Borderlands: Unconquered
by John Shirley

The release of Borderlands 2 brings with it the second Borderlands novel from John Shirley.  (My review of the first novel can be found here.)  Borderlands: Unconquered reminded me of the first novel in the fact that it’s pretty much mindless fun.  The plot is entertaining but just like the game it’s the characters that really make the story.  This second novel brings in more characters from the game world.  Brick and Mordecai, the berserker and sniper from the first game respectively, join the cast as prominent characters along with Roland.  Some other characters make appearances as well, such as Scooter and Marcus.  These guys have such distinctive voices that it’s almost impossible not to hear them in your head as you’re reading through the book.

The book is presented as if it’s a story being told by Marcus.  As anyone who’s played the games knows, Marcus loves to tell stories, so this is a nice touch.  The story fits in very into the Borderlands universe.  It tells of the General Goddess who using a mind control device has gathered an army of psychos, and intends to use them to take over all of Pandora.  It’s something I could easily seeing being the plot for a quest line in the game, or possibly even an expansion pack.  It probably won’t blow you away, but it’s worth a read for fans of the game.