Gears of War: Aspho Fields

well let me start by saying that i am i huge gears of war fan, when i bought this book i really did think that it was going to be on those things that was just going to be tring to "milk" the gears of war franchise for all its worth. Well i am happy to say that i was indeed wrong. the author ,karen traviss, is on the new york times best sellers list so i do feel bad for under estimating the book. the thing that i like to think that gear heads will love about this book is that the book helps you understand more about the main characters. lets take dom for example anyone who played the games knows that he is looking for someone (not going to ruin it for people who have not yet finished or played the games.), but reading this you find out that there is even more to this already deep character. marcus,cole, and dare a say it even baird seem more human after reading this book. Also the author does a very good job making the words on the page convey the sense of emotion that she wanted you to feel. when times were happy in the book i smiled and laughed with the gears, and when times where sad i felt honest sadness. there is one part of the book in particualr that i almost did cry just because the discription made me feel as if i were there. the author does a creat job of making the characters feel not like people in a video game or just some people on a page that are faceless, as you read the book you find yourself starting to relly wanting people to live and some of the characters atuaclly start to get on your nerves with smart remarks. In the end i would have to say that this book is a five out of five. because it does everything a book should dom it emerses you into the world. its a five out of five because of the fact that to gears of war players it helps you understand why the characters are so close, and for people who have never played the game and are on the fence about it. It is a great way to get introduced into the franchies you get to know the characters you will be seeing and characters that will be seen later in the game. this book is muct read for anyone who enjoys a good book. i hope this review was helpful, and i hope everyone that buys or reads this book loves it as much as i do.

This book was awesome i am a huge GoW fan and the book complements the games very nicely. it explains allot about every aspect of the games. The book flipped from 14 years after Eday and and before Eday during the Pendulum war. some other posters left some bad reviews about how it was dumb that it did flip between the two times but i have to say they are wrong and by flipping between both times(14 years after Eday and the Pendulum war) it gave you a history of how the COGS began and there purpose and by doing so it answered allot of questions and explained why the plant Sera is they way it is present day. when you read the book or play the game you see the planet Sera they are on and it has been ravaged by 90+ years of intense war.i guess without a understanding of the history of everything and not flipping back to the past one always wonders why and how things got to be and by knowing a history it adds so much more to it.at least it did for me, its allot more than just a game with cut scenes explaining a few things in between. the book explains allot about the major characters also. It would like to see the next book focus on Eday in great detail and hopefully more books will follow because this is one of the greatest stories and there is so much more they could write into more books.I just finsihed the book the other day and during reading it i could not put it down, i think i am going to read again here soon. it is well worth the time to read and a great story. i also thought the author described things with great detail for example when she described the locust getting chainsawed it made you feel as if you was watching your tv screen and chainsawing them yourself while playing your xbox !

"Aspho Fields" is simultaneously a sequel and prequel to Gears of War 1. The main plot is set just after the Lightmass Offensive, but there are also extensive flashbacks revolving around the Battle of Aspho Fields, a major event in the Pendulum Wars where Marcus Fenix became a legend. BLUF: I would give this a solid 4/5. For a video game tie-in, I was not expecting this novel to be as engaging and readable as it was. Honestly, if you like Gears of War, definitely give this a read. The author, Karen Traviss, has served in the military and has been a defense correspondent and it shows. The way she describes things and the lingo she uses lends an authenticity to the novel that I wasn't expecting. I would love for her to write a Warhammer 40,000 Astra Militarum novel for Games Workshop. The novel isn't perfect. Often, dialogue between characters felt forced, drawn out, or uncharacteristic, as if Karen was just grasping for words to fill out a conversation. An example is when Marcus tells Bernie that Baird is just a scared kid, only for Bernie to remind Marcus that he and Baird are around the same age. Karen's characterization of Colonel Hoffman as highly caring and guilt-ridden also felt very weird. Gears of War 1 is a gritty game with a lot of horror-lite elements. There are jump scares, creepy moments, a dark and hopeless atmosphere, and unsettling images. There's nothing like that in "Aspho Fields" and I don't think it's much of a stretch to say that Karen Traviss (who would go on to become the lead writer for Gears 3) is a major reason the Gears franchise transitioned from a "gritty sci-fi military shooter with horror elements" to a "dramatic sci-fi military shooter with mature themes." I personally liked the tone of the first game the best.

