The Doom novel series is a series of four near-future science fiction novels co-written by Dafydd ab Hugh

Dafydd ab Hugh

Dafydd ab Hugh is a U.S. science fiction author.Ab Hugh is most noted for writing fiction in media franchises in the 1990's, including several novels for the Star Trek franchise. He also co-wrote four novels associated with the game Doom with fellow science fiction author Brad Linaweaver...

 and Brad Linaweaver

Brad Linaweaver

Bradford Swain Linaweaver is a science fiction writer and screenwriting for low budget movies.The novella version of his novel 'Moon of Ice' was a Nebula Award finalist and the novel length version won a Prometheus Award....

; Knee-Deep in the Dead, Hell on Earth, Infernal Sky, and Endgame. The series is initially based on the Doom and Doom II

Doom II

Doom II: Hell on Earth is an award winning first-person shooter video game and second title of id Software's Doom franchise. Unlike Doom which was initially only available through shareware and mail order, Doom II was a commercial release sold in stores...

 first-person shooter

First-person shooter

First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...

 video games created by Id Software

Id Software

Id Software is an American video game development company with its headquarters in Richardson, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack...

, although there are multiple departures from the game in the first two novels, and the second two continue in an independent direction to the games' storylines. The novels are primarily written from the first-person perspective of Flynn Taggart, a corporal assigned to Fox Company of United States Marine Corps

United States Marine Corps

The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...

, although the perspective changes from character to character in the second and third novel.

On February 26, 2008, the series was rebooted and restarted in the vein of Doom 3

Doom 3

Doom 3 is a science fiction horror video game developed by id Software and published by Activision. An example of the first-person shooter genre, Doom 3 was first released for Microsoft Windows on August 3, 2004. The game was later adapted for Linux, as well as being ported by Aspyr Media for Mac...

. The first book, Worlds on Fire, was written by Matthew Costello, the original writer for Doom 3

Doom 3

Doom 3 is a science fiction horror video game developed by id Software and published by Activision. An example of the first-person shooter genre, Doom 3 was first released for Microsoft Windows on August 3, 2004. The game was later adapted for Linux, as well as being ported by Aspyr Media for Mac...

, and released by Pocket Star Books. The book stars Special Ops Marine Lieutenant John Kane in the year 2145. The second in the series, Maelstrom, was released on March 31, 2009 and shares the same author and publisher.

Flynn Taggart

The primary protagonist and narrator of the series, Corporal Flynn "Fly" Taggart is a member of Fox Company, Fifteenth Light Drop Regiment, United States Marine Corps. His serial number is 888-23-9912. He was raised in a Catholic

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

 school, and while not overtly religious, believes in and respects the existence of God. He has great mechanical skill, having built a car from spare parts and scrap in his youth, and while not college educated, has considerable street smarts. He has a somewhat sardonic personality, as displayed by the wit he shows in his narrative, even towards extremely dangerous situations. Nevertheless, he always acts professionally and seriously in combat situations.

Initially to be court-martialled for striking a superior officer, Fly is one of the few people in a position to do anything when Fox is all but wiped out on Phobos

Phobos (moon)

Phobos is the larger and closer of the two natural satellites of Mars. Both moons were discovered in 1877. With a mean radius of , Phobos is 7.24 times as massive as Deimos...

. He heads into the base for the sole reason of learning the fate of Arlene Sanders who he has feelings for (albeit not romantic, more akin to brother-sister). He makes his way through Phobos alone, only encountering Arlene when he reaches Deimos

Deimos (moon)

Deimos is the smaller and outer of Mars's two moons . It is named after Deimos, a figure representing dread in Greek Mythology. Its systematic designation is '.-Discovery:Deimos was discovered by Asaph Hall, Sr...

.

While on Earth, the teenage Jill Lovelace falls for Fly, although he sees her as an adoptive daughter.

Fly is promoted twice in the novels, first to Sergeant, and later against his wishes to Lieutenant. He is considered the primary expert in fighting the "doom demons".

