"Required Reading" is an ongoing series where we look at some of the ancillary media related to our favorite games; from books, to comics, to films. We'll take a look at the story behind the creation of the piece, if any, and review the quality of the work as a whole. Finally, we'll discuss whether it adds anything of substance to the narrative of the franchise. Today, we'll be taking a look at...

They believed the Marker to be divine, that it had been sent to them by God, for humanity's benefit.

The Dead Space franchise has always been an amalgamation of many things. The series seems to be constantly struggling between psychological horror and action-oriented gore; from hallucinations and inner turmoil to decapitations and cringe-inducing torture porn. One thing that has remained a constant, though, is its commentary on humanity. The driving motivation for many of the protagonists in the franchise is love, faith, and optimism against overwhelming odds. Yet mankind as a whole is constantly portrayed as arrogant, self-centered, and ruthlessly ambitious.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the Church of Unitology. Originally more of a background plot point intended as a thinly-veiled shot at Scientology, this twisted and devoted cult has become increasingly central to the main narrative of the series. While religion has been regularly criticized, mocked, and subverted in mainstream pop culture, it's still a relatively new avenue for video games. Unitology serves as a warning sign for the evils of egocentric indulgence, blind faith, and unerring devotion to a cause, despite all reason. It only makes sense, then, that the series' first foray into novels focuses on the beginnings of this enigmatic religion.

"Stop saying that," said Altman. "Altman doesn't want to be praised."

Dead Space: Martyr takes place about 200 years in our future (and about 200 years before the main games), and deals with the story of Michael Altman, who franchise fans will recognize as the founder of the Church of Unitology. Altman is a scientist working in Mexico near Chicxulub, the crater that is believed to be the remnants of the impact that killed the dinosaurs. In the local tongue, Chicxulub means "tail of the Devil", and is symbolized by crossing your arms at the wrist, a movement that becomes the sign of prayer in the Church. After the water-filled impact crater begins to give off some strange pulses, the scientific community and a military-led shell-company, begin to investigate, even as mysterious and horrifying creatures begin to wash up on the beach.

These strange energy readings begin to have a strange effect on everyone in its vicinity, from constant headaches, to nightmares, to hallucinations. Sounds a bit familiar, yeah? As anyone with even a passing interest in Dead Space has guessed by now, the impact wasn't created by an asteroid, but by a Black Marker, and for some reason it has started to get in people's heads. People start freaking out, killing themselves and each other, and it starts getting a little messy; business as usual. It is interesting to experience this in a novel though, because you're allowed to be in the head of plenty of Marker-inflicted people as the story goes on. Some start arguing with their deceased loved ones, others start freaking out that "they" are out to get them. In the Dead Space games, you're usually dealing with the messy aftermath, but in the book, you're allowed to see what they see and what caused them to go a little knife happy, or why they decided that the room could do with a little redecorating: a splash of blood here, some Marker symbols there.

When I decided to start reading video game books a few months ago, I realized I was probably in for some amateurish writing and some cheesy dialogue, and while this book has it in spades, it also manages to be a pretty fast-paced and entertaining read for the most part. There are actually shades of Michael Crichton's Spherein Martyr. The tension and mystery starts small and builds slowly, and by the time the craziest shit happens in the last act, with the plasma cutting and the scythe-armed zombie monsters, you're pretty much on board. For the most part, the book even stands well on its own, which is helped by the chronological distance from the video games and the fact that it's the inciting incident for the whole franchise.

Sure there are references to a "space war" over the Moon; sure the evil government antagonists are a bit cartoonish and cliche (one of the hired muscle punches his fist into his palm and smirks at the thought of hurting someone); and by the time there's a full Necromorph breakout at the end, the story becomes the typical video game play-by-play ("he dodged, brought up his weapon, and fired, before dodging again"); but there are some interesting facets of the plot that help illuminate future events in the series. I particularly liked seeing how this cult got its start,with a little nudge from the Marker and thanks to the gullible and egocentric nature of man, but B. K. Evenson capitalizes on the reader's sense that the ending is inevitable as Michael Altman also begins to realize that momentum is making his situation harder and harder to reverse.

