Anyone with a Netflix account can probably agree that the sci-fi anthology series Black Mirror is one of the most original, innovative, creepy, and weirdly relevant shows out there right now. While there’s no word yet on an official release date for Season 4, fans of the series will soon have a new way to consume the British import.
And no, it won’t be downloaded into your brain to be played back on the inside of your eyelids while you sleep. And no, you won’t have to do unspeakable things to a farm animal live on national TV to get your hands on it.
Or anything weird and Black Mirror-y like that.
Penguin Random House announced on Tuesday, June 13, that a book series inspired by the show is set to be published early next year, with the first of three volumes coming to our bookshelves on February 20, 2018.
The book series will follow a format similar to the show, which is told through catalogue of individual narratives, with each episode standing on its own. Each volume will comprise of three separate, standalone novellas. The second volume is already scheduled for a fall 2018 release, with the third to follow in 2019. While the novellas will be penned by a variety of writers, creator Charlie Brooker will be on hand to edit the series, so you know it’s going to be legit.
There are plenty of examples of book series that spawned TV shows (Outlander, Game of Thrones, True Blood, and Orange Is the New Black, to name a few), but it’s not often that we get it the other way around. It may seem like an odd choice to strip such a technology-heavy show down to the bare bones of paper and ink, but Brooker gave a delightfully Black Mirror statement that brings so much clarity to the transition:
They’re appearing in a high-tech new format known as a ‘book.’ Apparently you just have to glance at some sort of ‘ink code’ printed on paper and images and sounds magically appear in your head, enacting the story. Sounds far-fetched to me, but we’ll see.
Well, when you put it that way, Mr. Brooker.
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