Choices, relationships, and adventure. Maybe love. – Runt of the Litter Review

Growing up, I switched from reading choose-your-own-adventure books to playing interactive fiction games that focused on solving puzzles. The books provided suspense and intrigue--What happens if I make this choice versus that choice? With the games, I experienced that intense sense memory--sights, sounds, sensations, and emotions--that I love so much about reading. Years later, I remember the grim choices required in Infocom's Planetfall, the ash-tongued feeling that came after I completed the puzzle. Kelly Sandoval's interactive novel, Runt of the Litter, rekindled my memories of those immersive experiences. I played a thrall, essentially a serf, in the service of an empire of gryphon riders who face invading wyrm riders and Dropfeather, a gryphon-killing disease. Somewhat stressfully and quite satisfyingly, the novel requires choices almost at every turn. I managed friendships with a group of four other characters, raised a gryphon, dealt with Unnar (he's a sh***y person who happens to be a gryphon rider and therefore has power over the main character), and explored the greater world. I've played the novel once, enough to get a sense of the world while still leaving plenty for me to explore. I've discovered the cure to Dropfeather, encountered wyrm riders, and made sacrifices. I've started a second game, intent on exploring other options and outcomes. (I'd like to live this time.) I strongly recommend the game. It leaves open the possibilities for relationships with the different characters, and there's quite a lot that I have yet to explore. Unlike the interactive fiction games I used to play, this novel contains many possible outcomes. Rather than puzzles to solve, there are relationships to build (possibly with the wyrm riders, or the exiled gryphon keeper, or people I've yet to encounter).
Review by Alamath the Blue on Runt of the Litter.