Splinter Cell Conviction getting two novel treatments

Splinter Cell was a franchise that had a lot going against it. It was in a genre that had to compete with James Bond games, Metal Gear games and multiple knock off attempts at being either without committing copyright infringement. At its start, it just seemed like its saving grace was that it was a Tom Clancy game.

As we’ve learned time and time again, Clancy has a bit of a Midas touch with all things espionage, counter-terrorism or military-based. He makes gold with these genres. Soon the fifth installment of the Splinter Cell franchise will be released, Splinter Cell: Conviction in 2010 for Xbox 360 and Windows. To tide over the eagerly awaiting fans, earlier this month a novel version of Conviction was released. This is the fifth novel to be released for the franchise. However, that’s not all that’s happening.

For those who wonder what’s going on with the people from the Third Echelon (3E) that are hunting Sam Fisher, a second book covering the same plot is coming out in early December 2009. Where Conviction follows Fisher, Splinter Cell: Endgame will be following his 3E hunters.

How does Conviction stand up as a literary installment to the series? You’ll have to wait for the review. It’s easy to see that they’re trying to up the ante and increase the hype for the anticipated game release. Still, it is a dangerous move releasing two books telling essentially the same the story. It’s also hard write a novel based directly on a game that is coming out without putting any game breaking spoilers into the novel.

We’ll find out if Conviction and Endgame turn out to be blessings or curses for the game when it comes out. At least Tom Clancy, David Michaels and Ubisoft are giving the fans what they want, possibly more Fisher than they can handle.

Within the next couple of days, a review of the book Splinter Cell: Conviction will be up and ready to tell you how the book fares up to the games and the rest of the novels. In December you can expect a review of Splinter Cell Endgame as well. Hopefully, these books will be able to tide fans over until the release of Splinter Cell: Conviction the game.

Read [BigDownload]