Star Wars. Forgotten Realms. Warhammer 40k. Halo. Magic the Gathering. Just a few of the many franchise universes that have a slew of novels and authors under their belt. Are you — or were you ever — a reader of any particular franchise? If so, what are some of your favorite franchise books? I'm always on the lookout so I'd like to know. Also, is there a franchise novel that might have influenced, or continues to influence, your own writing?
I'm not sure it is what you are looking for but years ago I was a fan of the umm...."churn and read" books like "Mack Bolan: The Excutioner", "Remo Williams: The Destroyer", and in the western genre, "Lonestar" and "The Trailsman" but these books were all basically the same story, hence why I called them "churn and read." I'm pretty sure there was a new book every month in at least one of these series. Unfortunately not around anymore but Barry Sadler's "Casca" series was really interesting to me at the time. He was the Roman legionnaire that killed Jesus so his punishment was to roam the earth til Jesus returned. An eternal warrior. Barry Sadler was killed in Mexico during a robbery attempt I think. I always wondered why nobody took over the series. It wasn't going to win any awards for literature but it was good escapism for teen boys interested in war and adventure type stories. The one redeeming feature about the western titles was.....*blushes*....the sex scenes.....for a teen back in the mid 80s, that was fascinating.
Fair enough. I'm using franchise to mean a fictional universe or character that has been written by several authors. Practically speaking, no single author "owns" them. Mack Bolan certainly qualifies.
The Flood — William C. Dietz. Anyone into extended Halo fiction has probably read this. I liked it. I think it was true to the characters, expanded enough but not too much. Nothing outright special about the writing. Frankly I don't like most of the other Halo books. WH40k Horus Rising — Dan Abnett. The entire series is long (50? I only read the first 3), and cycles through quite a few authors. They're pretty good over all, but Abnett's writing was stellar. He captured the bro-mance and brutality of the space marines quite well. From what I read, the series pretty much aces grimdark in general. His clean, sharp style may have slightly influenced me. Starcraft: Speed of Darkness — Tracy Hickman. Nothing too memorable about the writing, but the last stand plot had some heavy themes that at least tried to ascend the anorexic source material.
I'm actually a bit of a fanboy for the Alien, Predator & Alien vs Predator universe(s), have been since before I was a teenager. I actually haven't read any of the graphic novels, but I do have a (un)healthy collection of paperbacks. They were my favorite reading material in Middle & Highschool (7th to 12th grade).
I was quite a fan of the Timothy Zahn Star Wars 'sequel' stories. In fact, I wish the movie series had carried on with his ideas, rather than the way the film series went. I think he captured not only the personalities of the original Star Wars characters better than any of the other spinoff writers, but he made the sequels seem more plausible within the Star Wars world than the actual movie sequels did. He created a very compelling antagonist, who was even more interesting than Darth Vader. I don't know if this is what you were meaning to talk about, @Bone2pick . Obviously this isn't something that exists only in written form, but is a movie spin-off.
I enjoyed a few of the MechWarrior books by various authors. Soldiers piloting walking robot tanks and fighting each other......the premise was very cool. I don't think it was too realistic but it was an enjoyable escape from whatever I was supposed to be doing...like studying. The Dragon Lance saga was interesting when they opened that series to other writers such as in the short story anthologies. I remember first reading Richard Kanark's work there and then he got a deal to write a trilogy in that universe. His minotaur stories were great.
I so agree!!!!! I really wanted to see Admiral Thawn in action. I did wonder how an alien rose to such a position in an empire that was so prejudiced against aliens. I would have liked to see Thawn vs. Palpatine!!!
I'm a fan of mechs as well, but my poison was From Software's Armored Core video game series on Playstation 2, 3 & 4. The series sorta sputtered out about 6 or 7 years ago, unfortunately. Still hoping that the rumors that another game is being worked on for PS5/Xbox Series X are true, but those rumors have been around for awhile with no real confirmation.
I have a huge collection of Star Trek novels. The original series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, you name it. Some of them overlap with the TV series but I'm not sure which came first (maybe the TV series episode was first and then it was novelized?) I am not aware of however, if there are any new Star Trek Discovery or Star Trek Enterprise novels. I never read them anymore but there was a time when I had a lot of time on my hands (in the hospital).
The Warcraft universe has got some good pieces. They are more there to provide some background lore than to be independent books and (in my opinion) could be hard to read without having already immersed yourself in the warcraft universe. Beyond the Dark Portal and the War of the Ancients trilogy are the best, I'd say. Neither of these had much of an influence on my writing. I distance myself from "mainstream" fantasy - the Tolkien/Warhammer/Warcraft elves+orcs+humans - though I did draw some of my cosmic deep-lore from the universe. Or to be precise, from Lovecraft, as the Warcraft cosmic lore is Lovecraftian.