Miller, Rand

• Myst: The Book of Atrus (with Robyn Miller and David Wingrove) (9)

  • This is a very fresh and creative fantasy story by the authors of the popular CD ROM game Myst. It opens as a young boy, Atrus, is being abandoned with his grandmother by his father, Gehn. Gehn returns, however, when Atrus is on the verge of adulthood, to teach Atrus the secrets of his people, the D'Ni (pronounced Dunny), whose race has recently been almost wiped out by a civil war

    Atrus learns how to "Write" books with a special technique that describes new worlds. Soon, however, Atrus starts rebelling against Gehn and must make a crucial choice about his future by the end. The fascinating philosophical question in this book (is the writing of these books equivalent to an act of creation, or do the books simply define a portal to a possible world?) is never definitively answered, and the issues are somewhat similar to those raised in Zelazny's "Amber" series or Simmons' "The Hollow Man" (not to mention countless books on the philosophy of science and quantum mechanics).

    Even without familiarity with the game "Myst", this is an interesting book with a good plot (slow for the first third of the book) and a GREAT milieu. The hardback edition is very attractive, but I wouldn't have bought it myself (I got it as a gift). Seems like a great gift idea to me, though.

• Myst: The Book of T'iana (with David Wingrove) (7)

  • This book serves as a prequel to the Book of Atrus, and it is also quite good. In this book, we get our first insights into the actual nature of D'Ni civilization and the history of the events that led to the ruins inhabited by Gehn. The philosophy behind the D'Ni books is explained a little further, and ironically, I think that is a weakness, since the explanation invites paradoxes and doesn't seem logically sound. Nevertheless, this is fantasy, so we plunge ahead.

    This story follows the path of a human girl named Anna, who discovers the hidden civilization of the D'Ni people thanks to the (halted) D'Ni efforts to make contact with humans. The D'Ni seem exceedingly suspicious of Anna (T'iana later becomes her adopted D'Ni name) to the point of utter paranoia, which is strange for a race of people with such amazing powers. Still, I'm willing to accept the D'Ni race's extreme desire for safety and stability...until I discover a small, rebellious group led by a disgraced former leader now on the verge of insanity. How could factions like this exist while the history of the race has been so...well... boring for thousands of years? And how could any leader (such as Veovis) possibly go along with their goals?

    Even for fantasy, that strains credulity. So, although I greatly admire the world the Millers (with Wingrove) have constructed, I have to say that the plot doesn't quite stack up. Perhaps because the Millers are so wonderfully meticulous, this fact serves to undermine their work by bringing into sharp relief any part of the plot where they seem to "cut corners." Of course, I'd still recommend this book to Myst fans, and, as before, the hardback is actually worth thinking about if only because it isn't just a hardback for the sake of costing more. It is a beatifully designed book. If more publishers put out their hardbacks with special touches like this, I might not be so steadfast about buying only paperbacks (as before, I got this book as a gift).

• Myst: The Book of D'Ni (7)

  • This book follows Atrus and Catherine as they attempt to rebuild their civilization after the disastrous results of D'Ni civil war described in "The Book of T'iana". They recruit some of the native people from one of their linked worlds to help out and soon uncover a deeply buried passage that links to a new and beautiful world. As with all "utopias", however, this world inevitably has a dark secret. What's surprising is that it takes so long for Atrus and the others to realize it. This is an interesting story and, as usual, Miller and Wingrove do a good job of world-building (the descriptiveness this time reminds me almost of Donaldson) and a not-so-good job with the plot and the characters. This is certainly worth a read if you liked the other two.

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