Crysis: Escalation

Crysis

by Gavin G. Smith

2020. First contact with the alien Ceph. A team of nanosuited soldiers led by Major Barnes, codename Prophet, were sent in to the Lingshan Islands. Few survived. But the alien menace was held back.

2023. The Ceph took New York. A dying Prophet passed on his nanosuit to a Marine named Alcatraz. Once again the suit´s powerful technology saved the day.

Now death has returned to the ruins of New York. Enclosed by the massive Liberty Dome, controlled by the powerful and corrupt company CELL, the city is a battleground. CELL troopers, resistance fighters and deadly Ceph stalk the streets. And hidden in the city is a secret that will destroy the world.

Set between CRYSIS 2 and CRYSIS 3, these hard-hitting stories tell of the world´s decline into a corporate nightmare and the beginnings of the resistance. Perfect as an introduction to the world of CRYSIS, they also provide fascinating background and detail for existing players. Featuring fan-favourite characters such as Prophet, Psycho, Alcatraz and more, the linked stories build up into one shattering narrative.

The enemy are here. The time is now. Suit up.

Genres: Science Fiction, Anthologies, Fantasy, Fiction

294 pages, Hardcover

First published February 21, 2013

About the author

Gavin Smith was born in Dundee in the same year that Iron Butterfly recorded Inna-Gadda-da-Vida. He has also lived in Camberley, Hayling Island, Portsmouth, Hull, Leamington Spa and is currently living a near feral existence in Leicester (if you see him in the streets he will write science fiction for sweeties). Anyone who has been to any of these places will understand why his fiction is like it is.

He has a degree in writing for film and a Masters in medieval history. Veteran is his first novel but he is patiently waiting for one of the 2.5 scripts that have been optioned to be turned into films.

He likes to travel and dive when he can afford it and in his free time he enjoys getting the s**t kicked out of him whilst practicing Silat. He is hoping that his books do well so he can buy a motorbike.

Reviews

[Letande D'Argon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let’s start from the beginning. The first thing you need to know about this book is that it’s based on video games from Crysis series. Not only on one certain game, but on all of them together (in this case artwork from Crysis 3 on cover may be a bit misleading). So, you’ll need to play all the games in order to fully understand what’s going on in the book. If you’re just a Sci-Fi geek, who picks random books to read, it isn’t for you. Second, it’s a part of “bubblegum literature” as I call it. Something that you’ll read once and forget about it after you’ll finish with it. One of those books that aren’t even trying to be special and left a proper trace in history. Just something to keep your occupied in public transport, or when you have some time to kill and don’t want to start with proper works of art. Keep all that in mind. Now let’s go into the details.

Crysis: Escalation is some sort of collection of the short stories that interact with each other and with some events from the original video games series at the same time. As I already said, it is really cheap reading with nothing really special about it. It’s written in really simple way without any special style, or skill. Just your usual cheap Sci-Fi. But there’s certain something that Gavin G. Smith was able to achieve. Something that Peter Watts wasn’t in his Crysis: Legion (official Crysis 2 novelization). And that “something” is - Gavin G. Smith was able to make a reason for us to read his work. I mean, in Crysis: Legion there was literally nothing. Just poor and boring retelling of video game events. Just running and shooting. Nothing else. Crysis: Escalation, on the other hand, offers much more.

We’ll learn Michael Sykes’ (Psycho) backstory up to the point where he joined Raptor Team (Crysis 1), we’ll meet some characters that didn’t have enough attention before (like Daniel Østergaard from Eagle Team that appeared in Crysis Warhead and Chino from Crysis 2), we’ll learn more about Prophet / Alcatraz inner conflict that Peter Watts failed to describe properly in Crysis: Legion, we’ll get horror-like story in John McTiernan's Predator movie style, etc, etc, etc. There’s a lot of things to make you keep reading and stories aren’t very long to bore you. And it was a right thing to do, because Crysis: Legion felt like there was no need for it to be 320 pages long. Again and again you wondered why it’s so long, while it tells you exactly nothing new. All in all Crysis: Escalation is not much shorter, but the idea about short stories makes it much more exciting. You'll learn about different things from different points of Crysis timeline and right when you’ll start to get tired of one story, you’ll jump to another. It works perfectly and, unlike Crysis: Legion, Crysis: Escalation is really easy to read.