This book is so great! To all out there who love Gears of War, this is a good background story. Me myself, I picked the book up today by accident and wasn't disappointed. What I like about it is it answers some of the questions raised in Gears 1 and 2 and it goes into depth with the characters. The games are good fun and good story, but reading this book, is like reading the book to the lord of the rings. You get so many good details, and the story describes many things the game doesn't bother with. Normally I would say that a book wouldn't be required to a game, but in the case of Gears it's a different story. Also as the story progresses from the first to the second game, this is a untold story, which can only be read. My favorite thing about this book is Dom Santiago. In the game I didn't really care for Dom, I focused my attention on Marcus and his story, Cole and his jokes, Baird and his wise comment, but overlooked Dom's personality. However the book gives us such a good background story of Dom Santiago that the game fails to deliver. The Maria Scene in Gears 2 is the best adaptation of the love he has for his wife, but the rest of the Dom scenes in the game is quite obsolete, compared to the book. Also the friendship between the four Gears really fits to the slogan of Gears 3 "Brothers to the end." If you love the game and have the time/energy for reading, this is a must buy, it is such a good story in addition to the game and provides a lot of information that you won't see in the game.

Fast shipping. Looks great. Love gears of war

Not only does this book offer some great back back-story on the "Gears of War" series, it's stands as an excellent war story. Traviss takes hardened warriors and spills their guts on the table for examination. Forgoing the temptation to make two-dimensional super-soldier heroes, she takes you for an inside look at their world and what it takes to survive it. The pressures, the camaraderie, the adrenaline of combat, self-doubt, and the weight of the past threatening to tear down the present and future. Having Traviss as the author of all the novels (and, I believe, of the third game) offers a great way to have narrative consistency throughout for the entire series. The audiobook is wonderfully narrated by David Colacci as he manages to give all the characters and narration distinct voices, accents, and attitudes. Having listened to other audiobooks by narrators with less range always disappointed me, but Colacci delivers in ways I've never heard before. Having experienced this wonderful collaboration, I will definitely be picking up a copy of the second novel, "Jacinto's Remnant".

Book is at 4 1/2 rating. I really got into this book, it answers many questions people have especially since the first game takes place 14 or so years into E-Day and this tells all of what happened before then when they were kids so about 25 years in the past and just a week after the events of the first game. Shows how Marcus came to be such close friends with Dom and how their journey began as Gears together, yes many people complained about the constant jumping back and fourth between time periods but if you paid attention then that shouldn't be a problem just imagine its a video game scene I have never had that much jumping in between times, its a first and I found myself really pulled in by it. It goes into depth on Marcus and why he is the way he is, very detached and how he grew up compared to Doms family. It tells just how much emotions a lot of these men and women have and the struggles they have gone through since day one, there are many scenes where they are very vivid to me because it was well written in my opinion, it tells you what the characters are feeling and you get to be inside these characters shoes. There are very deep well written pieces of text's here and tell a whole untold story all together. Any REAL Gears fan should read up on these novels because they tell nothing that are in the video games, trust me you may even end up feeling different about some of the characters once you get some more back-story on them! FRAG OUT!

