Audience Adventure Radio Hour - Interview with Demian Katz

Bennett interviews Groom of the Tomb author, gamebook collector, and bibliographer Demian Katz. Demian describes how he got his start collecting and the origins of gamebooks.org, the definitive bibliography of interactive fiction. Tales of rare finds and the collector's frenzy that literally threatened to collapse his house! Demian has since donated his collection to Special Collections at UC Santa Barbara for safekeeping and future scholarship. A librarian himself, he discusses gamebooks' interdisciplinary place amongst literary history, computer science, game design, and their cousin in pop publishing, the cheap, mass produced melodramatic blockbuster "dime novels" of the late 19th century. Plus hope in the rediscovery of gamebooks in the Twitch era and the authors of today! A few of Demian's gamebook recommendations: Life's Lottery Fabled Lands series Lone WolfLost Worlds (novel game systems) Combat Heroes (novel game systems) Steam Higwayman Treasure Hunt (early example of the form)