Read'Myst'y for Me

BY FRANK Lovncn
ROT'HERS Rand and CoU.vn Miller have always taken a novel approach to their work, which helped make their epic mystery-adventure "Myst" the most popular CDROM game ever. Now they've taken that novel approach literally, with the publication of the lantasy

It D

hardcover "Myst: The Ilook of Atms," by the Millers and fantasy novelist David Wingrove. It's a new cliche aborning: You've seen the CD-ROM, now read the book. That's unprecedented in publishing, but then, "Myst"

itself is unprecedent,ed. It
debuted

and it's still going strong after selling a reputed 1.5

in

Sepl.emher. 1993,

million copies so far and winn:ing armloads of critical

kudos. ll's a first-person adventure about an otherworldly island with quixotic clues ieading to

further realms. And since

these realms are reached

through inter-dimensional ililler, 36, the programer, and f,obyn lvlillet, 29, the c0mprter-artist
portals within magical books, there does seem to be some sort of thematic .justice going
on.

Brothers ftand

"As we were creating the vicws of l,he worlds," explains programer brother Rand, 36, a bearish, outgoing type in

rnnrrfor. Anirmqfinn'l Ronbrno Roff an Arf

English-professor tweed and blue jeans, "we were also

writins down bits and

pieces

It evolved the whole time we were making the game, and there we are with these nice notes of the linear story of what went on ahead of time," before you,
of lhe story. the player, arrive on Myst Island. Adds equally downto-earth computer-artist brother Robyn, 29, "We started realizing this story is actually something we thorrghI l,he public would enjoy, so we started pressing to make [the novel] happen." A prequel rather than a
novelizal,ion, "The Book of Atrus" is a first-person account bv the titular mystit, beginning with his

the book is a first. While movres ("Mortal Kombat") and comic books ("Sonic the Hedgehog") are regularly adapted from arcade games and even board games ("Clue"),

the very name of Atrus' people, the D'ni, originated in the book. Fortunately, the vague and unevocative title "Dunnyhut" didn't make the transition.

part of a $l-million deal they

elosed

think was a really

good

it's uncertain whether other

CD-ROM spinoff novels would work: "The Book of Burn: Cycle"? "Myst" may be a special case, since, like the

,,It's funny," remembers

first hit role-playing

game

ol the first hit trading-card

("T)ungeons and Dragons")

game ("Magic: The Gathering"), this is the hrst and most emblematic CD-ROM game hit. Yet beyond the logical

apprenticesliip to learn that inter-dimensional book business dubbed The Art. I{c and*his eventual wife, Catherine, bear two sons they suspcci of sabolaging Atrus' a various worlds and books scenario leading trp to the CD-ROM storyline. In movie parlance, the novel would be
called backstory.

spinolf marketing of a potential franchise, a "Myst" novel is ironically appropriate. Ferv people know "Myst" began as a book Robyn's unfinished - "Dunnyhut." fantasy novel, "We kind of adapted his early work into our storyline for 'M.yst,'" recalls Rand. "His work had some real interesting

Whatever its literary il.'s Tolkien lilc nreri{s

not gonna be the name of it, but we can't think of anything else so far." They'll have to keep racking elements that just happened to fit nicely at the early stage of their brains, as well, for the titles of book two and book three, all [creating] the game." Indeed,

Rand, "because sometimes names come to you and sometimes they don't. We'd needed a working title for this project, and it was like, 'Well, l'm reading [Juies Verne's "Thel Mysterious Island," and this game's a mvstery, let's just call it "Myst,"' OK, boom. It was jusl a working title." "lt wasn't long after that," adds Robyn, "that we realized, no, this is not a working title, it's perfect. Now we're trying to come up with a title for the next one. 'Ihe best we've got so far," he says chuckling, "is 'Myst II.' That's

with publisher Hyperion in December, 1994. Part of that advance, ofcourse, goes to author Wingrove (ihe "Chung Kuo" novel series), who wrote the actual "Atrus" prose. "We looked for an author," says Rand, "because we had written the whole thing out and still weren't happy with it. Hyperion got ahold of David, who happened to be free at the time, and his writing style really seemed to fit with what we wanted." The North London-based Wingrove made some visits to . the brothers' homes in
Spokane, Wash., and manuscript pagcs zipped across oceans. "But it's hard," Rand confesses, "because it's our story in someone else's words. So we did go brick and forth, and there would be A

decision," says Robyn, "because he got to start fresh without relying on previously writ'ten stuff. He kind of rewrote the whole thing." Wingrove wasn't, however, the first pick: An earlier collaborator didn't work out. That resulted in the embryonic book being called "Blood of the Sun" in one magazine
account.

"That was

mistake," says Robyn genially.

"It was never a title we'd discussed." "He'd talked about it wil,h somebody on his own," adds Rand, "but not in
an.y official

light."
says

Robyn, "The book ties in real

closely with the sequel game, even shhring some of the same environments. You'll meet more people from the book

In an official light,

parts." The Millers supplied

Wingrove a detailed outline, which included some dialogue, "but he started over again

little bit of tension in

snm

there than in the first game," For fans, of course, that

prospect leaves them

"Mvst"y-eyed.

fl

from the beginning, which I

Fran.h Louece is a frequent contributor to FanFare.

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