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Grim Fandango novel


MeddlingMonk

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Novel? There's a novel?

 

Yes, there is. Sort of. Not published or anything but it does exist. I should know. I wrote it. Metallus can vouch for that if he wants more air holes.

 

It's been hosted by Glottis' Garage (find it through the Grim Fandango Network page) for over a year. Small problem, though. There's also a short story to go with it. GG's novel page was updated for it before Dozer went down, but the novel page on the resurrected GG is pre-story. I don't know if Helios (the guy who has maintained GG) will return or not. So...if anyone wants to get to the totally complete thingy, the only way right now is to go to my Yahoo! Briefcase and go into the Grim Fandango Novel folder. There's also a folder containing mp3s of unused dialog.

 

OK, for those who don't know already (like this post isn't long enough), just what the ampersand-semi-colon-dollar-sign is this novel thing? Well, duh, it's a novel of Grim Fandango. But, really, it's a little more than that.

 

I've never been all that happy with most fan novelizations. Not because they're amaturish, but because many are more or less transcripts of games with a little connecting prose. And if that's what the authors were after it's not my intention to condemn them; my point is that I wanted to be a bit more ambitious. The basic idea behind my little effort was 'If Grim Fandango had started as a novel, what might it have been like?' I did two general things to get there: first, because the game had a film noir inspiration, and since many noir films were based on hardboiled detective novels, I went with (or attempted) that kind of style; second, I 'forgot' that it was ever a game. That is, puzzles go 'pfft' and the gaps between years get filled in so that there is a continuous narrative.

 

So far the novel hasn't caused cancer it lab rats. Of course, the rats can't read.

 

As for the short story, I chose to do the novel in the first person (from Manny's perspective, natch), but there was one big incident in the game that he didn't witness: Don Copal being sprouted by Hector LeMans. So it got left out of the novel. Manny didn't see it, so he couldn't relate it (although he does learn from Salvador that Copal disappeared and that Domino replaced him). The short story fills in that omission. But it's more than that as it covers some of the early events of the game and novel from Domino's unpleasant point of view. And because there's some dependance on the novel, the short story probably won't make much sense in places to anyone who hasn't read the novel (and there are no guarantees if you have).

 

My fingers are weary so I'm stopping now.

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I don't think LEC would have it published, Hel-ter. While I was writing it, and when I saw that it wasn't sucking as badly as I expected, I thought it might be worthwhile to try what you suggest but it turns out that their policy is not even to respond to unsolicited ideas.

 

I could find an agent and try it that way...but that'd probably still be blown off. That's ok, though. I really only did it to see if I could. I'm surprised at how well the thing has been received by the people who have read it. It's weak parts have been criticized, of course, but no one's hated it and said so (yet).

 

Met: You could print the WordPad version but personally I don't think its worth killing a tree for.

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It's a police box. They used to be used all over England up to the '70s. They were a combination telephone booth (for emergencies only) and storage (like roadblocks).

 

It's also the Tardis (time and relative dimensions in space), Dr. Who's time machine. Tardises (Tardii?) are supposed to change shape according to their surroundings but the Doctor's is defective. It got stuck in the shape of a police box during an extended stay in London in 1963.

 

It's connected to my user name. The Doctor's first adversary from his own race was called the Monk, who appeared in the stories The Time Meddler and The Dalek Masterplan. In the first he was trying to change the outcome of the Battle of Hastings and avert the Norman Conquest.

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Originally posted by MeddlingMonk

 

No money has exchanged hands. Really.

 

Yes, no money at all has been exchanged in my praise of his wonderful, superb, illoustrious, mega, kajunga, hilarious, funny, excellent.........

 

*Goes on for 2 hours in the same strain*

 

....brilliant, great, godlike fan novel! I would suggest that you read it now.

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Originally posted by Hel-ter

well now I understand what it is but I don't understand why you use it as an avatar

 

just me wanting to know everything...

 

Read the third paragraph in my explanation post. It probably wasn't there when you first read it. (I edited the post, but you're just too quick. :D )

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