|| BOOK BLURB || Gears of War : Ascendance
Gears of War : Ascendance
Released : July 30, 2019
Author : Jason M. Hough
Price : $14.95 (when not on sale)
In our first ever Book Blurb, I wanted to cover Gears of War : Ascendance. These blurbs are going to be short and focus on a few key things such as the focal point of the book itself, and how well (if it's intended to) it fits in with the over-arching canon of the games it's based on.
The Gears franchise has been around quite a bit now, spanning several games, books, and comic books. To some, it's a series based on gore and excessive amounts of shooting, but to others (myself included) it presents a really cool world with an involved story. Over the course of the first three games, we learn of an outbreak and the fallout war after Emergence Day and the arrival of the Locust enemies. Eventually, the Locust are overpowered and killed, with them being buried and forgotten.
Gears of War 4 picks up after this, with the discovery that burying the Locust didn't work as well as they had hoped. However, civilization has moved on and hoped their threat has been squashed, so First Minister Jinn becomes extremely hesitant to believe the word of a few Outsider's when she's told the Locust are back.
The 4th game focuses on this discovery, and the survival of Marcus, JD, Del and Kait through it all. Ascendance picks up after the end of the game, with the squad being brought into New Ephyra in hopes of warning the Coalition of the impending threat. Jinn, however, wants proof. The bloodbath the surviving squad went through isn't enough for her, and so she decides to send squads of the DB bots out to find the proof she wants.
Here, the book branches off into three separate stories. Jinn demands that the survivors swear their undying loyalty to the COG, or be thrown into a cell. One story thread follows JD and Del as they rejoin the COG, obtaining a higher rank than they had before abandoning, and being sent off to another burial site that has been having communication issues, in hopes of finding the proof Jinn wants.
Before they get sent off though, Kait's eyes happen across some footage that pans over the settlement where she had just lived a week ago, and more specifically the presence of two of the young twins who she feels responsible for. Realizing that their rescue isn't a priority for Jinn, she sneaks out of the city against the First Minister's wishes, with Marcus in tow. Together the two of them reach the Settlement to find a lot more than just the twins hiding out.
Lastly, back in New Ephyra, Damon Baird, owner of Damon Baird Industries, finds himself facing off against Jinn, her mentality on the pending war, and the usage of his DB droids in recent situations. He believes, especially after having lived it out in person, that the key to success is getting more human Gear's on the ground, while Jinn wants to entirely rely on the DB's robotic presence to preserve life as much as possible.
The pacing of these three stories is really well done, and the book as whole was completely enjoyable from the first page to the last.I especially liked that upon starting the game, if you've read the book you'll instantly understand a few things that are going on. For instance, Baird decides to improve the combat readiness of the DB's by imprinting them with analysis taken from the COG's fighting. The tutorial for Gears 5 takes place under this premise, for you to learn the basics of the game but also so you can show off for the bots and help them learn.
To top it all off, nothing happens in the book that is necessary to have knowledge on, and to me that's a big plus in a situation like this. Not all gamers like to read, for any number of reasons. So it's nice to see that the book basically serves as just a little bonus bundle of information. It provides a bit of background pre-5, and some cool easter egg moments while you're playing the game, but that's it.
In short, it's a really well written book, a window that goes deeper into an amazing game series, and if you don't want to read it you don't have to. But, I do strongly recommend it if you are a fan of the Gears games. It's paced very nicely and can be tackled in just a handful of days. So hit up Amazon,or your local Barnes & Noble and grab a copy of this one if you can!
To top it all off, nothing happens in the book that is necessary to have knowledge on, and to me that's a big plus in a situation like this. Not all gamers like to read, for any number of reasons. So it's nice to see that the book basically serves as just a little bonus bundle of information. It provides a bit of background pre-5, and some cool easter egg moments while you're playing the game, but that's it.
In short, it's a really well written book, a window that goes deeper into an amazing game series, and if you don't want to read it you don't have to. But, I do strongly recommend it if you are a fan of the Gears games. It's paced very nicely and can be tackled in just a handful of days. So hit up Amazon,or your local Barnes & Noble and grab a copy of this one if you can!
4.5/5
