Doom novels

The Doom novels are a series of four officially licensed books, written by Dafydd ab Hugh and Brad Linaweaver. They were released by Pocket Books between June 1995 and January 1996.

The four titles, Knee-Deep in the Dead, Hell on Earth, Infernal Sky, and Endgame, comprise a continuing narrative centering around Space Marine Flynn "Fly" Taggart and a ragtag band of human survivors. All are written from a first person perspective. Ever since their publication, some Doom fans have insisted that "Flynn Taggart" is the Doomguy's real name, though id Software has never confirmed it.

Knee-Deep In The Dead
The first book opens with a prologue in the Middle Eastern country of Kefiristan. Fox Company leader Lt. Weems orders his men to open fire on civilians. Flynn "Fly" Taggart, the "Doomguy", attacks him.

Before he can be sent for court martial, however, Fox Company is called to the UAC research facility on Phobos to deal with a disturbance. Fly is kept prisoner by two Privates while the rest are sent off. This may be Fly's saving grace, as Fox Company is literally wiped out by the invading forces. Escaping, Fly encounters several zombies, then a run-in with an Imp.

Moving deeper into the complex, Fly finds more monsters, as well as "A.S." arrow marks on the walls - PFC Arlene Sanders, his friend, has survived and is leaving him directions. Ultimately, Fly reaches the two Barons, defeats them, and is transported to Deimos Base, completely naked. On Deimos, he finds Arlene, regains clothes and weapons, and the two eventually find the Cyberdemon and defeat it. Teleported again, the two find themselves inside a gigantic fleshy enclosure, and field-strip corpses for clothes and weapons once more.

Here, they meet Bill Ritch, a UAC computer programmer whom the Spider Mastermind captured and tried to interrogate. The three make their way through this complex, ultimately defeating the Spider Mastermind, at the cost of Bill Ritch's life.

Returning to the surface, they find they are still on Deimos, which has been moved to Earth orbit. And the giant dome that holds in the oxygen has cracked. Worst of all, they can see explosions all over Earth's surface - the invasion has already reached Earth.

Hell On Earth
The second book opens right as the first ends, with Fly and Arlene stranded on Deimos, in Earth's orbit and the oxygen leaking out of the base. Fly gets the idea to build a shuttle craft to carry them to Earth- a risky, improbable plan, and while they have the parts from "mail tube" unmanned shuttle parts, their experience lies in the fact that Fly once built a car out of spare parts.

Over the next month, the two build their craft, but as the oxygen runs low and they start to hallucinate and run out of food, they fly their shuttle, managing to survive the trip, eventually landing several miles away from Salt Lake City. A several days' walk leads them to the city, and the truth- humanity is an endangered species. SLC is one of the few human resistance strongholds, as the Mormons had a survival plan and years worth of supplies for such an event.

Arlene expresses displeasure over their surroundings, as her brother had converted to Mormonism during his own downward spiral in life. Fly makes things worse when he contacts Marine HQ. As it turns out, world governments turned traitor to the aliens, as did their militaries. Within hours, armed forces from the Marines, FBI, Army, ATF, and IRS(a "revenue collection" armed branch) attack the city.

The President of the Twelve, displeased at Fly and Arlene's failure, offer them a chance to make amends- lead a team into Los Angeles, recover vital information, disable the aliens' shields, and fly the information to a Marine resistance center in Hawaii. With them will be Albert, an ex-Marine sniper and converted Mormon, and Jill Lovelace, a fourteen-year-old former computer hacker who lost her parents in the invasion.

The book follows their trip west. On the trip, Arlene falls in love with Albert despite his religion. Jumping a train headed west, the team kills a Spider Mastermind and a Cyberdemon and recover their human hostage- Ken, a young man with numerous computer implants in his body. Reaching LA, they find that the chemical brew that turns corpses into zombies are made by stoners and other drug addicts, those allowed to remain alive by the aliens for turning traitor.

