Rick Barba
Author of Myst: Revised and Expanded Edition: The Official Strategy Guide
About the Author
Series
Works by Rick Barba
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: Newt Scamander: A Movie Scrapbook (2016) 204 copies, 1 review
Riven: The Sequel to Myst: The Official Strategy Guide (Secrets of the Games Series) (1997) 95 copies
The Tasty Tale of Chewandswallow (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Movie) (2009) 86 copies, 1 review
The World of Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Journey to the North--Logs and Files of a Hidden One (2023) 4 copies
Heroes of Mana Official Strategy Guide (Bradygames Strategy Guides) (Bradygames Strategy Guides) (2007) 2 copies
CD-ROM Classics: Cheats and Hints to Your Favorite Games (Secrets of the Games Series) (1996) 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1950
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Santa Clara University (BA, History)
Stanford University Law School
Iowa Writers' Workshop (MA, Creative Writing) - Occupations
- author
- Organizations
- Santa Clara University
University of Nebraska, Omaha - Short biography
- [from author's Linked In page]
I'm the most-published writer of videogame strategy guide, lore, and companion books in the world, with more than 140 titles and more than 13 million books in print. In 2013, the 450-page Grand Theft Auto V Limited Edition Strategy Guide that I co-wrote with Tim Bogenn hit number 5 on the Amazon.com bestseller book list. Recently, I've written full-length lore or companion books for major franchises including God of War, The Last of Us, Borderlands, Civilization, Assassin's Creed, Tom Clancy's The Division, Watch Dogs, and Diablo, working with major publishers like Penguin Random House, Scholastic, Dark Horse, and Insight Editions.
A graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, I've been on the creative writing faculty at Santa Clara University and the University of Nebraska Omaha, and I've published fiction in numerous literary journals such as Chicago Review, Black Warrior Review, AQR, Quarry West, Other Voices, and Gordon Lish's The Quarterly.
I'm the author of ten novels based on licensed properties and published by Simon & Schuster, including two in the Starfleet Academy series based on the 2009-11 Star Trek movies by J. J. Abrams. (The content of those books has become part of the official canon of Star Trek's "Kelvin timeline.") I've also created or contributed to several other series for the Aladdin Paperbacks and Simon Spotlight imprints. Recently, I completed a novel for Insight Editions based on the award-winning XCOM videogame series.
Specialties: licensed novels, videogame strategy guides and companion books. - Nationality
- USA
- Places of residence
- Louisville, Colorado, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- Colorado, USA
Members
Reviews
As much as I love the plethora of Harry Potter books which explore the cinematic wizarding that are being released, I'm getting vaguely annoyed with how brief they all are! I guess they just want to sell more merchandise, rather than investing hte time and resources into a definitive volume for each film or series of films. That being said, this small book provides a good introduction to many of the key themes, characters, and concepts from the first Fantastic Beasts movie, and was show more well-designed to appeal to younger readers. Those of us in the elder generation of Harry Potter fans will obviously be looking for more content and commentary, but the whimsical format and concise organization will still appeal to our memories of similar types of books which were around when we were younger. show less
There is some incredibly bad characterisation in here (Spock and a Starfleet science professor don't know what "metabolic acidosis" means, really?) but the plot was actually pretty entertaining. Still, I've definitely read fanfic that was better than this, so maybe I'll stick to that for my Academy shenanigan needs.
This series is like reading a YA Star Trek soap opera. The first book in the series, [b:The Edge|10161352|The Edge (Star Trek Starfleet Academy)|Rudy Josephs|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1294548357s/10161352.jpg|15059914], got me used to jumping back and forth between characters and I felt better about in this second installment. Though the author is different (and better), the tone felt similarly campy and fun. Kirk is still obviously a ladies’ man, and I still wish I was reading show more Spock/Uhura erotica. Wait, what? Did I just say that? Anyway, these books are a breeze to get through and full of action. For those unfamiliar with this set of Star Trek books, they are set in the alternate timeline of the most recent Star Trek movie and take place with most of our favorite characters while they are still at Starfleet. This one follows McCoy, Kirk, and Uhura as they help their superiors and the San Francisco PD solve the mystery of The Doctor, a killer who somehow manages to remove internal organs from his victims with no incisions. (I can’t wait for the future!) I’m a little iffy on whether Starfleet would actually have these cadets helping out to such an extent…as in, doing almost the entire investigation and crime-solving. That makes perfect sense…not.
I suppose this series is just “Life at Starfleet Academy” and that’s why we are reading about Kirk’s attempts to hit on girls and his progress through school exams, but those plot points just did not add too much to the primary storyline. The scientific explanation of The Doctor was rather interesting, though my eyes tend to glaze over anytime any word starts with “nano.” Whatever science dudes, I’ll take your word for it. And WTF was up with the ending? Talk about a tease. This isn’t even a review, it is just my random thoughts choppily strewn into paragraphs that have no common thread.
This series is an absolute guilty pleasure of mine. I honestly doubt whether any of my GR friends would enjoy it as much as I do but it definitely has a market. I’ll continue reading them in my quest to find space school stories, especially because it is so easy to pick familiar characters back up. And, of course, I want to see Spock and Uhura develop their relationship to the point it was at in the most recent movie. That’s logical, right? show less
I suppose this series is just “Life at Starfleet Academy” and that’s why we are reading about Kirk’s attempts to hit on girls and his progress through school exams, but those plot points just did not add too much to the primary storyline. The scientific explanation of The Doctor was rather interesting, though my eyes tend to glaze over anytime any word starts with “nano.” Whatever science dudes, I’ll take your word for it. And WTF was up with the ending? Talk about a tease. This isn’t even a review, it is just my random thoughts choppily strewn into paragraphs that have no common thread.
This series is an absolute guilty pleasure of mine. I honestly doubt whether any of my GR friends would enjoy it as much as I do but it definitely has a market. I’ll continue reading them in my quest to find space school stories, especially because it is so easy to pick familiar characters back up. And, of course, I want to see Spock and Uhura develop their relationship to the point it was at in the most recent movie. That’s logical, right? show less
I read this for a book group (which I couldn't participate in, sadly), but it was amusing and fun. It's not the best book out there, but I never expected it to be. My only disappointment is that for all the talk of The Doctor on the back of the book, it wasn't the Doctor I was hoping for (and I knew this going it, but it made me laugh a few times).
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Statistics
- Works
- 85
- Members
- 1,859
- Popularity
- #13,846
- Rating
- 3.6
- Reviews
- 8
- ISBNs
- 147
- Languages
- 5
- Favorited
- 2