Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim came out in November, but I didn't get it until Christmas.  Since then, I've played around 87 hours (as of this morning; the only game I've played longer is Pokemon) and still have a long way to go before I can feel like I finished it.  It's an all-absorbing Tolkieneqsue world, with elves, humans and various other races trying to live together in a medieval world of castles, forts, magic and long lost treasures. Tamriel, a perfect world for a fantasy novel.

So with all this on my mind, I picked up The Elder Scrolls: Lord of Souls.  At first I didn't realize that it was the second of two, so it was a little odd jumping into the middle of the story, but it still worked.  Because the first book set up all the characters already, it pretty much went right into the action, but since this is how the games work, too, it didn't bother me that much.

A weird floating city called Umbriel from the Gods' land of Oblivion has crossed over to Tamriel and is drifting towards the Imperial City with no known purpose.  Umbriel is populated by what appear to be normal people, but are tied to the city somehow and are unable to leave without turning to dust. Wherever the city passes above, dead bodies from to country below are reanimated and form a massive army that hacks its way forward, following the city's path.

The plot follows several pairs of characters, including the crown prince of Tamriel and his bodyguard, an Imperial agent and his friend, and two Tamriel citizens trapped aboard the floating city, as they try to stop Umbriel from destroying their home and world they love.

The story isn't at all related to the events of any of the games.  Only the locations, mythos and races are rooted in the game world.  It helps to have played them to get a good grounding; I'm not sure if it would be quite as successful as a standalone story as Bioshock or Fable.  (Both of which have new games coming out this year.  Perfect time for a tie-in.)