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sesanaThe ARG thing is really taking off, and it's starting to infiltrate publishing. I honestly welcome the trend. I love fiddling with ARGs in general, and anything (ANYTHING) that can give teens a hook to read an actual honest to God book is something I can back. I've just recently read two books (ok, one series and one book) that uses that kind of hook. I've loved them both.
The series is called The 39 Clues. The overall story arc is the work of Rick Riordan, the author of the Percy Jackson series. (Percy Jackson=awesome, btw.) He also wrote the first book, but each book thereafter is being written by a different children's/YA author. The second one was written by Gordon Korman, who is also made of win. There's an extensive web tie-in, which includes Hogwarts-esque sorting. (Why yes, I did end up in the Ravenclaw counterpart, Ekaterina, like always.) There's also a set of collectible cards, which have interesting extra info on their own, and which can also be tied in to the website. Even though I'm loving the books and the site, I'm not collecting the cards. Each book comes with a few cards, so I've seen how interesting and well-made they are.
The book is Skeleton Creek. The book has extensive web tie-ins, including videos that are meant to be watched as you're reading the book. You get part of the story from reading, and part from the videos. I can't think of anything that's ever attempted that exact combination before. There's a second book coming out in September, and I can't wait. The book and videos were so absorbing I devoured it all in one sitting, as well as some extra web content aside from the videos you're directly referred to.
I'm hoping that this multimedia storytelling will get popular enough that other authors will pick it up. I've really enjoyed it.
The series is called The 39 Clues. The overall story arc is the work of Rick Riordan, the author of the Percy Jackson series. (Percy Jackson=awesome, btw.) He also wrote the first book, but each book thereafter is being written by a different children's/YA author. The second one was written by Gordon Korman, who is also made of win. There's an extensive web tie-in, which includes Hogwarts-esque sorting. (Why yes, I did end up in the Ravenclaw counterpart, Ekaterina, like always.) There's also a set of collectible cards, which have interesting extra info on their own, and which can also be tied in to the website. Even though I'm loving the books and the site, I'm not collecting the cards. Each book comes with a few cards, so I've seen how interesting and well-made they are.
The book is Skeleton Creek. The book has extensive web tie-ins, including videos that are meant to be watched as you're reading the book. You get part of the story from reading, and part from the videos. I can't think of anything that's ever attempted that exact combination before. There's a second book coming out in September, and I can't wait. The book and videos were so absorbing I devoured it all in one sitting, as well as some extra web content aside from the videos you're directly referred to.
I'm hoping that this multimedia storytelling will get popular enough that other authors will pick it up. I've really enjoyed it.
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Date: 2009-02-21 05:04 am (UTC)