Book Within a Game in Second Life

Posted on June 20, 2005

Science Fiction author and popular Boing Boing blogger Cory Doctorow is doing an interesting promotion for his latest SF novel, Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town (Tor Books).

Doctorow will be making a virtual appearance inside the multi-player online game called Second Life. A special edition of the novel will be available for free inside the game for a few weeks so players can think of questions to ask him during his virtual visit. There will also be an area within Second Life displaying the novel, with an "expo" where Second Life players can vote on their favorite graphic design (you can see one in the accompanying screenshot). You can see more of the designs here in the Second Life blog.

Cory has a post on his own blog about the experience of being part of the Second Life game:

"The Second Lifers have been holding a competition to see who can design the coolest in-game ebook for my launch, and the finalists are in. Each one is amazing, a worthy re-think of what a book means in the virtual world. Just looking at the sketches for these things makes me go crosseyed with futurismicness."