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Monday, July 6, 2009

Books A New Take on Serial Novels

Posted by Paul Constant on Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 1:21 PM

I've been thinking a lot about serialized novels, and how the idea of serialization could be easily applied to the internet. Apparently, Shya Scanlon has been thinking the same thing because he's about to serialize his new novel Forecast in 42 chapters. Here is what author Brian Evenson has to say about Forecast:

In FORECAST, Scanlon invokes an absurd not-too-distant future that nonetheless seems altogether too believable and real. Tipping its hat to authors like Stacey Levine, China Miéville and Jonathan Lethem, Scanlon’s novel is part SF, part noir, part road narrative and part love story. Whether speaking about an effete talking dog, an underground edu-musement park or the convoluted heartbreak of a man deep in love with the woman he’s been trained to watch, Shya Scanlon’s is a new and vital voice in fabulist fiction.

Evenson is a talented writer, and those three names he mentioned to reference Forecast are some kind of great fabulist holy trinity. And here's the great part of Forecast's serialization: Starting July 16th, the book will be serialized across 42 different blogs and web journals. The story will stretch from the very popular (Kottke and HTMLGiant) to the semi-popular-but-should-be-even-more-popular(Monkeybicycle) to the personal (The Man Who Couldn't Blog). Each chapter will link forward to the next chapter and back to the previous chapter. This is a great way to use the internet's connectivity to serialize something in a way that wouldn't have been possible before.

Comments (7) RSS

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Thanks, Paul, for the mention!

Posted by Shya

on July 6, 2009 at 1:54 PM

Cory Doctorow's new novel is going up as a serial over at TOR books, and Baen.com has been offering serializations of it's authors for years.

Posted by BakerB on July 6, 2009 at 2:00 PM

Scanlon will be the next DFW or hang himself trying. Everyone read this great book!
-- Chad

Posted by chad on July 6, 2009 at 2:15 PM

We're definitely looking forward to running the final chapter over at Monkeybicycle!

Posted by stevenseighman

on July 6, 2009 at 2:41 PM

Speaking of internet serialization, I'm still waiting for Act II of the play that was started in Slog comments by PDL (?) some time ago.

Posted by giantladysquirrels on July 6, 2009 at 2:47 PM

It's really exciting being able to access more than cats on vacuum cleaners (not that they're anything but adorable) on the web. I love this idea, especially in an era when it seems like only The Big get published. Can't wait to read this!

Posted by MrsChris on July 6, 2009 at 5:05 PM

A friend and I actually tried serialized internet novels years and years ago. Entertaining stuff, but it didn't really catch on with readers. I think the only way it catches on is if some mainstream author with a massive following in the first place decided to do so for free on his/her website.

Posted by Gomez