If you were one of the millions of viewers who tuned in to watch the TV adaptations of The Last of Us, Fallout, or Arcane… you’ve witnessed firsthand how video game adaptations have evolved from risky ventures to cultural phenomena.
This renaissance isn’t just attracting viewers—it’s changing perceptions. Even the creators behind juggernauts like Fallout and The Last of Us acknowledge that these adaptations succeed if done well (Variety)!
Within the past few years, we’ve seen countless pieces of sci-fi media from popular video game franchises release. With the second season of The Last of Us coming out, we can’t help but take notice of this trend we’ve been seeing these past few years — and while video game adaptations are nothing new, the recent adaptations have had such critical acclaim and popularity among audiences that we don’t see this trend going anywhere anytime soon.
As we await the second season of The Last of Us and reflect on the surge of repackaging other beloved gaming franchises, one thing becomes clear: this isn’t merely a passing trend. The storytelling potential of video games has finally found its footing beyond your monitor screen, creating perfect entry points for dedicated gamers and “newbs” alike.
Keep scrolling for our curated list of audiobook recommendations based on your favorite video game world. Perfect for breaks between binging episodes and leveling up, these listens are available everywhere you listen!
Like The Last of Us? Listen to…
Desert Creatures
Written by Kay Chronister, narrated by Gail Shalan, Thom Rivera, and Samara Naeymi
Father-daughter dynamics? Check.
Post-apocalyptic setting with eco-horror? Check.
If you enjoyed those elements from The Last of Us, then consider picking up this unique and gritty journey.
This feminist eco-horror follows a girl’s coming-of-age trek through the post-apocalyptic American West, searching for a miracle cure in the holy city of Las Vegas.
Nine-year-old Magdala and her father have been exiled from their home. As they search for refuge, they join a group of survivors on a pilgrimage to Las Vegas where it is said saints reside and Magdala’s clubfoot can be healed. However, one by one the pilgrims fall victim to a hideous sickness in the Sonoran Desert – leaving Magdala to fend for herself.
After surviving for seven years on her own, Magdala is tired of waiting for her miracle. She recruits an exiled Vegas priest at gunpoint as her guide, forming a fragile alliance as they navigate the desert.
Like Arcane or Final Fantasy? Listen to…
The Floating World
Written by Axie Oh, narrated by Eden Jun
Arcane is an action-adventure steampunk series based on Riot Games League of Legends universe. The series focuses on two sisters, Jinx and Vi, as they become involved in the conflict between their ‘below’ city of Zaun and the ‘above’ city of Piltover. For those interested in another steampunk adventure with an ‘above’ and ‘below’ city dynamic, along with found family, then The Floating World will be something you won’t want to miss!
A sword-for-hire seeks a girl who wields silver light in this romantic fantasy that re-imagines a Korean legend.
Sunho lives in the Under World, a land of perpetual darkness. An ex-soldier, he can remember little of his life from before two years ago, when he woke up alone with only his name and his sword. Now he does odd jobs to scrape by, until he comes across the score of a lifetime—a chest of gold for any mercenary who can hunt down a girl who wields silver light.
Meanwhile, far to the west, Ren is a cheerful and spirited acrobat living in an idyllic mountain village with her adoptive family. But everything changes during one of their festival performances when the village is attacked by a horrific humanlike demon. In a moment of fear and rage, Ren releases a blast of silver light—a power she has kept hidden since childhood—and kills the monster. But her efforts are not in time to save her foster father’s life, or to save her adoptive uncle from being grievously wounded.
Determined to save her uncle from succumbing to the poisoned wound, Ren sets off over the mountains, where the creature came from—and from where Ren herself fled ten years ago. Her path sets her on a collision course with Sunho, but he doesn’t realize she’s the girl that he—and a hundred other swords-for-hire—is looking for. As the two grow closer through their travels, they come to realize that their pasts—and destinies—are far more entwined than either of them could have imagined…
Like The Walking Dead? Listen to…
Symbiote
Written by Michael Nayak, narrated by Paul Bellatoni
Contagion meets The Walking Dead in this new sci-fi thriller where a biological threat ravages scientists and military personnel at the South Pole.
As World War III rages, the scientists in Antarctica are thankful for the isolation—until a group of Chinese scientists arrive at the American research center with a dead body…and something else.
Within seventy-two hours, thirteen others lie dead in the snow. A parasite trigged by the cold is spreading by touch and rapidly evolving. It triggers violent tendencies in the winter crew, and, more insidiously, the beginnings of a strange symbiotic telepathy.
