Nerd Word of the Week: Hyperfiction

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Hyperfiction (n.) - A form of fiction that takes advantage of interactive media to elevate a story beyond mere linear narrative. Basically, a story that incorporates hyperlinks to allow the reader to experience the text in any particular order, and to explore story materials that are ancillary to the main plot. For example, a hyperfiction novel might include interactive maps of the setting, video news accounts of events in the story, and blogs or journal entries made by several characters. Hyperfiction is still in its infancy, though Shadow Unit by Emma Bull, Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Monette, Will Shetterly, Leah Bobet and Holly Black is perhaps the most well known sci-fi experiment in the medium to date.

I bring it up because: Hyperfiction is more than fiction on a hypertext-capable reader, as Elizabeth Bear informs us. This is the point being missed in the recent Amazon vs. MacMillan brouhaha, to say nothing of the announcement of the iPad --  fiction that is native to digital media does and is more than fiction native to analog media. Put another way, producers did more with DVDs than they did with VHS tapes. Interactive features, games, alternate audio commentaries, whole extra cuts of the film, easter eggs, and the like. This is taking advantage of the potential of the medium. To date, we've stuck analog books on digital readers and called them ebooks. But what does a hyperbook look like? How would a hypernovel differ from a novel? We haven't even begun to really ask the question. Until we do, don't expect e-readers to become "necessary" to the average consumer. You haven't replaced their novels yet. You've only copied them.

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On the impossibility of reading enough books

Cover of Fathom

Because you're all just dying to know, I'm already behind on my resolution to read 25 books this year. To date, I have polished off the following in 2009:

• Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi. (Review - plugs some holes in The Last Colony, fun if you've read the other Old Man's War stuff)
  
• Fathom by Cherie Priest. (Review - atmospheric, but a little plot-light for my taste; enjoyed Four and Twenty Blackbirds much more)
  
• The Rainbow Connection by Ian Harac. (Review - He's my friend and he's funny and this book reminds me how much so)
• 1633 by Eric Flint and David Weber. (Review - More dense than 1632, and ends on an unsatisfying cliffhanger; left me wanting much more, including a copy of the roleplaying game)
  
• Pastwatch by Orson Scott Card. (Review - Best thing I've read by Card since Ender's Game, if only half as good as his magnum opus)

I also read about a quarter of Hal Duncan's Vellum before bailing out. Suffice it to say, I'm reading at about half the necessary pace. Somebody needs to cure this pesky need for sleep.

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Your next must-own novella: The Rainbow Connection

In a shameless bit of pimpery, I commend unto you my friend Ian "Lizard" Harac's new novella, The Rainbow Connection. I was privileged to hear this fanciful tale in its first incarnation as a short story at my SF writers group and it's teh AWESOME.

Lizard takes the common spec-fic trope of alternate universes inspired by popular fiction and turns it on its head. The protagonist, FBI agent Matt Anders, is an anti-copyright-infringement investigator whose main job is stopping folks from importing stories from other universes that violate our only local timeline's copyrights. For example, while there are terrorists that want to bogart actual phasers from worlds where Captain Kirk was real, our hero's job is to intercept Trekkies who want to pirate in DVD copies of the original series' fourth season from a fan-fic universe where NBC never cancelled the show. Unfortunately, things go wrong when Anders stumbles upon the body of a dead munchkin, courtesy of the land of Oz. Insert an evil conspiracy, an ultra-geeky techno-pirate sidekick, and a talking broomstick, then allow bizarre hijinks to ensue.

Seriously, you want this book, you need this book. And for local folks who want a signed copy, Lizard will be doling out the penstrokes at A Reader's Corner on Saturday, Mar. 7 from 1 to 3 pm, and he'll be attending my Watchmen Movie Premiere party later that same day so, should you arrive copy in hand, he'll be more than willing to put his fiendish John Hancock to the inside cover whilst we all boogie down. And if you're not local, I can probably still arrange for a signed copy, provided you're willing to pay shipping. Contact me for details.

Now, go, get buying!

The 2009 book onslaught

Cover of Toast

My time is grandly overcommitted these days, so it is with extraordinary stupidity that I steal a New Year's resolution from my colleague and friend Michelle and foreswear to read 25 books in 2009. It's pretty crazy, since I'll be working three jobs this year (at least) and I'm also vowing to get at least one short story published in one of the Big Three sci-fi magazines (to say nothing of plans to lose 20 pounds, attend the Final Four, get back into shape, buy a new house, plus all the commitments native to being a decent friend, husband, father, and professional). But those are insanities for later discussion, as we've got books to showcase, beginning with...

Jay's Wonderous Christmas Book Haul:

• The Electric Church by Jeff Somers
• Shaping Things by Bruce Sterling
• Fathom by Cherie Priest
• 1633 by Eric Flint and David Weber
• 1634: The Baltic War by Eric Flint and David Weber
• Northlanders - Sven the Returned by Brian Wood and Davide Gianfelice
  
• Ex Machina - Ex Cathedra by Bryan K. Vaughan and Tony Harris

This, of course, ignores the stack of unreads dating back to last year (or earlier) that I intend to wade through:

• Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi
• Toast and Other Rusted Futures by Charles Stross
• Rainbow's End by Vernor Vinge
• Serenity Found by Jane Espenson
• The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
• Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card
• I Am America (And So Can You) by Stephen Colbert

And, naturally, I can't start on any of those yet, because my sci-fi book club is reading Vellum by Hal Duncan in January and, since I helped pitch the book to the group, it only seems fair to read it. I had to hurry up and finish Saturn's Children, also by Stross, to clear room for it, which means I won't get to count Saturn's Children towards my '09 total. Also, since Northlanders and Ex Machina are graphic novels that took me about 60-90 minutes to read, I'm not counting them, either. Plus, I've read them already because they are awesome.

I expect paper cuts, sleepless nights, and abject self-loathing by mid-September when I'm hopelessly behind on most of my goals. But until then, bibliophilia awaits.

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