Minecraft: The Island
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | |
| Author | Max Brooks |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Publisher | Del Rey Books |
Publication date | July 2017 |
| Pages | 288 |
| ISBN | 9780399181771 |
Minecraft: The Island is a young adult isekai novel by Max Brooks, published in July 2017 by Del Rey Books. It was followed by two direct sequels: Minecraft: The Mountain (published in March 2021)[1] and Minecraft: The Village (published in October 2023).
Brooks' interest in the sandbox video game Minecraft began around 2012 when a friend introduced him to the game. In 2015, he was contacted by Mojang to write a novel centered around the game. Brooks, wanting to "justify all those hours I've spent playing Minecraft",[2] agreed to the task, and by the time that Mojang asked him to sign a contract regarding this endeavor, he had finished a manuscript.[3] Mojang publicly revealed that a novel was in progress during Minecon 2016.[2][3]
When he was writing the novel, Brooks was allowed control of everything save for what the main character looked like, which Mojang, characterizing them as a "cuboid Robinson Crusoe",[2] wanted to make vague as to widen the demographic of readers that could personally connect to them. To this end, Brooks took care to not use gender pronouns when describing the protagonist,[3] who is never given a name.[4]
Plot
The book is divided into chapters that each teach a specific life lesson. The plot is framed around a protagonist from the real world falling asleep and unexpectedly waking up in the world of Minecraft.[4] He has no memory of who he was before, only general knowledge of the world. The main protagonist wakes up underwater, and thinks he must have fallen off a boat. He picks a direction and starts swimming, soon coming across a small island. He faces denial that this world is real, and deals with extreme confusion and panic at this stage. He then slowly determines the rules of the world he lives in and begins to accept them as reality.