Having determined Ken to be the information they need, they reach the airport. Albert is burned severely by an Imp fireball, but is luckier than Bill Ritch and survives. Albert and Jill remain behind to fly the plane to Hawaii while Fly and Arlene head to the Disney Building to disable the massive force shield. They succeed, but a gathering of monsters has them trapped. But Arlene has an escape plan...

Infernal Sky
Fly and Arlene are resting comfortably in Hawaii, along with Albert and Jill at the final Marine base. Fly and Arlene both tell their own version of how they escaped Los Angeles. It is here that Fly is promoted to Sergeant and Arlene to Corporal, and without the need for a chain of command or red tape, the Marines wipe Fly's record clean of his assaulting a superior officer.

Albert and Jill also learn bad news- Salt Lake City has been nuked. And the war is about to take a turn, as the military has decoded a signal sent from an alien race warning of the attacks, and giving coordinates to find help. The mission entails a return to Phobos, and activating a gate to send a team to parts unknown.

Meanwhile, Ken, the "cyber mummy" from the previous book, has had surgery and is awake, but his implants are left functioning to tap into the enemy systems. But Ken also reads into Marine plans, and he does not like the plans he hears of the future.

Under a new CO that comes off as a stubborn "by the book" type, Fly, Albert, and Arlene prepare to head back to Phobos- which will require a return to Los Angeles to steal a shuttle. No easy task, and Jill is needed to infiltrate- but an escape plan is set for her on her own. And to further complicate matters, Albert proposes to Arlene.

Securing the shuttle, the flight leaves, a six week long long trip to Phobos. Jill, left behind, misses her escape, left in enemy territory. In perhaps the most haunting scene of the book, Jill is forced to kill two human traitors with poison gas.

Back on Phobos, the team eventually reaches the Gate, and are sent off to a strange facility where they meet many other aliens, their allies against the demons. The chief representatives, the Klave serve as their liaisons. Few details are gained, but it seems Earth is another stop along a six million year war against the two alien sides. And humans have angered the demons, as humans, it seems, are the only species that actually dies.

It is explained that, for most races, when the body dies, the soul remains behind until a birth gives them a new body. Otherwise, the dead are arranged in theaters and entertained in the meantime. Humans do not work this way, they die.

The plan is simple- fly to the alien invader homeworld- called the "Freds" by Marine HQ, and take the war to their front door. But without faster than light travel, while they will experience the trip in weeks, the actual trip will be twenty years each way. And when an accident leaves Albert unable to go, Arlene marries him- knowing when she meets him again, he will be in his sixties.

To complicate matters, the trip is interfered when a large spaceborne creature attacks their ship. They fight it off, but extensive damage forces them to a nearby planet to another gate. Transporting, the gate malfunctions, killing their CO, leaving Fly and Arlene alone with Sears and Roebuck, their two Klave escorts. And they are trapped on a Fred ship. No clothes or weapons due to the Gate transport, they fight bare handed, killing the Fred and taking the ship.

But this ship is not as fast. It may be on a direct course for the Fred homeworld, but at their rate of speed, they will take an eight week trip- or, in actual years outside of their travel, two hundred years.

Endgame
Aboard the Fred ship, Arlene sulks over knowing she will never see Albert alive again. They have synthesized new clothes and weapons, but her ring is gone.

Upon reaching the Fred home world, they find nothing shy of a single Fred corpse. Recovering it and healing it, they question the Fred- a new species which the Fred calls "Newbies" in broken translation they had encountered long ago, that evolves even faster than humans, attacked them. And this new species is headed for Earth.

Unsure if this new species is a threat or an ally, Fly explores and finds one member, dead. An alien gray type creature, they revive it. However, this species evolves at a rapid pace, and tries to disable the ship, fearing what it will find when it meets the rest of its kind. Following the coordinates from the alien of where the Newbies were headed, a hundred year trip lands them on an unknown desert planet. The trip takes a hundred years outside of the ship.

