Wow, that was annoying.
"The Heist" by Walter Sorrells was a sight for sore eyes.
Not knowing to expect from this novel, I opened the site and saw links. I clicked on one of those links that brought me to a page with more links, and those links brought me to another page of even more links. Ughh... never again will I read a hypertext novel in my life.
I didn't know where to begin. Should I read the first page first then go back to the links? Should I read it and click on the links as I get to them and so on and so on with the other pages filled with links?
Well, I read the first page in its entirety and I felt bombarded with links. This hypertext novel reminded me of my elementary school days when the class went to the library and I ran over to the section that had the choose-your-own-ending story.
On every page, there was another story waiting to be read by me. By following some of the links, it made my concentration of the novel as a whole incredibly hard. All I want to know is what happened at the end of the overall story. While I was taking in the information from the other links, I forgot what I just read earlier. I feel like there were too many different sub-plots in this novel.
Conclusion: This hypertext novel is a complete overload of information and sub-plots. I felt like I was trying to catch a frog but he kept jumping to different locations.
My feelings: I hated it.
I mentioned Choose Your Own Adventure books too. I was excited at the idea of the hypertext novel but it was not at all what I expected. Just like you, I had no idea what link to follow first.
The idea of trying to catch a frog fit perfectly with this story. The reader could never predict where the next link would land.
I agree with you whole-heartedly. The novel irritated me more than it entertained. It had the amount of sub-plots of about 5 soap operas. I cannot believe it took me an hour. There's such a thing as too many details. The exposition overkill made me lose track and forget about certain characters. I like traditional print novels better. They have subplots, but they carefully unfurl. There was no time to see the story develop in "The Heist." It was just an over-bombardment of details. I think Sorells was trying too hard or just got a little over-excited about hypertext and linking.