What books would you recommend to anyone who likes a given game?

[thegooseking]

Someone mentioned Stanislaw Lem in the Sunday Papers comments, and I got thinking that I would really recommend his Memoirs Found in a Bathtub to anyone who likes Portal 2. Not so much the story, but I felt they have a similar kind of atmosphere.

Are there are books that you think would be enjoyable to people who like a particular game?

(And the first person to mention the Strugatsky brothers or Andrzej Sapkowski's books will win a prize. I call it the Trophy of Stating the Bleeding Obvious.)

[Grizzly]

I would obviuosly recommend Roadside Picnic to anyone who likes Stalker.
I also recommend "Guns, Germs, and Steel" to anyone who likes those strategy games, especially the grand ones. Also, just to anyone with a passing interest in history, as it can be an eye opener.

[Sine]

Hmm... I've heard of Guns, germs, and steel... it does sound very grand-strategey, though its name suggests a bit simplistic view of history. But maybe that's exactly why it would synerge well with grand strategy games ; ).

That aside, I'm not sure how much books and games have in common, in general. Factual books tend to be bit heavy compared to games with similar themes, and few games compare with good fiction (though there are a few...). But to suggest something, anyone enjoying games consisting of building a city or a state would probably enjoy Calvino's Invisible cities. There's a similar idea of creating personalities and stories out of cities and people. Also, it's worth reading anyway ; ).

[unruly]

There are quite a few soldier's memoirs that I would recommend to people who like the old Medal of Honor/CoD games that were WWII based or the Red Orchestra games. Some of them tell grander stories than the "epic" kinds of stories that the games go for, and the ones that are penned by the soldier's own hand are very accessible because usually those soldiers were just your average man thrown into extraordinary situations. So you don't run into a lot of exposition on the overall situation for that entire theater of war that you tend to run into in books that are done as compilations of many soldier's memoirs or as wide snapshots of single battles. But what you will find are a lot of conversations between individual soldiers and little things that the "big picture" versions cut out but will stand out in an individual soldier's mind. Like seeing a man run up to a burning halftrack in order to rip the .50cal machine gun off of it, then seeing him later firing that monster of a gun from the hip against an enemy advance.

[Drinking with Skeletons]

Just finished re-reading Neil Gaiman's Sandman and just started re-reading its spin-off Lucifer. I'd recommend them for fans of Darksiders and Darksiders II, assuming they don't mind something more subdued and thoughtful (and better!) than those games.

[BjolkeDeBjeer]

People who liked the Mass Effect games should read the Revelation Space books by Alastair Reynolds.

[Voon]

You'll might want to take a look at this one if you are willing to sink hours upon hours in DF. Also, Tim Denee's comics are just splendid in there.

There are quite a few soldier's memoirs that I would recommend to people who like the old Medal of Honor/CoD games that were WWII based or the Red Orchestra games. Some of them tell grander stories than the "epic" kinds of stories that the games go for, and the ones that are penned by the soldier's own hand are very accessible because usually those soldiers were just your average man thrown into extraordinary situations. So you don't run into a lot of exposition on the overall situation for that entire theater of war that you tend to run into in books that are done as compilations of many soldier's memoirs or as wide snapshots of single battles. But what you will find are a lot of conversations between individual soldiers and little things that the "big picture" versions cut out but will stand out in an individual soldier's mind. Like seeing a man run up to a burning halftrack in order to rip the .50cal machine gun off of it, then seeing him later firing that monster of a gun from the hip against an enemy advance.

I got this one book called "Stalingrad" by Anthony Beevor iirc and it pretty much changed my perspective on the war itself. Also, the Germans can be surprisingly funny (or flat out weird) despite the dire situations they faced along with the Russians in that city.

[Tritagonist]

There are quite a few soldier's memoirs that I would recommend to people who like the old Medal of Honor/CoD games that were WWII based or the Red Orchestra games.

And for the more modern take on this genre, I recommend the books 'The War I Always Wanted: The Illusion of Glory and the Reality of War: A Screaming Eagle in Afghanistan and Iraq' and 'My War: Kiling Time in Iraq'. Written by your average 20-something, a lot of the non-war stuff is very easy to relate to, making the other parts of the book all the more interesting.