They find humans. Humanity, as it turned out, survived the Doom Wars. Albert lived and focused on cryogenic research, only to die before it became reality. Jill survived Los Angeles, to become an author and die of old age.

However, these humans are odd. They fear death and take no risks. And they have personality switches. Fly and Arlene, recognized as legendary heroes, are given a computer sphere to answer questions. But Fly needs one question answered to settle his suspicions, capturing the captain, they take him to the medical lab and confirm his fears- the Newbies have evolved into a microscopic entity which lives inside humans.

But humans now have no faith in anything. And Fly determines that faith is harmful to the Newbies, for unknown reasons, but his sermons on faith somehow start to cure people of Newbie infection. And he and his converted lead a battle to take the ship.

The Newbies win, however. Fly and Arlene are strapped down and with needles in their brains; their "souls" are extracted and placed into computer simulations of Phobos to examine the human soul. Realizing that the simulation feeds off memories, he changes the events, literally recruiting the first Imp to his side in a sermon, and, determined to find Arlene, recruits other monsters.

Arlene and Fly, however, wake up outside the ship. Their souls were not extracted, but merely their minds copied. The real Fly and Arlene, with their human converts and the bodies of Sears and Roebuck, escape the ship's launch rockets. Reaching their destroyed ship, medical machines revive S&R. And, as it turns out, the moon of that planet is a hollow space port.

Using a Fred escape pod to fly to the moon base, the band of survivors secure a ship, knowing that, at best, they will arrive a month after the Newbies. The Newbies, as it turns out, had not yet been to Earth, but had just encountered humans on this world. Another hundred years in real time, mere weeks to them, they reach Earth. Fly an Arlene have returned four hundred years after they last saw their home planet.

Humans survived the Doom Wars, but while signs of civilization remain, all that's left is covered in uncontrolled plant growth. No humans are found. To the rest of the survivors, it has been two hundred years to them. Flying over the United States, they reach Salt Lake City- rebuilt, and the Mormon Tabernacle bigger than ever. And stranger, the Newbies are nowhere to be seen.

Arlene, realizing what this means, contacts the Tabernacle. Jill's mind had been copied and now operates within the building. Allowing the ship to land and them to enter, Fly and Arlene quickly meet a hologram of Jill, slightly older than when they last saw her, who explains everything.

It seems this war started six million years ago due to the Gate builder race. Twelve million years ago, this race had left behind eleven fragments of an ancient text. For the past six million years, the Klave and the Freds have been fighting a war over the interpretation of these texts, a sort of intergalactic chess game. But humans, in addition to death, also evolve faster than any other race. When the Freds encountered Earth in the 1400s, they set to motion a plan to impersonate Hell demons. But the time of the trip coupled with the time to prepare allowed centuries to pass. Humans had evolved, fought back, and ultimately won.

As to Earth, the survivors slept in cryogenic stasis, awaiting the return of the Doom heroes of legend. Jill, cloned and resting, is found. Fly and Arlene are further led to a box labeled "Albert" with a small light, presumably containing Albert's ashes.

The final chapters explain why the Newbies never arrived. The computer copies of Fly and Arlene continued through the recreations of Phobos and Deimos, building their army of "converted" demons and zombies. They find the "back door" to escape from the program.

But this door does not lead to escape. It leads to a Newbie, connected to the program. Dragging the large black slug body into the program, the fast run time of the simulation causes something unexpected- the Newbie evolves much more rapidly, until it literally vanishes. And Newbies are all linked telepathically. It appears the entire species evolved out of existence by this act.

Believing themselves to be genuine and with no way out, "Fly" and "Arlene" decide to live inside the simulation for as long as it is powered, attempting to make themselves comfortable by remembering alternate events.

Key Characters
Flynn "Fly" Taggart: The Doomguy. Raised in Hollywood, California and Orlando, Florida by his father, who would often embarrass Fly with his crass behavior. He joined the Marines to make something of himself and escape his father's behavior. A good marine, until- as with the Doom storyline- he assaulted a superior officer who has ordered unarmed civilians fired upon. A non-practicing Catholic who went to Catholic school, though his religious beliefs are rather broad. Somewhat mechanically gifted, though sometimes lets his emotions and sense of duty override rationality.

