Aaron A. Reed

I found out about this book from a random rabbit-hole I had descended to on the internet. From there, I saw there were two copies on Amazon, with different "seeds." That intrigued me, being familiar with the idea of random number generators in software engineering, and in searching other retailers I saw the numbers. I needed to know if what I thought they were was what they actually were, and it was not long before I found the author's website. My mind was blown away, because my suspicion show more was true.

Here, I was staring at a book whose premise was that it changed based on what seed you had and that astounded. Immediately my brain started to think along the lines of how that would work and what it could mean. I also saw on his site that I could have my own seed, my own personal copy of this book, a version of the story that no one else could have. Ever.

I was sold three times over by that point, and ended up ordering a copy directly from the author. I love the idea of having my own personal version of this book, and I have to say it did not disappoint.

That's a heck of a review so far, and I have yet to even touch on the contents of the book itself. Those I am still contemplating, still chewing on and mulling over, and I am still recovering from what I read. It left me shaken at points, and feeling like I was right there in that basement with the two main characters. They felt alive, they felt like someone I knew, they reminded me entirely too much of parts of myself.

I love this book, and I wish I could experience it again for the first time. I may need to reread my copy, and I might have to pick up another seed. Just to see, just to experience another version.

And then another, and another, and another. show less

Hits hard when you're depressed. The horror of being alone and the terror of being together blended into one monstrous whole...

I read the epub version of this book, so while I missed out on the lovely layouts, I did greatly enjoy the text itself. The book is hefty, devoting a full chapter to each of the games in the title, and touching on many more in other places. I appreciated the attention to more marginalized text game developers as well, given how whitewashed many computer history books can sometimes be. Many of the games they went over I've been familiar with in some way, being a fan of the genre myself ever show more since I can remember. After coming across a large number of games I hadn't ever heard of, I now have more to add to my wishlist! show less

This is a great introduction to the Inform 7 language. Aaron manages to introduce the language and in fact introduce the reader to Interactive Fiction in a manner that is not only easy for newbies to follow along and actually create something, but experienced IFers and developers will find plenty of good information here. This is one of those books which I read all the way through the first time and it is still quick to hand as I'm developing for reference and ideas. Great job.