'Command & Conquer 3' novel penned

Electronic Arts has teamed up with Del Rey, an imprint of Ballantine Books at the Random House Publishing Group, to publish a novel based on the critically-acclaimed Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars video game on May 29 in the US and Canada.

The novel, which will be released in the UK and Germany in the months following, is set in the year 2047 and Tiberium - a self-replicating alien substance that has infected the Earth - is spreading like a radioactive ice age. The Global Defence Initiative, a high-tech alliance of the world’s most advanced nations, is fighting to contain Tiberium, but Kane, the megalomaniacal leader of the Brotherhood of Nod has other plans for Earth. Kane’s secret society turned superpower is bent on using Tiberium to take control and transform humanity into his twisted vision of the future. In the midst of battles throughout the world, a third alien race emerges, and all-out war rages over Tiberium.

“We’re excited to expand the Command & Conquer franchise to a new form of media and offer a depth to the underlying fiction of the game series like never before,” said Patrick O’Brien, VP of Business Affairs at EA. “Keith DeCandido wrote a great story, and we’re pleased to have partnered with him and Del Rey.”

Del Rey editor Keith Clayton said, “Command & Conquer remains one of the most popular and well-reviewed gaming franchises, and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to work on an original story set in EA’s Tiberium Universe.”