What do you think?
Rate this book
Sniper Elite: Origins - Three Original Stories Set in the World of the Hit Video Game
Three Original Stories Set in the World of the Global Hit Sniper Elite Video Game Franchise!
Sniper Origins is three original stories set in the world of the hit video game that explore the beginnigs of Karl Fairburne, the Sniper Elite.
In Water Line Karl Fairburn is a new recruit fighting on the front line. Battle weary, low on morale and holding a bridge in a rear-guard action to delay the German onslaught. This is where he comes to understand his place in the war
The beginning of his training for life behind the lines starts in Home Ground . Karl is recruited into the SOE to learn sabotage, espionage and assassination. His training is interrupted by a nighttime enemy attack.
Follow his first mission far behind enemy lines in By the Swor d where countless lives depended on the success of his mission, and there would be untold destruction if he failed.
Sniper Origins fills in the background of the Sniper with three exciting stories that should be a must-read for any Sniper fan
Sniper Origins is three original stories set in the world of the hit video game that explore the beginnigs of Karl Fairburne, the Sniper Elite.
In Water Line Karl Fairburn is a new recruit fighting on the front line. Battle weary, low on morale and holding a bridge in a rear-guard action to delay the German onslaught. This is where he comes to understand his place in the war
The beginning of his training for life behind the lines starts in Home Ground . Karl is recruited into the SOE to learn sabotage, espionage and assassination. His training is interrupted by a nighttime enemy attack.
Follow his first mission far behind enemy lines in By the Swor d where countless lives depended on the success of his mission, and there would be untold destruction if he failed.
Sniper Origins fills in the background of the Sniper with three exciting stories that should be a must-read for any Sniper fan
288 pages, Paperback
Published May 24, 2022
1 person is currently reading
5 people want to read
About the author
Scott K. Andrews
21 books56 followersScott K. Andrews has written episode guides, magazine articles, film and book reviews, comics, computer games, audio plays for Big Finish, far too many blogs, some poems you will never read, and a whole bunch of novels. He's online at www.scottkandrews.com.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 9, 2024
Sniper Elite: Origins promises you three novellas that shine a light on the early career of Karl Fairburne, protagonist of the Sniper Elite videogame series. Two of them are pretty good, although they're all a bit sloppy.
Water Line, by Scott Andrews, gets the collection off to a rough start. It's really just a generic World War II military tale of a unit moving through France and fighting Nazis, with absolutely nothing remarkable about it. The writing style didn't do anything to capture my attention either -- it was quite a slog to get through. On the plus side, I did appreciate how Karl wasn't yet very experienced, occasionally making tactical mistakes and certainly not a crack shot. One of the other characters is a tribute to a relative of the author and the story is loosely based on the relative's experience, which could have been interesting -- but there's nothing about the relative character that would have made him stand out otherwise, no extra heart or soul poured into the story that I could detect. Finally, one of the other characters Karl encounters is the mother of Marie Chevalier from Sniper Elite 5 and the Zombie Army games -- but the tie-in feels forced, rather than adding a cool and rewarding connection.
Home Ground, by Sandy Mitchell, is significantly better. It moves Karl forward in time a bit, to the point where he leaves the regular army and starts training in the UK to do sniping and sneaking behind enemy lines. The story is still pretty generic, but it's more tense and the writing kept me hooked. Karl meets and works with Sniper Elite 5 character Charlie Barton here, and she feels like much more a natural part of the story than Marie Chevalier did in Water Line. On the negative side, the author can't seem to keep straight the name of another character -- calling him both Conway and Conroy sometimes even on the same page. I have to imagine that if anyone actually read this story before publishing, they'd catch it immediately.
By the Sword, by Chris Roberson, is the only story where Karl is actually a well-trained sniper who can quickly and accurately get off shots. It's nice to see his growth over the course of the novellas, and he really does seem much more capable here. It's another generic story, this time wounded and trapped behind enemy lines. But the family he interacts with is slightly interesting and giving Karl limited mobility due to injury keeps things feeling fresh. Unfortunately, By the Sword succumbs to one of my biggest pet peeves -- there are no chapter breaks. It meant I read through this one quickly, but my reading sessions felt a bit disjointed due to a lack of good places to stop.
Overall, Sniper Elite: Origins is fine. It clearly needed a bit more editing polish and can't escape the fact that Karl Fairburne isn't particularly interesting. But it delivers three generic, if mostly inoffensive, World War II military tales if that's your thing.
Water Line, by Scott Andrews, gets the collection off to a rough start. It's really just a generic World War II military tale of a unit moving through France and fighting Nazis, with absolutely nothing remarkable about it. The writing style didn't do anything to capture my attention either -- it was quite a slog to get through. On the plus side, I did appreciate how Karl wasn't yet very experienced, occasionally making tactical mistakes and certainly not a crack shot. One of the other characters is a tribute to a relative of the author and the story is loosely based on the relative's experience, which could have been interesting -- but there's nothing about the relative character that would have made him stand out otherwise, no extra heart or soul poured into the story that I could detect. Finally, one of the other characters Karl encounters is the mother of Marie Chevalier from Sniper Elite 5 and the Zombie Army games -- but the tie-in feels forced, rather than adding a cool and rewarding connection.
