Book info

• Title Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Author S. D. Perry
• Year 2018
• Genres Video Games, Thriller

In a brand-new adventure, Lara Croft must evade the agents of Trinity and discover an ancient secret. When a mysterious stranger offers to help Lara uncover a clue that could give her the upper hand, she embarks on an expedition to a system of caves in Colombia. However, once they learn of Lara’s plans, Trinity will stop at nothing to reach the location first. Trinity believes they can turn the tables on Lara, but in the darkness of the underground caverns, there are terrors in the depths that neither Lara nor Trinity anticipated.

Thoughts

I suddenly remembered that I had bought this book a while back, probably when we were playing the game on the PS4. It was a very quick and easy read, starting just after the tsunami that sweeps through Cozumel at the start of Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Most of the action, though, takes place after Cozumel but before Lara’s plane crashes in Peru.

There’s a new section of story in which Lara and Jonah land at an old dig site and go looking for evidence and guidance of the journey to come. I didn’t mind the story, or the characterisations, or the way it was all written – it was superbly easy to digest, fitted with the characters I know so well, and didn’t deviate from what is a pretty well-loved franchise.

My biggest complaint is that most of the action takes place underground in lots of dig tunnels, and whilst that does something to ramp up the tension, after a while I was a bit bored of the endless darkness, and the crawling through unknown holes, and the screaming of the local wildlife. It was fun when moments would happen that you recognised from the game, though, certain spins or the wielding of the climbing axe, etc.

Fun, and a good book, but maybe not a gripping story.

Rating: 3 / 5