Can today’s authors compete with visual media?

[Note from Steve: Double feature today! This article is followed by a book review.]

Movies, streaming videos, computer games—these are three audiovisual media, emphasis on the visual, to which people are addicted. Authors are told to show not tell (more terrible advice from writing gurus!), but “showing” isn’t really possible in novels, is it? Their media reduces to words on the written page; there’s nothing audiovisual about that.

But avid readers know they can create their own visuals from th...