Home Ground, by Sandy Mitchell, is significantly better. It moves Karl forward in time a bit, to the point where he leaves the regular army and starts training in the UK to do sniping and sneaking behind enemy lines. The story is still pretty generic, but it's more tense and the writing kept me hooked. Karl meets and works with Sniper Elite 5 character Charlie Barton here, and she feels like much more a natural part of the story than Marie Chevalier did in Water Line. On the negative side, the author can't seem to keep straight the name of another character -- calling him both Conway and Conroy sometimes even on the same page. I have to imagine that if anyone actually read this story before publishing, they'd catch it immediately.
By the Sword, by Chris Roberson, is the only story where Karl is actually a well-trained sniper who can quickly and accurately get off shots. It's nice to see his growth over the course of the novellas, and he really does seem much more capable here. It's another generic story, this time wounded and trapped behind enemy lines. But the family he interacts with is slightly interesting and giving Karl limited mobility due to injury keeps things feeling fresh. Unfortunately, By the Sword succumbs to one of my biggest pet peeves -- there are no chapter breaks. It meant I read through this one quickly, but my reading sessions felt a bit disjointed due to a lack of good places to stop.
Overall, Sniper Elite: Origins is fine. It clearly needed a bit more editing polish and can't escape the fact that Karl Fairburne isn't particularly interesting. But it delivers three generic, if mostly inoffensive, World War II military tales if that's your thing.
July 15, 2023
Sniper Elite: Origins By authors Scott Andrews, Sandy Mitchell, and Chris Roberson is video game tie-in novel based on the “Sniper Elite” video game franchise.
Since it was first introduced in 2005, the Sniper Elite series has graced nine different gaming systems and been the inspiration for a spinoff game series called the Zombie Army Trilogy. While the mythology of the series has been explored in comics and short story form, this is the first time the series has ventured into a full length novel.
Sniper Elite: Origins gives fans of the games three original short stories set before and during the events various Sniper Elite games showing the origins of Karl Fairburn before he became the deadly SOE operative known as, the Sniper Elite.
Each of the three short stories by the three different authors set us up with a classic tale of men-at-war, set in a world which most all only know from movies, books, and video games. We watch as Karl Fairburn, the protagonist of the Sniper Elite series, drops into enemy territory and uses his formidable skills in ways that anyone familiar with the video game series would know. The authors have a solid feel for the 1940s time period, from their use of historically accurate locations as battlefields to the dialogue of the time period. They nail out the voice of Fairburn admirably and makes the character’s voices seem realistic.
Video game inspired books are common. I myself have read many and they vary in not only their quality but their devotion to the subject matter they cover. With this title, The various authors have a setting which is based on World War II conflict, but they do not phone it in. They set up and tell their own stories which are reminiscent of the great war films and spy dramas which are so prevalent but manage to hold their own in adapting the subject matter to tell their own original origin stories of the video game’s main character.
Origins is a pulse-pounding WW2 military thriller. The plot of each short story is extremely intense, and the action is almost non-stop and quite believable. Reading the book, it feels like you’re in the middle of it all. In addition to the fluid plot, characters are developed to a certain degree. I cannot say that character development is particularly strong here, but that doesn’t matter as it is compensated by the novel’s rich plot from the three short stories featured in the novel.
All in all, SE: Origins lives up to the Sniper Elite Franchise. It’s quick read but intensely gripping, and shows the origins of the game’s main character and how he became the infamous sniper we see in the games. I would definitely recommend this book to fans of the games or fans of WW2 military thrillers.
Since it was first introduced in 2005, the Sniper Elite series has graced nine different gaming systems and been the inspiration for a spinoff game series called the Zombie Army Trilogy. While the mythology of the series has been explored in comics and short story form, this is the first time the series has ventured into a full length novel.
Sniper Elite: Origins gives fans of the games three original short stories set before and during the events various Sniper Elite games showing the origins of Karl Fairburn before he became the deadly SOE operative known as, the Sniper Elite.
Each of the three short stories by the three different authors set us up with a classic tale of men-at-war, set in a world which most all only know from movies, books, and video games. We watch as Karl Fairburn, the protagonist of the Sniper Elite series, drops into enemy territory and uses his formidable skills in ways that anyone familiar with the video game series would know. The authors have a solid feel for the 1940s time period, from their use of historically accurate locations as battlefields to the dialogue of the time period. They nail out the voice of Fairburn admirably and makes the character’s voices seem realistic.
Video game inspired books are common. I myself have read many and they vary in not only their quality but their devotion to the subject matter they cover. With this title, The various authors have a setting which is based on World War II conflict, but they do not phone it in. They set up and tell their own stories which are reminiscent of the great war films and spy dramas which are so prevalent but manage to hold their own in adapting the subject matter to tell their own original origin stories of the video game’s main character.
Origins is a pulse-pounding WW2 military thriller. The plot of each short story is extremely intense, and the action is almost non-stop and quite believable. Reading the book, it feels like you’re in the middle of it all. In addition to the fluid plot, characters are developed to a certain degree. I cannot say that character development is particularly strong here, but that doesn’t matter as it is compensated by the novel’s rich plot from the three short stories featured in the novel.
All in all, SE: Origins lives up to the Sniper Elite Franchise. It’s quick read but intensely gripping, and shows the origins of the game’s main character and how he became the infamous sniper we see in the games. I would definitely recommend this book to fans of the games or fans of WW2 military thrillers.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews