Pixels to paper - 10 videogame novels reviewed

Perfect Dark: Second Front

'Cassandra DeVries knew she was a very smart woman. She knew there were people who believed she was a genius, but she had met genius, and she knew the difference. Genius was named Daniel Carrington, and she had been his lover for a time. But that had ended, because Daniel Carrington was also a zealot, and where Cassandra DeVries believed in the good dataDyne could do, he believed only that dataDyne must be destroyed.'
(Courtesy Amazon.com)

What is it?
A sequel "continuing the epic story" of Perfect Dark Zero. An imposter posing as Joanna Dark has carried out an assassination, leaving Joanna searching for the nasty people who framed her.

Latest Videos From

Who wrote it?
Grek Rucka, who's worked as a writer for DC and Marvel comics, in addition to penning a handful of novels.

Fanboy factor?
Scores highly on the fan service scale, given the devotion showed to Rare's svelte secret agent Joanna Dark, and the faint sapphic overtones in the relationship between Cassandra DeVries and her head of security, Anita Velez.

Is it any good?
Second Front executes its blend of James Bond style lightweight intrigue and William Gibson-esque cybertechery at a ripping pace, but character interaction and dialogue - both internal and in conversation - is often laboured and clunky.

Further reading
This novel is actually the sequel to Rucka's own Initial Vector.