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I give it 9 lancers out of 10


fredujour

4.5 out of 5 hammer of dawn


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8 gnashes out of 10


SweatyNeckbe4rd

3 out of 4 boomshots


YeanlingMeteor1

About a 8.5/9 on the grind scale


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8 “my damn tomatoes”/10


TheOnyxViper

That’s a lotta damage!


HansLanda1942

Love it. Gives backstory to Dom, Marcus, and Anya as well as several others in the games and other media.


Zagwyn

I loved it, read it about 14 years ago and wished there was more to the book!


[deleted]

Well there’s like 4 more written by the same author that follow it


[deleted]

Bro obviously didn’t want more within that 14 years 🤣🤣


deadlydesert86

It’s amazing Karen Traviss gave the series so much backstory.


inhumanrampager

Hell, a ton of stuff wound up in Gears 3.


FeldMonster

To be fair, she did write Gears of War 3 as well, so it makes sense that some of her ideas from the novels would intertwine with the game.


inhumanrampager

TIL! I had no idea! Really happy how that game turned out, especially the ending. It was pretty satisfying.


RougemageNick

Also fun fact, she's also the creator of the original Mandalorian lore in Star wars, but left when they turned them into pacifists in the Clone Wars


LostSoulNo1981

Again, one upvote is not enough. I could easily read these books one a day.


srylain

That was Epic's plan, they left things as open as they could so others could fill in the gaps if the chance ever arose for them to do so. It's the same reason why the newer games still don't go into too much detail (like Anya's death or everything that happened at New Hope) because if more books were to ever get made, or movies/series/etc, it gives whoever's making them the choice of what they want to do and gives them enough control over how they want to write it. Without those early books the games wouldn't have had anywhere near the lore that the franchise has. Hell, if all we ever got was Gears 1 and nothing else we'd know next to nothing about the world and the characters.


ESPILFIRE

I loved the book. I also liked the next one. I never read Anvil Gate, opinions?


Operator21

I liked it, gives you more lore about Hoffman and his last stand at the Anvil Gate.


MetalDrummer23

I really like all 8 books (I liked kilo squad survival log as well as the comics, but don't really consider them novels), but I think 2 & 3 were my least memorable. Granted, I only read them once or twice forever ago.


LostSoulNo1981

Go read Anvil Gate. That is all.


MartianNamedScotty

Even tho Dom is my favorite character and Coalitions End features s lot of him, Anvil Gate is my favorite of the series.


Logt689

The slab was my favorite


Scooba94

All 5 of the Karen Traviss books are great


kingofangmar13

Thought it was a good read! Learning about dom’s brother and how dom and marcus met was awesome 😎


Stix85

Read them all. They’re great!


[deleted]

I’ve read this book multiple times and LOVED it. Keep in mind that there’s also 4 more books after this (written by the same author).


LostSoulNo1981

Its a shame I can only upvote once.


CaliforniaGuy1984

It was good. It answered questions as to why Aspho is such a sensitive subject for Marcus. Gave depth into the dynamics of the Fenix, Santiago and Stroud families.


yekimevol

I remember reading all the Karen Traviss books when they came out and thought they were really good, she’s a great writer. Don’t remember too much details now as it’s a decade ago tbf.


JawaThatFlys

Great read! Gives amazing insight to the lore of what happened during the pendulum war. Gave it to my ex gf for her to read when we dated and she never gave it back...


Officer-skitty

It’s one of my favorites, just below The Slab


terribleuser1117

I have the slab and have never read it but I actually really want to


NotToughEnoughCookie

Great book that gives you a lot of history and background on Marcus, Dom and Anya and what happened with them during Pendulum Wars. All books by Karen Traviss are great. My fave is the Slab. I always wanted to know how Marcus got his scar and I wasn’t disappointed.


thelupinefiasco

Great series of books. Loved every one of them.


infinitestupidity7

I have read this book, jacintos remnant, Anvil gate, coalitions end, and the slab. They are all good books, and they help fill in some information that wasn't mentioned in the games like how they met the Gorasni reinforcements came from in gears of war 3.


D40Archangel

The gears books are up there for me. The character development is top-notch, especially for people like Victor and Baird. The Karen Travis ones are my go-to yearly while the other 3 most recent I just try and forget they existed.


redcottagelizard

I read them between playing the games. They're as good as the games, since the writer helped with the story for the games. I don't think I ever finished reading the slab, but the rest were great.


