App Review: TooFar Media
(AD: This review was sponsored by TooFar Media, but as always, all opinions are my own)
If you’re looking for something new to read, then I have the app for you.
Author Rich Shapero has created an immersive storytelling experience within the TooFar Media app. Combining fiction with a unique blend of art, video, animation and music to bring readers into the story, there really is nothing else quite like it.
Each of the eleven stories is written by Rich, who aims to write novels that ‘dare readers with giant metaphors, magnificent obsessions and potent ideas’. The app feels like a very natural extension of this philosophy. When I opened the app for the first time, I was presented with all eleven of Shapero’s novels. Each is available to download free of charge and is accompanied by art, animation and sound that you will never find in a physical book. Here’s a closer look at three of the stories.
Beneath Caaqi’s Wings
Synopsis:
‘Jema, the cheerful and well-liked teenage daughter of the Governor, spends summers with her family and a group of children at a jungle retreat far from the capital. She and Kris, the Chancellor’s daughter, have been best friends since childhood. When their parents are called away to quell an uprising, a terrible fire erupts and the children have to face the challenges of survival on their own. Rangi, elected leader, imposes his recklessness on the tribe; then a troubling rift between Kris and Jema gives way to a more violent one between the boys and girls. As the conflict deepens and the barbarism of the jungle threatens to resurface, a strange parrot visits Jema, whispering cryptic utterances in her ear, daring her to shed her childish assumptions and do what the jungle requires to become a woman.
With fable-like resonance and unflinching vision, Beneath Caaqi’s Wings imagines the tribulations of a teenage society without adults, and suggests how the passage into adulthood demands a confrontation with darker impulses that lurk inside us all. ‘
The first book that I downloaded, the pages of the story emerge through an animation, and at first resemble what you would expect from a standard ebook. The pages are laid out on your screen, which you can turn with the standard left swipe motion. Here’s where it starts to get interesting. Each page is decorated with small illustrations, and when one of them starts wiggling, it means that there is an animation hidden beneath the pages. Using a pinching motion, the animation emerges through a burst of smoke. Far from being an afterthought, it’s clear that a lot of attention and care has been paid to these animations. These have been created to add to the story and connect with the pictures that the words are writing. A reverse pinching motion pulls the reader back into the pages to continue the story, but the animation can be reopened at any time.
Dreams of Delphine
Synopsis:
‘Presden is a lone twin whose fearless sister, Delphine, perished in a horrific accident on the Louisiana bayou when they were eight. The tragic loss destroyed his family, forcing him to grieve in isolation. Now grown and working as a hydrological engineer, Presden meets Merle, a Dutch woman with a deep affinity for the water—and for family. The two marry and repair to her homeland, where they find a house in a small fishing village alongside a dike that Presden has been hired to fortify. And there, Merle learns she is pregnant.
On discovering he’s to be a father, Presden is hurled into conflict with Merle, and into a series of dream encounters with Delphine that dare him to confront the guilt and shame of his loss, and to prepare for the unimaginable . . . ‘
Dreams of Delphine is just as interesting, but uses multimedia in a different way. Instead of animations we have videos that intersect with the story, helping us to connect on a deeper and more meaningful level. The very first video shows an interview with Colin, who speaks about the loss of his twin sister when he was a child. It mirrors the content of Shapero’s story, which follows a character who has lost his twin sister. Each chapter has a similar video, and the second features an interview with someone who lived by a dike which was in danger of flooding his village.
The Hope We Seek
Synopsis:
‘Zachary Knox, a sharpshooter known as “the Bull’s-Eye Telepath,” heads north in search of gold. On his way, he meets Sephy, a magnetic woman on the trail of her lost brother. But on arrival, they find the mining camp is home to a cult. The mine boss, Trevillian, rules the camp like a despotic priest, and at the center of his faith is Hope, an elusive goddess for whom the miners toil, enduring increasingly perilous trials as they pursue her into the depths of the earth.
Zack determines to overthrow Trevillian, guided by Sephy’s cryptic directions—until Hope appears and reveals the astonishing future she has in mind for him. With epic force and seductive allegory, The Hope We Seek transports us to a netherworld of danger and allure—where arduous labor, sustained by unwavering belief, promises an unearthly reward. Rich Shapero holds a dark mirror to the passions that drive us, and the extremes to which we go to find meaning in our lives. ‘
Another of the novels on the app, The Hope We Seek also contains beautifully illustrated animations, but in a different style. The first animation depicts an illustrated character soaring through the screen in expressive black and white pencil. Chapter two’s animation continues in the style of the first, but includes a song with a haunting melody.
TooFar Media is using multimedia in a way that I wish more of the publishing industry would. It’s refreshing, and a great app to download if you’re looking for a unique reading experience.
You can find out more about the app on their website here.