Author: Edward Packard
Publisher: Bantam Books
ISBN: 9780553231755
Category : Adventure stories
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Author: Iain Ryan
Publisher: Bonnier Zaffre Ltd.
ISBN: 1838771425
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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ENTER THE SPIRAL. FIND THE TRUTH. The utterly original and brilliantly gripping thriller for fans of BEHIND HER EYES by Sarah Pinborough and THE SEVEN DEATHS OF EVELYN HARDCASTLE by Stuart Turton. 'Gripping, inventive and utterly unpredictable' - Alex Pavesi, bestselling author of EIGHT DETECTIVES. 'Ambitious and well executed' - GUARDIAN '[A] rollercoaster crime noir thriller' - INDEPENDENT _______________________ Erma Bridges' life is far from perfect, but entirely ordinary. So when she is shot twice in a targetted attack by a colleague, her quiet existence is shattered in an instant. With her would-be murderer dead, no one can give Erma the answers she needs to move on from her trauma. Why her? Why now? So begins Erma's quest for the truth - and a dangerous, spiralling journey into the heart of darkness. With all the inventiveness of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and the raw brutality of Mulholland Drive, THE SPIRAL is a unique crime thriller with killer twists - and 2021's most jaw-dropping ending. ____________________ WHAT YOUR FAVOURITE AUTHORS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE SPIRAL: 'I suspect this is one that I'll be thinking about for some time' - ALEX PAVESI, author of EIGHT DETECTIVES 'A frenzied, twisted fever dream of a book' - MIRANDA DICKINSON, author of OUR STORY

Author: Andrew Byers
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786498838
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
Since the release of Dungeons & Dragons in 1974, role-playing games (RPGs) have spawned a vibrant industry and subculture whose characteristics and player experiences have been well explored. Yet little attention has been devoted to the ways RPGs have shaped society at large over the last four decades. Role-playing games influenced video game design, have been widely represented in film, television and other media, and have made their mark on education, social media, corporate training and the military. This collection of new essays illustrates the broad appeal and impact of RPGs. Topics range from a critical reexamination of the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, to the growing significance of RPGs in education, to the potential for "serious" RPGs to provoke awareness and social change. The contributors discuss the myriad subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways in which the values, concepts and mechanics of RPGs have infiltrated popular culture.

Author: Nathan Penlington
Publisher: Headline
ISBN: 0755365712
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
When Nathan discovered a job lot of the first 106 adventures for sale on eBay, there was never any question that he would place a bid. When the books arrived, he lost himself in the old adventures. Yet, as he flicked through the pages, there was another story being written. In the margins of each book were the scribblings of the little boy who had once owned them, a little boy by the name of Terence John Prendergast. Terence wrote jokes and hints for adventurers following the same stories as him. More troubling, among the notes were intimations of a tormented childhood: of the boys and teachers who bullied him; of the things he hated about himself and had to improve; of his thoughts of suicide and his desperate need to find friends, be liked, and find somebody - anybody - to confide in. THE BOY IN THE BOOK is Nathan's poignant recreation of the discovery of the fragments of Terence Prendergast's diary, his quest to find the lost boy, and the friendship that resulted from their first meeting. In doing so, Nathan is forced to examine his own childhood - and, as his relationship with Terence deepens, he begins to believe that the two men are not so different, and to reflect on the darkness that can exist in childhood.

Author: Amaranth Borsuk
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262346893
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
The book as object, as content, as idea, as interface. What is the book in a digital age? Is it a physical object containing pages encased in covers? Is it a portable device that gives us access to entire libraries? The codex, the book as bound paper sheets, emerged around 150 CE. It was preceded by clay tablets and papyrus scrolls. Are those books? In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Amaranth Borsuk considers the history of the book, the future of the book, and the idea of the book. Tracing the interrelationship of form and content in the book's development, she bridges book history, book arts, and electronic literature to expand our definition of an object we thought we knew intimately. Contrary to the many reports of its death (which has been blamed at various times on newspapers, television, and e-readers), the book is alive. Despite nostalgic paeans to the codex and its printed pages, Borsuk reminds us, the term “book” commonly refers to both medium and content. And the medium has proved to be malleable. Rather than pinning our notion of the book to a single form, Borsuk argues, we should remember its long history of transformation. Considering the book as object, content, idea, and interface, she shows that the physical form of the book has always been the site of experimentation and play. Rather than creating a false dichotomy between print and digital media, we should appreciate their continuities.