Arlene Sanders

The secondary protagonist, Private First Class Arlene "A.S." Sanders is also a member of Fox Company, and is Fly's best friend and motivation for entering the Union Aerospace Corporation

Union Aerospace Corporation

The Union Aerospace Corporation is a fictional conglomerate focused on military-industrial research in id Software's science fiction video game series Doom. The corporation is depicted to be involved in advanced weapons development, biological research, space exploration and teleportation. The...

 facility on Phobos

Phobos (moon)

Phobos is the larger and closer of the two natural satellites of Mars. Both moons were discovered in 1877. With a mean radius of , Phobos is 7.24 times as massive as Deimos...

 after the apparent massacre of Fox Company. She is the only character, apart from Fly, to appear in all four novels. However, she does not exist in the Doom fictional universe beyond the novel. As the videogames only show Fly to be the last remaining human survivor.

A scout with Fox Company, Arlene Sanders was the first woman permitted to join the company, after performing a William Tell

William Tell

William Tell is a folk hero of Switzerland. His legend is recorded in a late 15th century Swiss chronicle....

 routine with the company's Gunnery Sergeant

Gunnery Sergeant

Gunnery Sergeant is the seventh enlisted rank in the United States Marine Corps, just above Staff Sergeant and below Master Sergeant and First Sergeant, and is a staff non-commissioned officer...

, Goforth. She is in a relationship with another Fox Company marine, Wilhem Dodd, who is reworked into a zombie. She encounters the Dodd zombie while off-Earth. While on Earth, she develops a relationship with Albert Gallatin, and eventually marries him.

Arlene has one brother who was converted to Mormonism, which she believed was a cult. This puts an initial strain on her dealings with the Salt Lake City resistance. She is a full-blown atheist and seems to enjoy going out of her way to make her lack of beliefs known in a rather facetious manner, mainly towards Fly.

Her connection with Fly is seemingly deep-rooted; after the William Tell incident, he became her first friend in the Marines, and a valuable partner when Phobos and Deimos are invaded. The two have long ago worked through any sexual tensions, having gone through only a drunken kiss during training. They remain fast friends.

Albert Gallatin

An Ex-Marine Sharpshooter and a Mormon

Mormon

The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...

, Albert Gallatin is one of the soldiers assisting the Salt Lake City resistance. He is extremely devoted to his faith, but is also a very calm, rational and friendly individual. He left the Marine Corps after finding it increasingly difficult to justify killing his assigned targets. Little is mentioned of his past before joining the Marines and the LDS Church, but it is implied he had a problematic childhood and possibly engaged in criminal activities. This is suggested when he demonstrates his expertise in hot wiring a car (calling it a "Part of my troubled youth") and his mentioning of having known people who use narcotics.

He is assigned by the Mormon Council of Twelve to assist Fly and Arlene in their mission to Los Angeles, during which the two fall in love. They eventually marry while on the Hyperrealist base, and when he is forced to remain behind while Fly and Arlene attack the Fred base, he returns to Earth and begins to study ways in which he can survive until Arlene finally returns home.

Jill Lovelace

A 14 year old computer hacker, Jill Lovelace is orphaned when her parents were killed by the invaders. She joins the Salt Lake City resistance, although more to kill demons than to protect the Mormon faith. She is rebellious and sarcastic, but becomes an integral part of the LA mission team. She falls in love with Fly.

She remains with Fly, Arlene, and Albert until they are sent into space to follow a signal transmitted by friendly aliens who had attempted to warn Earth of the impending invasion. Her attempts to return to the Hawaii base fall apart, although it is later revealed that she survived the war, writing a history of Fly and Arlene's adventures (the first two novels) and a treatise on the whole premise between the Hyperrealist-Deconstructionist war. At the end of the fourth novel, Jill exists as an AI within the rebuilt Salt Lake Tabernacle

Salt Lake Tabernacle

The Salt Lake Tabernacle, also known as the Mormon Tabernacle, is located on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah along with the Salt Lake Assembly Hall and Salt Lake Temple.-History:...

, and a clone which was not woken up within the novels.

