the Myst novels

The first Myst novel, the Book of Atrus, focuses on the story of the mysterious father figure from the Myst CD-ROM. The Millers have said that while they were developing the Myst game, they kept documenting the backstory of the game in order to help them piece together the story presented in the CD-ROM (Carroll, "(D)Riven"). And when they completed the CD-ROM, they realized that they had enough backstory material to put together a novel.

So, this story served as a map from which they pieced together the story of Myst, and then they fleshed it out and made it a story in its own right that serves as a fictional history to the CD-ROM story. In one aspect, the novel serves as a cultural rationale to the world of the CD-ROM. The method and mode of making and using the linking books found throughout the worlds in the CD-ROM is fully explained by the creation of an extinct culture and race, the D'Ni ("dunny"), a people who lived underground in fabulous caverns and linked to millions of worlds. Whereas in the game it is barely mentioned, it is just assumed that opening a book and touching the page will take you to another world. Atrus, who leaves us clues in the Myst CD-ROM, is the character around which the first book builds it tale. If we look at the four building blocks of narrative (plot, character, theme and setting) character is the most prominent in the books. Plot is next, followed by setting, then theme. We are introduced to Atrus and his life (which first consists of his grandmother, Anna, and his experiments out in the desert on the side of a volcano and then of his adventures with his prodigal father, Gehn). We watch him as things happen to him (as the plot advances). We get to see him propelled into this amazing subterranean world (the setting - which is represented throughout the novel by a smattering of drawings). A place where there is a forgotten culture to be discovered and explored (the theme of exploration is derived from Atrus' character and the character of D'Ni culture). It should be noted that I think the arrangement of these narrative building blocks is do more to the authors than to the medium itself.

In presenting this narrative, the Miller brothers have co-authored the novel with David Wingrove. The three of them shape the narrative around Atrus. The perspective of the writing is primarily from Atrus' point of view, although we do have glimpses from Anna's and Gehn's, the story mostly travels with Atrus. We watch as he is abandoned by Gehn and then grows up and is experientially educated by Anna. We see the central theme being established in Anna's questions to Atrus. She asks him what he sees, and encourages him to look at the "whole." In other words, Atrus should consider fully everything that he engages and everything in the world, to fully see the interconnected relationships around him. This inquisitive sense of the whole will serve Atrus well in his upcoming adventures, which begin with the return of Gehn, who sweeps Atrus away and down into the labyrinthian world of D'Ni. After establishing theme of the Whole, Atrus is exposed to a grand old culture that had mastered the art and science of writing books that connected to, or created, other, entire worlds. The power of the written word to whisk you away to other place, is literally a power of the magical D'Ni language. They had normal books that roughly equate to the books in our world, but they also had these special books written on special paper and with special ink, that when fulfilled, allowed a person to link to that written world. So, the story revolves around Atrus' exploration and education into the D'Ni culture under the harsh tutelage of his father.

As Atrus' experiences more of the D'Ni culture and history, he begins to master the writing of these special books, and to travel the many of the worlds that Gehn wrote. He comes to disagree with Gehn's ideas about the worlds and how they are connected to the books. Gehn believes that he is actually writing these worlds into existence, and they would not be if it were not for the books. And he believes that he is a god who holds total power over the worlds he has created. Atrus, on the other hand, comes to believe the that the books merely serve as links to the many possible worlds that could be in existence. Through their precise description, the books become the gateway into these possible worlds that would exist without the books, but one would not be able to visit them withot the books as a link. This philosophical rift soon becomes a tension between father and son and serves to further illustrate the theme of the book. Gehn, while extremely gifted, only sees the bits and pieces of writing and what he makes, while Atrus sees the whole in his worlds and his written descriptions of them. The tension does lead to a father-son break, where Atrus is placed in the position of having to overcome Gehn (a not-so-subtle Freudian move) and so, Atrus and Gehn become conflicted combatants, both struggling within themselves about their strained relationship with the each other, while concurrently fighting with each other, Gehn to rid himself of Atrus, and Atrus to stop Gehn from destroying worlds.

The book follows a classic style of cliffhanging chapter endings (a la Charles Dickens and airport newstand novels ) that switch you from different points of potential catastrophe as it builds to a resolution. Again, these switches may entail a perspective switch between characters, but the mostly revolve around Atrus. Gehn, Anna, and Catherine (yes, a love interest) play their parts in the story of Atrus. And the story follows a tried and true speculative fiction format with action, suspense, love and conflict and a resolution in the end.

Both the Island of Myst and the world of Riven are introduced in the storyline of this book. Riven, Gehn's thirty-seventh age (he never names them, just numbers them), is where Atrus first meets Catherine and it is the world in which Atrus and Gehn have their final showdown. Gehn ends up trapped in Riven at the conclusion of the novel. Myst is set up as a world that Catherine has written for Atrus and herself (but there are intimations that Anna is actually the one who wrote this world).

The final resolution of this first novel more fully sets up the beginning of the CD-ROM Myst. Like the deeper explanation of the linking books, this story gives us more of the details and a context in which to fit those ominous first lines of dialogue that we hear in the introduction of the CD-ROM. These same lines serve as the final words read in this book, so a direct connection is made in the storyline between these two pieces. This direct connection implicates the reader into the action about to take place as well as illustrating that in between the end of this novel and the beginning of the CD-ROM many events (seemingly tragic and partially revealed in the comic book) occur before the reader becomes an active part in the sleuthing in Myst the CD-ROM.