:: ENCOURAGING
:: COMPREHENSIVE-ISHGraphic novels appear to be going through a bit of a renaissance period in recent times with increasing numbers of people intrigued by the very notion. So it's pretty cool to see a cumulative effort between a BAFTA (the equivalent of the Emmys in the UK) nominated screenwriter, a BAFTA winning executive producer and an award-winning graphic artist come together in the form of a new iPhone based graphic novel.
The novel is accompanied by stunning artwork and an original and fully-voiced soundtrack which all add a touch of class to proceedings. Depth is provided through a number of extras such as videos, character profiles, character blogs and even an on-board newspaper with new content uploaded weekly.
It's interesting stuff and at a decent price too. The app along with Episode 1 and the regularly updated extras are free while Episode 2 and future instalments are only $0.99. Well worth a look for any graphic novel fan.
The reason for this history lesson other than to educate? There's a light hearted app out called Lovelace & Babbage that aims to provide part entertaining comic book, part informative and educational tellings of their lives and experiences. After all, the best way to learn is to not realise it's happening!
The comic book is consistently funny and intelligent in its portrayal and certainly makes for a great change from more conventional graphic novels. It's a free app so an ideal excuse to give it a read. Users then have the option of paying $2.99 for further storytelling in the form of The Client. For those who enjoy it, there's a new adventure coming out in early 2012 entitled User Experience.
Books, we love them. So, apparently, do iOS users, bringing the Books category up to the second most popular category in the App Store (the first being Games, of course). Each week, we dip our toes into the book app waters so you don't have to. Here are our four picks of the week.
March of the Dinosaurs looks to be a glorious nonfiction look into the world of our saurian ancestors, by the makers of The Elements and Solar System for iPad, TouchPress. This book features realistic 3D dinosaurs that can be rotated and zoomed, video sequences and an optional narration, and over 65 pages of glorious Dino info across 12 chapters. Sign us up!
Classicly HD ~ 26,416 books and audiobooks. The ultimate library. Spreadsong, Inc. may have named this app, but we choose it for the content, not the unwieldy title. Classicly HD puts together 23,469 classic books in ebook format, which alone is cause for celebration. What makes this app stand out is the almost 3,000 audiobooks and 61 handpicked collections of books included as well. If you want to carry around a library the size of which would astonish most of the authors of these classic books, this is the app for you.
We're constantly on the lookout for free ebooks, and Kindle eBooks purports to do alot of the legwork for us. The app gives users streamlined access to lists of Kindle free or inexpensive books, in either a top ten list or a list of ALL of them. Users can then send links to these books via email, so they or their friends can download to their actual Kindle or Kindle app. This seems pretty useful!
Science Fiction fans rejoice, as our next pick has 100 stories from this popular genre to share with them. Users can thrill to the 100 SciFi Stories by the likes of HG Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Murray Leinster, and Jules Verne - classic authors in the genre. The app developers promise more of the short stories, novelettes and full length novels in the days to come, all from the SF field.
On almost the opposite end of the genre continuum sits the Jane Austen - Fan Kit, $0.99 app that includes a daily Jane Austen quote, almost every published work by this famous author, a "movie of the week" feature to suggest an adaptation of one of her works, and even a trivia game with questions about Jane Austen's life, books, quotes and movie adaptations.
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The Books category on the App Store is second only to Games, by application count. For real! In other words, besides games, books are the most numerous type of apps in Apple's marketplace for iOS apps. That's stunning for a device whose creator once famously said, "people don't read any more." Here are our choices for the best of the category this week.
Storyville, by Fatty Apps, Inc, brings users one story each week to this universal app. They publish stories from new collections in bookstores from indie publishing presses, like Graywolf Press, Soft Skull Press, and Archipelago Books. Writers and stories are from the past and the present - and the future, if we think about it.
Dark Eden, by PC Studio, Inc., is a multi-episode teaser/enrichment app for a book due to be released in November of this year. This app will have 14 episodes, each at $0.99, or $9.99 for the whole run. The first episode, The Arrival, is free. Check out this multimedia experience with notes, maps, videos and audio diaries in the app store now.
Book readers can always use a way to organize those large piles of dead tree, right? Book Crawler, by Jaime Stokes, aims to do just that. Adding books with the ISBN barcode scanner and search/organize by title, author, publisher, copyright, cover art, summaries, Goodreads reviews, and local library locations. Seems like a one stop collector's paradise!
