Dead Space Martyr

February 2nd 2013,
By: J.D. Cook

Game tie in novels are becoming far more common in the modern day. The Mass Effect Series has its own books and Arkham City has its own comics.  Martyr is a truly fascinating novel to fans of the Dead Space series because whereas most tie in material is superfluous; this one actually reveals a huge bit of back story for the games. The story follows Michael Altman, a geophysicist who discovers a strange signal coming from inside a lake filled crater in the Gulf of Mexico.  He discovers a plot to study an alien artifact at the bottom of it which comes to be known as the Black Marker. This is an alien artifact that drives people around it insane and contains a code which transforms dead tissue into living monsters.  After Altman exposes some of the discoveries to the world the government destroys him by making him a Martyr for a new religion called Unitology which holds the Marker as its central source of worship. The book’s plot is completely engaging and it’s fantastic to witness the indoctrination of people by the marker in ways only a novel can show a reader. We get to see through the eyes of the mad as they witness their relatives returning and trying to persuade them to help the Marker in its aims. The horror in it is also rather visceral and interesting. The best scene in the book takes place when one worker butchers another in a small submarine and then paints symbols in both of their blood all over the ship. That is exactly what I’d expect from a Dead Space Novel! Essentially if you read this you have a much better understanding of the Dead Space games. Still it isn’t perfect, the plot has its problems and some of the characters are underdeveloped but it’s still a fun read.

7 out of 10 Bigbluebullfrog Leaps

Other Titles in the Dead Space Universe
Dead Space
Dead Space 2

***

Nutshell Reviews is a collection of very short reviews of the most significant movies, books, music, and video games, from both the present day and days gone passed.