An agreement between Gears of War developer Epic Games and book publisher Del Rey will spawn a trilogy of Gears of War novels, the companies announced Monday.

The first book, Gears of War: The Battle of Aspho Fields, is slated for release on October 28 this year, a week-and-a-half before the November 7 release of Gears of War 2 on Xbox 360.

The first Gears novel is penned by U.K.-based novelist Karen Traviss, the New York Times best-selling author who has written numerous Star Wars novels and original science fiction works.

Books are just part of Epic's plans to expand the Gears universe.

Epic Games president Michael Capps said in a statement, "This trilogy of novels opens up whole new worlds of storytelling opportunities, and will add even more context to the upcoming comic book series, game sequel and motion picture."