Altman is considered a "prophet" by the people at his research facility because he is able to maintain his sanity and stay in control of his faculties better than anyone else while in the presence of the Marker. His companions start to believe that he is the Marker's chosen messenger, the only one worthy of hearing it clearly, meant to share its glory with mankind. As Altman continues to see the horrors contact with the Marker has inflicted upon people, however, he tries to use this religious fervor to further his aims of destroying it. He escapes and publicly announces the existence of the Marker and implies a government cover-up As things continue to get increasingly desperate and out of hand, events occur that we've seen plenty of times before. The research facility, like the USG Ishimura;the Sprawl; and pretty much every other Dead Space locale before it, starts to get a bit on edge, and things start getting a little bit crazy and violent pretty quickly. One scientist decides it's a good idea to inject some living pink goop into his arm, and faster than you can say "cut off their limbs", there's a Necromorph infestation.

Altman decides to head back to the facility and send the "tail of the Devil" back to the crater he removed it from, evading monsters and lunatics at every step. He convinces the newly formed Unitologists to help him get to the Marker to "hear it's message", manipulating them through their beliefs for personal gain like all successful religious leaders, and in order to put off the Convergence (something that's most assuredly really bad), Altman allows the Marker to imprint its blueprints into his mind through its signal. It's implied that this signal is what drives people crazy, and only people with a certain intellect are capable of downloading these blueprints without going insane; the hallmarks of any good Dead Space protagonist. Altman then sinks the marker and escapes; where he is almost immediately recaptured by the government (now composed almost entirely of Unitologists or people looking to manipulate their devotion to the cause) and killed so that he can become a martyr for the religion, which is sure to impassion the public and spread awareness of the Church, since the public is only aware of Michael Altman as a whistle blower who tried to reveal the government conspiracy involving the Marker.

You may be a reluctant prophet, but you are a prophet nonetheless.

Dead Space: Martyr doesn't really have many revelations for the franchise, but it does color what we already know. As mentioned above, an interesting twist is that Michael Altman wasn't the founder of the Church of Unitology but actually its first victim, and the Church made him a martyr to add insult to injury.

It's explained that the Marker symbols that Unitologists insist on etching everywhere are mathematical codes for DNA, that the shape of the Marker represents the DNA sequence, and that the signal is a transmission of a sequence of genetic code (presumably that of the Necromorphs), in addition to imprinting blueprint instructions in the heads of the "chosen". I think this has all been mentioned in the games, but they throw a lot at you in Dead Space games and don't elaborate much (with multiple types of Markers and conflicting hallucinations) so it's hard to keep it all straight some times. The Marker is constantly craving death and convergence, actively seeking Necromorph breakouts, but the hallucinations that people see are often trying to warn them about the Marker. This is something that's always confused, me, especially going from Dead Space to Dead Space 2, where visions seem to want you to do different things at different times. Martyr seems to imply that both the signal and the hallucinations want Convergence, but the signal is just simple and direct, whereas the hallucinations want to propagate more Markers so the Convergence can be even more complete. The hallucinations are the "brain" of the Marker while the signal is the "brawn", essentially. The Marker also creates a "dead space" around itself that manages to repel Necromorphs, presumably so a human can get close and download the Marker blueprints and spread the signal farther.

I also never got why a religion, even one as insanely devoted as this cult, could continue having faith even after they see what Convergence actually is; I figured it was just a satire of the devotion of religious people on part of the game designers. The founders of Unitology, however, explain that they realize that the Marker is what set off humanity on its evolutionary growth after killing off the dinosaurs, and they believe that if we follow the Marker, it will help us to evolve and grow once again. After seeing the Necromorph outbreak, they are convinced of this, seeing that the Marker has created life from death, and they assume that the horrific nature of the Necromorphs is just a glitch caused by damage to the Marker from earlier in the novel; a glitch that can be rectified if humanity builds its own fully-intact Markers. It also helps that most of the founders have been pretty much brainwashed and turned into puppets by the Marker.

And last but not least, in a cool little nod to the original Dead Space, one of the first people to see a Necromorph and live to tell the tale was a Japanese astrophysicist named Ishimura. Apparently this significance is not lost on the Unitologists, who some 200 years later use a ship of the same name to collect a Marker and start Isaac Clarke off on his long climactic journey.

Have you read Dead Space: Martyr? Do you plan to? What are your thoughts on the book or the universe as a whole? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!

For more Required Reading, follow the links below:

• Dead Space: Catalyst
• Dead Space: Downfall
• Halo: Cryptum
• Halo: Primordium