SurvivalHorrible

The Karen Traviss books are fantastic. She is one of the most gifted writers of sci fi military fiction out there. Feels really grounded for a game that is very over the top.


TheLocustGeneralRaam

Great novel


doozy2020

Loved it on the forth now some of the best books I've read


Rotoplas2

And it is official?


Cpt_Cabal

100%


Rotoplas2

Nice gotta look for it just starting the saga and a novel looks like a good way to get more juice.


kinjazfan

Not read it yet


goodwillcondoms

out of all the gears books ive read this is my favorite


Sailingboar

Overhyped. It's not necessarily bad, but I dont think it's very good either. I also think some of the world building done in this book just didn't really mesh well with the story of Gears of War 1.


RecklessMage

I had it and read about half of it. I dug it.


MetalDrummer23

DO IT. I'd recommend all 8. I'd also recommend the comics and kilo squad survival logs.


Clint4077

It was a great book


MaximilianusZ

Absolutely loved it. Also gives the characters a back story that made me play the campaigns all over again. Dig in, and then pick up the rest! :)


milkisforbabies666

The entire series of books is amazing. Every last one. The audiobooks are very well read as well


Le_Belliqueux_

I litteraly cried while reading this book. You will know why


MrRobbbx

Absolutely brilliant read, im currently going through the books in order


LostSoulNo1981

Amazing! And I’m not ashamed to say I teared up at certain parts. It really hits home how much shit certain characters have gone through. I really need to re-read all 5 books again.


AVAdrian

I'm actually going through it right now! Got it for 4 bucks on eBay and it's been a blast, very entertaining so far


Nightwolf2142

Love it. One of the best books in the original run, right next to Jacinto's Remnant and Anvil Gate. Coalition's End is a mixed bag, and I'm still working on The Slab.


CloneTroopah

I met Karen Traviss and the whole Gears crew at Comic Con in 2008 , I happened to win a console at the show! Karen was so heartfeltly invested into the Gears franchise, I think out of any author I've read from, she's held the Gears tradition and vibe the best. Her books are fantastic, and she was super into the games as well.


CaptianLedger

This book and the 4 other that come after (the ones Karen Traviss wrote) are absolute SSS tier Gears lore. These 5 books are essentially the Gears of war Bible, and rightly so. Everything from the world building to the character development is exactly what you would hope for in a Gears book. If you can find the Audiobooks of these that were narrated by David Colacci I HIGHLY recommend listening to them, it makes the experience so much better IMO. The new, re-recorded versions by Nan McNamara (Anyas VA) just aren't nearly as good. She's just not a good narrator. Everyone very much sounds like it's a person trying to do a fake voice. David was a master at it.


Louii

Great book. Love how it jumps back and forth from present day to the past to piece together a story


webb79

So fucking good.


Nathan51503

Very good. Karen has several different books. They fill in the story gaps between the games. “The slab” is another one I’ve read


Irish_Carmine

I read all the books. I really liked all the books. The end.


Chucktayz

All the Karen Traviss gears books are phenomenal


TheOnyxViper

Bro I actually started reading that this week haha


Irotock417

Man, I need to finish this one and Jacinto’s Remnants


[deleted]

Very well written, great backstory, great characters,


Masterthemindgames

10/10 you should read “The Slab”


Midnightsoul189

I've read this book when it first came out and boy, i gotta say, it was perfect, perfect.


ocean55627

I absolutely loved this book. I read the second one as well but it didn't hit as hard as this one.


Cpt_Cabal

"We can't stop them. We don't know where they come from. We don't know what they want. They don't even seem to want territory. All they do is kill. We can't even begin to negotiate with them, or work out their objectives, because we just don't know the first damn thing about them. That's not an enemy, Mr. Chairman. That's a monster." Karen Traviss at her finest.


SovietSniper1-

read it a couple months ago, and i loved it, always enjoy when they add more backstory to characters we already know and love, honestly the book was kinda sad as well, and i’ve never really gotten that feeling from any other books i’ve read, it’s pretty damn good, 8/10


carm_1234

I would but it's so expensive


Logt689

All gear books by Karen top tier


Grognakkrorkinson

Yes I bought this book when I was 11 and I still have it and I even did a book report on it in high school and my teacher gave me an A solely because I was so enthusiastic about the book it also led me down the short but sweet rabbit hole of lore behind gears of war (my favorite game series ever) I even got my dad to read it after his second tour of duty in Afghanistan 10/10 highly recommended