The Eagle's Heir

[jo_graham]

I'm happy to at last reveal the cover art for The Eagle's Heir, my interactive novel with Amy Griswold which will be released on March 30 by A Choice of Games!

A small teaser from the flashback in Chapter One, with your grandmother, Madame St. Elme...

Each afternoon you practiced with Alexandre.  Your grandmother watched you go through the drills

Comments

[lilacsigil]

I'm so excited for this!

[jo_graham]

I'm glad! It was a lot of fun to write and I think it will be fun to play!

[aishabintjamil]

I'll confess I'm a little uncertain about the interactive novel concept in general, but this sounds intriguing enough that I will try it in spite of that.

[selki]

I've played a couple of the A Choice of Games! games on my phone and enjoyed one of them very much. I think a lot depends on the writing so naturally I'm looking forward to this one very much!

[jo_graham]

I confess that I'm a fan of them and I've played a bunch of them. I think my favorite is A Choice of Alexandria (naturally!) but it's a close second to Affairs of the Court. I've also enjoyed A Choice of Broadsides, Hollywood Visionary, Rock Star, and Saga of the North Wind. I've played some others too, but those are my favorites.

I agree with you that the writing is a huge thing. We've tried to make this fully fleshed out and immersible. And there are some scenes with Elza that -- well, I loved writing them, and I loved imagining a future in which they happened. (Elza is a main NPC, and Michel also appears.)

Which ones have you liked?

[selki]

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.choiceofgames.broadsides Choice of Broadsides. I also have Choice of Alexandria and Choice of Robots wishlisted (it's a problem of space on my phone, not the money).

[gilraen2]

oh wow, oh wow, oh wow! why haven't i heard about this? how do i get it? is it a graphic novel? is it a continuation of the elsa books?
Mem

[jo_graham]

It's an interactive novel -- a choose your own adventure style book in which you take the role of the main character, Elza's grandchild, in an alternate history 1836 in which the French won the Battle of Waterloo. Now, twenty years later, Napoleon is dying. The fragile peace that has lasted is about to break over the question of his heir. Will it be Franz, the Duke of Reichstadt, his legitimate son with Marie Louise who has been raised to be a Hapsburg monarch? Will it be his illegitimate son Alexandre Walewski, who is French but not acceptable to the powers of Europe? Or will a Republic be proclaimed, kicking off another round of the Wars of Revolution? As Madame St. Elme's grandchild, and Alexandre's friend, it's in your hands. There are a hundred and twenty possible endings! I think one of the most fun things will be playing it a number of times and seeing how your choices change the course of history.

It will be out on March 30, so three weeks!

[selki]

Speaking of Napoleon, I listened this week to the Incomparables series "Unjustly Maligned" podcast episode about Napoleon (normally they talk about under-appreciated pop culture products). It had a few interesting bits, though not so absorbing that I couldn't read/do other stuff while listening along.