I have not played the Crysis video game and I'm unlikely to do so since the computer systems I use run Linux. I bought the book because I'm a Peter Watts fan and I've read all of his other books. Watts is a talented and creative writer. As another reviewer noted, without these gifts this book might have been a blot on his career. Crysis is, after all, a "first person shooter". The first person shooter lineage can be seen in the protagonist who does indeed kill almost everything that moves and is constantly hunting for ammunition and new guns. The plot is, however, much more than this. Watts has been a research biologist and the plot reflects some of his deep knowlege of biology. As in Watts' other books, there are few real heros. The government and corporations can't be trusted. There's an alien invasion, but even this is not as simple as it seems. This is not Watts' best work, which in my opinion is the Behemoth trilogy. However it is an enjoyable read and shows Watt's creative flair. This is a book that I don't regret buying, but that I'm going to pass on to a friend. Read more

Egoshooter haben folgen häufig einer Genre-Konvetion, bei der der Spielercharakter stillschweigend durch die Level gesteuert wird. Zweck des ganzen ist es, den Spielern zu ermöglichen, ihre eigenen Gedanken und Gefühle in den Charakter zu projezieren. Doch der ist schliesslich immer noch Teil der Spielwelt und ab und zu möchte man doch wissen, wie es dem Mensch, durch dessen Augen man hier guckt, bei seinem Abenteuer geht. Hier setzt die Romanversion von Crysis 2 und erzählt die Handlung des Spiels aus der Sicht von Alcatraz, dem Mann, der im Nanosuit New York und die Welt vor der Invasion der Ceph, Aliens aus der Galaxie M33, retten soll. Und den Anzug braucht er nicht nur, weil er ihm Stärke, Geschwindigkeit und Unsichtbarkeit gibt - sein Leben hängt davon ab. Peter Watts gibt in Crysis Legion einen tieferen Einblick in die Geschichte des Spiels und rückt dabei dessen Hauptfigur als Charakter, nicht nur als Avatar für den Spieler, in den Vordergrund. Für Fans der Crysis Serie eine tolle Ergänzung! Read more

Relieve what you played trought your campaing from alcatraz point of view and for a better understanding oof how deep the crysis story is , (Recommand that you've played trought first game and second and read the compilation of the 6comics books that tells the events past C1 and before C2) Read more

As a gamer who has played Crysis 2, I had mixed expectations about this novel. Many friends and other online reviews held it in high regard; being faithful to the game whilst having a unique way to tell a game story without resorting to walkthrough-speak as other novels have (looking at you Halo: The Flood!). My experience with novels like the aformentioned Halo novel however kept me cautious. However after the reading the book in a 2 day marathon I am glad to say that what I had heard was 100% on the ball. Giving the faceless Alcatraz an interesting and witty character interacting with expanded characters from the game the novel kept me on my toes keeping me interested with in-depth world building and a truly unique way of flashback-storytelling. For fans of the Crysis series or even those who want a good Sci-Fi action book, this is a must read. Read more

I picked up Crysis: Legion before playing the game. In fact, I read the first 50 pages through an online promotion over at the del rey site. If you are on the fence about purchasing the book the excerpt there will make up your mind (apparently external links are frowned upon; use google). Six hours later, give or take, I had acquired a copy and read it from cover to cover. A few days after that, having played the game, I sat down to skim the book before writing this and shortly found that I had read the entire thing through again. Having read some of Watts' previous work I was skeptical that his style would translate well into an action format, but his prose turns out to be portable across genres while his cutting-edge scientific and biological vocabulary are perfectly suited for a book meant to give the game more technical depth. Watts transforms the mute Alcatraz into a colorful and compelling narrator, supplemented by interviews, technical notes and even a senate subcommittee hearing, all of which are somehow not boring. At times the narrative can get a little thin as the cerebrally-enhanced Alcatraz uses metaphors too frequently in order to dumb things down for his interviewer(and the reader); at other times technical jargon may leave the reader behind; and those who have played the game may notice some blatant and deliberate retconning of the sillier bits. Such minor faults are easily forgiven in what by all accounts was a rushed project, and in fact my biggest quibbles related to the book are actually the relative shortcomings of the game, in which a number of scenes which would have been visually or narratively striking are absent or less well implemented. More delicate readers may wish to note that the book has a decidedly dark and dystopian bent, containing a fair amount of disturbing material which was absent from the game or outside its' scope. The narrator relates mass death events which took place before the Manhattan incident and visceral accounts of the effects a fungal bioweapon has on its' human victims. Torture, exploding eyeballs and the philosophy of self may all put the reader off their lunch. Obligatory warnings aside, Watts has taken a video game adaptation and managed to produce a book which I was unable to put down, steeped in neurophilosophy and cutting-edge science. It is high-brow and low-down, disturbing and humorous by turns. While imperfect and sometimes challenging, this reviewer found it a mind-expanding and extremely fun read. Read more