Predator: Escape from Tarkov

by Alexander Kontorovich

When darkness falls on the streets of Tarkov... When ordinary people who just yesterday were friendly neighbors start to kill each other over a can of food… When everyday life turns into lawless mayhem in the space of an hour… That’s when an ordinary cubicle slave can suddenly transform into a fierce implacable predator, casting aside his keyboard in favor of a heavyweight shotgun. There’s no way back to his former life. There’s only one option left – to become the biggest beast in this concrete jungle. Welcome to Tarkov...

This book was inspired by the video game Escape from Tarkov, and takes a closer look at one of the characters – a Scav. It’s not hard to understand the metamorphosis of hardened criminals, but how does an ordinary person, until yesterday an office worker, become a Scav? Will he be able to throw away everything and turn into a savage predator? He will, and surprisingly quickly. Fingers accustomed to clicking a mouse can just as comfortably pull a trigger. Even searching the still-warm body of an enemy poses no real problems. The pangs of conscience won’t last long. But can a predator like that retain any of their humanity? Will they still be capable of any good deeds?

Let’s go to Tarkov and find out.

296 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 15, 2018

Reviews

[Evgeni Buzov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Predator: Escape from Tarkov
An unremarkable novel for a brilliant franchise

Sometimes, translating a book from the language in which it was initially written is a task that is more challenging than the creation of the book itself. The original style and spirit of a translated tale can lose its genuine quality and vibes - and this is definitely the case when it comes to Predator: Escape from Tarkov.

But even with the shoddy translation not being taken into account, Predator doesn't really shine much as a novel in any particular aspects, despite having the necessary potential to do so.

Setting - 5/5
I will begin the review by describing something truly positive about the novel - The actual world of Tarkov, a magnificent game setting that is very easy to immerse yourself into should you decide to play this multiplayer extraction shooter. Set in a fictional region of Norvinsk, this PvPvE title (to which the novel is dedicated) takes players into the city of Tarkov - an immense, modern Russian metropolis that is now ruled by chaos, anarchy and violence.

The events that lead to the downfall of the city are numerous and complex - with a Corporate cover-up caused by TerraGroup leading to civil unrest and, finally, a subsequent political conflict between Russia and Western countries. After a series of belligerent incidents, the city is thrown into a state of complete disarray, and various factions and groups now control the streets. Amongst these groups and individuals is the protagonist of the novel - Denis Karasev, a former programmer employed by TerraGroup who must now somehow survive in the city.

As already mentioned earlier, the foundation for the novel is generally a very solid one, but despite this, the story in the book fails to impress even the most patient reader and the most devoted Tarkov player.

Writing Style and Translation - 2/5

Written in a brusque, harsh and naturalistic manner, the novel loses much of its zest due to a dull translation - allow me to elaborate.

The majority of the novel is written in first-person, as thoughts and ideas of the protagonist. Denis Karasev - a sardonic, resourceful, inventive individual who used to work as an employee at TerraGroup describes the horrors that he witnesses during the early stages after the city of Tarkov has been evacuated.

However, this is where Predator begins to feel quite unpolished. In Russian language (the language in which the novel was originally written) a tersely delivered sentence or an abrupt thought can still sound surprisingly descriptive, or at the very least - natural. But if the translation has been done without a creative touch, that is to say in a fast, perfunctory manner, then a naturally sounding sentence will feel distorted and poorly delivered in its translated counterpart - this is true for the entirety of Predator.

Denis is an ironic, somewhat cynical yet jocular young man who has a sarcastic perspective in regards to everything that is happening around him, including his numerous predicaments. As such, the book is full of his snide ideas and anecdotes, various Russian idioms that are (in all fairness) hard to translate and generally various context that is difficult to describe in English language without deforming the original cheeki-breeki Russian Tarkov vibes. Hence, it is unfair to criticize the translation excessively: One way or the other, the atmosphere, jargon and the Russian mentality described in the novel will get inevitably warped.

