Here's an ultra-cryptic clue about the new gamebook Jamie and I will be working on over the next few months with the far-sighted folk at Profile Books. If you can figure it out from this picture then you're a mightier Jedi than Derren Brown, but don't fret as we'll be making the official announcement in a few weeks. All I can say right now is that it's completely different in tone, style and setting from any gamebook we've worked on before, and is the sort of thing that will get even non-gamebookers wanting to turn the page.
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Friday, 21 October 2011
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Here's an ultra-cryptic clue about the new gamebook Jamie and I will be working on over the next few months with the far-sighted folk at Profile Books. If you can figure it out from this picture then you're a mightier Jedi than Derren Brown, but don't fret as we'll be making the official announcement in a few weeks. All I can say right now is that it's completely different in tone, style and setting from any gamebook we've worked on before, and is the sort of thing that will get even non-gamebookers wanting to turn the page.
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I'm really excited to hear about this, Dave. After looking closely at the picture I noticed the metalic thing that most likely fell from above and made the ground crack. This seems to be an alien world, but the way the scene is lit makes me think of an underwater setting, rather. Am I on the right track?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it's good to hear that you're attempting a gamebook that's different. Being a fan of your books, having played FL and BS which were both innovative, I have faith in your ability to succeed :)
Thanks, Tomer - we're going to try not to let you down! As for the underwater thing, I'm afraid you're cold as the Arctic... ;-)
ReplyDeleteAlong with the title of the picture, Ice, I'm now sure that's a clue :)
ReplyDeleteMaybe... but it's not the answer. (I did say ultra-cryptic.)
ReplyDeleteHello Dave,
ReplyDeleteReally looking forward to that! I always believed that there still was both a market and a solid audience of gamebook lovers, especially if the product is innovative (like the fantastic and successful DestinyQuest).
Good luck to you and Jamie. For sure I, and many of my friends here in Switzerland, will support your new project!
Steve
Ice. Sailing ship plus strange coat of arms (with a propeller?). Smoke. Stone?
ReplyDeleteWell, I din't think it's a sequel to Heart of Ice... so I give up.
Thank you, Steve - and, believe it or not, Switzerland is another clue to what this book is about. Apologies for being so secretive, but the cat will be out of the bag in a couple of weeks.
ReplyDeleteI think I see the stern and mast of a ship. Is it a dried up ocean?
ReplyDeleteYou talk about different style and tone...but do you also mean genre? Because seeing as you've done both SF AND Fantasy, then I can't very well imagine what you could possibly do...(What's that you say? There are literary genres out there that AREN'T SF or Fantasy? Yeah I heard that rumor too but I don't believe it to be true)
ReplyDeleteWell spotted, Zachary. So what have we got so far... a frozen sea, and a Swiss connection. Hmm.
ReplyDeleteI would say it is a different genre, Milk. There is definitely SF in the mix, and some people may perceive a bit of fantasy too, but it's a very different sort of SF/fantasy from anything we've done in the past - as different as Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is from A Game of Thrones, say, or Day of the Triffids is from Starship Troopers. (Not that you should read anything into those examples particularly.)
ReplyDeleteDrilling through the ice and exploring underneath in a submarine. What do I win?
ReplyDeleteAll sounds kinda Frankenstein-y, to me. Genevan students and monsters buried in ice and whatnot.
ReplyDeleteYou're on the right track, Paul. I'll be running a post in the next few weeks talking about why we see this as quite a departure. Frankenstein's Legions it's not.
ReplyDeleteVery intriguing, Dave... My country is all about mountains, so I see a post-apocalyptic version of 'Lost' set in the Alps :)
ReplyDeleteI'll stay tuned for your updates. Cheers,
Steve
You could pitch that in Hollywood, Steve, and walk away with a six figure deal :-) 'Lost' in the Alps makes it sound a little like Heart of Ice, though that starts in the Apennines.
ReplyDelete"In this adventure, YOU are a god... and only YOU can save the world."
ReplyDeleteAm I on the right track?
Great news Dave, hopefully all these succesful projects lead to the increased possibility of more fabled lands books! (someone had to say it :) )
ReplyDeleteAs to the picture, it definitely makes me think of Heart of Ice. Looks slightly like a crash spaceship also.
Well, a crashed (crushed?) ship at any rate! I did have a conversation this week with a publisher, essentially along the lines of: "Gollancz are talking about trade paperback gamebooks, how about Fabled Lands?" That publisher wanted to hedge their bets until they see how Gollancz's experiment goes - but I'm going to keep trying. Certainly if the Profile gamebook does well, the chance of new Fabled Lands books goes up by several hundred percent. Fingers crossed.
ReplyDeleteOut of interest, who did the artwork?
ReplyDeleteCaspar David Friedrich, a German Romantic painter of the early 19th century - making him a contemporary and obvious soulmate of Mrs Mary Shelley.
ReplyDeleteGot it - it's a gamebook about climate change where you play the part of mad scientists attempting to prevent the destruction of the planet. Am I right? Did I win a prize?
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid P.W. Gresty pretty much already nailed it above, Jiminy. He wins a big hug and a kiss from Frankenstein's monster... er, or was that the booby prize?
ReplyDeleteThat picture is "Sea of Ice" c. 1823 by Caspar David Friedrich. It was the cover of the Norton Critical Edition of Frankenstein, by Mary Shelly. Frankenstein was first published in 1818.
ReplyDeleteSo is this a Frankenstein based book? Does it have anything to do with John Whitbourn's Novel "Frankenstein's Legions" which you have blogged about several times? Perhaps something like J.H. Brennan's Horror Classics? I would love to see Frankenstein based gamebook, particularly one where you have the option of playing the monster (like in J.H. Brennan's book, or Creature of Havoc, and other classics). Though less time spent in the arctic, more in the forests of Geneva.
If there was a prize, Anon, that answer would certainly win it. I can say that it's not connected with John Whitbourn's novel. In fact it's questionable whether it falls into the category of genre fiction at all (SF or horror) as we will be reworking the text as... but maybe I'd better save all the details until we announce it officially in a few weeks' time.
ReplyDeleteThe way that the ruins are arranged reminds me of a famous piece of art/famous picture but I can't quite remember what. I notice that there is another pile of stones arranged in exactly the same way in the distance to the left and possibly more to the right. There seems to be rust in the foreground. Is the gamebook something to do with the folly of going to far with science?
ReplyDeleteSome people say so, Stuart. I don't see it that way myself (of course, as a physicist I don't think you can go too far with science) but rather as a caution against shutting off part of your true nature. It's what Freud called the return of the repressed - if you bury something deep, it only grows stronger and more dangerous.
ReplyDeleteI have a chemistry degree and I still think that one can go too far with science. If it is combined with a morally bankrupt philosophy it can give rise to movements such as eugenics, technocracy and infinitely destructive weapons. I think that science is one of the most dangerous things to leave in the wrong hands - since science tackles such huge ideas, taking them the wrong way can be catastrophic. That is why Linus Pauling is one of my scientific heroes.
ReplyDeleteI was excited for a gamebook version of "The Mekons Honky Tonkin'," but "Frankenstein" is good too!
ReplyDelete