IGN interviewed Daniel about PRESS START TO PLAY (and related subjects):

IGN Comics: You’re the co-editor of Press Start to Play. What are the origins of this project?

Daniel H. Wilson: My co-editor John Joseph Adams and I had collaborated on an anthology before called Robot Uprising. This time around we wanted to do an experiment. What happens when video games and science fiction collide? So we reached out to our favorite science fiction authors, like Hugh Howey, Andy Weir, Charlie Jane Anders. We also reached out to the people who write the video game narrative that millions of us play, Chris Avellone, Mickey Neilson, Rhianna Pratchett, and Marc Laidlaw. These are the people who wrote Half Life, Tomb Raider, World of Warcraft, the Fallout series. They have written narratives that have reached millions of people, and we wanted to know, what would it look like if they wrote science fiction inspired by video games?

Read the whole piece at IGN!

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Press Start to Play is now available!

COVER COPY

IT’S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE! TAKE THIS.

You are standing in a room filled with books, faced with a difficult decision. Suddenly, one with a distinctive cover catches your eye. It is a groundbreaking anthology of short stories from award-winning writers and game-industry titans who have embarked on a quest to explore what happens when video games and science fiction collide.

From text-based adventures to first-person shooters, dungeon crawlers to horror games, these twenty-six stories play with our notion of what video games can be—and what they can become—in smart and singular ways. With a foreword from Ernest Cline, bestselling author of Ready Player One,Press Start to Play includes work from: Daniel H. Wilson, Charles Yu, Hiroshi Sakurazaka, S.R. Mastrantone, Charlie Jane Anders, Holly Black, Seanan McGuire, Django Wexler, Nicole Feldringer, Chris Avellone, David Barr Kirtley,T.C. Boyle, Marc Laidlaw, Robin Wasserman, Micky Neilson, Cory Doctorow, Jessica Barber, Chris Kluwe, Marguerite K. Bennett, Rhianna Pratchett, Austin Grossman,  Yoon Ha Lee, Ken Liu, Catherynne M. Valente, Andy Weir, and Hugh Howey.

Your inventory includes keys, a cell phone, and a wallet. What would you like to do?

>__

COVER

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Foreword—Ernest Cline
• Introduction—John Joseph Adams
• God Mode—Daniel H. Wilson
• NPC—Charles Yu
• Respawn—Hiroshi Sakurazaka (translated by Nathan Collins)
• Desert Walk—S.R. Mastrantone
• Rat Catcher’s Yellows—Charlie Jane Anders
• 1Up—Holly Black
• Survival Horror—Seanan McGuire
• REAL—Django Wexler
• Outliers—Nicole Feldringer
• <end game>—Chris Avellone
• Save Me Plz—David Barr Kirtley (reprint)
• The Relive Box—T.C. Boyle (reprint)
• Roguelike—Marc Laidlaw
• All of the People in Your Party Have Died—Robin Wasserman
• RECOIL!—Micky Neilson
• Anda’s Game—Cory Doctorow (reprint)
• Coma Kings—Jessica Barber (reprint)
• Stats—Marguerite K. Bennett
• Please Continue—Chris Kluwe
• Creation Screen—Rhianna Pratchett
• The Fresh Prince of Gamma World—Austin Grossman
• Gamer’s End—Yoon Ha Lee
• The Clockwork Soldier—Ken Liu (reprint)
• Killswitch—Catherynne M. Valente (reprint)
• Twarrior—Andy Weir
• Select Character—Hugh Howey

BUY THE BOOK

• Trade Paperback
  • Amazon
  • Barnes & Noble
  • Books A Million
  • IndieBound
  • Powell’s
  • Target
  • Walmart
• Ebook
  • Amazon.com
  • Barnes & Noble
  • Kobo
  • iBooks
• Audiobook
  
  • Audible.com (forthcoming)

If you’d like to learn more about the book, read stories from the anthology for free online, or read interviews with the authors, visit the website for Press Start to Play at johnjosephadams.com/press-start.

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Amazon currently has the trade paperback of PRESS START TO PLAY discounted to less than $8—that’s cheaper than the ebook! I’m not sure how long that discount will last, so grab it while you can! Note: That’s a pre-order—the book comes out August 18.

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Daniel H. Wilson and I were both at San Diego Comic Con this past weekend, and we had the opportunity to giveaway about 160 copies of PRESS START TO PLAY to eager SDCC patrons. We did a big group signing as well, as several of the contributors to the anthology were in attendance.

It was really great to see how excited people were about the book. And hey, if you’re one of those lucky people who got a free signed copy, I hope you’ll consider telling a friend about it and/or posting a kind note on Goodreads or the like!

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