The following is a short list of some of the hyperfiction available on the Web. We have provided mini reviews or annotations so you have an idea what to expect from each site. They are arranged alphabetically by title. It should be noted that the Web is only one venue for hyperfiction; it can also be distributed on disks or CD-ROMs. The main distributor of non-Web hyperfiction is Eastgate Systems. Check out their Reading Room for a good selection of free hyperfiction.
Note: I have checked this links as of 4/00, and noted which stories are still available. Perhaps the descriptions of now-defunct sites will still help give you an idea of the kinds of hyperfictions that have been written.
| Clara,
the cybernovel collaborative No longer available 4/00 |
Premise: a story that can cater to English and French speaking
audiences
about a girl/woman(?) named Clara. Readers submit their ideas and the
editors pick and choose anything in length ranging from one or two
sentences to whole paragraphs. It was a bit long and tedious; the story kept scrolling and scrolling and scrolling (you get the idea). Also, the story was continually being broken up by links, crediting the people who contributed to that part of the story and if a reader follows that link, it would take them to that author's home page or other stories. It is very easy to get off track from Clara. Besides, one may want to lose Clara...there is no real plot and what is there is very boring...at least I couldn't read anymore after the second chapter. KW |
| Dinner
at Jim's by Erik S. Swedlund No longer available 4/00 |
In a short space of time, the reader follows the thoughts of three
people:
Dennis, Janet and Jim. All three are having dinner at Jim's place but
each is thinking about other things. In each person's thought (or story)
the text contains links that explain things in the text such as parents,
Janet's lover, Michael, Peace Corps, etc... and each person's thoughts go
back and forth between the others. For example, following Janet's link
"parents" might not lead to her parents but back to what Jim might be
thinking about his parents. Not as bizarre and hard to follow as "Water"
but fairly complicated. KW |
| The Dinner
Party by Vanessa Richards No longer available 4/00 |
In this very short hyperfiction, the narrator is attending a
dinner party and has the opportunity to follow the conversation of three
fellow guests. The links are at the end, rather than buried in the text
and the topics are pseudo-intellectual, but interesting. There aren't many
options because it is so short, but it is still interesting. MT |
| Gav
and Paleso's Interactive Story collaborative Still available 4/00 |
This is a moderated collaborative story of the
"Choose-Your-Own-Adventure" genre. It is quite large--there are over 8000
episodes/sites. The links are not buried in the text; instead, you are
offered two or more choices, i.e., "Open the door on the right" or
"Continue walking down the hall." If you get to a point where there are
no more options, you can submit your own choices/episodes. I can't really
give much of a synopsis of the plot, as it depends a lot on the paths
chosen. It seems to be fairly normal (not post-modern); there are
recognizable characters and the actions are possible, but sometimes
bizarre. MT |
| Lies by Rick Pryll No longer available 4/00 |
This fairly short hyperfiction presents the story of a young
couple and a summer they spent apart (perhaps being faithful, perhaps
not). At the end of each selection, you are must choose either "Truth" or
"Lies." Depending on your choice, the little snippets revealed will
either be the truth or lies. Just a hint: the lies are much more
interesting than the truth! MT |
| Lunacy by Ben Curtis Still available 4/00 |
This is a pretty normal mystery/sci-fi story about a San Francisco
Police Department detective on the trail of werewolves. The text segments
are pretty long, and each page contains only a couple of links buried in
the text, but in general, it is fairly well done. There are approximately
120 pages/sites, which is a lot more than many other hyperfictions on the
Web. One interesting twist is that you have access to the character's
email and can read messages he has received to get clues to the mystery.
The other twist (more predictable) is that the detective is himself a
werewolf. MT |
| Mining My Memories by Judy Malloy Still available 4/00 |
First of all, I came across this page by accident while I was looking
for
something else. When I finally realized that this was a hyperfiction
piece, I was several links into the content. I thought that it would be
easy to keep hitting the [back] button at the top but I couldn't find the
beginning again until I inadvertently found this "water1.html" and since
it was a "1" I figured it was a good as place as any to begin reading.
The layout was columns connected by (...) on one side there appeared to be prose, at least the words together made some sort of sense and the other side was like abstract poetry (i.e) "is coming home................It was an elaborate dinner that I fixed soft fur............while my files lay unattended in another room" almost randomly, the words in both columns were links to other pages (not all the words, i.e "coming" and "dinner" might be links and "home" and "room" would not be). When a word (or phrase) is clicked, everything in both columns changes, yet some words are still present. But words that were links before and are present are links no longer so I think the author's intent was for the reader to press on, no chance to go back and explore what happens when a different word is clicked. It felt as though the author was exploring schizophrenia or multiple personalities...different symptoms but the same result...a mind that has too much in it. KW |
| The
Neverending Tale collaborative Still available 4/00 |
Intent: Choose your-own-path adventure stories. There are seven
tales to
read, they range from 850-4000 pages but each page is not very long.
Every page is numbered and at the beginning of each story, you can type in
the last page that you have read or pick a new page at random...seemed
easy to explore. On each page, one can pick different paths (each page
has 3-20 different paths to take). Obviously geared towards kids from kindergarten to 6th grade. One can submit suggestions for new paths...instructions request G language and all suggestions are monitored first for suitable content...two different links for teachers and adults explaining in detail the purpose of The Neverending Tale and what kids can learn from it. The Neverending Tales consist of fantasy, science fiction, mystery and adventure. I liked it because it seemed to be a positive thing for kids. KW |
Note: The reviews are labeled with the reviewer's initials; KW is Kristine Wegener and MT is Megan Taylor.
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