Essentially, I would give the translation and the writing style a higher ranking than merely 2 stars out of 5 (I understand that it's a difficult task to translate something perfectly), but I can't shake off the impression that the translation was still done in a cursory fashion.

Fun Fact: In the novel, many "Scavs" are tied to the criminal world and therefore occasionally speak in a Russian criminal jargon called "Blatnoy Yazyk", or "Ugolovniy Zhargon". In the English translation, this obviously had to be replaced with some other intelligible criminal slang and apparently, the translator decided to use British words such as "Guv'Nor" and things like that... It frankly doesn't do the novel any favours - It just feels very out of place to be honest, as if instead of Russian gopniks, the story features English football hooligans with a cockney accent.

Characters, themes and content - 3/5

I'm giving 3 out 5 stars here quite generously because of two reasons. Firstly because at the very least the protagonist has some quirkiness about him. For the duration of the whole story, readers will have plenty of chances to chuckle thanks to Karasev's sense of humor and delve into his unconventional type of logic. Regretfully, this is where any uniqueness related to the individuals described in the novel ends.

Don't get me wrong, throughout his misfortunate adventures in Tarkov Denis will stumble upon: fellow TerraGroup colleagues, organized marauder groups, BEAR PMC's, garrisoned traders, street thugs, armed bandits, USEC's, drug dealers, ex-policemen and even cultists - all the while trying to balance between these factions in order to survive. But despite the multitude of different people present in the novel, hardly any of them possess individuality, nor are they provided with a sufficient description for the reader to visualize the situation that Denis is seeing around him.

The book tries to feverishly compensate for the lack of proper character and scene descriptions by overwhelming the reader with continuous change of environment during each chapter. In other words, the author of Predator tries hectically to cram the story full of different events, but all of them are delivered in a shallow, poorly detailed literary manner - One moment Denis is observing some local cutthroats from an abandoned apartment balcony, pondering how he will survive without any equipment; and then all of a sudden, he remembers some itsy-bitsy little detail that he noticed earlier on the street and thanks to that he is, on the spur of the moment, a proud owner of a pump action shotgun...

In their reviews, some readers have pointed out that the character development of the protagonist is
unrealistically fast - but in all fairness, this is not just an oversight of the author but is also partially due to the again, very very scant style of the translation. For a Russian reader, it is less surprising that Denis becomes a survivor who can fend for himself. The reason for this is because he briefly explains that he served 1 year of mandatory service in the military. In the English translation this is mentioned so fleetingly that the reader might not even pay attention to this fact. Even still, bad translation or not - the shaping of the protagonist is explained very inconsistently and improbably, with sassy sarcasm trying to fill the book as a substitute for a reasonable explanation as to why Denis is surviving against all odds in situations where he should have been either killed or badly injured.

It's also worth mentioning that scenery, environment and setting elements are (again) described in a such sparing literary style that the reader will have serious difficulties when it comes to mental visualization of the events and actions that are being written about. This is especially true if the reader never actually played Escape from Tarkov. Primarily, urban areas will be mentioned (abandoned flats and apartments, houses, etc) as the surroundings that Denis will explore or encounter, but this is all described so unimaginatively, so indifferently that very quickly, the reader will have a hard time discerning the importance or difference of certain described situations or memorizing why they are even relevant.

The second reason why I am giving the novel content 3 out of 5 stars (and again, I will mention that this is a generous rating) is because Predator has a decent amount of combat related moments that are, oddly enough, described in a fairly interesting, readable way. The signature style of the combat (just as is the case with the entire book) scenes is that they are hardly plausible, but nonetheless they are frequent and entertaining - this is actually a quality that action novels should ideally have, but not all (even well written or famous ones) do.

Storyline and Character Progression - 2/5

Just like the translation is slapdash and devoid of the much needed creativity, the same pretty much applies to the plotline in Predator. The characters, as mentioned earlier, are very bland and their interactions with the protagonist can hardly be described as "complex" or "realistic" - this ultimately affects the atmosphere of the book, further contributing to the overall impression of
intrinsic shallowness present in the literary title.

