Bethesda Teams With Del Rey For Elder Scroll Novels
Elder Scroll Fans don’t worry, Bethesda hasn’t forgotten about you.
Despite spending much of their time in London last week talking about Fallout, Rogue Warrior and WET, Bethesda’s Pete Hines couldn’t help but bring up the role-playing game as well.
“We’re not talking about the next Elder Scrolls, but that doesn’t mean we’re not doing anything with the franchise,” Hines said.
What they’re doing is working with Del Rey Books on a new series of novels based on the video game series.
Penned by New York Times bestselling author Greg Keyes, the novels will be original stories based in The Elder Scrolls universe, Hines said. The first novel, The Infernal City, will be published this fall.
The Infernal City is set after the events of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and finds the citizens of Tamriel facing an uncertain future.
“Floating high above the land is a strange and mysterious city that is casting a horrifying shadow – wherever it falls, people die and rise again as undead. It is up to an unlikely duo – a seventeen-year-old girl named Annaig and the Emperor’s young son, Prince Attrebus – to rescue the kingdom from doom.”
Keyes wrote the Age of Unreason Tetrology, three New York Times bestselling Star Wars novels and the Kingdom of Thorn and Bone.
Hines said that Bethesda has already been given the first half of the first novel’s manuscript. And that Keyes is working with Bruce Nesmith and Curt Coleman, both of whom worked on The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall back in the day and on Oblivion.
“We felt this was a good opportunity for us to do something with a great new author,” Hines said.
“We’ve been big fans of Greg’s work for a long time, and we’re thrilled he agreed to bring his talents to The Elder Scrolls. We see these books as a natural extension of the franchise and think fans will love the stories and characters Greg has created.”
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
Am I the only one who thinks their plotline sounds corntastic?
I mean, anything that includes "A seventeen year old girl" is asking for it. A seventeen year old girl who teams up with the 'Emperor's son' is even worse.
Sheogorath
Sigh, I don't want to read about some Ghoul as a knight in shiny armour fighting against a Muddy Mirelurk on the bank of the hot and dry Hover Dam ruins. While being surrounded by bunch of smelly and WET Korean Military.
Oh wait-...Thanks Bethesy, now I got everything all mixed up.
Shachihoko
@Tom Clancy's Samuraidino: Stop right there Criminal Scum! Nobody breaks the law on my watch! I'm confiscating your stolen goods. Now pay your fine or it's off to jail.
"It is up to an unlikely duo - a seventeen-year-old girl named Annaig and the Emperor's young son, Prince Attrebus - to rescue the kingdom from doom."
Bleach. Sounds awful. Sounds exactly like every other hack fantasy novel. Not that every fantasy novel is done by a hack, mind you - there is some good stuff - but there sure is a lot of it out there.
I actually liked the Mass Effect novel and this sound like it will shape up to be an even better novel. I'm excited for this and hopefully these stories are somehow referenced in the next game.
ImpendingFoil
@Tom Clancy's Samuraidino: NOOOOOOO!!!!
@Sythlia: err, kick... nevermind. -_-
Sythlia
@Kenny: I hear theyr quite fearsome
"Thus, my journey started as I jumped onto the table as I proceeded to keep every condiment, plate and silverware to the floor before jumping over the steward's head on my way to the road of adventure."
Sythlia
@Kenny: almost always
@Kenny: Disgusting creatures.
ChekhovsGun
@Tom Clancy's Samuraidino: So I saw a mudcrab today...
Awesome, books based on games are always a good thing.
Funny thing is, I started reinstalled Morrowind on my PC just a few days ago, because i was itching to play it again, after i beat Oblivion.
PenitentPenguin
@Bagga:
I gotta agree with that
waver_01
Theirs no way that the books will be able to match the epic stories,fascinating characters and amazing dialogue that was on display in Oblivion....
@coolguyface: Very good point. They have the DLC of course, but being very quiet about their future in-house plans.
@coolguyface: Not sure.. I assume it could be Elder Scrolls V.. Which makes me want to go back and finally do a proper play through of Oblivion. Last time I played, I was on my old PC, and all I did were the thief missions (which were awesome!!!)
Grey Fox!
books are nice and all, but its about time to start working on the next game. i need my fix
Meh, more interested in the game.
What are they working on next? I take it wet, rouge warrior and fallout vegas are just being published by them.
coolguyface
Nifty! It also sounds like a game I'd like to play! :D
PatMan33
Time to get my geek on.
PenitentPenguin
@Artdeux: Story excerpt:
"As I casually strolled away from the threatening guard he realized how much strength I had and promptly said in an unfortunately suggestive tone, 'Look at the muscles on you!'"
