Universe For Sale

I have a special love of science fiction and futurism, especially. In fact I have a love of speculative fiction — which in my book includes both science fiction and fantasy, being that they both speculate on the nature and possibilities of things — in general, and this was one that straddled the line perfectly. I mean, a girl who can create universes?! That sounds like something straight out of a fantasy novel, but here they attempt to explain it with scientific theory, (Spoiler - click to show)with time and relativity and whatnot, which is gratifying to see. The graphics were amazing, having an (they were right) old-timey feel to them, and as well as being very organic, matched perfectly with the soundtrack. Contrary to what one might expect of the sci-fi genre nowadays — very dystopic, all gloom, death, grit — and though this one is a dystopia as well, there's still a rather cozy feel to the entire series of scenes. So I rather enjoy the fact that this one has something quite different from the rest of its peers. This work has an Italian version, and I in fact believe it was published originally in Italian (the English translation was very good!), so it'd be interesting to go through it again and practice my Italian.

I've always been into space, ever since I was a little kid, and I just recently got into stargazing (the night sky is astounding!), so the fact that this was set on Jupiter was *chef's kiss*. Again, though it's sci-fi, the settings are much more like those of whimsical fantasy, at least physically — the explanations, the mental gymnastics behind it all, are all very science fiction-ish, and I, again, enjoyed this contrast greatly. One thing I really appreciated was (Spoiler - click to show)the audiovisual effects of the constant thunder — it really made you feel as if you were there, in the teashop, on Jupiter, with the characters.

Only the prologue is out as of the timing of my review. I am very curious to see where else the creators plan to head with this, with the amazingly detailed worldbuilding and the quirky cast of characters. From what little I've seen of the plot, it's bound to be an exciting one.

This is a highly immersive piece of interactive fiction and comes highly recommended.