Matthew Samuels – On Immersion

Today I have Matthew Samuels with me on Creator’s Roulette! He is one of the fantastic authors whose book is in our Armed with A Bingo giveaway this month and it’s an honor to have him on the blog, talking about one of his interests: immersion! I met him through my Science fiction and fantasy book blogger friend, Alex.

Matthew is a new writer based in London, UK. His first published novel is Parasites, a sci-fi exploration novel in the solarpunk genre, which takes a look at what happens at the end of the universe. Parasites is in the giveaway so check it out on Goodreads afterwards. Matthew lives with his wife and cat, and is an avid reader, gamer and writer. You will find many amazing books mentioned in this conversation.

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Matthew, welcome to Creator’s Roulette! What does ‘immersion’ mean to you?

Thank you! And thank you for having me on Creator’s Roulette – it’s fantastic to feature on the blog.

For me, immersion is almost literally that; it’s something you can really sink into, a medium that lets you escape reality for a while. I think there’s a few factors to this –

• it’s got to be believable even if it’s fantastical.
• It’s got to be in a world you want to know more about, characters you’re invested in.
• It’s got to have limits you can understand, behavior that makes sense and a general sense of direction.

Otherwise I find that you get that thing at the back of your mind that says ‘I don’t get this’. For example, I’ve read some stuff where the characters seem to do psychological U-turns mid-chapter. I know people can be fickle, but when things just don’t scan right, you get fed up and stop caring about what’s going on. Similarly, I’ve read sci-fi books that had great characters, but didn’t really describe where things were happening, and as such, didn’t have a strong sense of place, so again, lost the immersive element.

I think that style helps. I absolutely adore Night of Cake and Puppets, one of Laini Taylor’s novellas, because the characters and plot are just so lovely. Her construction of Prague, the style and attitude of the characters – it’s perfect. Similarly, I’m a huge fan of The Time Traveler’s Wife; Niffenegger’s writing is just so cold and sharp and poetic – it’s a lovely kind of pain (h/t to Heather Nova).

Finally, there are some books that just grab you from the get go. The start of Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive is like that for me – it’s like having a meat hook in your chest, forcibly pulling you along. I still remember a day where I had to stop and sit down on my way to work and finish the arena scene in Words of Radiance.

What were your first experiences of being immersed in a book?

Probably The Hobbit, which I devoured as a child. I tried to read Lord of the Rings several times much too early on, but it was tough work for a ten year-old! I think my ‘worthy mentions’ are also Memoirs of a Dangerous Alien by Maggie Prince, and Invitation to the Game, by Monica Hughes, both of which I read multiple times, back to back because I didn’t want to leave their worlds.

… and any current favorites?

Against a Dark Background by the late Iain M Banks is one of my all-time favourites; it’s such a cool, interesting setting, with a badass heroine and cast of characters. I also love the Banks’ move of writing current events and recounting past adventures in the same book – it always makes me feel a bit maudlin, but I love it! It’s something he did really well in Espedair Street too.

I’d give a shout out to the Imriel Trilogy by Jacqueline Carey, because she essentially uses the first trilogy to do the world-building. That means you’re already bought into the pain that the MC feels and the complex political situation that he’s in, whilst he is also trying to reconcile love, lust and doing the right thing along the way!

Finally, I’ve just read The Engineer by Darran Handshaw, which he wrote based on a true story that happened in an online text adventure, where he met his wife. I think that one of the reasons why it was so immersive was that Darran had already visualized these places through the text adventure, and did a great job of relaying that to the reader. 

I have explored immersion in reading when I was working on my reading experience scale. Do you think immersion in different mediums like reading and video games, looks different?

I think there are some strong common themes, like creating a world and sense of narrative movement that drives you to know more. So for example, Horizon: Zero Dawn does an incredible job of building not only an amazing world with a fantastic protagonist, but also a sense of mystery where you absolutely want and need to know more about what’s going on. Similarly, reasonable and believable behavior is important – something that absolutely killed one of the Halo games for me was having to deal with the same boss multiple times. Unless it’s been really well set up, that’s just daft.

I think that translates to film as well; I saw Mad Max: Fury Road on an absolutely huge screen, and the pace of the thing, the attention to detail, the love that had clearly gone into the world-creation, it all just added up to something that pulled you in and didn’t let you go until the credits rolled. Compare that to Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker, which had a budget 50% higher, but just didn’t really make sense, which really spoilt the immersion for me. It wasn’t just the big questions, like ‘where did all those bad guys all come from?’, but the little things as well. I grew up adoring the original films, so right at the start I could hear Alec Guinness’ voice from 1977 saying ‘that’s a short range fighter’ in the early scene where the TIE Fighters travel through hyperspace. That lack of continuity – or respect, you decide – for the previous films just spoiled it for me from the very first minute.

What piqued your interest in immersion?

It took me a long time to pin down what I really enjoy about books, games and films, because I’m equally happy reading relatively hard sci-fi, playing an 8-bit game like Into the Breach, or watching Fast and Furious. But all of them really suck you in and create a world that you can really believe in and want to be part of.

I’ve occasionally played games online with friends, but it’s more of a sociable thing – I don’t really do things like Fortnite because to me, it’s just doing the same thing again and again. I’d rather be part of something bigger, more interesting and more intriguing than a single, simple dopamine hit. It took me a while to figure that out!

I think (hope!) it also reflects the kind of worlds I like to create; sweeping, credible worlds with believable – mostly likeable people – that are easy to understand but fascinating to explore.

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What are your thoughts on immersion? What is one activity you get lost in easily?

Hope you enjoyed this chat about books and video games. Connect with Matthew on his website and Twitter.

Cover  Photo by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash