Borderlands: Gunsight (Book) Review

Borderlands, it’s not just for watching things get shot and die — it’s for reading, too! Borderlands: Gunsight is the kind of book many would consider “summer reading.”  It can be finished over a weekend, is broken up in easy-to-pick-up-and-put-down chapters, and doesn’t require a lot of thinking.  It’s like a summer movie — it won’t win any awards at the end of the race, but you’ll have a great time during the ride. Gunsight is a tale within a tale.  The story begins in Fyrestone, where  Marcus Kincaid, an arms dealer and the owner of the ammo-dispensing vending machines, discovers his warehouse has been broken into.  Fans of the game will likely recognize Marcus from visiting one of the endless vending machines peppered throughout the Borderlands games.   In a world of no guarantees, you can always count on Marcus guns!

Inside the warehouse he finds a group of children, looking for food.  While he considers the idea of blowing them all away and calling it a day, his softer side takes over and decides to invite the kids back to his place for some food.  Realizing he has a captive audience after the meal, and many stories to tell, he tells the children of the dangerous down of Gunfight (as if there really ever is a peaceful town in this world), and of Mordecai and Daphne.

Mordecai is the sharpshooting hunter character from the original Borderlands.  Mordecai is sort of anti-hero, certainly not goodly in any way, but more on the good side of the good/evil spectrum. He has the propensity to enjoy drinking to the point of drunkenness, has a nagging girlfriend Daphne, but is a crack-shot when it comes to shooting things, especially with a long-range rifle.

To cut to the chase, Daphne gets kidnapped by the local warlord, Jasper.  To add to the complexity of the situation, there’s another warlord, Reamus, who is kidnapping Jasper’s men.  In order to get Daphne back, Mordecai is going to need to help Jasper take down Reamus.

Needless to say, you can expect to see a lot of double-crossing.

Gunsight is written by John Shirley, who has written other books based on Borderlands, as well as other video games like BioShock.  The MSRP is $16.00, but you’ll likely be able to find it for a bit cheaper in paperback from sites like Amazon, as well as digital editions for your Kindle or other eReader.

Final Thoughts:

If you’ve enjoyed the Borderlands games, and the characters and lore, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll enjoy reading Borderlands: Gunsight.

It weighs in at just over 300 pages, and can be easily read over the course of a weekend.  Like a handy save-spot in a game, Gunsight’s chapters average out to about 10 pages each, which makes picking it up quick and easily, even if you only have a short amount of time to spare.

Like the games, the book doesn’t take itself too seriously, often dealing with situations with a bit of humor.