interest, I would refer you there.

Hughes's novel doesn't cohere as well as we might demand from non-gaming fiction, but in providing a showcase for several elements of its world (as well as providing characters whose struggles are worth caring about for a few hours) it performs its functions well. If you see it at the used bookstore; it might be worth picking up, especially as prior familiarity with the setting is not an absolute necessity.

An aside: "Ryan Hughes" is actually acclaimed novelist and prolific short story writer Jerry Oltion; at the risk of appearing snide, one wonders what necessitated the pseudonym. Perhaps he was concerned that his name appearing on a gaming novel would cause people to take his Star Trek novels less seriously...

Editorial Review:

Companions half-elf Jedra and ex-templar Kayan search for a mentor that will help them to develop their psionic powers, and are forced to compete against one another in a fight to the death for the gladiatorial games. Original. 75,000 first printing.