Sears and Roebuck

Sears and Roebuck are a Klave pair, members of a binary alien race where everything is encountered in pairs. According to Fly, all Klave appear to be a cross between Alley Oop

Alley Oop

Alley Oop is a syndicated comic strip, created in 1932 by American cartoonist V. T. Hamlin, who wrote and drew the popular and influential strip through four decades for Newspaper Enterprise Association...

 and Magilla Gorilla

Magilla Gorilla

The Magilla Gorilla Show is an animated series for television produced by Hanna-Barbera for Screen Gems between 1963 and 1967, and originally sponsored in syndication by Ideal Toys from 1963 through 1966. The show also had other recurring characters, including Punkin' Puss & Mushmouse, and Ricochet...

. Sears and Roebuck are assigned by the Hyperrealist aliens to help Fly and Arlene in the third and fourth novels. They stick with Fly and Arlene throughout the rest of the series after they are first introduced. Upon returning to Earth Sears and Roebuck leave Fly and Arlene to return to their home planet. This is the last time they are seen.

Knee Deep In The Dead

The novel begins at some point in earth's future, during a USMC operation in the war torn nation of Kerfiristan. While on patrol with his unit Fox Company, a marine named Flynn Taggart manages to land himself in trouble after attacking Fox Company's commanding officer, Lieutenant Weems (this owing to Weems ordering his troops to fire on what turned out to be religious monks). After this incident Fox Company is assigned to a base on Mars

Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...

, where Fly waits uneventfully for his court martial. One day, a distress call is received from the Union Aerospace Corporation

Union Aerospace Corporation

The Union Aerospace Corporation is a fictional conglomerate focused on military-industrial research in id Software's science fiction video game series Doom. The corporation is depicted to be involved in advanced weapons development, biological research, space exploration and teleportation. The...

 facility on Phobos, and he travels with the rest of the company to the Martian moon. Fox Company initially finds the facility abandoned, but they soon encounter an unknown force that quickly wipes out most of the soldiers.

Fearing for his best friend, Arlene Sanders, Fly forcibly "convinces" his guards to let him go and begins to make his way through the Phobos facility, encountering all manner of zombies and demons. The fate of Fly's guards is never revealed. He eventually encounters signs that Arlene survived the enemy assault, and begins to actively search for her, eventually leading him to a teleportation device, and then the abandoned Deimos

Deimos (moon)

Deimos is the smaller and outer of Mars's two moons . It is named after Deimos, a figure representing dread in Greek Mythology. Its systematic designation is '.-Discovery:Deimos was discovered by Asaph Hall, Sr...

 base.

On Deimos, Fly finds Arlene, and the pair of them set forth with the combined goals of escaping and stopping an apparent invasion of Earth. As before, the pair continues through the base, fighting zombies, imps, and pinkie demons. They encounter what they dub a steam demon, and after defeating it, end up teleporting to a new location.

Encountering another living human, Bill Ritch, Fly and Arlene learn that UAC was responsible for activating the "Gate" on Deimos; an artifact left over from a long-vanished alien race. Bill also indicates that there is an "overmind" to the invasion, the spidermind. The trio manage to defeat the spidermind, albeit at the cost of Bill's life. Making their way to the surface of Deimos, Fly and Arlene discover that Deimos had been moved by the demons to Earth's orbit, and that the invasion of Earth was already underway. The pressure dome covering the Deimos facility is slowly leaking air, and the pair will eventually die from oxygen starvation if they do not escape.

Hell on Earth

Building a rocket from spare parts, Fly and Arlene are able to escape from Deimos, although not before experiencing hallucinations due to the oxygen-weak environment. Trusting their lives to fate, the pair launch the spaceship without testing, and manage to survive re-entry, landing several days walk from Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City, Utah

Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...

.

Arriving in Salt Lake City, Fly and Arlene learn that humanity is no longer the dominant species on earth, and that the United States Government (and probably all remaining world governments) are working with the invaders. Salt Lake City is one of a handful of locations holding out against both the demons and the government. Fly and Arlene are taken by Albert Gallatin to meet the head of the resistance, the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Discovering that, like it or not, they cannot leave the city, Fly and Arlene attempt to contact HQMC

Headquarters Marine Corps

Headquarters Marine Corps is a headquarters staff within the Department of the Navy which includes the offices of the Commandant of the Marine Corps, the Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps and various staff functions...