All that plays in favor of this book. All in all, it may be a cheap reading that means exactly nothing to Sci-Fi history, but as an addition to video games it’s much better than Crysis: Legion. Gavin G. Smith even tried to go deeper into characters, so, this book isn’t that bad if all you want is to learn something new about the characters from Crysis series, about their past, inner conflicts and what happened to them after we met them in games. Still not worth the full price (since this kind of books feel more like products, not art, I think that it’s also important to mention the price), but at least Crysis: Escalation is something that worth your time if you’re a fan of Crysis games. Don’t expect much and you can get some fun from it.

[Tymoteusz Grzegorczyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bardzo dobre uzupełnienie fabuły serii Crysis, wprowadza wiele nowych wątków i przybliża losy postaci przed, jak i po dwóch pierwszych grach z serii, według mnie pozycja obowiązkowa dla fana tej franczyzy.

[Chris The Lizard from Planet X · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crysis: Escalation by Gavin Smith, is an anthology video game tie-in novel containing short stories set in the world of EA’s/Crytech’s “Crysis” video game franchise.

Crysis: Escalation features eight short stories set through out the Crysis video game universe.

Chance Part 1 and 2: After various missions across the world hunting the supposed “Alpha Ceph” surviving Raptor team members Prophet and Psycho have grown tired and fractured on what their real mission is. When their discovered by CELL forces and captured.

The Cult: Focused on a younger Laurence Barnes (aka Prophet) as he leads a special forces squad in the jungles of Columbia. His mission to investigate a abandoned village infected by a mysterious virus.

Schism: Focusing on Alcatraz/Prophet hybrid as both identities struggle for control of the human body in the nanosuit.

Archaeology: Focuses on CELL security specialist Amanda Cross as she and her team guard an abandoned Ceph site, and are ruthlessly stalked by a mysterious enemy.

Daimyo (A Fragment): Focusing on Marine Corps General Sherman Barclay after exposing the truth about CELL’s control on the US government. He’s labeled a traitor and makes a last stand against corporate assassins sent after him.

Refuse/Resist: Captain Cyrus Harper a British navel Captain of a newly commissioned CELL stealth missile destroyer HMS Robin Hood has divided loyalties when the CELL owed British government orders him to fire on resistance fighters in the ruins of New York.

The Goat: After a failed attack by the Resistance forces in CELL occupied New York ex-Marine Chino and surviving Resistance fighters find themselves on the run in the ruins of New York from both CELL forces and the alien Ceph.

A Foreign Country: As Michael Sykes (aka Psycho) is tortured in a CELL skinning lab. He retreats into his memories and remembers what got him into the military and put on Raptor team to escape the pain.

Crysis: Escalation is the perfect companion to (2013) Crysis 3 video game. It’s interesting, exciting, and fast-paced – three things that make any book an enjoyable read. I honestly think you’d like this book if you haven’t even played the Crysis games if you love military sci-fi stories. You might struggle a little if you have zero knowledge of the games, but I can guarantee you it’s worth it. (And it will definitely make you want to play them)

The book is very well written, the plot is intriguing and I particularly loved the fact that the various short stories are focused on multiple characters spread throughout the Crysis universe. It’s also a lovely treat to anyone who’s played first two Crysis games because it mentions characters from the first two game installments and you get to know what’s happened to them! Basically, if you want to know what happens after the end of Crysis 2 this is exactly what you’re going to get in Escalation, as well as an exciting set up for Crysis 3.

An interesting collection of related short stories about events in the Crysis universe, importantly providing the back story for Crysis 3’s opening as well as more depth to the setting. I found the characters interesting and varied, and given the nature of the setting I felt loss when some of them died. The sense of people struggling to make the best of a bad situation came across well, the main characters felt fleshed out and believable. These stories help given context to what life is like for the ordinary people in the Crysis world, as well as operatives of C.E.L.L. corporation.

While I found this a solid novel the biggest problem is that a few of side characters from the Crysis trilogy are not mentioned nor are their fates. Although minor reasons, that's why I didn't give the book a perfect rating.

Overall, this is a quick, fun read which either introduces you to or brings you back to Crysis game world. I also would like to thank the author for respecting the game lore and characters without changing anything major. Author Gavin Smith clearly did his research and managed to give what any Crysis fans what they were looking for a entertaining prequel that leads into Crysis 3 game.

[Jarosław Loretz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nie aż tak częsty w dzisiejszej epoce przypadek książki opartej na komputerowej grze, nie skierowanej w aż tak oczywisty sposób do młodocianego czytelnika. Wciąż jednak jest to literatura niejako drugiego sortu - pospiesznie pisana (i wydawana), z uproszczonym tłem i szkicową psychologią postaci.

