Wizard of Oz interactive prequel ebooks coming to your browser
Take your DS, PSP or iPod back down the yellow brick road
It's generally assumed there's a major disconnect between gamers and book readers, as evidenced by the almost complete commercial failure of books about games. Why would anyone waste gaming time in attempting to learn about the real world by turning bits of tree? How last century!
Well, fantasy author Darren Rein is attempting a middle way.
Having announced his first free DS-optimised ebook last November, he's ramping up his output with the interactive ebook trilogy Dark Witches of Oz, and expanding to PSP too.
The Dark Witches books are based within the universe of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz books, to which they are described as being 'companion' pieces, even though the copyright of the original books must have run out long ago.
The first, The Sword of Oz, follows the adventures of Arthur Gale, the grandfather of one Dorothy (Gale), in the time before the wicked witches overthrew the old king of Oz. It will be followed by The Lion of Oz and The Rise of the Dark Witch of Oz (both working titles)
Each story will be interactive, providing the reader / gamer with the opportunity to choose the route Arthur makes though his adventure.
As well as his Oz books, Rein also plans to release a prequel to his The Chronicles of the Shadow series in February, to be followed by a graphic novel called Xevicom Forever in March.
Available from the January 19th at www.NextGenBooks.com, there will be versions of The Sword of Oz optimised for DS and PSP browsers (as well as PS3 and Wii), with an iPod version to follow later.