Before you start, No, this is not the video game. I read StarCraft Ghost: Nova the book. It is supposed to give you some back story on the character “Nova” who was to be the heroine of StarCraft: Ghost (the video game). The book release was supposed to coincide with the game, but alas the game never materialized. Fortunately for us, the book was still written so they still went ahead and published it (way back in 2006). I realize this review is a wee bit late, but I read it and enjoyed it and thought it was worth sharing.
So the first thing that I must say is that this is not the first video game series gone book that I’ve read. I’ve read and enjoyed all of the Halo books, when I started with Halo: Contact Harvest which I’ve previously blogged about. This was my first book in the StarCraft realm though, and it was most definitely enjoyable.
(No Plot Spoilers)
The book follows young Nova Terra who’s family is some of the rich old blood. In her family’s care she’s initially just empathic (and later a telepathic) which would normally get you sent into the Ghost program, but as her parents were rich, that didn’t happen. Terrible things happen and as it turns out, she’s not only a telepathic, but telekinetic and an uber powerful one at that. The story line is quite interesting, but mostly I think the book is a fascinating view into how a powerful telepath might experience life. In the Babylon 5 universe, all telepaths can be trained to block out “mundanes”. In this book, Nova discusses things ranging from peoples mundane thoughts to what their last thought is before death. It might be a bit creepy, but a fascinating view none the less.
Up until this book, I thought being a telepath (in real life) would be super cool. This book certainly made me think twice about that. In the end, if you have a fascination with telepaths or just like the StarCraft universe, you will enjoy this book. While I’ve not read all the other StarCraft books yet, this one is definitely set apart from the others. The only thing that will let you down is knowing that a sequel to the book is highly unlikely.