What would a list of recommended book apps be without a children's book in it? We suspect a large number of book apps are bought by parents who want to bring the iPad into their family's story time ritual. Harold and the Purple Crayon, published for iOS by Trilogy Studios, continues to be one of our favorite books for kids, and the universal version is available in the App Store for a good price. Keep on drawin', Harold!
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Other Books Of Note:
1Q84
Haruki Marakami - Part dystopian fantasy, part love story.
The Marriage Plot
Jeffrey Eugenides - The author's first book since Middlesex.
The Night Circus
Erin Morgenstern - A fantastical debut about a magical circus.
Other Books Of Note:
Seriously...I'm Kidding
Ellen DeGeneres - Ellen on her TV show, getting married, and more.
Shaq Uncut
Shaquille O'Neal - Shaq offers candid thoughts about life on and off the court.
Diary of a Player
Brad Paisley - How the country star became a musician and a man.
Other Books Of Note:
Power of Six
Pittacus Lore - The remaining Loric unite to face the Mogadorions.
The Son of Neptune
Rick Riordan - Demigods Jason, Piper, and Leo continue their quest.
Wildwood
Colin Meloy & Carson Ellis - Modern city life meets a magical forest.
Other Books Of Note:
How Firm a Foundation
David Weber - Book 5 of the Safehold series
Snuff
Terry Pratchett - Continuing the Discworld saga, one hilariously poignant book at a time.
The Omen Machine
Terry Goodkind - Back again to the world of Richard and Kahlan, facing a new and sinister threat to their realm.
Harold and the Purple Crayon is a wondrous and thoughtful adaptation of the classic 1955 children’s book of the same name that had been developed into an interactive storybook, now a universal application.
I remember Harold and the Purple Crayon from my childhood and have shared this story with my son as well. Few children’s books that I can think of beg to be
I am very eager to introduce this app to readers who may not know of its existence. It is the perfect experience that I expected with every element thoughtfully conceived, making this book a joy to share with my son.
Ahh Snow White. A memorable tale for all, originally part of the Brothers Grimm's collection and, years later, subsequently translated to the animated screen courtesy of Disney. It's a tale that children of all ages know well. So how best to revitalize it for a modern era? By adding an anime spin to proceedings of course.
The entire package should make for an excellent re-envisioning of the classic fairy tale and will hopefully enthral anime and fairy tale fans alike.
Momonga's Snow White is out now as an Universal app and is priced at $3.99.
Read the full review at GiggleApps.
Cuing on this logic, a developer has actually gone out and made an action game that uses pages of words as a tapestry for gaming amusement. As improbable as it may seem, WordMan is a free title that offers players numerous chapters of page turning challenges, all of which can be played through on three different difficulty levels. To top things off, players will have the option to choose from three different super-heroes, complete with their own unique word-traversing super-powers.
Check out the trailer for the game below and let us know if you pick it up in the comments. I am curious to see if it lives up to the excitement!
:: DARKAny app that has a description beginning with 'Admit it - you've always wanted to write a novel.' shouts at me. Because yes I do and I reckon somewhere deep inside me there is a great novel in there. Or at least one that more than five people would be willing to read. Lacking motivation however, I'm doomed to never achieve that dream.
Besides offering a distraction-free writing environment, Novel in 30 encourages you to carry on. There's a project dashboard ensuring that users can keep track of their progress and check how they're doing so far quickly. Writing pace is also tracked so that the user can have a rough idea of what they need to do to maintain their target. Plus there's the ever satisfying option of sharing progress via Facebook to show off how far the user has got.
Users don't even have to worry about losing their witing so far as it syncs via iTunes ensuring easy access, and all writing can always be backed up to Dropbox.
Novel in 30 is available now for the iPad and is priced at $4.99.
Good luck with the novel writing!
As a parent, one of my biggest concerns is that my fearless child will run into the street to collect a stray ball or other toy and get hit by an oncoming car. As much as we talk about this in order to reinforce this important lesson, I worry that it is never enough for this utterly crucial message to sink in.
This is a sweet story, told from the point-of-view of a loving older brother Lincoln, about how one day he is playing with his little sister Loris and their ball rolls into the street, and now lincoln needs to save his sister from her horrible decision to go after the ball. Luckily the older brother does get to his sister just in time, something I have not yet had to do, and hope I never have to.
Read the full review at GiggleApps!
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