The release of the second book in the Elder Scrolls franchise - called "Lord of Souls" by Greg Keyes - is imminent, so I was wondering: do you guys have read the first book, "The Infernal City"? If so, what did you think about the book? Did you like it?

Here's a brief description copied from Amazon, to the people who didn't read it yet:

"Four decades after the Oblivion Crisis, Tamriel is threatened anew by an ancient and all-consuming evil. It is Umbriel, a floating city that casts a terrifying shadow–for wherever it falls, people die and rise again. And it is in Umbriel’s shadow that a great adventure begins, and a group of unlikely heroes meet. A legendary prince with a secret. A spy on the trail of a vast conspiracy. A mage obsessed with his desire for revenge. And Annaig, a young girl in whose hands the fate of Tamriel may rest . . . Based on the award-winning The Elder Scrolls, The Infernal City is the first of two exhilarating novels following events that continue the story from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, named 2006 Game of the Year."

Damn. I didn't know they had books. I might have to read this sometime this year even though I'm two books behind on my list. 
 
Is it worth reading? The description sounds like it is.

Sounds pretty generic. Then again, TES is fairly generic. I have a pretty harsh bias when it comes to video game books but I might check these out, maybe there will even be references to them in Skyrim.

From what I have heard, the book was pretty bad.

I read the first one, The Infernal City. It is dreadful. I mean, most books based on videogames/movies are bad, but this one is particularly shite. It suffers from poor writing, a dull plot, and characters that you just don't care about.

I actually bought it a few days ago, so that I could fill the gap between now and november. The only other video game books that I've read are the Guild Wars ones, and I enjoyed both of them. On the first page of this book though, something just didn't feel right. It might have been that he used a kitten as a metaphor, or the fact that none of the characters are properly introduced I dunno. I'll still probably finish it though >.>

Didn't really dig The Infernal City. It had like two good moments in it, and the rest was as GunslingerPanda described. Also, the majority of the book's events occur on this floating island thing with warring kitchens making foods out of gas - all knew crap made up wholecloth, not working with lore at all, let alone in an interesting way.

That said, I'll probably get the second one. In for a penny, in for a pound, and you could read it in your spare time and still finish it in two or three days (I'm sure a motivated individual could have read the first one in an epic single sitting).

I liked it, but I also got it for just the right price. The Borders store here was going out of business, so every item was between 50 to 75% off. As such, The Infernal City went from 15 dollars to a delightful 3.75 bucks. At that price, I didn't mind that it was only 278 pages or so long with pretty large font size and numerous typos that really shouldn't have made it past an editor.  I mean, there weren't any typos as bad as in Robert Jordan's Eye of the World, in which an entire six page scene repeats itself verbatim within the span of 100 pages, but they're cruddy enough to start pulling you out of the story if you can't suppress your inner-critic. 
 
Those flaws aside, I'm an Elder Scrolls fan and I enjoyed getting to see the world of Tamriel again. The details about  Blackmarsh were intriguing, the Khajit characters made me like the race for the first time since Maiq, and I did enjoy the descriptions of The Infernal City. I also enjoyed the characters, who no doubt will factor into Skyrim as well in some fashion or the other.  They had appealing personalities, and I  actually found myself really caring about what horrible fate would befall them.
 
That having been said, they're also not very well developed. The novel has 278 pages of large font-size text to focus on the following three storylines (which I'm describing vaguely to avoid spoilers): 
 
1. Annaig and Glim, two people from a port-town in southern Blackmarsh who end up getting stuck on the Infernal City and struggle to survive in the dreaded Kitchen Wars. 
 
2. Prince Attrebus, who goes on a quest to save Annaig and stop the Infernal  City. He's joined by Sul, an ancient Dunmer battlemage, who has his own reasons for helping.  
 
3. Colin, an Imperial "secret agent" kind of fellow who is trying to root out the corruption in The Empire before it is too late. 
 
Keep in mind that Annaig and Glim both spend a good amount of time getting their own dedicated individual sections. Meanwhile, Sul and Prince Attrebus are on an epic quest and Colin is really busy snooping away. In other words, there are too many plots going on for 278 pages! No one gets enough attention, with Colin being particularly shorthanded; he pops up every 80 pages, mumbles about a conspiracy, and then vanishes again right when you're interested.  
 
So... yeah. I'm sounding really negative about the book, aren't I? I don't mean to, but I think people should know the flaws going in. If they're Elder Scrolls fans, they'll probably like it. It's a way to get their fix in before Skyrim, and it'll let them know what the heck is going on in the game lore. If they're not fans though, I'm not sure. If they can get it cheap, it's more than worth the read. For 15 dollars though, I think they'd be better served buying Bastion or going to half-price book stores and purchasing a few used fantasy novels there. Hopefully the sequel is longer with better developed plots, actual resolutions, and improved editing.

I read it and enjoyed it. It's sort of like Spirited Away if it were set in Tamriel. 

TES is my favorite video game series ever, but I have zero interest in these books. Lore is not the series' strong suit.

Does it end with a "Those are truly old scrolls"?

@GunslingerPanda said:

                   

I read the first one, The Infernal City. It is dreadful. I mean, most books based on videogames/movies are bad, but this one is particularly shite. It suffers from poor writing, a dull plot, and characters that you just don't care about.

                   

               

Just do not inform Vinny.

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/infernal-city-lore-notes

This is a complete compilation of every part of the first book that reflects upon the larger lore picture in any way. I consider it sufficient.

I liked them well enough, and they had strong ties to TES lore (incorporating Umbra, the Shivering Isles and the floating rock above Vivec City and melding them all together) and the "feel" of the games (by incorporating alchemy, among other things). I think the sequel will largely be a story abou the fall of the empire. Definitely looking forward to it. Maybe I'll get it for cheap at our closing Borders as well.

Really bad things happen to Morrowind which makes me :(

Does it end with a "Those are truly old scrolls"?

Frankly I enjoyed many of the short stories in the game more than the book. I hope Skyrim has books as good or better than Oblivion.

I thought The Infernal City wasn't too badly written, especially considering most video game related fiction is awful.  I'd probably give it 6/10.