Arlene Sanders: A female Marine who joined to prove she could be part of the Marines. Generally well respected amongst her squad for her willingness to go along with hazing rituals. She and Fly are good friends though avoid a relationship. She had a relationship with Wilhelm Dodd which ended when he was turned into a zombie on Deimos. She is generally more rational than Fly, though tends to be more emotional. She also tends to show a promiscuous sexual attitude towards men she likes. She has problems with the Mormon religion due to her brother converting at one point in his troubled life. (Eric Harris of Columbine infamy was reported to have named his sawed-off shotgun "Arlene", which confused some more casual fans of the series because the Marines were never actually named in gameplay, nor was there even clear evidence of different genders of Marines.)

Albert: A devout Mormon and ex-Marine who left after the killing ate away his conscious. He often looks to the Book of Mormon for guidance. He and Arlene develop a relationship though he resists her temptations. The two are married prior to their leaving for the Fred homeworld though are separated shortly after when Albert is severely wounded and can not make the trip with them. All that is known afterwards is that he recovered and returned to Earth to help humanity with the "Doom Wars" and helped the new Earth government. Albert(or a clone) was put in stasis awaiting the return of Arlene to Earth.

Jill Lovelace: A 14-year-old orphan who's parents were killed in the invasion. She appears to be loyal to the Mormon president and will say what he wants to hear, though she seems more willing to help get revenge for her parents' death than she believes in the religion and will say what people want to hear as a result. She is a skilled computer hacker. She also develops a one-sided crush on Fly. After Fly and Arlene leave Earth, Jill is forced to use poison gas to kill two human traitors, an act which does not sit well with her. What is known afterwards is that Jill survived to fight the "Doom Wars" and helped form the new Earth government and wrote history books concerning the war. When Salt Lake City was rebuilt, a copy of her mind was used as the basis for the city's computer. Jill eventually grew old and died, though her mind lived on in the computer and a clone of her was put into stasis awaiting the return of Fly and Arlene.

The President of the Twelve: The head of the Mormon religion in SLC. A cool-headed leader of the human resistance and a devout Mormon, though somewhat manipulative of those he doe snot trust.

The "Freds": The Earth military name for the invasion forces. An evil alien race of "deconstructionists", they plan to invade Earth by genetically altering themselves and slave races to look like creatures from Earth mythology- specifically, the Christian idea of Hell- though as a species unfamiliar with evolution, did not expect Earth to defend themselves in the several hundred years it took to organize the invasion. In their natural state, they are said to have stubby bodies with large heads resembling artichokes covered in leaf-like scales and multiple eyes. Their limbs are thin with fingers like sharp chopsticks. They are a technologically advanced race though seem to steal their technology rather than develop it. While they do naturally reproduce, they generally produce their invasion fleet through cloning vats. They are believed extinct as of the end of the series, those on Earth are all killed in the war and those on the homeworld all killed by the "Newbies" as well.

The Klave: the chief representatives of the alien forces opposing the "Freds". The Klave are a "binary" race, of which they remain in mentally linked pairs. They do not understand the concept of individuality and can not deal with individuals. The two main Klave choose the name "Sears and Roebuck" by mentally scanning humans to represent themselves though no specific name is ever assigned to either. Killing one half of a Klave pair will generally cause the other to stop functioning and die as well.