A good example of an implausible character interaction would be one with a "respected, serious" businessman Mr.Ogryzko who set up his shop/mini-fortress in Tarkov and organized a detail of guards who are armed to the teeth and are described briefly as experienced fighters. Suffice to say, the mentioned operation that was established seemingly overnight most likely cost significant resources for the entrepreneur. And while all these things indicate that such a trader is interested in serious barter schemes (with his guards patting down and disarming anyone who comes around to trade for safety reasons), Mr.Ogryzko is not above personally dealing with the protagonist who at first literally has nothing but dirty, makeshift bottled water and two cans of corned beef.

An another example of an admittedly lame part of the story is when the protagonist will grab his silenced pistol, strap it onto his leg and underneath his pants with some first aid plasters (yes, you read that correctly) and will go to see his former colleague. This will lead to the protagonist getting captured by the cultists (and if you have played Tarkov, you know that these guys don't mess around) who will bring him to some kind of a dungeon for further interrogation WITHOUT patting him down first. As a result, our hero will easily kill several of them and will also save an ex-police officer in the process. Needless to say, this is isn't a very realistic scenario.

The examples that I'm trying to describe are described by me with more reasoning and detail than what is actually provided in the novel, but as one might now guess - these conflicting parts in the novel deprive the story of realism and believability.

When it comes to the story itself... In all fairness, there really isn't any meaning in the plot of the novel, nor is there any significance behind it. Instead, we have the harsh realism theme and the "live to see another day" concept; and that would be fine, but again, this too is provided poorly to the reader as an idea to ponder over.

Storywise, The book starts with a quick explanation as to why the protagonist was left stranded in a conflict-ravaged Tarkov. Almost instantaneously, along with several of his coworkers, the protagonist is assailed by unknown figures and his colleagues get killed whilst our hero miraculously survives.

Apparently luck is something of a companion-for-life when it comes to the main character because there will be plenty of situations where he should have kicked the bucket, and yet again this too is written in a such a bizarre, anecdotic fashion that the reader is meant to perceive this as humour, but while this plot move is entertaining, soon it becomes predictable and tiring.

We have an early, mini plot-twist where the protagonist gets captured by some thugs that are the closest thing that you will get to a post-apocalyptic slaver group, but within the world of Tarkov. These guys capture the remaining innocent citizens of the city, distribute them into groups and force them to break open into locked up apartments to take everything inside. At this point, this faction and the concept of a bandit-ruled concertation labour camp began to somewhat diverge with the lore in the game (we don't see weaponless, helpless civilian slaves in the game, although that doesn't mean they don't exist, I do agree) and I felt a slight breeze of disinterest emerge in me whilst reading the novel (mind you, this is very early on in the story). The protagonist gets cruelly hazed by fellow hostages whilst resting at an improvised prison building, and this supposedly hardens him, so-much so that he decides to make a run for freedom during one of the apartment raids. As a result, he injures or even outright kills (this is never fully clarified) an another "slave" but earns his freedom. This early part of the story, from what I understand, is meant to explain why the protagonist begins to feel his conscience fading away, but whether due to the translation or the story itself, this whole idea doesn't feel very convincing.

After finally finding a pump-action shotgun that could have been acquired right at the start of the book, things turn for the better and Denis manages to get some work from Mr.Ogryzko - work that involves a shakedown of a local bandit group. It is here that our hero loses even more of his conscience by unwillingly pumping a random thug full of buckshot, with the thug's buddies then finishing him off by cutting his throat at the behest of Denis.

Naturally, at this point, the adventure has just begun because Denis has tasted blood and obtained confidence in his own abilities (despite regularly telling the reader that he is no super hero and is oftentimes scared stiff).

