Many video and PC games have gotten novelizations over the years and the newest one is Cryptic Studios' superhero MMORPG City of Heroes. The first novel, City of Heroes: Web of Arachnos, is due out later this year from publisher CDS Books and Gamecloud got a chance to chat with its veteran novelist and comic book scripter Robert Weinberg.

Gamecloud - First how did you get the gig to write the first City of Heroes prose novel?

Robert Weinberg - During the past few years, I've contributed stories to anthologies edited by James Lowder. Jim was appointed book editor for City of Heroes last year and he asked me if I'd be interested in writing the first City of Heroes novel. Jim knew of my background in comic books and love of video games so he was pretty sure I'd be interested. And he was right.

Gamecloud - Were you familiar with the game before you started writing the novel?

Robert Weinberg - I had read about City of Heroes but hadn't had a chance to play it. I try to keep up with what is going on in the science fiction, comic book, and gaming fields. I'm fascinated by genre literature and am a huge fan of superhuman characters. Of course, before I started writing my novel, I did a lot of research on City of Heroes, including playing the game.