It would be fair to say that Bioshock is one of the seminal games of the last decade; a game featuring a great plot with twists that are quite simply mind-blowing. There’s certainly plenty going on in the narrative of Bioshock, but as one sets foot inside the undersea metropolis of Rapture, one can’t help but feel that they’ve arrived at the end of the party. The city is in ruins, its population mostly dead or insane and you only have the enthusiastic Atlas for company. Thankfully, for those of us looking for a deeper insight into the earlier years of the would-be utopia, there is the novel Bioshock: Rapture. I’d like to make a quick warning here that this review will contain spoilers where the plot of the game is concerned and so if, for some mad reason, you haven’t played it yet bear this in mind.
Penned by the Bram Stoker Award winner John Shirley, Bioshock Rapture takes place in the years leading up to the downfall of the city and the ensuing events of the game. As such, the novel expands extensively on the background of the city and the characters that took part both in building it and in bringing it to its knees. There is certainly a lot of material to work with in the years leading up to Bioshock; whether it’s the various trials Rapture goes through or the radically opposed philosophies of key characters.
For those needing a little back-story reminder here, the game Bioshock takes place in the undersea city of Rapture, founded by the objectivist tycoon Andrew Ryan, who built the city as an island of safety from what he felt were the dangerous philosophies of communism and altruism that endangered his capitalist focused ideals. Bioshock: Rapture opens in 1945 with a concerned Andrew Ryan looking over images of the devastation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after America’s nuclear strikes. He has a plan to evade the growing dangers of the post nuclear world and that plan is Rapture.
Shirley does well to establish an electric atmosphere in the opening chapters as Ryan sets out to realise his vision. The story is generally centred on the characters of Bill McDonagh (a man Ryan takes on as a contractor to help build Rapture) and Sullivan (Ryan’s chief of security). That said, the real stars of this show are Andrew Ryan himself and his insidious enemy Frank Fontaine. There are moments when the early narrative feels a little ponderous but the pace soon quickens and the excitement builds as Ryan shows McDonagh more of the growing project that is Rapture.
In parallel to the chapters following Ryan and his entourage the book occasionally switches to the ethically challenged opportunist and conman Frank Gorland. As Ryan builds his undersea citadel, Frank makes efforts to learn about the secret enterprise and infiltrate it, eventually succeeding under the name of Frank Fontaine. Shirley perfectly captures the utterly amoral aspects of Fontaine’s character, to an almost frightening degree. He’s one of those people you just hope you’ll never meet.
As the narrative develops and the tremendously varied line-up of characters assemble in the completed city, things really start to get interesting. Shirley gives us a window into the early days of Rapture that were hinted at but never quite shown in the game; a healthy Rapture with a sense of optimism about the future. Ryan’s pride and excitement over his new city is catching and Shirley manages to make the reader care about Rapture. Sadly, as we know from the game and the blurb, Ryan’s utopia is doomed to fall into chaos.
Shirley makes great use of the material from Bioshock and Bioshock 2 as a source for his novel. Sofia Lamb from Bioshock 2 is fully interwoven into the story of Rapture’s fall and Shirley has ensured that it all fits neatly together. He also makes regular use of the audio diary material from the games, using it as flavour for the characters and to help nit the book together with the games.
The actual structure of the novel can almost be compared to the audio diaries themselves, with chapters being broken up into dated sections giving snapshots of key events in the lives of Rapture citizens. Shirley works hard to ensure that these sections do not feel fragmented and generally the plot of the book flows smoothly.
The characters are superbly presented in the novel. From Bill McDonagh’s desire to protect his family and do right by his employer to Ryan’s idealism turned despotism. Fontaine is painted as the pragmatic and cunning manipulator that he is in the game and it is morbidly fascinating to see how he uses the resources at his disposal to get the power he wants.
Ryan is perhaps the most carefully sculpted character of the novel and his transition from stern but idealistic entrepreneur to hypocritical tyrant is fascinating to watch. One can’t help but feel sorry for Ryan as his dream is splintered and eventually buckled by both the machinations of his enemies and his own stubbornness. Andrew Ryan is a tragic character embodying Ayn Rand’s interesting but ultimately impractical philosophy of objectivism and Shirley takes care to give this character the attention he deserves.
Surrounding the central characters is a group of often twisted but always interesting supporting characters. From the icy but troubled scientist Brigid Tenenbaum to the plastic surgeon Dr. Steinman, who develops a desire to expand his “art” in some experimental and rather disturbing ways, Rapture has no shortage of character variety to offer.
A small gripe about Bioshock: Rapture is that it does tread into very gory detail and sometimes in places where it does not feel entirely necessary. It’s a grisly story and it naturally touches on some true horror material but there are times where it feels as if the gore is merely there for the sake of it. This is often a matter of taste, however, and when it is used effectively (snapshots of Steinman’s experimentations are particularly unsettling, for example) it helps to paint a vivid picture of the horror in Rapture’s spiral into chaos.
The overarching narrative of Bioshock: Rapture is elegantly woven into the stories of each of the characters and out of these many threads Shirley manages to tie together an emotive climax. It is a dark tale but an engrossing one that truly captures the atmosphere of Bioshock in its later chapters. The sense of impending doom grows as familiar dialogue is recorded into audio diaries.
It’s worth noting that Bioshock: Rapture is so loaded with references to Bioshock itself that it maybe quite alien, in places, to a fresh audience with no knowledge of the game. That said, if you haven’t played Bioshock I would highly recommend doing so before reading the book anyway, as the novel would spoil pretty much all of the twists.
Bioshock: Rapture is a welcome return to the depths of the game’s undersea city and it expands on the history of that city wonderfully. Anyone looking for a way back to Rapture would do well to take a look at Shirley’s novel which takes us to a time when the city wasn’t yet a madman’s playground. With rich characters and a grimly satisfying story, Bioshock: Rapture is a worthy addition to the history of Andrew Ryan’s ill fated utopia.
