The Ice-Bound Compendium

by Aaron A. Reed, Jacob Garbe

When Tethys House set out to resurrect our century's most beloved writer as a simulacrum, something went wrong. We don't know what. They tried to hide it. But strange transmissions leaked out anyway, morphing illegally through analog and digital forms: uploaded to pirate servers, broadcast in binary on UHF frequencies, printed in bulk and left on street corners.

Now for the first time all the verified Ice-Bound transmissions are collected in a single printed volume. But the book is just the beginning. With the help of its companion app, you'll descend into the mysterious depths of Carina Station, that legendary polar base forever sinking into ice. You'll connect to your own instance of its creator, our wayward simulacrum. Together you'll complete these fragmented stories. Together you'll find your own ending.

The Ice-Bound Compendium is designed to work in concert with the free digital game "The Ice-Bound Concordance" for iPads and webcam-enabled PCs to unlock additional layers of story through augmented reality.

Genres: Fiction

80 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2016

About the author

Aaron A. Reed is a writer and game designer focused on the intersection of prose and play and finding new ways for people to tell stories together. His fiction, games, and playable artworks have won recognition from a broad range of storytelling communities, including the Independent Games Festival (video games), the ENnie Awards (tabletop roleplaying), and Kirkus Reviews (traditional publishing). Aaron is a multi-time IndieCade and IGF finalist, and his work has also been shown at South by Southwest, Slamdance, and GaymerX; he has spoken about digital storytelling at PAX and PAX East, Google, WorldCon, NarraScope, and the Game Developer Conference. He lives in Santa Cruz, California.

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating integration of print and augmented reality with a combinatorial hypertext game. Some of the narrative themes are a little heavy-handed, but an engaging ride. Used as one of my dissertation texts.

PopSugar Reading Challenge 2018: a book with an ugly cover