, confirming the treachery of the government and alerting them to the Salt Lake City resistance.

Multiple armed forces are sent to Salt Lake City to detain or fight the resistance, including the United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

, Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is a federal law enforcement organization within the United States Department of Justice...

, and the Internal Revenue Service

Internal Revenue Service

The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...

 'revenue collection' strike force. Discovering Fly and Arlene's treachery, the President of the Twelve offers the pair a chance at resolution; lead a strike team to Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, recover vital information, disable the shields erected around the city, and deliver the information to Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

, a resistance stronghold created by a non treacherous faction of the American military. Included on this strike team are Albert Gallatin and Jill Lovelace.

During their trip west, Arlene becomes fond of Albert, despite heavily disagreeing with his religion. Sneaking aboard a westbound train, the four kill a spidermind and a steam demon while attempting to rescue a human hostage. The hostage, Ken, was modified by the invaders to become a cyborg

Cyborg

A cyborg is a being with both biological and artificial parts. The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space. D. S...

, and is source of the vital information the group must retrieve. The group travel to an airport in Los Angeles, where Albert is wounded by an imp.

Albert, Jill, and Ken find and prepare an aircraft to fly to Hawaii, while Fly and Arlene attempt to take down the energy shield, housed within the Disney Building. They are able to deactivate the shield, but are trapped within the building by a large number of monsters.

Infernal Sky

Having arrived in Hawaii, Fly and Arlene are able to finally relax, but are quickly caught up in an incident involving zombies kept for research. They, along with Albert, are quickly assigned to a new mission: friendly aliens sent a message to Earth just prior to the invasion, and the trio, along with an officer named Esteban Hidalgo, are to travel back to Phobos, and use a Gate to travel to a destination outside the known solar system. Just prior to this briefing, Fly and Arlene are promoted to Sergeant and Lance Corporal respectively.

The three Marines, along with Hidalgo and Jill travel back to California, to reach a spacecraft. The Navy crew is late, but arrive and launch the ship, leaving Jill behind. She begins to make her way back to Hawaii, killing a pair of traitorous humans during her trip. The spacecraft spends a month and a half coasting towards Mars, after which the four Marines are delivered to Phobos. They fight their way to the Gate indicated by the alien's message, and step through.

Arriving at the alien base, later revealed to be beyond the orbit of Pluto

Pluto

Pluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun...

, Fly, Arlene, and Albert encounter several alien species, although the only alien to pay any attention to the humans is Sears and Roebuck. The marines learn that humanity is of little interest to most of the aliens; the invasion of earth being of little more than a strategic move during a quiet period in an intergalactic war. This war is fought between two opposing schools of literary thought (hyperrealists

Hyperreality

Hyperreality is used in semiotics and postmodern philosophy to describe a hypothetical inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from fantasy, especially in technologically advanced postmodern societies...

 and deconstruction

Deconstruction

Deconstruction is a term introduced by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his 1967 book Of Grammatology. Although he carefully avoided defining the term directly, he sought to apply Martin Heidegger's concept of Destruktion or Abbau, to textual reading...

ists) over eleven pieces of prose left behind by the long deceased alien race responsible for building the Gates. Fly and Arlene also learn that there is no faster than light travel (although travel at velocities close to lightspeed), and that humanity is the only species in the galaxy that 'dies' or has religion.

The party of marines is recruited by Sears and Roebuck to assist on an attack on a Fred base; the Freds being the alien race responsible for the invasion of Earth. Albert is seriously injured during the preparation of the Klave starship. Hidalgo dies due to a teleporter mishap. Fly, Arlene, and Sears and Roebuck quickly complete the mission, but as they cannot return to their vessel. The four are forced to Gate onto a Fred ship, disabling the crew in hand-to-hand combat.

