World War Z author Max Brooks was announced as the author of the new Minecraft novels. First, is the world ready for a Minecraft novel? (Beyond the many “unofficial” novels that are in most book stores.) While Brooks is currently only tackling the first in the planned series of literary adventures, one has to wonder if he won’t stay around for a bit. The first Minecraft novel is titled Minecraft: The Island and is planned as a Robinson Crusoe tale. How this differs from the video game is an argument for later. But, gamers bought Minecraft: Story Mode, so maybe that’s proof already that narrative can exist in Mojang‘s world.
If this wasn’t enough, Mojang also updated audiences that the Minecraft movie was still coming in 2019. Outside of that, no major announcements from Mojang‘s weekend festivities. What do you think about this announcement? Hopefully, it harkens back to the F.X. Nine NES game novels of the late 1980s/early 1990s. Those were great Sci-Fi reads that targeted children. Now, you’ve got to worry about what the older teens and adults will think about it online.
Can Minecraft Work as a Novel?
Still, where can a story like this go? The nature of Minecraft is an evolving adventure challenge that grows and grows, as a player designs their unique world. While that won’t stop most creative narratives, it limits the initial appeal of the property. Will kids read? Scratch that. Will kids read an adventure that they don’t get to interact with and shape to their fancy?
While the common creative push is to world build and create a never-ending franchise, that might not work here. Players may not accept a canon for a game design to embrace the infinite. Max Brooks is quite the high caliber genre entertainment writer, but does his story take precedent over what you see on your PC and/or TV screens? What about Minecraft: Story Mode or Herobrine? At what point will folks feel that Mojang ripped away the creative narrative from the end user?
The Minecraft Novel Could Change Everything
When Max Brooks unleashes Minecraft: The Island onto the world, a new era begins. An official Minecraft novel could begin that slippery slope that leads to such literary masterworks as the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Then again, Minecraft: Story Mode was expanded from five episodes to eight, which would imply some Minecraft fans already accepted the idea of stories in the world of voxels. Will this cause the franchise to lose its innocence or the start of a new era of storytelling for Minecraft?
Source: Entertainment Weekly