God of War - The Official Novelization

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Kratos asks Atreus on how much he knows about Jörmungandr and the boy would tell his father that the World Serpent is so big he is able to warp himself around the world and bite his own tail. With this, the novel version of Jörmungandr is fully connected with his traditional mythology counterpart while the game version only spans Midgard's waters and the Lake of Nine, rather than the entire world itself. As always this review can also be found on my blog The Tattooed Book Geek: https://thetattooedbookgeek.wordpress... God of War as a concept was not something I gave attention to. There were games followed by more games at first headline grabbing then declining into convoluted iteration as the series grew older. Most of all, I did not have a Playstation. When Atreus deciphered the message on the half-submerged statue of Týr, he questioned if its from the gods or if they want him and his father to be unarmed in the lake. Kratos and Atreus' encounter with Brok is nearly to how it occurs in God of War (2018), though some dialogue when they exchange words were changed a little while others were added.

The book needs you to have played the game. I know few people are going to read it without having played it, because let’s face it, this book is for fans of the franchise – or for people who love Kratos but can’t afford the game/console. And that enrages me so, because this book is insulting to the game and to fans. There is a story in God of War. The story has twists, poignant moments, and most of all: creates a framework on which to hang a masterful game. Even the banal video-game-y moments of the game (paddling a canoe to your next location) are made charming by incidental dialogue between the characters. You've never heard a fable until you've heard Kratos mangle it. As they were returning home, Atreus spots Odin's two ravens Huginn & Muninn, who are completely absent from the entire game and won't appear until God of War Ragnarök.Sindri's appearance is slightly changed in the novel with him having no hair and having a muscular build. Obviously a lot of the side stuff is left out completely, which is understandable as the world in the game is pretty massive for exploration sake, but because this is all left out, when Atreus mentions that Mimir had said something about the Valkyries, as a reader you HAVE to be confused.

Kratos and Atreus encountering Brok a second time is much shorter than in the game; the duo never entered the dwarf's new shop right after reencountering him and Kratos was never introduced to the mystic gateway. All dialogue is removed from the scene where Atreus and Kratos spread Faye's ashes, instead replaced by Atreus thinking about how he shouldn't cry because that wouldn't be godlike and he wants his father to respect him as a fellow god, which turns an emotionally touching scene that's the culmination of their quest and shows how they've actually become closer as individuals into "Toxic masculinity and the kind of mentality that's gotten Kratos where he is...is good, actually." Atreus has never ventured further than besides the forest that surrounds his house and this is the first time that he sees what Midgard has to offer, which surprises him. Atreus becomes the one who translates all of the ruins that they encounter since Kratos has never learned how to describer Norse ruins. Apparently languages come easy to Atreus and all of his mother's lessons proof useful on the road. Kratos begins to rely on him. Let’s start with what this book is. An adaptation of the videogame God of War (2018), also known as God of War 4. It’s a reboot of a well-beloved franchise and it follows the journey of Kratos, a former Spartan soldier enslaved by Greek Gods, and his child son Atreus, in their pursuit of fulfilling Kratos’s wife and Atreus’s mother’s last wish: take her ashes to the highest peak of all realms. This story takes place not in a Greek world, but rather a Norse one. Kratos, as a former Greek god, is an intruder in the Norse mythology, and as always, he’s messing up with pantheons and such. Speaking of, the novelization changes Kratos's final line to Baldur from "The cycle ends here. We must be better." to "You chose this end", therefore robbing the scene of its thematic relevance to Kratos's character development since GoW III and his desire to spare others from the cycle of violence that destroyed his life, and instead it's like...yeah, okay, he killed Baldur because if he didn't Freya would die and that'd make Atreus sad I guess? Literally robs the entire death of any emotional impact (save what impact is left from Baldur's final words, which still get me a bit).Atreus, my precious sugar muffin, is determined to proof his father wrong and to show him that he's perfectly capable to come along and that he can fight alongside him. Now that he has lost his mother Atreus feels the strong need to develop a bond with his father since he barely knows the man who has been mostly absent during his life. He just wants to be accepted and appreciated. The Stranger arrived on his dragon the next day instead of the same day that Kratos and Atreus had hunted the deer.

And regarding world-building, there’s nothing. No one explains anything. I’m not ignoring Mimir’s trivia, I’m talking about that the game creates world-building with everything it has at its disposal: sounds, ambiance, environment, music, little bits of lore found by Atreus, monuments that you come across, runes, gameplay included, and a little more through dialogue and character interaction. The author decided that the only viable way to convey world-building in a book was through dialogue, forgetting that he has at the tip of his fingers the ability to also translate all those things I enumerated and integrate them gracefully in the narration and actions of the characters. Well, I was wrong.Kratos and Atreus didn't return from the hunt empty-handed in the novel, unlike in the game, as they came home with badger, which Atreus hates. There is a story in God of War: The Official Novelization. The story has twists, tries for poignant moments, and most of all: I could not bring myself to care. This is a ghost of God of War. The novelization manages to visit most of the main moments from the game all while sapping the life and magic from it. I don't want to be down on this book. God of War is a game about father and son made by a studio with a director thinking a lot about how his life has changed since becoming a father. His father wrote the novelization, and that is a very special thing indeed. It is a long and arduous trek to the highest mountain peak spanning various realms with plenty of obstacles along the way and many battles against a variety of foes (including Trolls, Hel-walkers, Draugr, Ogres, Elves, Wulver, a Dragon, demi-gods and a god) to overcome.

Obviously, the book tells the same story as in the game. Kratos and Atreus journey forth from their home to scatter Faye’s (the wife of Kratos and the mother of Atreus) ashes from the highest mountaintop in all the realms. I watched the entire God of War gameplay on Youtube (twice, but who's counting), so I knew the story going into this novelization. I was excited in reading the book because I'd previously read the first and second, and generally liked them, and because I was so fond of the storyline of the 2018 game, I figured the book had to be good, right? In my Lore and Legends review, I said the best part of the book were the parts that contained information not in the game, because everything else got a bit repetitive. The novelization has a similar problem, but different outcome. The best parts of the book are by and large the parts that contain information not in the game--Faye's pet hawk, more translations for what the World Serpent (whose name I cannot spell, sorry, big guy) says, better descriptions of the wall murals, finding out what Atreus was doing while Kratos was in the light of Alfheim, that kind of thing. Some of the "getting inside the head of the character" bits were also good (like the extra heartbreaking detail that Atreus latched onto Freya because he missed his mother...ouch...).Kratos, the God of War, has left behind Olympus and his vengeance. For years he has been living in the realm of the Norse Gods hidden far away from the world. Believing that his past is well behind him Kratos has married again to a woman named Faye and they have son together, Atreus. Faye is the one who taught Atreus the most like hunting and archery while Kratos mostly went hunting by himself, which meant that he was pretty much absent for most of Atreus' life. Set in ancient Greece and full of the gods and monsters of Greek mythology God of War was a fantastic series and called to me. The setting, the creatures, the epic boss fights, Kratos, the main character, angry with a fiery rage, hell-bent on vengeance against the God’s, the sweet weaponry that he wielded, I mean, c’mon the Blades of Chaos are amazing! and, I’m not gonna lie, the gratuitous violence and copious bloodshed appealed to. Kratos and Atreus first encountered Draugr after they had begun their journey to Midgard's mountain rather than during their hunt for deer at the beginning. Sindri never mentioned the usage of the echoing screams of twenty frost trolls in the creation of the Leviathan Axe unlike in the game. When the duo came across the statue of Thor, Kratos never revealed his knowledge of knowing Thor's status as the God of Thunder.