Soon after, during one of his regular sorties, Denis lures an armed group of bandits into an abandoned house and then, against all common sense and plausibility, he provokes a nearby squad of patrolling USEC's and pits them against the abovementioned bandits by shooting at them from a balcony. The squad of USEC's must be mentally retarded because instead of riddling the building with bullets and killing everybody inside, or even outright ignoring the enemy fire because there's nothing to gain by engaging in a firefight, they close in on the building and as a result, they waste the bandits but sustain casualties as Denis kills one of their members and takes a nifty suppressed Sig-Sauer handgun.

Denis then inconceivably becomes a local Agent 47 and executes a flawless infiltration operation into a bandit camp and assassinates their leader with the already mentioned pistol, frightening the bandits and further making a legend of his own persona. This, yet again, is all written in a such sloppy, careless way that it inevitably chips away at the desire to keep reading the novel.

Between occasional raids and street scavenging, bartering with merchants and negotiating with bandits, Denis rests at his "Shag Pad" - an abandoned underground service area and a hideout that very much resembles the one that players can upgrade in Escape from Tarkov. It is here where - after a long day - Denis reflects on his deeds and suppresses his feelings of guilt, doubt and dread, more often than not with the help of a glass of brandy or vodka. The concept of the protagonist being busy with self-condemnation whilst resting in a damp hideout is a nice addition to the story, albeit again, a rather poorly implemented one. The way how Denis justifies bloodshed by easily convincing himself that his enemies are not real living souls but rather video game "avatars" set in real life is ludicrously tenuous. Similarly, his plethora of inner doubts and fears when being alone, contrasted by his superpower-like ability to keep his composure in almost impossible situations attests to the fact that the author doesn't possess a deep understanding of just how really the human psyche works. All in all, any part of the book that tries to delve into human psychology is very janky, even more so than the rest of the story.

Next, the book goes on and on with random encounters where Denis helps and befriends an ex police officer - establishing a good reputation with a faction of former policemen, keeps getting more connections with various people (drug dealers included) and creates the legend of "The Predator", a powerful, ruthless figure by which he is supposedly employed. The novel then abruptly ends at chapter 14 after Denis (again thanks to insane luck and a stealthy approach) destroys a squad of USEC's deployed at an old Factory and moves in a bandit faction that he is on good terms with. I assume that there will be a continuation of Predator's story in other Tarkov novels that are written by Kontorovich, but this book ended very very abruptly and hardly had any core idea behind it. After finishing the novel, I got the impression that the author got tired of writing a bunch of random chapters which are very loosely connected between one another and decided to give this tale a rest - at least for some time.

Conclusion - 3/5

To be completely honest, I am giving this novel a rating of 3 out of 5 merely because it has a lot of action in it (along with sarcasm and humor), and because this is the very first book for one of my favorite game franchises. If it wouldn't be for the Tarkov Logo on the front cover, I admit - I would probably rate it lower. The story relates to the game in the most minimal way possible, but I simply can't give it a rank of lower than 3 due to my fondness and respect for Escape from Tarkov.

If you value your time and you have a problem with reading mediocre novels then you can skip this title, you really won't miss that much. But if you consider yourself a connoisseur of Tarkov, then give this book a chance - it has a lot of action, cheesy ironic humor and a very bland, poorly written plot that you just might still somehow enjoy.

[TJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though the translation is shaky and some bits don’t translate well, the story is great with a decently relatable character and near addicting to read.

[Tim Ngo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love the game and the universe of this game. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for this book.

The pacing is an issue and I can tell that the book isn't well translated. Lots of the sentences read monotonous and are often weirdly worded.

If you're reading this to learn more about the world of Escape from Tarkov (like me), you're in for a disappointment. This book barely scratches the surface of the game's universe. Other than the few factions mentioned and some scant descriptions of what happened before the game itself, the book is barely related to the game itself.

However, what I really have a problem with is the story and character development. I won’t spoil much, but the character of this book shows little development over the course of the story. Although the synopsis advertises the story as a "metamorphosis of a hardened criminal", the main character/narrator showed little hesitation to kill or worse, and shows no qualms towards deaths, right from the start. The narrator's constant reminder that he was just an IT guy weeks ago doesn’t help.

