I’m a Neal Stephenson fanboy. I’ll buy anything he writes the day it’s available. I had Anathem pre-ordered and delivered to me in Berlin because I didn’t want to wait a day. I disclose all this so you’ll know my bias when I talk about his newest book, a joint venture with a self-described cabal of other writers, including Great Bear and some expert swordsmen. The “book” is called The Mongoliad, and it only exists in digital formats. It is a serial novel, with new chapters and bonus material being released each week, and can be read either through the Mongoliad.com site or via an app. There are iPhone and iPad apps (I’m using the latter), but there is an Android app promised as well, and I assume other platforms will follow.
The Mongoliad is set in 1241, a time after the death of Genghis Khan but when his successors were invading Europe and ruled over an empire that spanned the length of Asia. We see the story so far mostly through the eyes of warriors on each side of the war, particularly a monastic order of knights known as the Brotherhood of the Shield. But there are also scenes set at the court of the Great Khan in Karakorum and among the priests of Rome. I’m only six or so chapters in at this point, and the story’s still taking shape. Since Neal Stephenson’s other books, especially his historical novels, usually clock in at around 1,000 pages, there’s no doubt much more plot to unfold.
Each chapter of The Mongoliad includes links to the in-app ‘Pedia, which sometimes links to Wikipedia or other sites. Here, you can read more about the story’s characters, places, and weapons. Most chapters are accompanied by illustrations or maps, which add some nice context and flavoring to the story. The pictures are often character portraits, giving readers a good sense of the clothing and accouterments of the period. The maps, of course, help orient us in the regions of Eastern Europe where the novel’s action takes place and which many readers will be unfamiliar with.
Some of this bonus material is more like a commentary or behind-the-scenes track on a DVD. There are notes from and interviews with the authors about their process and why they took on this story. The novel begins with an intricately described duel, a gripping piece of action prose. But interested readers can also look at the bonus earlier drafts of this chapter and read the critiques offered by a modern-day expert in Medieval swordsmanship. The fight description changes considerably through the drafts based on the master’s analysis.
According to Neal Stephenson’s introduction, swordsmanship and the burgeoning Western Martial Arts movement were key inspirations for him when conceiving The Mongoliad. He’d written numerous sword fights in his monumental Baroque Cycle and afterward discovered that, by his appraisal, he’d gotten any number of things wrong. The bonus material intimates that many fights in this new novel are staged by the creators ahead of time and re-staged during revisions. Those are some videos I dearly hope make their way into the app or online, as I think they’d be fascinating to watch.
While it is the story that excites me most about The Mongoliad, I’m almost as thrilled by the new way the book is being delivered to readers. The Subatai Corporation, which produces the book and the software it runs on, is creating a platform that can presumably translate to other books. Serializing literature used to be commonplace, but reading habits and book-selling practices have changed to favor the big box store and the massive release of complete tomes. Of course, I’ve got nothing against complete tomes, but I think it’s great to have other storytelling formats available.
The proliferation of devices like the iPad, the Kindle, the Nook Color, and the Galaxy Tab makes purchasing Neal Stephenson’s The Mongoliad financially feasible. Moreover, by using technology to include bonus material, links, comments, and community elements, the definition of a novel is also expanding.
So far I’m reveling in the serialized novel, both for the story and for its potential as a new form of distribution. It’s still rough around more than a few edges, but a strong foundation is being built, and I’m eager to see where it goes next.