Tom Clancy's The Division: New York Collapse: (Tom Clancy Books, Books for Men, Video Game Companion Book) Paperback – Folded Map, March 8, 2016

This book is so fantastically made I can't even comprehend how. It's a piece of art (aside the story) Husband been a long time fan of The Division, and this book delivered more and better than what he expected.

This book is a great companion to the game, but even on its own has some value (especially so if your are a NYC resident). Structured as an in-game publication set in the world of Tom Clancy's The Division video game, it not only serves as a useful survival guide in the world of the game, but in our world as well. The survival and preparedness tips here are drawn from plausible scenarios in our world, which makes the reading far more compelling if you let it draw you in and contemplate the possibilities. The book comes with a lot of physical inserts such as a map of NYC with notes, a bus pass, and more. Each of these serves as a clue, part of a puzzle, or enhancement to the story of the game. And this is where the book really shines.It presents the story of April Kelleher, a married woman gifted the survival guide, who then proceeds to live out one of the nightmare scenarios presented in the guide. In the form of April's writings in the margins of the guide, we follow her tale of what happened to result in the NYC portrayed the The Division video game. I believe this story is good enough to stand on its own in many ways, so I don't think you'd be disappointed if you read this, yet never played the game. April writes over time in this book, using it as a sort of journal of her experiences. Her handwriting is presented in different inks and pencils, and the book is artificially weathered in appearance, but actually smythe sewn for a durable binding. Note these are all printing effects and the end result is a "survival guide"/in-game fiction journal that looks great and yet should survive repeated reading and thumbing through. This is even as its in-world fiction dictates it should have, the journal having survived so long.In fact, re-reading and thumbing through you will have to do, not only to follow the multi-layered story that unfolds physically on the pages, but also because the book incorporates puzzles and clues that really complete the presentation of both the story in this book and the function of companion to the game. Overall it is just an excellent example of a true multi-media presentation of The Division's story. You do not need this to enjoy the Division nor do I think you need the Division to enjoy this, but it enhances the experience so much. If you like story :)Some NOTES: This story is NOT the story that takes place in The Division game but Another story that takes place in the same world of the game and is part of the overall story. This is not a game guide in the sense of the guides that spell out all the stuff in the game so you can find it. It does present puzzles and clues to stuff you can find in game, but it is its own thing, and not like the strategy or survival guides you can buy from Prima or Brady etc. It is as its covers states, an interactive adventure, and a damn good one at that. This is a real, quality production both in the sense of the content and in the actual quality of the physical book.I could go on much more about the quality of the story, quality of the survival info, or tell you about the puzzles, etc. but I think that would all be spoiler-ish and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised as you learn just how much is packed into this 176 page volume. Very pleasantly...

I haven't finished the book yet. But I'm really enjoying it. I didn't know anything about it when it arrived. I thought it was just another cheesy game novelization like the Doom or Mass effect books but no... this is something else entirely. Non-spoiler premise: April was given a basic survival guide by her husband as a "joke". The printed pages of New York Collapse is the survival guide. As real world events begin to unfold it turns out April's pandemic survival guide is uncannily accurate. April begins to use the margins as her diary during her struggles to survive and make sense of her situation. The more she flips back and forth through the book reading and leaving notes the more she notices that this "theoretical" survival guide is more closely linked to the events around her than can be rationally explained. Each page is super detailed with notes and pictures from different days and weeks as she flipped back and forth through the survival guide over and over again.I decided early on to try and follow April's story chronologically. Or as close as I could, anyways. I wanted to discover the story as she did, one journal entry at a time. April's story is not written in sequence but it can be pieced together close enough by following which pen she was using during which time period. First I read the book as a survival guide, doing my best to ignore all of the scribbles and notes. That way I understand the book as it would appear when April first received it. Next I read through the book reading only April's first impressions - the black ink. This is April using the book as a literal survival guide as she wonders at the strange coincidence of the accuracy of her book to the world around her. Now, I'm reading the blue ink which is where she starts to see conspiracy instead of coincidence. Reading it this way really gives me a sense of her growing desperation, frustration, and paranoia. In short... it's flipping awesome.The great thing about this book is that there are so many different ways to enjoy it. Absorb it all at once, piece it apart as I have, or just flip through and enjoy each page separately. Best game tie in I've ever interacted with.