I'm like the game, and am going to get the collectibles, so I thought I'd add the book to my collection.

Yeah, a book of a video game. I wasn't actually expecting much, so I wasn't disappointed.

Another reviewer has already covered some of the deficiencies in description, and writing style, with which I agree holeheartedly. What really bugged me - enough to break suspension of disbelief - were the patterns of typos.

Often, 'and' became 'arid' and 'bad' -> 'had'. It happened often enough that I began to suspect that they were OCR artifacts, as if the manuscript had been scanned for printing.

Those aside, it wasn't as bad as I had been expecting. A good choice was made to set the book well away from the actual game - it avoided the obvious problems when your gameplay would break the plot of the novel.

Of course, you know you're hard core when your game character takes down a demon that causes such trouble to a seasoned Templar at the very start. ( )

Hellgate: London: Exodus (that's a lot of colons in one title!) is the first in a promised trilogy of novels based on the Hellgate: London video game. I wouldn't normally read a book based on a video game, but the world sounded intriguing and the author was a name I recognized (from other video game based books, true). So I took the plunge. Am I happy I did? Read on.

Exodus opens eighteen years prior to the video game. For unknown reasons, a portal has just opened in London allowing extra-dimensional 'demons' to pour through. The city has been evacuated (for the most part) and the army's attempts to stop the invasion proved disastrous. Luckily they aren't alone. News reports filter out showing armored knights taking the fight to the demons. The Knights Templar knew the demon invasion would come some day and have been holing up underground for centuries, quietly funding research into advanced weapon technologies. There is a third side in the struggle, as it turns out the New Agers really were on to something. Once the demons arrive, they find their arcane powers have increased dramatically. These 'Cabalists' have an agenda all their own; sometimes aiding the Templars, sometimes fighting them.

In to this mess steps Simon Cross, a prodigal Templar son. He starts the book as a tour guide in South Africa. Years before he turned his back on his upbringing and what he deemed the Templar's superstitious belief in 'monsters'. After seeing news footage of the knights battling demon hordes in front of St. Paul's cathedral, he decides he'd better hoof it back to London and fast. This is an excellent set-up for the novel as we get to see this newly changed world through Simon's eyes, learning the lay of the land as he does.

This is all good goofy fun and Mel Odom has a real storyteller's knack for pacing and plot. The book moves swiftly through its four hundred and fifty pages. Characters and situations are introduced to be followed up during the next two installments.

Unfortunately where he falls down is his actual writing style. The writing here is poor. Multiple times through the book he would use the same word repetitively in a sentence or paragraph. I lost count of the times I read something similar to the following: He backed up against the window, firing his weapon while he broke the window. Turning quickly he jumped out of the broken window.

Another thing about the writing is the lack of description. Terseness has its place in a potboiler like this, but everything I've seen for Hellgate: London (including the cover of this book) is chock full of knights in elaborately decorated armor or demons with gnarled horns, sharp claws and sharper teeth. This book was crying out for at least some involved descriptive passages. As it was, none of the armor was described in any real detail aside from perhaps the color pattern. Without looking through promo materials for the game I can only tell you what a couple of the demons look like. I would have liked to 'see' more.

The question is do the story-telling faults prevent me from enjoying the book? Yes they do. Intriguing as the world was, I was not moved to pick up the rest of the series. I would not pick up another book based on Mel Odom being the author. ( )