Amazon.com: Customer reviews: The Infernal City: Elder Scrolls Series #1

Top positive review

A pretty good read for an Elder Scrolls fan

Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2017

I'm a big Elder Scrolls fan and didn't expect much from a spinoff novel, but the two novels (The Infernal City + Lord of Souls) provide a good story with an easy read and lots of good lore bits that fill in the story between TES IV Oblivion and TES V Skyrim. It even loosely ties in the events of TES III Morrowind. The action starts in Black Marsh and we follow Glim, an Argonian, and Annaig, a young imperial woman, as they confront strange goings-on in the unsettled territory following the breakup of the Empire. Their concerns are soon overshadowed by a bigger menace, a floating city called Umbriel that brings with it hordes of undead that will eventually threaten all Tamriel. Through other point of view characters, we see post-imperial Elsweyr and Cyrodiil under the rule of Titus Mede. It will take a whole host of characters to confront the threat of Umbriel. The story is continued in Lord of Souls.

15 people found this helpful

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Meagster

A review from someone who did not know what the elder scrolls were

Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2018

I was recommended this book from a website mentioning the best world building books. I had never heard of the elder scrolls before. As far as world building it deserves 5 stars. The world is unique and complex and everything I look for in my fantasy. Also the action was constant and enjoyable. I had a problem with the female main character. She could have been fleshed out more and sometimes her actions and behaviors seemed to have been based on female stereotypes. To be fair I find a lot of fantasy novels do this though! And lastly, although I did enjoy reading this book in the end I was not satisfied with where the plot ended up. For this reason I would probably not recommend this book to someone who wasn’t super into
World building or knew what the elder scrolls were. But I did enjoy it in the moment!

8 people found this helpful

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From the United States

Kindle CustomerTop Contributor: Pets

Dedicated TES fan says - This book is pointless and barely readable.

Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2012

Verified Purchase

I've been a huge TES fan since around 1997. I recently found out this book existed and bought it instantly, excited that Bethesda was making TES novels. Upon reading it, I was sorely disappointed. Most of the plot has NOTHING to do with Tamriel, except for the place names and races. About 3/4 of the book total doesn't even take place on Tamriel! Strip out the TES "trappings" and the plot could be set anywhere. In a nutshell: A big city thing is going around wreaking havok, and some people have to stop it. That's it. The floating city and characters/life on it have never been mentioned before in any TES lore, and just kind of comes out of nowhere. There is plenty of established lore the author could have used, and I was looking forward to reading about how provinces handled the fall of the empire, or even something set back in the 1st or 2nd era. Even a re-write of the Oblivion Crisis from someone else's perspective. SOMETHING! But instead he had to come up with something entirely new, that doesn't really make much sense within the established lore. My thought while reading it was "It seems like he had this plot already made, and when Bethesda asked him to do an Elder Scrolls novel, he just tweaked it so that it fit within the world."

On top of that, the writing was so thin I could barely stand it. As I said before, I love TES and even though the book was bad, I thought it would be neat just to see previously undescribed places fleshed out(which there isn't much of, because most of it takes place on a floating city that didnt exist in lore until the book was published!). But even with that I could barely slog through the last quarter of it because the characters are so wooden and one dimensional, I couldn't gather any sort of empathy or identification with any of them. And to top off this horrible travesty of a novel, the ending is weird and sudden. It doesnt even resolve two of the main characters plot-lines! I was about to complain to the seller that the book was missing pages until I looked on here and realized I wasn't the only one confused. At least a good ending *might* have made up for it. It's one of those "if you want to find out what happens, you have to read the sequel that may or may not ever come out.", which totally smacks of trying to suck as much money out of fans as possible.

If you aren't a fan of TES, don't buy it. It would be the most terrible intoduction to the series you could get. And if you are a fan of TES don't buy it, because you'll be disappointed.

14 people found this helpful

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Jer Gray

There are fanfics that are better!

Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2012

Verified Purchase

After having read this and the second book, Lord of Souls, I have to wonder who at Bethesda Greg Keyes is related to in order to get him the coveted job of writing the Elder Scrolls into novel form. The plot is convoluted at the best of times, most of the main story focuses on some bizarre kitchen competition instead of any of the real action/adventure that ES fans have come to expect, and honestly, the characters aren't even well-written at all. If you're up late and in need of something to bore you to sleep, you could give this a try, but if you're a true ES fan who wants an entertaining read, fanfiction.net has many stories that are infinitely better than this mess, and won't waste your money.

11 people found this helpful

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Russell W. Waddel

If you are a fan of TES, avoid. Really. Avoid this like Vampirism. Get a Potion of Cure Disease and get far, far away.

Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2016

I don't know, but as an author there are two things you need: plot and character development. Now, here's the thing about the Elder Scrolls games: you have character development up the wazoo. Plot as well. But, in this book there is NO plot or character development. Zip. Zilch. So, what does he give us? Nothing. Half the time the action isn't even fully described. Like in once scene (SPOILERS!!), this one Argonian is walking through the city in Black Marsh where the story starts. He is suddenly in mud up to his waist, then his shoulders. After this, he is suddenly out of the mud and next to a wall by a Hist tree that is cut off from the rest of the Hist (somehow, we never learn why because it is quickly forgotten when the Forbidden City comes into the picture). I don't know how he got out of the mud, and what is he doing by that wall? We never find out. Because he quickly cuts to the other main character who (somehow) is a budding alchemist. (END SPOILERS!!!)
I mean, you need to EXPLAIN what is going on AT ALL TIMES. Not just "pick and choose." I don't like this. This guy shouldn't be writing until he can figure this out. Chalk this up to "cash cow" and move on. Just stay away. FAR AWAY.

4 people found this helpful

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Vincent D.

One Star

Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2018

How is this garbage book so highly rated?

One person found this helpful

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Terry D

This book is awful

Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2021

The books in the game itself are way more creative than this garbage.

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E.J.Mac

Doomed from the Start

Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2010

First, I admit; I am not an Elder Scrolls lore-buff, although I do know a good deal about the universe.

When the book was first announced, with the title and synopsis, I was not expecting it to be good. Floating city? Zombies? Teenage heroes? I was willing to give it a chance. Indeed, being a fan of Star Wars and other similar fantasy titles, I kept some glimmer of hope that Mr. Keyes would pull an amazing upset. Instead, what I poured hours into was a disappointing novel with all the potential but only worthy of a facepalm and a long, drawn-out sigh.

Mr. Keyes makes such a valiant attempt to use lore in the universe, that things become too confusing. His brave attempt also ruined aspects from the game series. I'm going to try not to spoil the book, so I'll censor as much as I can. One example of a ruined aspect is the land of [censored]. In the book, the floating [censored] from the [number] game crashed into [censored], which subsequently caused [censored] to explode and destory the entirety of [censored]. Those who read the book will understand what I'm talking about. Now, that destroyed blank was an extremely important aspect to its related game... and to have it destroyed in such a way angers me -- not in the way an author would make you hate a character, but in the way of "What was the point of that?". I know that it fuels another event, later on, but it annoys me that it was -completely- destroyed -- like Mr. Keyes took a knife and said "Well, SCREW everything that happened in -this- game! We didn't need it anyway!" I mean, there was so much good stuff that was piled into this aspect; that it would grow into something important. But Keyes takes everything that was built into this aspect, and erased it. Just like that. Were it more dramatic, like the event ACTUALLY TAKING PLACE with the characters in the middle of it all, it might be intersting... but, really, it's only mentioned here and there. Another aspect ruined was a certain race of people. Where the games made them enigmatic and individualistic, the book makes them so tied to a plot point that they are willing to [censor]. -What-? Just like that? What are they, slaves? What was the point of making them playable at all if they are just as weak-minded puppets? Now, I hoped the floating city would present some sort of interesting addition to the plot... but kitchens? -Seriously-, kitchens of freaks? All harvesting souls? An invisible weapon? What in the hell is all this, and what does this have to do with anything Elder Scrolls? What about all the lore behind death and... you know what, forget it. Lore was tossed out the window a while ago. Above all else, the book is short and ends abruptly. I know this is supposed to have a sequel, but there are more efficient ways of writing a book.

But, let's move onto the main characters. The female lead has one ineteresting characteristic: her name. Annaïg Hoïnart is the first name I've seen in the Elder scrolls with any sort of accent. But, I stress... that's the ONLY thing that is worth mentioning. She's a tough-as-nails, adventure type and yet stupid enough to end up working in a kitchen. She also seems to have this magical device, a little bird that can send messages to other people. Oh goody! A webcam, called "Coo" -.- I wish -I- had this device so I could do all those damn quests in Morrowind in half the required time.

Next, we have the prince Attrebus. This character actually had some good potential; a prince who was essentially babied by his father and didn't know it. When a plot point happened, his world gets flipped, turned upside down. A perfect bel-air moment. He finds out that all the "famous" battle he took place in were actually rigged by his father, the emperor, to be in his favor. All his fights with his men were all inclined to his victory. To see this haughty prince taken down to the level of a beaten child was a stupendous plot twist. Just as he is about to get sold into slavery, he gets saved by, who else, but Mr. Mary Sue --- aka, the dunmer Sul.

Sul is a hardened dark elf, who was cast into oblivion after an event, and managed to find a way out. Not just that, but he understands inter-dimensional travel between the realms of oblivion! To top it all off, his wife was supposedly murdered! BRILLIANT! ORIGINAL! (sarcasm, by the way). So this dark elf comes from out of who-knows-where and dispatches the prince's captors -with ease-. I know he's an assassin, and supposed to be pretty good with murder, but this guy takes down someone who infiltrated the imperial guard and became apart of the princes personal guard.