Mimo że "Crysis: Eskalacja" powstała głównie dla graczy i stanowi przede wszystkim łącznik drugiej odsłony gry z trzecią, dopowiadający różne detale fabuły i wyraźniej przedstawiający występujące tam postaci, autor nie zapomniał o osobach, które na co dzień stronią od komputerowych rozrywek. W efekcie książka bez problemu broni się jako samodzielny byt - ma rozpoznawalnych bohaterów, w miarę satysfakcjonująco pogłębione tło i coś, co od biedy można wziąć za intrygę. Od biedy - bo nie jest to faktycznie powieść, a raczej zbiór opowiadań, generalnie skaczących w czasie i przestrzeni, ale trzymających się kilku podstawowych wątków lub osób. Przypomina to ciąg kolorowych kamyków nanizanych na fabularny sznurek, którym z jednej strony jest postępująca korporyzacja świata i związane z tym społeczne tarcia (większość armii - wliczając w to marynarkę brytyjską i amerykańskich marines - stała się własnością jednej firmy, a żołnierze dostali dożywotnie kontrakty), z drugiej zaś wybudzenie uśpionych od milionów lat gdzieś głęboko pod ziemią obcych form życia zwanych Cepidami, które to formy zaczynają szykować się do kolonizacji naszego globu. Wybucha krwawa walka, w wyniku której zniszczeniu ulega kilka ogromnych miast, w tym Nowy Jork, opanowany przez zabójczego wirusa.

Tak jak napisałem na początku - nie jest to literatura wysokich lotów, ale czyta się ją szybko i - chwilami - z rzeczywistym zainteresowaniem (wizja wstrząsanego różnymi starciami świata, powoli pogrążającego się w chaosie i wtórnym niewolnictwie).

(Esensja.pl)

[Sheity Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book for the video game fans, in case you wanted to know a bit more about the lore. Otherwise, I'd say this book is not worth your time.

[Ben O'Brien · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crysis:Escalation by Gavin Smith, is a well written and well rounded book. When I look for a book, I look for 3 major components: action,suspense, and mystery. Crisis covers all 3 of those attributes. In the first third of the book, Crysis covers action. On many different occasions, the protagonists face dangers such as military contractors, and entire villages of disease riddled residents. In the second part of this thriller, we walk in the shoes of the antagonists, CELL. In this post-apocalyptic society, CELL is buying up all the big military players, the Marines, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and even His Majesties Navy, or the Royal Navy. The CELL Military Contractors face dangerous contact with what they think is the alien race Ceph, which was supposed to be eliminated. However, they find some of their crew decimated, by an unknown killing machine. After this, the begin an all-out manhunt, in order to find this monster. Finally, they have more contact with the mysterious killer. Soon, they find out that this murderer is not an alien, but a nano-suited warrior. In the ending part of the novel, a few CELL contractors search the Ceph and resistance fighter ridden New York City for any way to get back to HQ. Ceph Stalkers (a type of the alien) kill 2 of the crew members then set out to kill Chino, who was at this point the last remaining crew member. Chino desperately searched New York for a decent last standoff. He finds a submerged van, and then fires a flare to begin the final resistance. All is well until he runs out of ammo. Ceph swarm him until Dane, the super soldier, saves him. Crysis is a well rounded book with lots to get excited about.

[Nikola · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good short stories in the world of Crysis.

This novel consists of several short stories that take place between the games Crysis 2 and 3. The stories take place years apart and flesh out the world of Crysis. Some of the stories are sort of origin stories for a couple of the characters, so those stories obviously take place before the Crysis games.

You get to know where characters like Prophet, Psycho and Alcatraz came from and you also get to know the corrupt organization CELL and the resistance group fighting them.

I recommend this book to anybody who enjoys the games and would like to flesh out the characters and world of Crysis. Since it mostly takes place between Crysis 2 and 3, its recommended that you have played the the games leading up to Crysis 3.

I just started playing the third game before I started reading this book, kept the gameplay on hold until I finished the book and now I feel that I understand the world allot more. So, playing the games up until the third one, then reading the book and then finally playing the third game is a good way to go.

[Shane Kiely · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid collection of short stories, much better than a video game tie in should be, though it does seem aimed at those who've played the previous games. Fans of Gavin Smith's other work should enjoy this.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay at best. Not great. You certainly won't remember it after you've finished it.

The one thing that really annoyed me though, was that how every time someone picked up a gun, the make and model had to be listed. It just got tedious constantly reading MK.60.

[Krzysztof · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too short.