The "Newbies": The second race the Klave and "Freds" encounter that evolves. They were encountered by the "Freds" in the 200-year span of Fly and Arlene's trip to the Fred homeworld. In that time the Freds were wiped out by the Newbies. The Newbies eventually left that world and encountered humans, their evolution speeding up until they change into microscopic beings that inhabited a host body. Generally mindless, and strict, they reduce their hosts to a state of fear. Strangely, whenever a host has faith in anything- a god or an idea- the Newbies cannot survive in a host anymore. Logically, chemicals produced by the body during certain emotional states may be fatal to the Newbies. All Newbies are mentally linked. It is believed their species was literally "evolved" into extinction when one linked to a sped-up computer simulation of Fly and Arlene was drawn into the program, the enhanced rate of time passage forcing it- and the rest of the species- to rapidly evolve until their vanished. Evidence of this may lie on the fact they never reached Earth as they had planned.

Comparison with the games
The Doomguy is given a name and his backstory of a court-martial is expanded upon. The rest of his team are also given names.

The UAC facilities are described as having been built to go into the moons, which means there are no open skies as in the games, only ceilings. Green slime pools and exploding barrels remain, as do keycard doors.

The game weapons are included, with additions made. Of note is the "Sig-Cow" rifle, which is likely a reference to the rifles that the Doomguy and Troopers are drawn with in-game, despite the pistol being used as the basic weapon.

Book one follows the first game closely. Book two features a setting on Earth, but a much different story. For example, the resistance against the monsters is not unified here, as many Earth governments have turned traitor.

Book three breaks with the original plot, as contact is made with an alien race that is on humanity's side. These creatures supplied the blue soul spheres found throughout the game and the books. The main race is the Klave, whose members are found in linked mental pairs. The Klave do not understand individuality and can only interact with people in pairs. The two who accompany Fly and Arlene take the names "Sears" and "Roebuck" for themselves after scanning human minds.

Book four diverges even further from the original story, by moving Fly and Arlene into the future and introducing more aliens.

Levels
Certain game levels are included, some in heavily modified forms.


 * The swastika room from E1M4: Command Control is mentioned, seen by the main characters as an attempt by the demons to use symbols to scare humans, as they had previously used other symbols (e.g. upside-down crosses).
 * E3M8: Dis is the location of the first Spider Mastermind battle, with the central building in the room housing a large machine which amplifies the Mastermind's telepathy to a wider range.

Monsters
The monsters in the novels are not demons, but aliens engineered to look like demons (whether or not this breaks from the games is debatable, as various cutscenes in Doom II refer to them as "aliens", and Final Doom's plot has them traveling on spacecraft to reach Earth). The invading species first encountered humans in the 15th century, and had not expected such an evolutionary leap. In their natural state, the aliens are described as tall creatures with heads like artichokes covered in numerous eyes and leaves. They have long, sharp fingers like posable chopsticks. (Many of the creatures may be of other races, however, subjugated and cloned for an army.) Some creatures seem to have a natural hatred of others, exemplified by the fact that Barons and Cacodemons willingly kill each other.

The monsters are often referred to by new names by the characters. The exceptions are the Imps, as well as one scientist character who uses the proper game names. His reasoning behind the names is that they are "creatures from the id".