While I applaud Mr. Keyes for taking on the gargantuan task to writing an elder scrolls novel, I find myself baffled by his technique. He takes bones from the skeletal framework of the series, then procedes to fill in the gaps with his own -creativity-. I looked him up, to get an idea of his work and found books I had never heard of. Not just that, but apparently his "cliffhanger" style is often repeated. Nice one, Greg.

Honestly, unless you have played the games, you will be walking through this bewildered. And if you -have- played the game, I suggest never picking this up unless you are really -that- desperate to waste 7 bucks.

17 people found this helpful

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Autum

Infernal Nonsense

Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2010

This is what happens when you have a wildly popular game series and the developers decide to get some miscellaneous sci-fi writer to create a novel for it in hopes of wringing more money out of the fans. The Infernal City is an awful story that frankly has nothing to do with the previously established Elder Scrolls universe other than the names of the places and some various references to previous game plots.

The thing that I love so much about TES is that it has such a vast expanse of myth and lore attached to it. I was expecting this book to explore that, and to hopefully reveal some more interesting facts about the world. What I got was a poorly developed sci-fi plot plopped in the middle of Tamriel. This plot is so unrealistic for the established TES universe that I don't even know how anyone associated with the game ever approved it. First of all, a floating city? Really? That kind of crap would never end up in a TES game, and if it did, I would promptly return the game to where I bought it. It's just awful. There's also some nonsense about an enchanted metal bird that connects two of the main characters together so that they can communicate. I hope we never see anything like that in the games.

There is a myriad of characters squeezed into this relatively tiny little book, which leaves very little time for character development, and some of the characters, namely Colin, seem to have absolutely no purpose at all other than to confuse the reader and distract them from what's going on.

I won't even get started on what they've done to Morrowind in this book... it's totally abhorrent.

The ending is as abrupt as a film strip that got cut off say... half way through the film. There's absolutely no resolution, and the only reason for that is so that we'll want to ignore the fact that we hated this book entirely and go out to buy the sequel. And frankly, I don't even know if I'll do that because I just don't care about anything that happened in this book: the plot, the characters, none of it.

I sincerely hope that the developers of the actual games do not consider the events in this book as part of the universe and build off of it for the next game. I hope they ignore its existence entirely. And I hope you do, as well. You're best bet is to just avoid this and pretend it doesn't exist.

14 people found this helpful

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M. Ghaoui

Awful, just plain awful

Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2010

When it comes to novels or movies based on computer games, they usually tend to be on the lower end of the ratings scale. So when I bought this book I deliberately kept my expectations low. I did not expect to read a novel like this, however.

The novel starts off with the main characters noticing something horrible going on as the result of the floating city flying over their home town. Through some arbitrary plot device they magically end up on the city.

Instead of the characters having any notion of their predicament or a sense of where they are and what they understand about their place in the world, in true computer game fashion they trek off because "We have to do something".

Now you would expect that this novel would offer the reader a literary glimpse into the world that Bethesda created. I certainly was looking forward to sweeping descriptions, interesting characters, and elaboration of the Elder Scrolls world. The title The Infernal City promises an interesting look into Oblivion and the devilish creatures that reside there.

Instead the characters get captured and end up in ... a kitchen. The Infernal City refers to the flames that are being fanned in the dirty kitchens deep in the bowels of the floating city.

What follows is a thin plot involving chefs that cook in these kitchens involved in political infighting over who rules the best kitchen. And the whole time the main characters spend their time gathering and cooking souls. Yes, souls.

I would applaud Mr. Keyes daring new approach to fantasy if the plot wasn't dull and bewildering, the characters weren't flat and uninteresting, and his descriptions of the world so brief and lack any sort of imagination.

The worst part of this novel is the dialogue between the characters. The dialogue never rises above the level of bickering asinine 21st century teenagers. It is so bad that I seriously wonder if any editor bothered to read this novel.

Avoid this novel at all costs...

39 people found this helpful

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From other countries

ASBroadbent

Received a promotional copy “Not for resale”

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 28, 2021

Verified Purchase

Received an item showing not for resale on the back.

H. Rettinger

First Kindle content impression

Reviewed in Germany on December 11, 2011

Verified Purchase

First of all, I like to highlight, that this review and it's rating is only targeted on the Kindle eBook and not on the books content.
So why did I gave only on star:
- Kindle Book Cover is not what we see here. It's a very plain boxes based image.
- There is no TOC. Kindle users know, that the table of content is a nice feature to quickly go from one chapter to another, but my shows absolutely no dots in the progress bar.
- Low resulution pictures / chapter separators. Apart from the cover every other used image looks like it has been washed and does not make use of the high resulution capability of the Kindle.
- And finally Textsize is at least one above the default setting which means I have to adjust is manually down to make it not appear like a childrens book and when I switch back to another eBook reverse the setting. That's anoying.

So if you count... 4 negative aspects gives only one star.
I can only hope, that the story compensates me for this crappy layout.

2 people found this helpful

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