Some time ago, I don’t remember when (and am too lazy to check Goodreads), I read the first novel in the Doom series called Doom Knee-Deep in the Dead. I read it and that was it. Fast forward to the present and not so long ago I picked up the second novel in the Doom series, Doom Hell on Earth, to find out how it all went. So far I read about 60 pages of it and have very mixed feelings on the question. That’s why I decided to wait till I’ll finish it and instead write the note about the first novel, Doom Knee-Deep in the Dead.
Even though I don’t remember when I read this novel, I remember how I read it. It was right after I finished 50 Shades Darker and decided to treat myself and read something really rare. The novelization of Doom. Yep, the Doom. And yes, I was sort of surprised how you could novelize something with a plot like Doom, where the main hero is a badass marine who goes on a rampage against the army of hell. And also on the constant lookout for blue, yellow, and red keys to open the doors and beat the level.
But let’s get straight to the chase. The novel was alright. At least for me. It has humor, internal monologue, personal reasons to go deeper and against all odds. It also has action. Lots of it. By the end of the 1/3rd of the book, the main character already punched his lieutenant, beat up two guards, killed a zombified friend, killed three more zombified people, and explained why the Marine Corps were the best Corps in the whole galaxy. And maybe also why he wasn’t qualified for deep space exploration missions. By the middle of the novel, he already killed several imps (who all of a sudden are sentient and can talk), almost swam in a pool of green, radioactive goo, and gave a backstory of why there’s one particular female character he particularly cares about. Something to do with apples and guns. And also I’m on the page where there’s a child-zombie (I guess I’m about to read how Doomguy punched out a child). As I said. Packed with action and unexpected turns.
On a more serious note, it might not be the pinnacle of literature, but to be honest, it’s okay. I know that my standards aren’t this high. I mean, after reading two 50 Shades, and feeling like at some point I’ll have no other choice but to read the third one, the novelization of the FPS shooter with the plot delivered in a separate txt file still reads like fun. I can’t be sure, but the dudes who wrote this apparently had a blast, because it’s a very easy read (unlike the second book, but I’ll talk about it next time). And also full of references to the original game (walking around the corridors and pushing walls for secrets is one of them). Maybe something is wrong with me, but I accept this novel for what it is – a novelization of the game that doesn’t try to take itself too seriously, doesn’t pretend to be an immortal work of art or something you should torture your kid in school.
And yes, I know fans criticized this novel. They didn’t like the character because he was too arrogant and cocky. They didn’t like too many unnecessary thoughts. They didn’t like that he was a devoted Christian and all that jazz. I get it. It all makes sense, considering that the only thing that was known about the original Doomguy was that he was tough, he was violent, and he had a pet bunny that was abducted, decapitated, and put on the spike to taunt Doomguy. Bad idea because Doomguy turned out to be not the turn another cheek sort of Christian. But rather I’ll drown Hell in your blood and there’s no UN to stop me kind of Christian. Radical.
And if it feels like Doomguy in the game and Fly Taggart in the novel are two completely different characters, you’re absolutely right. Because they are. While the original Doomguy is a silent force of nature, a one-man army capable of making bloodthirsty demons cry in dread and pray to God for forgiveness, the hero of the novel feels like a disturbed kind of person. Man with internal struggles, who tries to cover it up with a thick layer of army-grade humor and cynicism.
Spoiler: he stays that way. I expected that by the end of the book he was going to be the same character as the Doomguy from the comic book. Yeah, The Doom Comic. The one where the hero screamed the phrase that became canonical for the whole franchise, Rip and Tear. Also tried to punch out Cyberdemon with his bare fists (which didn’t work so well). Then kept running around the level spitting one-liners, some of which are actually pretty good and I would dare to say on the level of the 80s action movies. So yeah, I expected the hero of the novel to transform into a raging psycho who calls the chainsaw the great communicator… well… unfortunately, he didn’t.
Instead, he found his love interest, who is a tough lady-marine who is more of a Doomguy than the main hero could ever be. She’s tough to a point where you can’t stop asking yourself how did she survive all this time with a complete lack of rationality and common sense. With a chainsaw and zero fucks, that’s how. No, seriously. She charges the army of hell with a chainsaw. Twice. Typical Doom player moment, I suppose?
Anyway, from this point, the novel turns into a co-op playthrough. The heroes become your typical co-op players from the early 90s, who run around the level with a zero understanding of what is going on, what are they doing, what are their objectives, and instead just killing everything in sight. Unfortunately, that’s where the similarity to the game ends. The rest of the novel is basically an attempt to summarize the plot of the game by adding some weak motivation to the enemies and also one fat programmer to the mix (he dies).
The other thing that I’ve noticed were descriptions of demons and the way they behaved. While descriptions seemed more or less on point, and if you’ve played the game, you would recognize who the hero is talking about, but the fact that he gives them his own names is kind of weird. I understand why they did it. Obviously, the guy can’t know the official name of the demons, besides he isn’t the brightest one either and let’s just say that later, approximately in the middle of the novel, he and his love interest come up with the official names for the demons. The reasoning behind these names is cheesy, but come on, it’s hard to explain the names in the game that made its goal to be as edgy and action-packed as possible.
What actually was weird was the way demons and zombies behaved. For instance, the authors turned imps into sentient forms of life capable of talking, thinking, understanding their mission and environment, and using quite advanced guerrilla tactics. For example, they burned out maps to make it hard to navigate, they destroyed communications (which means they knew what coms were in the first place) and in one chapter these guys actually tried to ambush the hero by hiding behind the boxes and putting a shiny brand new gun in the spot of light. I know that Doom 1993 wasn’t this advanced, but there were no indications that imps were ever this smart (I didn’t read the in-game descriptions of the enemies, so I might be wrong here). And don’t get me wrong, Doom 1993 was a technical revolution at its time and still it is one of the best FPS ever made. I mean, I can run it even now, the vanilla version without any mods, and have a blast because it’s just this good.
So, again, I can clearly see why fans found this novelization terrible. Why they hated the main hero, and in general felt like the novel didn’t pay enough respect to the game. I get it. On the other hand, I can also say that I had a blast reading it. It’s not deep, it’s not pretending to have a complex plot, and the main hero doesn’t seem like a complex character full of internal struggles and desires either (even if he tries to prove you otherwise). It’s a simple, easy novel set in the world of Doom. In my personal opinion, you shouldn’t take it seriously.
Now the second novel. Oh, boy, it’s bad.