Changing Publishing

A couple of days ago this tweet was sent by James Rhodes (@JRhodesPianist).

He seems to have been lucky enough to have seen a copy of S. and seems to think it will do rather well !

Thanks to @obFuSc8 for letting us know about the tweet.

Novel Catchup

I thought it was worth catching up on a few things that have been discussed in comments but we haven't pointed out on the main site.

Firstly something that is slightly confusing at the moment, which may be significant, or may just be a simple mistake is the sticker on the spine of the book.

You can see in the photo to the left from the Amazon website that shows what appears to be a sticker from a library with a dewey decimal classification on it. I don't think anyone has been able to read it fully yet, so that in itself may be a clue.

However pictures on other websites, including the official site http://soonyouwillknow.com do not have this sticker.

So what do we think is this a mistake or a potential clue ?

In the comments of the Cover Story post Tess points out that the original novels subject "Ship of Theseus" is a Greek paradox that raises the question of whether an object which has had all its components replaced remains fundamentally the same object.

It would be remiss of me as a LOST fan if I didn't point out that the philosopher "John Locke" wrote about this paradox.

Finally for now in the comments Just Thinking gave links to the N Y Daily News website and the Coming Soon website which both mention that the novel contains pieces of ephemera such as maps, postcards, letters and photographs which help to illustrate the story that is set around the book.

The mystery is deepening and my interest in reading it has definitely intensified.

S. Live !

A tweet by @826NYC and unsurprisingly retweeted by @bad_robot announces an event where J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst will be in attendance and perform live readings from their novel.

The event will take place in New York on the 23rd of November.

Tickets to the event can be purchased on the Symphony Space website

Stranger Video Part 2

The second half of the Bad Robot Productions "Stranger" video was released today. Click here to watch it on Youtube or you can watch it here below the transcript.

Voice over: "Men are erased and reborn, reborn, and reborn. (echo)"
The opening scene is reverse of the last few seconds of the ending of Part 1 ending with women's voice  saying "Roman." Cut to night sky and credits: "From J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst"

Then we are shown a room where a man is typing at a desk. You can hear a ticking of a watch or clock. You can see two suitcases (one open), old style telephone, a fan, a fireplace, picture above mantel, radio on mantel. Picture on the wall is map of Asia.

Then the image changes to the room ransacked, curtain pulled off rod, papers on the floor. There is an ominous hand print on the fireplace. Photographer is taking photos with old style flash bulbs. There are two men searching the room with flashlights.  Final scene is of the typewriter overturned on the floor with blank sheet of paper still in the roller. There is a folded note next to the typewriter, broken glass, framed photo, cigarette/cigar ashes? Let me know what you see?

Voice over: "It's all true. Everything he wrote. Every sentence. Every word. Everything we read, it's real. We found him, and they're coming. Oh, please don't go back. No matter what you do, please don't go back. They're going to find you."

Then camera focuses in on head of needle being threaded with a quote from Plato:

Death is not the worst that can happen to men.

Voice over: "The book is just the beginning." with ticking watch/clock sound and a person beginning to stitch mouth.




The end of the video displays a web address http://soonyouwillknow.com

On this site there are links to the book sellers, but interestingly the product photographs look slightly different, the library sticker seen on the Barnes & Noble website is missing from other pictures of the book.

Cover Story

Mary Jane has let us know that the Amazon web page has been updated with the cover and synopsis of the novel.

One book. Two readers. A world of mystery, menace, and desire.

A young woman picks up a book left behind by a stranger. Inside it are his margin notes, which reveal a reader entranced by the story and by its mysterious author. She responds with notes of her own, leaving the book for the stranger, and so begins an unlikely conversation that plunges them both into the unknown.

The book: Ship of Theseus, the final novel by a prolific but enigmatic writer named V.M. Straka, in which a man with no past is shanghaied onto a strange ship with a monstrous crew and launched onto a disorienting and perilous journey.

The writer: Straka, the incendiary and secretive subject of one of the world’s greatest mysteries, a revolutionary about whom the world knows nothing apart from the words he wrote and the rumors that swirl around him.

The readers: Jennifer and Eric, a college senior and a disgraced grad student, both facing crucial decisions about who they are, who they might become, and how much they’re willing to trust another person with their passions, hurts, and fears.

S., conceived by filmmaker J. J. Abrams and written by award-winning novelist Doug Dorst, is the chronicle of two readers finding each other in the margins of a book and enmeshing themselves in a deadly struggle between forces they don’t understand, and it is also Abrams and Dorst’s love letter to the written word.

The two other images on this post are from the Barnes & Noble website and give a few more clues.

You can see that the hardcover book comes with a slipcase and inside is seemingly the book entitled "Ship of Theseus" by V.M. Shraka that is mentioned in the synopsis.

So it appears that the book will consist of an original text and notes that expand that text into a second story fitting around the content of the book.

There are a few elements on the cover to explore so please start theorising and discussing in our comments below this post.