Hi everyone, it’s time for another book review!
Who here remembers the Myst games? Back in 1991 the Miller brothers created a point and click computer game that took the world by storm, due to its stunning visuals, beautiful music and engaging story line. The player of the game stumbles across a “Linking Book” that transports them to the island of Myst, where they must solve a number of puzzles to uncover the event that led to the imprisonment of Atrus and his two sons.
Myst: The Book of Atrus was a novel released a few years later, co-written by established author David Wingrove, and fills out the backstory of Atrus that is hinted at in the original game. The young Atrus, raised by his grandmother in a desert (originally in the Middle East, later retconned to Central America), learns that he is the last surviving heir of the ancient D’ni civilisation, a secretive underground race who managed countless worlds through the use of linking books. When Atrus’ father Gehn returns to try and use Atrus to rebuild D’ni, the young explorer and inventor begins to unravel the mystery of what happened to his ancestors and how it has driven his father to madness.
The linking book story mechanic gave a lot of freedom to the authors to create an endless list of original settings, as the worlds that the D’ni can link to are limited only by the writer’s imagination. During his travels Atrus meets Catherine, a young woman who is even more imaginative and creative than he in the worlds that she “writes” with her own linking books, and together they face down Gehn’s arrogant belief that the D’ni were a race of gods. As an added bonus, the ending on the book (no spoilers) also references the events that led to the opening scenes of the Myst computer game.
Another fun little bonus to this book is the Millar brothers’ illustrations, small pencil drawings scattered throughout the text that could easily have been Atrus’ own inquisitive scribblings as he was trying to understand the worlds he traveled to.
What did this book teach me about writing?
For me, Myst: The book of Atrus taught me about pacing. Watching Atrus grow from a curious child, to a dutiful student and finally a man capable of standing up to his insane father was well-told and incredibly satisfying. This book also taught me that focusing on a handful of characters allows the author to really bring their heroes and villains to life. Myst: The book of Atrus is a small, simple tale, written before the current fashion of grandiose epic plots with a cast of thousands. It is, however, a tale that is told well and is still a pleasure to read after all these years.
That’s it for now, please check back next week for another artist review and the next installment in the ongoing illustrated serial “Tales from A&R,” I hope you look forward to reading it!
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