''Consider the Consequences!'' (published 1930) is a romantic novel in the form of an interactive novel or
gamebook
A gamebook is a work of printed fiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making choices. The narrative branches along various paths, typically through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages. Each narrative typically does not ...
by the American writing partnership of (1885–1967) and
Mary Alden Hopkins (1876–1960
).
It is the earliest known gamebook, and has 43 different endings.
Publication
The 146-page hardback was published by
The Century Company
The Century Company was an American publishing company, founded in 1881.
History
It began as a subsidiary of Charles Scribner's Sons in 1870, named Scribner and Company, but was bought by Roswell Smith in 1881 and renamed by him after the Century ...
in the United States, priced $1.50.
The book's central characters are Helen Rogers and her two male suitors, Jed Harringdale and Saunders Mead.
The reader's first decision is which of the three characters' viewpoints to adopt.
The book was favorably reviewed, among others, in ''
The Tampa Times'', the ''
Santa Ana Register'' (who called it "a freak book"), the ''
Detroit Free Press
The ''Detroit Free Press'' (commonly referred to as the ''Freep'') is a major daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest local newspaper owned by Gannett (the publisher of ''USA Today''), and is operated by the Detro ...
'', ''
The San Francisco Examiner
The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and has been published since 1863.
Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst and the flagship of the H ...
'', and ''
The Salt Lake Tribune
''The Salt Lake Tribune'' is a newspaper published in the city of Salt Lake City, Utah. The ''Tribune'' is owned by The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc., a non-profit corporation. The newspaper's motto is "Utah's Independent Voice Since 1871."
History ...
''.
Legacy
On July 6, 2018 the book was read on air on
KZSC radio in Santa Cruz, USA, by James Ryan, who has researched the book and its authors, and his wife Nina, with choices made by the station's listeners.
A copy was made available on the
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
in August 2023.
In October 2023, the game was ported to TWINE and made available for online play at itch.io
Notes
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
* {{YouTube, SWCu6PnK5ls, James and Nina Ryan's reading
1930 American novels
American romance novels
Collaborative novels
Gamebooks
The Century Company books