Play the game. Don't waste your time reading this.

[Pip · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lot of typos and literal translations from Russian that don't work too well in English. Could have been better with a decent editor. There's a lot of action and some interesting ideas that become less and less believable as it goes on. In essence, a whitecollar worker becomes a bandit king through absolute luck and big lies. I'm assuming the house of cards comes crashing down at some point in the book trilogy, but I'm not sure that I'll continue with the series to see it.

I was expecting a much more serious book, considering the brutal reality of Scav life in the Tarkov universe. Perhaps because it's a video game, the Developers didn't want the writer to go that route? It definitely reads like video game fiction in some aspects. From Tarkov lore perspective, there's really nothing new gained. The factions are mentioned, some locations, and traders, but overall it's very surface level stuff.

I'd like to read Kontorovich's other work, his ideas and style are fun to read and I chalk up a lot of the problems with Predator with it having to be set in the Tarkov universe.

[Bri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ll keep this simple for those that are just coming by. This book is supported by Battle State Games (BSG) the developers and creators of the game called “Escape From Tarkov.” The people whom have interacted with this game should give it a read if you are interested in the lore and understanding how quickly this world became dystopic.

Having read this book, I now come to understand how Scavs came to be. How everyone and anyone could be dragged into this situation just by living in or near the skirts of the city of Tarkov.

In the game, we are apathetic towards the faction of Scavs, and sometimes we just view them as “dusty” AI characters that only serve to pester us. Despite being aware of their upbringing in this kind of world (does not mean I will be less inclined to shoot them when I play against them). However, it fascinates me how this modern game came out to be.

[Gino Ricchio · Rating 2 out of 5]

After playing the game extensively, I really had some high hopes for the Predator book and unfortunately it didn't live up to my expectations.

I felt the story should have been at at least double the size. Also, I feel the character developed too quickly. One minute, he was a developer without a killer instinct, the next he is actively hunting mob bosses. Additionally, I feel the amount of luck that the character is given is way too high. Or given his development, I don't think he could have survived several of the situations.
All in, I am happy I read the book, just wish there was more development and nods to the locations in the game. I was looking for more lore of Tarkov and just got a mediocre story

[Juan Pablo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bit of a rough start for the series, especially the gang related arcs in the first part, though the series overall gets much better. while it has its' shortcomings in the first half as mentioned above alongside the usual russian-to-english translation shortcomings, it's overall a very good read. i personally liked the main character's growth and changes the warzone of tarkov does to him. I believe that we could benefit from the author and BSG writing new books in the series, especially now that the full tarkov storyline and a very good chunk of the lore have been revealed in-game.

[L4wngnome · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love the Escape From Tarkov game. I probably have about 1,000 hours of play time. This book is ok. It doesn't reveal much about the Tarkov story. It's a fun look at how a normal guy becomes a Scav. There are a couple of fun scenes, but overall the pacing is off. A review by a editor with a lot of action books under their belt would have helped with the pacing. Also, after a little build up, the ending is kind of blah.

[Siren Bard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed by my husband who happens to stream Escape from Tarkov, RH Galloway

"It's like watching a societal downfall where a system administrator becomes the most dangerous person in the region. Pretty wild story." 4/5 stars

Side Note: He hasn't stopped talking about this book since he snagged my kindle and he is not a huge reader. Would highly recommend this myself to those that love Tarkov.

[oskar lambertsson bjork · Rating 2 out of 5]

Totally fine! Might be the translation from Russian but something about the pacing was off.

It did give some good context to the game though.

[Jason Kent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it! I just wish I could find books 2 and 3 LITERALLY ANYWHERE

[Alanas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite all translation mistakes, I loved this book. Although the development was linear, a bit unrealistic but the world building was pretty immersive. Especially with this relatable character. I expected to read more about familiar game lore, but I saw that sequels contain much more of it, can't wait to read the others then.