Author: Mike Rucker
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1982159073
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Discover the latest scientific evidence for the potent and revitalizing value of fun and how to make having fun a habitual and authentic part of your daily life with “this well-researched and impressive guide” (BookPage). Doesn’t it seem that the more we seek happiness, the more elusive it becomes? There is an easy fix: fun is an action you can take here and now, practically anywhere, anytime. Through research and science, we know fun is enormously beneficial to our physical and psychological well-being, yet fun’s absence from our modern lives is striking. Whether you’re a frustrated high-achiever trying to find a better work-life balance or someone who is seeking relief from life’s overwhelming challenges, it is time you gain access to the best medicine available. “A masterful distillation of science and personal experience” (Nir Eyal, author of Hooked), The Fun Habit explains how you can build having fun into an actionable and effortless habit and why doing so will help you become a healthier, more joyful, more productive person. In the vein of Year of Yes, 10% Happier, and Atomic Habits, The Fun Habit features “practical tips, tools, and tactics for bringing fun into our lives starting now” (Dr. Olav Sorenson, UCLA professor of sociology).

Author: Felicitas Meifert-Menhard
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110272393
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
This volume examines the structure of text-based Future Narratives in the widest sense, including choose-your-own-adventure books, forking-path novels, combinatorial literature, hypertexts, interactive fiction, and alternate reality games. How 'radical' can printed Future Narratives really be, given the constraints of their media? When exactly do they not only play with the mere idea of multiple continuations, but actually stage genuine openness and potentiality? Process- rather than product-oriented, text-based Future Narratives are seen as performative and contingent systems, simulating their own emergence.

Author: Josh Riedel
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
ISBN: 1250813808
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
“An unexpected, inventive, heartfelt riff on the workplace novel—startup realism with a multiverse twist.” —Anna Wiener, author of Uncanny Valley Introducing Josh Riedel's adrenaline-packed debut novel about a dating app employee who discovers a glitch that transports him to other worlds Once you sign an NDA it's good for life. Meaning legally, I shouldn't tell you this story. But I have to. A college grad with the six-figure debt to prove it, Ethan Block views San Francisco as the place to be. Yet his job at hot new dating app DateDate is a far cry from what he envisioned. Instead of making the world a better place, he reviews flagged photo queues, overworked and stressed out. But that's about to change. Reeling from a breakup, Ethan decides to view his algorithmically matched soulmate on DateDate. He overrides the system and clicks on the profile. Then, he disappears. One minute, he’s in a windowless office, and the next, he’s in a field of endless grass, gasping for air. When Ethan snaps back to DateDate HQ, he’s convinced a coding issue caused the blip. Except for anyone to believe him, he’ll need evidence. As Ethan embarks on a wild goose chase, moving from dingy startup think tanks to Silicon Valley’s dominant tech conglomerate, it becomes clear that there’s more to DateDate than meets the eye. With the stakes rising, and a new world at risk, Ethan must choose who—and what—he believes in. Adventurous and hypertimely, Please Report Your Bug Here is an inventive millennial coming-of-age story, a dark exploration of the corruption now synonymous with Big Tech, and, above all, a testament to the power of human connection in our digital era.

Author: Elke Reinhuber
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000623742
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
Counterfactual thinking has become an established method to evaluate decisions in a range of disciplines, including history, psychology and literature. Elke Reinhuber argues it also has valuable applications in the fine arts and popular media. A fascination with the path not taken is a logical consequence of a world saturated with choices. Art which provokes and explores these tendencies can help to recognise and contextualise the impulse to avoid or endlessly revisit individual or collective decisions. Reinhuber describes the term in broad strokes through the disciplines to show how counterfactualism finds shape in contemporary art forms, especially in photography, film, and immersive and interactive media art (such as 360° content, virtual reality and augmented reality). She analyses the different stages of counterfactuals with examples where artists experience counterfactual thoughts in the process of art production, explore these thoughts in their artwork, and where the artwork itself evokes counterfactual thoughts in the audience. A fascinating exploration for scholars and students of art, media and the humanities, and anybody else with an interest in choices, the art of decisionmaking and counterfactualism.

Author: R. Lyle Skains
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1501364936
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Digital fiction has long been perceived as an experimental niche of electronic literature. Yet born-digital narratives thrive in mainstream culture, as communities of practice create and share digital fiction, filling in the gaps between the media they are given and the stories they seek. Neverending Stories explores the influences of literature and computing on digital fiction and how the practices and cultures of each have impacted who makes and plays digital fiction. Popular creativity emerges from subordinated groups often excluded from producing cultural resources, accepting the materials of capitalism and inverting them for their own carnivalesque uses. Popular digital fiction goes by many different names: webnovels, adventure games, visual novels, Twitter fiction, webcomics, Twine games, walking sims, alternate reality games, virtual reality films, interactive movies, enhanced books, transmedia universes, and many more. The book establishes digital fiction in a foundation of innovation, tracing its emergence in various guises around the world. It examines Infocom, whose commercial success with interactive fiction crumbled, in no small part, because of its failure to consider women as creators or consumers. It takes note of the brief flourish of commercial book apps and literary games. It connects practices of cognitive and conceptual interactivity, and textual multiplicity-dating to the origins of the print novel-to the feminine. It pushes into the technological future of narrative in immersive and mixed realities. It posits the transmedia franchises and the practices of fanfiction as examples of digital fiction that will continue indefinitely, regardless of academic notice or approval.