[Stuart]

I'm wondering if anyone can recommend to me any books like a certain type of adventure game. The sort of game where you travel to locations all around the world chasing a mystery, that may or may not involve conspiracy or cult (ie. Secret Files, Chronicles of Mystery, Memento Mori, Broken Sword, Gabriel Knight).

Or even one based more in one location but with a similarly mysterious feel where you can't quite work out what is going on but things beyond the mundane are happening (ie. Gray Matter, Indigo Prophecy). Basically, I love adventure games that are mysterious even to the point they threaten to involve the supernatural, but keep you guessing as you explore interesting places.

The first book that springs to mind is obviously the Da Vinci Code and other Dan Brown works, but I've read those and while I enjoyed them, felt they were a little too "Hollywood" at times.

Soooo, any recommendations for books with the sort of feel I'm talking about that I love so much in AGs?

[Lady Kestrel]

You might try The City and the City or Kraken by China Miéville.

[Lee in Limbo]

Have you read American Gods by Neil Gaiman yet? Very strange modern revisitation of Ragnarok, I suppose, which is something lots of Ags have tackled over the years. Highly recommended in any case.

All Tomorrow's Parties by William Gibson has an atmosphere similar to games like Moment of Silence and The Longest Journey and Dreamfall's Stark.

And I can't tell you what games might fit this, but you should read Tad Williams' Otherword quadrology. It's teh most spellbinding take on virtual reality I've ever read.

I also have a book called Only Forward, by Michael Marshall Smith, which is sort of the science fiction version of Discworld Noir.

[DustyShinigami]

I don't know how you feel about graphic novels/manga, but Naoki Urasawa's Monster has the quality of a thriller themed adventure game. To me, some parts feel like Broken Sword and Gabriel Knight because of the setting/artwork - Germany, Munich, Bavaria, Frankfurt, Prague etc.

Here's the basic plot line taken from Wikipedia (contains spoilers!):

Dr. Kenzō Tenma is a young Japanese doctor working at the Eisler Memorial Hospital in Düsseldorf during the 1980s. A highly accomplished brain surgeon, he appears to have everything on his plate: a promotion in the offering; the favor of the hospital's director Heinemann; and Heinemann's daughter Eva as his fiancée. However, Tenma grows increasingly dissatisfied with the political bias of the hospital for treating patients, and seizes his chance to change things after a strange massacre brings the twins Johan and Anna Liebert into his hospital. Johan has a gunshot wound to the head and Anna keeps muttering about killing, and Tenma decides to operate on Johan instead of the mayor of Düsseldorf who arrived afterwards. Johan is saved, but Mayor Roedecker dies. Tenma loses all his social standing and Eva as a consequence. However, Director Heinemann and the other doctors in Tenma's way are mysteriously murdered, and both children disappear from the hospital soon after. The police suspect Tenma, as he benefits greatly from this turn of events, but they have no evidence, and so can do no more than question him.

Nine years later. Tenma is now the Chief of Surgery at Eisler Memorial Hospital. After saving a known criminal named Adolf Junkers after being hit by a car, he hears him muttering about a "monster". Tenma extends kindness to Junkers, and he thus reciprocates by beginning to open up to the doctor. Then one evening, when Dr. Tenma comes back with a clock as a gift for Junkers, he finds the guard in front of Junkers's room dead, and Junkers himself gone. Following the trail to the construction site of a half-finished building near the hospital, Tenma finds Junkers being held at gunpoint. The man, who has developed a sort of doctor-patient friendship with Dr. Tenma, warns him against coming closer, and pleads with him to run away. Tenma refuses, however, and the man holding the gun is revealed to be the boy whose life Tenma had saved nine years ago, Johan Liebert. Despite Dr. Tenma's attempt to reason with him, Johan shoots the criminal, tells Tenma that he could never kill the man who had saved his life, and then walks off into the night while Tenma is still too shocked to stop him.

After this incident, Tenma is again suspected by the police, particularly Inspector Lunge, and he tries to find more information about this "Johan". He soon discovers that the boy's sister, now named Nina, is happily living the life of an adopted daughter to two caring parents, the only traces of her terrible past being a few dreams she has had. Tenma discovers her on her birthday and manages to prevent her from meeting her brother, but comes too late to stop Johan from murdering her foster parents. As the story progresses, Tenma learns of the origins of this monster, from the former East Germany's attempt to use a secret orphanage called 511 Kinderheim (where Johan came from) in order to create the "perfect soldiers" through "psychological reprogramming", to the author of a children's book which was used in a eugenics experiment in Czech Republic. He also learns about the scope of the atrocities this "monster" has committed, and vows to fix the mistake he made when he saved Johan's life.

...And that's only the tip of the iceberg.

The series is a very character driven story and a lot of them are deep, complex, flawed, and interesting. The story is very good, well written and researched; there's loads of plot twists - some you may see coming, others you won't - and the artwork is very detailed.

It's a classic! But I do feel that it's underrated and it makes me sad that there are loads of people who haven't heard of it, read it, watched it etc. Unfortunately, a number of volumes have become ridiculously rare and expensive; so it's probably best to read scans online.

But yeah, I'd say it's adventure gamey-ish.

[Stuart]

Thanks for the recommendations, I've checked out their plotlines on Amazon and added a couple to my wishlist.

Any other recommendations would be appreciated - has anyone read the novelizations of Gabriel Knight and are they good?