Endgame

Traveling on the captured Fred ship towards the alien's homeworld, Fly attempts to while away the time on the 2 month/200 year journey while dealing with Arlene, who is depressed about not being able to see Albert again, and Sears and Roebuck, who are convinced that they are locked on a suicide mission. Eventually, Fly rallies the group to begin training and preparing for defensive action following the landing on the Fred's homeworld, planning to take as many of the Freds with them as possible.

Arriving on "Fredworld", the quartet find the planet deserted. They learn from reanimating a Fred body that the planet was invaded by the "Newbies", a new race of aliens that learn and evolve at a rapid rate. The marines find a Newbie, who leads them to a planet 120 light years from the Fred homeworld. During the voyage, the captured Newbie attempts to change the ship's course, expending all the braking fuel before he is killed by Fly. Sears and Roebuck are forced to decelerate the 3.7 km ship via friction and air-breaking in the planet's atmosphere, during which the stresses on the ship, assisted by a hit from a weapon on the surface, destroy the vessel as it crashes into the planet.

The quartet survive the crash and seek out the weapon, discovering humans. They are captured and taken to a human starship, where Fly and Arlene learn that the war is over, although humanity has become a communistic

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

 race, exhibiting extreme amounts of social atomism

Atomism (social)

Atomism is a theory according to which social organisations, values, and processes arise solely from the acts and interests of individuals, who thus constitute the only true subject of analysis.- See also :*Anomie*Holism in sociology*Individualism...

 and an extreme fear of death. The marines discover that the Newbies are infecting the humans, existing at the same level as DNA. Fly figures out that a human with faith

Faith

Faith is confidence or trust in a person or thing, or a belief that is not based on proof. In religion, faith is a belief in a transcendent reality, a religious teacher, a set of teachings or a Supreme Being. Generally speaking, it is offered as a means by which the truth of the proposition,...

in something cannot be "infected", and stages a rebellion on the ship. The rebellion is defeated, Sears and Roebuck are killed, and Fly and Arlene have their souls (or copies of their souls) placed in a computer simulation of Phobos and Deimos.

In the simulation, Fly figures out that the programming is influenced by his memories; by lying to himself, he is able to alter what happened. He collects a force of imps, zombies, and other demons on his quest for Arlene, and they later find a Newbie soul in the program, which, aided by the mind-directed simulation, evolves out of existence. A trapped Fly and Arlene decide they will attempt to remember the invasion as an outright defeat for the Freds, creating a Utopia for themselves; if this works is not revealed in the books. This makeshift army eventually entraps the 'essence' of one of their adversaries, a 'Newbie'. This essence evolves fairly quickly into a form unconcerned with basic reality.

Outside the ship, Fly and Arlene wake up. The "soul-sucking" computer cannot remove human souls completely. Along with their faithful (the humans worshiping Fly) and the bodies of Sears and Roebuck, they escape incineration by the launching human starship. They travel to the destroyed remains of the Fred ship that took them to the planet in the first place, and find an intact and working med-lab. Using this lab, they figure out that it works using symbols. Finding a symbol that looks as close to the Klave as they can, they shove Sears (or Roebuck, they don't know which) into a drawer-like part of the lab and activate the machine, reviving the body of Sears or Roebuck, who then revives his counterpart. After Sears and Roebuck is revived, they find an intact escape pod that was not destroyed in the wreck and use it to get into the orbit of the planet, and take another ship from the planet's artificial moon. They chase after the Newbie-human ship, which is heading for Earth, although on arrival, they discover that the Newbies never arrived, likely having evolved out of existence as well (as affected by the Newbie soul the game-force had captured).

Landing at a rebuilt Salt Lake City (which was destroyed by nuclear weapons in the third novel), Fly and Arlene head to the Tabernacle to find out what happened to Jill and Albert. The pair encounter an AI, and nude clone of Jill, and a black box with a glowing orange light simply labeled as "Albert", which presumably contains his consciousness (Fly and Arlene discover that Albert spent many years researching a way to extend the human lifespan so that he would be able to see Arlene again). Arlene is visibly overwhelmed by the realization of this, and the book series abruptly ends on this note.