Eviltim
@armchairnixon:
That's just as bad as starting a sequel with "Oh, you've got amnesia AGAIN!"
cqdemal
Die Fetcher!
@Tom Clancy's Samuraidino: i will fight you
kitsuneconundrum
@Kazzahdrane: Unless they introduce a new emperor, I don't see how this could work, because Ocato is the ruler at the end of the main quest after Martin dies, and Ocato is definitely not an emperor.
Maybe another illegitimate son as was the case of Uriel and Martin?
armchairnixon
@armchairnixon:
They'd better not be retconning anything...
I hate retconning.
I'd guess they are waiting to see what "Dragon Age" will do. Note they are following what appears to be the current Bioware model--novels preceding and following games. I seem to recall the Oblivion ending signifying an effective re-boot of the series...looking forward to it, of course!
CallaMojojojo
@armchairnixon: That's what I'm confused about. Maybe before he served the Nine Martin had some random kids? he was into the "dark arts" after all...
@Rirath: Or one character having 5 different voices.
@Tom Clancy's Samuraidino: And the audiobook version can sound exactly like the game. Nearly every character in the exact same voice.
@RageKage: almost a good thing... There, perfect.
nomadder
@armchairnixon: I saw the Zaxer. And I magged it, too! Aw, fribble!
The Emperor's son? Are they referring to Martin or Uriel Septim VII? I thought Uriel's sons were all killed (except for Martin, of course), and since when did Martin have children?
The floating city thing sounds cool, though. I hope they reveal more about the Ayleids and the history of Tamriel. It'd also be interesting if there was some sort of revelation about the last king of the Ayleids that was never identified in Oblivion.
armchairnixon
@Tom Clancy's Samuraidino: By Azura! By Azura! By Azura! It's the Grand Champion! I can't believe it's you! Standing here, next to me!
armchairnixon
@Eviltim: Thank you kind sir!
souljacker86
Could be cool. Would rather read some novels in the Fallout universe though.
@PatMan33: and all the other books mentioned that were written by Keyes are very, very good.
Power_Wrist
@[www.retrojunk.com]
Dragon_Warrior
@Brian Crecente: Which gives me much hope for the future of TES!
@cqdemal: Well, Michael Crichton's Lost World started with a bit about how rumours of Ian Malcolm's death were exaggerated, and that was a cracking good read.
Corny schmorny, if it gives me something to read over the Christmas holidays that doesn't painfully suck, i'll be a happy bunny. :)
princess_stomper
I would rather play a new elder scrolls game
this is stupid
NakedLunch
@Rirath:
Haha, ZING!
Coquiton
Oh man now i must waste my money on more nerdy books! Elder Scrolls novels ftw! <3 Heres hoping it'll be good
Keyes isn't exactly the best writer around, and his written language has some kinks in it that needs to be ironed out. Still, the stories are easy to get into and the writing isn't as dense as Glen Cook or as retarded as Terry Goodkind.
Sqrfrk
@Tom Clancy's Samuraidino: I agree!
May you walk always in the shadow of Sithis, dear brother.
so the book has a floating castle, some 17 year old jail bait, the new lost son of the Septim line.... Ok got it, but can we get Terry Pratchett to write it instead.
screenmonkey
Because the last thing we need is MORE derivative medieval fantasy novels. Ugh.
@Sheogorath:
You're right. Any story featuring a 17 year old female should be burned and forgotten about entirely.
Every.
Single.
One.
PhoenixSteve
@armchairnixon: Thank you SO MUCH for writing this. It was the first thing I thought of when I read that as well. I consider myself pretty familiar with TES Lore (helping write several wikia articles on Vivec and the Tribunal, and was a longtime wallflower at The Imperial Library).
Ocato is in charge of the Imperial Council as chancellor, until a legitimate heir of some sort can be found. So, who the hell is this Attrebus kid? It's kind of redundant to have Martin be the "secret son of Uriel" only to find out he has another secret son - not to mention that TES IV specifically says that Martin is the last of Uriel Septim's bloodline.
Blech! If they want anything Elder Scrolls related to be done right, they need to bring back the big guns like Ken Rolston, Michael Kirkbride and Ted Peterson - as writers at the very least. You can see how far the apple has fallen from the tree (lore wise) with TES IV compared to TES III.
As much as I love Bethesda, they turned Cyrodiil into a cookie cutter European medieval country - when it was clearly designed to be more Mediterranean in flavor.
As an aside, I've always thought Ocato had something to do with Uriel's death. Just a long, unsubstantiated suspicion based on how much he's gained.
modren44
@DarthMetalHope: I don't need to hope that their good. Since its part of the TES franchise, its a part of me.
99-Luft-Balloons