We here at 3232 Design are pleased to announce that the new site for The Unincorporated Man, the book by Dani Kollin and Eytan Kollin due out April 6, is now open for business.  It's not quite finished yet, as there are a few more bells and whistles to add before it's ready to be submitted for awards, but we wanted to get something in place before the book launch.  Want to know more?  Boot up your retinal scanners folks, you're in for a ride.

When I met Dani and Eytan at Boskone this year, none of us really expected that we'd be working together quite so soon.  I was treating it like a hypothetical situation that could lead to work on their second book, or their author site.  But like many of my favorite projects, this one had too much promise for nothing to come of it.

You might recall the way we met.  Especially if you just clicked on that link above.  If you didn't, it was a hilarious romp through Boston that couldn't have been planned.  In the same way, this new website was a hilarious romp through Boston that couldn't have been planned.  Except that we planned it.  And without the hilarious part.  Or the Boston romp.

Ok, maybe there was a little hilarity.

The site is visually based on their book cover.  Tor wondered if they could maybe get a more interesting background for their existing (let's call it 'minimalist') site and it all spiraled out of control into a complete redesign.  Pretty soon I'd created custom concept art that doubles as their wallpaper, and we'd settled on the concept of 'Retinal Monitor' which is like a heads-up display for your eyeballs.  

You're in a futuristic tunnel looking back at a large indistinct figure at the other end (the brighter end) who is casting a long shadow on one side, and on the other side are a bunch of future-y looking people walking with purpose.  But in the foreground is a figure who has also glanced back at the shadowy figure, his hand grasping a book.  You focus on the book and your retinal monitor scans its barcode, circles the book and up pops your information, streaming into your optic nerve like green flame.  Searing, painful laser flame.  Think Lasik on steroids and amphetamines with a sawed-off shotgun and a pocketful of pink slips who is all out of chewing gum.

See, in the far future you'll just look around you and the bar code on whatever captures your interest will be instantly scanned and cataloged with all the information you'd need so you can choose to purchase one on the spot.  The future is a very convenient place, filled with bar codes.  Here you've spotted a man holding a book, which your retinal monitor has scanned and provided you with all kinds of useful information about the book, including how to buy it on Amazon (sure, it's still around in 300 years--the book is in it's 125th printing), events information (yes, we know that the dates are all from 2009 and not 300 years in the future), the blog (so you can see what the authors had to say about the book 300 years ago) and helpful information about the authors in case you were wondering.  In little helpful boxes outlined with searing green flame.

"Spoiler Alert!" you yell.

No, it's OK.  See, the retinal monitor thing isn't actually in the book.  We just made it up for the site.  There aren't, as far as I know, any tunnels either.

"Spolier Alert!" you yell again.  "Knowing something ISN'T in the book is also spoiling it!"

You're a jerk.

Anyway, pre-order this book from Amazon.  There's a convenient link on their site.  It's a great book, about things that great sci-fi books should be about: expansive explorations of ideas, three-dimensional characters, and an intriguing story that is difficult to put down.  

This is because they've coated the spine with krazy glue.  It's a new marketing technique Tor is toying with.  Once I figure out how to coat my websites in krazy glue we'll be keeping a lot more eyeballs glued to their screens.

It's that or wait 300 years for the searing green eyeball lasers.  In either case, I, for one, am stocking up on eye drops.