If you’re both a reader and a gamer, as I am, you’ve undoubtedly had the experience of finishing a novel, setting it down and thinking to yourself, “Dang. Someone should really make a video game out of that.” I think we can all agree that the following books fall under that category.
The Book(s):
The Banned and the Banished series by James Clemens which begins with Witch Fire. On a night of grim change, with the Dark Lord’s armies marching to conquer the last vestige of freedom that remains to their land, the final living Blood Mages perform a rite to secure a future for Alasea. Three centuries later, a young girl named Elena “ripens into the heritage of lost power”, becoming the first new blood mage in three centuries. Hunted by the Dark Lord’s monsters, she must draw on the aid of outcasts and renegades to survive and forge a resistance.
But Elena’s new power does not symbolize a return of the once cherished Blood Mages. For the old order were the male Blood Mages, of whom there can be many. When a woman is chosen as a Blood Mage, there can be only one. The fate of an entire people rests on her shoulders alone, and not everyone is happy about that fact.
As Elena battles against not only the Dark Lord, but her own resistance to the wildly dangerous magic she harbors and what it symbolizes for the people of Alasea, these amazing books take a hard look at the burden of power and the struggle of being a powerful woman. The idea of power as a corrupting force in people’s lives is a constant theme, and very few of the cast escape the series without at least some exposure to this idea. Many of Elena’s allies harbor elemental magic, a form different from her own blood magic, that stems from the earth but can be corrupted and twisted into truly sick and evil perversions of itself when the elemental feels the Dark Lord’s touch. And of course there’s the influence of Elena’s blood magic, the sheer power of which on its own can be corrupting.
Why It Should Be A Game:
The narrative style of these books has a visual quality that lends itself to a gaming medium, in my estimation. The goals the characters undertake, particularly in the later books in the series, would make amazing and action packed missions or mission arcs. Getting to experiment with Elena’s blood magic and play as other characters to experiment with elemental magic and other aspects of the story would keep any completionist happy. Plus, the emotional connections of the characters would transition well into the combat in-game, providing a visceral emotional experience. If “Mass Effect” taught us anything, its that players can connect with game characters just as deeply as readers can connect with novel characters if the game is made right. I can imagine playing as Er’ril the one armed swordsman, battling against his former lover and the mother of his dead child, an elemental he long thought perished who was actually corrupted by the Dark Lord into a wicked spider demon, who still reels from the torment of her lost child and has become the ultimate dark mother in her corrupted anguish. What I can’t imagine is completing that battle, striking the final blow in-game, and not shedding the same tear I did when I read about it in the book. A studio who could do justice to the emotional strings James Clemens pulls would find a well of wonderful storytelling in this piece of fantasy.
Do you know a book that should definitely be a video game? Tell us about it in the comments!