My review is based on the Kindle Fire Edition. This was the first e-book I ever downloaded for my Kindle Fire which is a tell-tale indication that I am a Gears of War fan. I have played all three games and enjoyed them immensely. Aspho Fields gives a taste of the back story and history for the characters in the game and the world of Sera. It doesn't give you a complete picture immediately as this is part a series of books on the Gears universe. More like a tantalizing start and a promise for more information in later volumes. The book does fill in the gaps and adds more depth to which in turn creates a better understanding of the game characters. As I read through the book you almost have to meld the book and the game together and you come to a new appreciation for Gears of War in general. The book's narrative style consists of jumping from flashbacks to present day. However, I did find the book difficult to read despite being a fan of the franchise. Knowing what things look like in the world of Sera, based on the game, I would have thought reading through the book would make comprehending the storytelling easier but it didn't. The flow of the story was plodding and monotonous. It felt like the author pulled Gears info to build a frame of a story around that info, threw in some dialogue and hope that the reader is familiar enough with the Gears universe to hold the whole thing together. The storytelling could have been better. I don't know if it's the pace or the author's writing style, but I wanted more creativity and it felt factual. Maybe because this is the first book and because it is a game franchise, things are already set in stone which might limit how the story is told? I don't know but I found myself wishing there was more to the way the story was told then what was presented. If you are not familiar with Gears of War at all, this book will not be a good read. It's going to be shallow at best and would not hold your interest. If you're a fan, like me, who found the characters and story endearing in the game than this book is more like a supplemental to the whole experience. Recommended to any Gears of War fan looking for a good read about the game we all love. On a technical note, some pages on the Kindle Fire version would come up blank. In order to bring out the page I had to press on where a word would be to highlight the word and that fixes the missing page. It pops up.

Ich liebe die Gears Serie und ALLE Bücher von Karen Traviss sind absolut top! Sie erweitern das Gears Universum um Einiges und bringen eine Menge Tiefe mit sich. Man lernt sehr viel über die Schicksale von allen Hauptcharakteren, was einem ohne Buch nie möglich gewesen wäre. Absolute Kaufempfehlung für Gears Fans!

Bellissimo e perfetto

If you like Gears of War this is gonna make you connect with the main character in a deeper level. It's a great read.

I really am not the target demographic for this book. First off I don't play computer games and I don't read military SF... except for maybe Tanya Huff and Karen Traviss. If it hadn't been for the fact that I love Traviss' Star Wars Republic Commando books I would never have looked at this twice let alone picked it up... and if that had been the case I would have missed out because this book is good. It's hard to compare because - as I say - I don't have much Mil-SF in my reading repertoire to compare it with, but as a book about believable characters in extreme circumstances, coming to terms with the pain that life has thrown at them in the past and is still throwing at them in the present, this works really well. I'm not gushing; though it's by no means slow to start the action, it took me fifty or so pages to really get into this - possibly because I must be one of the few people on the planet who had no clue what Gears of War was about - but once I got into the pattern of this book and began to understand some of the world background it all fell into place. It's a pair of stories, one set in the book's present and the other in its past. The present story tells of humankind's fight for survival against an alien menace which has emerged from beneath the surface of their planet to destroy most of the population and reduce cities to rubble. The backstory is of three boys growing to be men and soldiers during the last few years of an eighty year war between human factions (pre alien menace) culminating in the Battle of Aspho Fields and the death of one of the trio. It's about secrets untold and words never said and the damage they can do which runs as deep as bullets. Traviss has a knack or putting a human face on war. You can tell in every line that she has deep respect for the men and women on the front line everywhere, in fact and in fiction, and she knows what she's talking about. (It's obvious she does from her bio.) The characters are, if not always likeable, compelling and - yes - I cared what happened to them, and what will happen to them, for though this book has a satisfying conclusion, Traviss has wisely not wrapped up all the loose threads. There are plenty more untold secrets out there, people left behind in need of retrieval, and a new threat developing for the ragtag bag of resource-depleted humans. This book says it's the prequel to the award winning video game. Hopefully there's room for at least another prequel and possibly more. I'll be watching out for them.

One of the Best novel I have read. Was delivered on time and with good packing.