Exhausted by suspicion and fear, with rescue impossible for months, the desperate crew members turn on each other. A small group of survivors try to resist the siren call of the growing hive mind and stay alive long enough to solve the mystery of the symbiotic microbe’s origins. But the symbiote is more than a disease—it is a biological weapon that can change the balance of power in a time of war. And the survivors cannot let anyone infected bring the symbiote back to civilization.
Like The Witcher? Listen to…
The Warden
Written by Daniel M. Ford, narrated by Lindsey Dorcus
Similar to The Witcher, The Warden is an action-adventure fantasy series perfect for those looking for a classic quest narrative. Instead of a Witcher monster-hunter, our main character Aelis is a noblewoman-turned-necromancer-for-hire who is assigned to a remote village where old magic is restless and a great evil is at play.
She had the money, the connections, even the brains. It was simple: become one of the only female necromancers, earn as many degrees as possible, get a post in one of the grand cities, then prove she’s capable of greatness. The funny thing about plans is that they are seldom under your control.
Now Aelis de Lenti, a daughter of a noble house and recent graduate of the esteemed Magisters’ Lyceum, finds herself in the far-removed village of Lone Pine. Mending fences, matching wits with goats, and serving people who want nothing to do with her. But, not all is well in Lone Pine, and as the villagers Aelis is reluctantly getting to know start to behave strangely, Aelis begins to suspect that there is far greater need for a Warden of her talents than she previously thought.
Old magics are restless, and an insignificant village on the farthest border of the kingdom might hold secrets far beyond what anyone expected. Aelis might be the only person standing between one of the greatest evils ever known and the rest of the world.
Like Fallout? Listen to…
Switching Tracks: Out of the Trash
Written by Lena Gibson, narrated by Rusty Mewha and Angelina Rocca
While Fallout (game and show) plunges players into a retro-futuristic wasteland shaped by nuclear devastation and corporate experiments, Switching Tracks transports readers to another kind of dystopia where a greedy food monopoly creates a similarly oppressive corporate nightmare. Both stories feature similarly resourceful FMCs who team up with a ragtag group of rebels to fight against overpowered leaders and an unchecked system.
Here’s a little more about Switching Tracks…
Life in SoCal in 2195 is controlled by a corporatocracy.
Elsa scavenges twenty-first-century trash, living on the edge of starvation in this ruthless world through her grit and instincts.
When she unearths a metal tube containing maps to six Doomsday seed bunkers and a silver key, she dreams of renewable sources of food and a life based on more than subsistence, but GreenCorps will stop at nothing to acquire her find. Accused of theft and beaten half to death, she escapes with a handsome train hopper. They seek the long-lost bunkers, hoping to break GreenCorps’ monopoly on food.
Along the way, they receive help from a teenage pickpocket, a solitary widow, and a rebel leader. If this rag-tag group of lonely misfits cannot reclaim the tube and find a way to distribute the seeds, GreenCorps will continue to choke out any chance of a better life.
Like Assassin’s Creed? Listen to…
A Portrait in Shadow
Written by Nicole Jarvis, narrated by Carlotta Brentan
Assassin’s Creed is a historical action-adventure video game franchise — and fans looking for a read that combines a well-developed historical setting with elements of science fiction should look no further than A Portrait in Shadow, especially if you enjoyed the setting and time period for Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.
Throughout the Assassins Creed franchise, there is an overarching conflict between the Order of Assassins and the Knights of Templar, and similarly within A Portrait in Shadow our main character finds herself in opposition from the powerful Accademia, a group of self-proclaimed guardians of healing and necrotic magic.
In A Portrait in Shadow, prepare to enter a sumptuous world of art and magic in 17th-century Florence, where a painter is determined to make her mark and exact her revenge.
When Artemisia Gentileschi arrives in Florence seeking a haven for her art, she faces instant opposition from the powerful Accademia, self-proclaimed guardians of the healing and necrotic magic that protect the city from plague and curses. The all-male Accademia jealously guards its power over art and architecture and has no place for an ambitious young woman arriving from Rome under a cloud of scandal.
Artemisia begins winning allies like Galileo, Michelangelo the Younger, and Cristina de’ Medici. But when her infamous rape trial in Rome turns her thoughts to vengeance and an incendiary preacher turns his ire to Florence’s art world, Artemisia must choose between revenge and her dream of a lasting legacy.
