Angels And Devils - Immersive Writing Competition

This is a fascinating and well thought-out historical occult thriller, with a lot to recommend it. The writer clearly knows his subject well, and his passion for it comes across. If anything, he's perhaps too immersed in his creation: he does an excellent job of conveying it to me as an interested reader, but then I'm left with a problem that he's skated over...how to interest the public in getting involved with it. I'd love to read a book based in this world, and I'm confident Richie could do a good job. But I'm not convinced, in its current form, that it's a contender for immersive media. Richie's heart seems to be more in traditional narrative than the more ludic world of immersion, and his desire for this to be a tv series primarily underlines that belief. This is a big story that really wants to be told with a big budget if it's to be realised on screen. And a book might be the best Plan B. Much as I like the world that Richie creates, and the serious effort he's put into his document, there's no compelling reason for it to exist in a form other than conventional narrative. Or if there is, it hasn't been explored and explained, which is what I'd hope for in a document like this. It may be that an immersive approach can be taken with this material. I hope so, and I hope that Richie can find the key to that...there's a world out there that might just take to this tale as they have to Philip Pullman, and - though he might not like the comparison - Dan Brown. Which is to say, there's plenty of substance, but not a burning reason for this to be anything other than a linear narrative.