 * Former Humans: Dead humans reanimated through a chemical introduced to their bodies after death. The chemical was likely developed by the aliens though human traitors on Earth were allowed to produce it in exchange for basic freedoms. Unlike zombies in either films or other games, the undead here show no interest in consuming living flesh, but rather attacking living humans with whatever weapon they have. Soldiers killed in battle will carry their guns and fire until out of ammo, while civilians will sue whatever they were holding when they died. They have limited reasoning functions though they seem obedient to the demons either by chemical programming or through telepathy. They have what is often described as a "sour lemon" smell with eyes that are dried from non-blinking. Flynn and the other humans at one point obtain rotten lemons and coat themselves with them to smell the same and infiltrate a demon stronghold.
 * Imp: Unchanged in appearance. Some can talk. Their fireball-throwing ability is explained by having them spit a wad of mucus into one hand, which ignites on contact with the air and is then hurled. They are covered in an oily substance which protects them from their own flaming mucus.
 * Chaingunner: Very different from the game versions. They are not zombies, but living humans who all look identical (possibly a reference to the usage of a single sprite set in-game to represent numerous copies of an enemy). They are believed to either be clones or human traitors who have been genetically altered. In addition to their armor and gun, they wear night-vision goggles.
 * Demon: Unchanged in appearance, but found in various sizes. They are purported to be capable of coherent speech, unlike their depiction in the games as rather brutish, stupid beasts who closely resemble guard dogs in intelligence and behavior. They are also said to have an extremely foul body odor.
 * Spectre: The presence of this monster can be debated. Invisible beings do appear, which are sometimes touched by characters, but they never attack and are never said to be any specific creature.
 * Lost Soul: Though unchanged in appearance, here they are mechanical beings, flying on rocket fuel and exploding into a shower of mechanical parts when killed.
 * Cacodemon: Unchanged, with the exception that they are found in various sizes.
 * Mancubus: Unchanged in appearance and behavior. It is explained that their body fat and loose skin causes their eyes and ears to be almost completely covered, leaving them nearly deaf and with poor eyesight. They are believed to be an early attempt at human cloning.
 * Arachnotron: Does not appear, though Marines on Earth mention having encountered them in battles.
 * Revenant: Nearly the same as in the games, but appear to have a layer of skin on their bodies, much like the Revenant of Doom 3. They also wear red shorts. They are believed to be an early attempt by the aliens to genetically grow human duplicates, albeit a failed one. The fact they wear clothes when none of the other monsters do may back up this belief.
 * Pain Elemental: Appears once; looks and behaves as in the game.
 * Arch-Vile: These are simplified in the novels. They are not shown to resurrect the dead (though neither is it specifically stated that they do not have this ability), and instead of creating a wall of flame, they contract their bodies and explode, like a living bomb. They are also surrounded by intense heat, enough to melt bullets shot at them. An ordinary fire extinguisher can disable them for a few minutes, however.
 * Baron of Hell: Unchanged in physical form, but fire their plasma from mechanical wrist launchers (as with the game's cover art).
 * Spider Mastermind: Almost identical to the game versions. Their brain cases are protected by clear domes, and they can also use telepathic attacks to induce fear in humans. While the Doom manual seems to identify the main Mastermind as female, all indications in the novel are that it is male - though no real identifier is ever given aside from human assumption. Others are later encountered on Earth. Strangely, the book seems inconsistent in its wording, as at one point it is mentioned they have six mechanical legs though other mentions seem to follow the game design.
 * Cyberdemon: Described as being fifteen meters tall and has a rocket launcher powered by JP-9 rocket propellant. Their are unchanged in physical appearance for the most part, with the exception of a visible missile rack on their backs. One character manages to disarm a Cyberdemon by sabotaging the inner mechanism of this missile rack.

In addition to the game's monsters, a mysterious creature is also introduced at one point, a black cloud-like creature that stays near water, with three shark fin-like protrusions on its head. The only one seen is killed, evaporating as its core is destroyed by a bullet. It is never named, nor is its nature explained.

The Icon of Sin is never met by the characters. However, at one point Fly sees a demon drawing a picture that is very similar to it.

Criticism
The Doom novels have been heavily criticised by some members of the Doom community. Much of the criticism comes from the ways the story differs from the game.

While the story is set in the Doom universe, the authors take several artistic liberties. The novels also introduce several other characters not suggested by the video games.

Beginning with Infernal Sky, the storyline departs dramatically from anything related to the computer game, becoming more reminiscent of science-fiction space operas such as The Forever War.

Trivia
Flynn Taggart's serial number is 888-23-9912.

The character "Crash" in Quake III seems to be based on Arlene Sanders. Crash's backstory picks up from the end of the fourth Doom novel (as well as explaining the fates of "Bitterman" from Quake II and "Ranger" from Quake).

ISBN numbers

 * Doom: Knee-Deep in the Dead - ISBN 0671525557
 * Doom: Hell on Earth - ISBN 067152562X
 * Doom: Infernal Sky - ISBN 0671525638
 * Doom: Endgame - ISBN 0671525662