Metal Gear Solid by Raymond Benson
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Book Reviews of Metal Gear Solid
Book Review: Great Story, Great Read
Summary: 4 Stars
Great book that follows the storyline from MGS completely. The only problem i had was that in the beginning of the book Snake has a very arrogant personality, but torwards the end he acts more like the cool and calm hero we all love. Excellent book. BUY :)Book Review: SATISFYING READ
Summary: 4 Stars
I found this book to be very entertaining. As a long time fan and player fo the games, I feel that Benson captured the nature and milieu of the game quite well. He fleshed the characters out well and his descriptive language is top notch.Book Review: Pretty cheesy, but alright
Summary: 4 Stars
This novel is pretty cheesy, but it's alright if you're a serious Metal Gear fan.Book Review: Metal Gear is Well-Suited for Books
Summary: 3 Stars
But this isn't so great. I can't help but wonder how or why this Raymond Benson was let to do the novelization of Metal Gear Solid. Obviously no one ever told him the old adage "show, don't tell" because he does a lot of telling. And some of my favorite moments of MGS:TTS were omitted (though I'm not sure if the book is based on the original MGS or the remake. If it was based on the original, this could be okay.) I have no idea why Ocelot got a prosthetic arm in this novel, though, since he wasn't supposed to until MGS2.
The novel goes through the actions of the game to almost exact detail except for a few points. Many choice lines were kept from the original script or changed around only slightly. And the boss battles were changed to be slightly more realistic (Snake obviously couldn't hold fifty Stinger missile projectiles or an entire arsenal as he snuck around. He only uses the SOCOM, PSG-1, various grenades, and the Nikita and Stinger).
But it's not really as dramatic. There's little sensory detail. Little description. A lot of it is "Snake did this" "Snake did that" and such. A few things were added like scenes on the submarine and in Master Miller's house and the begining of the book, which is nice. And there was a small tidbit added during a section of the game that referenced an event in one of the early MGS4 trailers, which was neat.
It's not bad, really. I'm a big Metal Gear Solid fan and liked it. But I'd only read it again if I were for some reason unable to play the game. The game's just better. Many of the most dramatic and emotional scenes from MGS:TTS were made a bit bland and some of the most exciting ones were toned down, which is not okay.
It's as three-stars as you can get. It's... solid... enough, but it's not good literature. I'm working on a few novels and I don't consider myself a "great" writer, but I think I could have done a bit better of a job writing this than Mr. Benson. Which really says a lot.
Buy it if you're a big Metal Gear fan. If you want a military-sci-fi story with an intruiging plot but not much else, it might be good for you. But if you're wanting to get into the Metal Gear series or want to see the story in its best form, pick up Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. It's way better and can be picked up for less than $20 and a GameCube for less than $100. If you think it's not worth it, you're wrong--the game just is that good--good enough to warrant buying a system just for it.
But I hope if there are more Metal Gear novel adaptations to come, someone else comes forward to do them. Sorry, Raymond Benson, but you have more to learn.
Note: Something weird I noticed, too. SPOILERS. If you haven't played the game or read the book, don't continue reading this. I found it odd that Master Miller gave Snake their secret code to switch channels with the suggestion he change cigarette brands. Because Miller couldn't have known about that, being Liquid in disguise. Is this a slip or something the author didn't think about? Or did I miss something?
Book Review: Unremarkable, but entertaining
Summary: 3 Stars
A huge fan of the Metal Gear Solid series, I was curious when I heard that they were releasing a novelization. What further got my curiousity was that Raymond Benson would be writing it - I'm also a huge James Bond fan, and starting in 1997, Benson wrote novelizations to several of the Bond films, as well as six of his own Bond novels. Though his original novels felt much like the Bond films themselves, Benson has made it clear that the Ian Fleming Foundation (who hold the literary Bond rights) wanted him to basically make his novels the films in print, in terms of style - plenty of sex, gadgets, and silly one-liners. However, Benson took some chances with his original novels that paid off, so I had some hope for his Metal Gear Solid novelization.
The finished product, however, is quite unremarkable. As others have surely pointed out, the vast majority of the dialogue is basically taken word-for-word from the game, as if Benson was given a transcript of the game and told to work from that. Benson does offer some new touches, partially in the way of awful "jokes", if you can call them that. When asked by one of the villains if he is as good a soldier as his legendary father, hero Solid Snake responds, "I don't know. I didn't bring my RULER." And yes, in the novel, Benson actually italicized the "ruler" bit. So having read a few negative reactions and having flipped through and reading some of these atrocious lines myself, I thought I'd give the book a pass. But with the new game, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, only a few days away, I thought I'd rip through the book if nothing else but to get even more psyched up for it.
In the end, the novel was quick and entertaining. It basically took me a day to read, and I enjoyed it. Yeah, some of those moments were cringe-worthy, but it was a good way to brush up on the story in a day (that's all it should really take you).
If you're a fan of the games, then it's worth checking out if you ever find it on sale, but it's not really worth the full price, unless you're a collector like I am. Otherwise, I'd recommend playing the game instead.