EVE: The Burning Life

WE ALL CRAVE A PURPOSE.

A FIRE TO SPARK OUR LIVES INTO ACTION.

IT'S THIS BURNING LIFE WITHIN US THAT DRIVES US TO OUR DESTINIES.

BUT WHEN IT BURNS TOO DEEPLY OR GOES UNCHECKED, IT CAN SHATTER INNOCENT LIVES IN ITS WAKE.

A vicious attack on a deep-space mining colony rains death and destruction on nearly all its inhabitants. Only a handful survive. Among the shattered survivors is a young man hell-bent on an impossible revenge.

In another part of the universe, a wealthy agent of death finds her tenuous grip on sanity slipping and is forced to leave everything she's come to know and love. But her last chance at redemption lies in the last place she ever thought to look.

Their respective paths take them through the vast universe of EVE to galactic empires built on faith, hedonism, discipline, and rebellion. Their fates plunge them into the darkest parts of this galaxy to encounters with denizens of the chaotic and dangerous pirate kingdoms. And all the while, as each draws closer to what they seek, they begin to realize that the only stakes worth playing for are the ones from which they've run so far away....

The Burning Life is another book based in the EVE universe (which now also includes Dust 514). Just on that merit alone, I had to give it a read. In fact, I have been reading it off an on now for the past 13 months, since right after I published my review of The Empyrean Age on Feb 20th of 2012. I can now proudly say I finished it, which is not as big of a deal as it sounds due to the short length of the book.

TBL follows the lives of two very different people; one a man who just lost his brother to a capsuleer attack, the other a mission agent who sends capsuleers on their deadly missions. During the course of their quests for revenge and self-healing, they make their way across the enormous EVE universe and they meet all manner of people. I feel that Mr. Daníelsson did an excellent job with character development, as well as incorporating so much of game developer CCP's universe into this (relatively) short book.

If you think about it, The Burning Life is really two separate stories, intertwined throughout the whole book. It is stories like this that make you want to continue reading. That is a lot of the reason I kept coming back to it for an entire year until I finished it. That, and the fact that it is based on the awesome game EVE: Online.

The Burning Life = 8½ stars

After considering every aspect of this book, I decided to give it 8½ stars. This is mainly due to the fact that there was really no transition between the two sides of the story. Granted, if you are actually paying attention, you will know when the focus switches from one person to the next. Also, unless you really stay focused, the book can become somewhat boring at times, which may have been part of the reason it took me 13 months to read. That being said, I would recommend this book to pretty much anyone, even those who have no idea what EVE really is. Admittedly, non-EVE players may have a tough time with some of the terminology, but it shouldn't hinder their reading experience that much. If you would like to check this book out for yourself, you can get it where ever books are sold. Link for the Kindle version below.

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