Dead Space: Martyr: 1

Product Information

It's the story of Michael Altman, the religious figure at the heart of the church of Unitology, and his clumsy journey from a lowly computer tech to an unwilling cult legend. It’s hard to portray the excitement of the story without ruining a whole host of storylines, but there are moments you really won’t see what’s coming. After Altman leaves, Hammond suffers auditory hallucinations and is approached by a seemingly hostile group, committing suicide in his growing delusional state. I’ve been intentionally vague with storyline details, and as such may not have done the novel full justice, but if you have any interest in Dead Space universe or just fancy some well-written and enjoyable horror-fiction then Dead Space: Martyr is well worth a the read.

Dead Space 2, Dead Space: Aftermath and Dead Space: Salvage establish that the Necromorphs require the Marker signal to be active; without the presence of the signal, they collapse into an "organic soup". The whispers and headaches were getting worse and in a state of madness, Hammond slits his own throat. Due to his activities, Altman is approached by DredgerCorp and the military, who decide to include him as a team member. Hennessy realizes too late that the Marker was controlling his actions all the time and dies of oxygen starvation.Altman meets with Charles Hammond, a freelance worker hired by resource corporation DredgerCorp to investigate the signal in secret. I would have liked more description of the state of the Earth and humanity in this universe, and, in that regard, the novel does lack some much need context, but this was way better than Catalyst and for fans of the series the expanded lore is pretty much all you've got left. In a baffling move, Evenson tosses out the relatively subtle legacy Altman would have left behind by pretending to be a true prophet when he was really just exploiting the Unitologists to get their help.

You’ll have a few more “oh right” moments if you’ve played the games reading this, but nothing that would ruin the story if you didn’t make the link. Womit wir bei den zwei Hauptproblemen des Buches wären: zu repetitive Gewalt, die diesen durchaus furchtbaren Szenarien jeglichen Horror nimmt, und eindimensionale Charaktere. Die das ursprüngliche Material erstmal verstehen und dazu auch noch mögen müssen, um eine kongruente, spannende Geschichte hervorzubringen, insbesondere, wenn es sich um ein Prequel handelt wie in diesem Buch zu einem der beliebtesten Horror-Shooter-Franchises der Welt. Denn Evenson lässt sich fast für 75 Prozent des Buches Zeit damit, zu erläutern, was der Marker eigentlich ist, und lässt uns währenddessen sehr vielen Charakteren über die Schulter schauen, die unter den Wirkungen des Markers leiden.

After he learns the Marker's true nature, Altman goes public with the classified information, but the results are more frightening than he imagines. There are a lot of elements here that remind me of Evenson's other work: the stripped down prose, film-noir dialogue, gorgeous take on violence, hints at the mythical, and even moves towards a similar thematic complexity. I didn't wish to register his/her/its grotesque movement and silhouette, but I helpless to control my thought. Martyr forms part of the Dead Space survival horror media franchise developed by Visceral Games and published by Electronic Arts.

Rather than sitting it out like a good little "company man", Michael decides to dig deeper and spread his findings far and wide, a noble but nonetheless mistaken endeavor that will probably cost him his life, and humanity much more in the long run. With the bold idea to request a grant for a full scientific study of the anomaly within the crater, Altman draws the unwanted attention of DredgerCorp and military personnel (these two were apparently in a coalition from the start), who come to find out how much he knows. Whatever happened in these respects, it is clear that Harman then assaulted Altman with their boat's anchor and rendered him unconscious. Altman escapes to shore, learning of Ada's death through a Marker vision, and kills assassins sent by Markoff before being taken in by Chava.Altman's torture is interrupted by Stevens, who gets Altman to come and calm the believers down, but Altman just uses this time to investigate more about the Marker and get another look at it, trying to "fix" it by putting the piece back in. For some reason, this book took me longer than usual to read, ( I would usually read a book like this in 3-5 days, but it took me 2 weeks). The pace of the writing isn’t perfect, and there are times when the story drags itself out a little more than needed, but on the whole it’s snappy and punchy, and balanced nicely to leave you wanting more without overwhelming you.