EarthBound by Ken Baumann

Release date: January 15, 2014 192 pages ISBN 13: 978-1-940535-00-5 Foreword by Marcus Lindblom   An RPG for the Super NES that flopped when it first arrived in the U.S., EarthBound grew in fan support and critical acclaim over the years, eventually becoming the All-Time Favorite Game of thousands, among them author Ken Baumann.   Featuring a heartfelt foreword from the game's North American localization director, Marcus Lindblom, Baumann's EarthBound is a joyful tornado of history, criticism, and memoir. Baumann explores the game’s unlikely origins, its brilliant creator, its madcap plot, its marketing failure, its cult rise from the ashes, and its intersections with Japanese and American culture, all the while reflecting back on the author's own journey into the terrifying and hilarious world of adults. Google Play Ken Baumann acted for ten years in feature films and TV. He is the author of the novels Solip and Say, Cut, Map. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and currently attends St. John's College. * One of Entropy Magazine's of Best Non-Fiction Books of 2014 "At last, EarthBound gets the paperback it deserves." - Kill Screen "Ken Baumann is breaking new ground." - The Collagist "As much an exploration of the creation, content, and legacy of the role-playing classic as it is a self-reflective deep dive into the author's own psyche." - Joystiq "It’s a book that aims to mirror the segmented, bizarro structure of EarthBound, and it’s a book that succeeds." - BuzzFeed "The breadth of Baumann's interests and his infectious love for humanity make him the perfect writer to do this game justice." - The Rumpus "I was rapt. I never thought I would be." - HTMLGIANT "Excellent." 10/10 - Nerdlife "So much fun." - Bookrageous "Well-structured, sincere and compelling." -  The Fanzine "The best nonfiction book I've read in a long time." - Matt Bell, author of In the House Upon the Dirt "Ken Baumann simply does an amazing job elevating a game that deserves all of its attention and sharing his own story along the way." - Nintendo Link "Long-time fans of the game will join in Baumann’s nostalgia for the classic RPG and dust off their Super Nintendo controllers. Newcomers will hunger to play the game in all its strange, rosy weirdness. Both will discover a book and a writer that are bold, wild, funny, smart. Just like the game that inspired them." - PANK More Reviews: Paste, Coin Battle, Video Game Tourism, Goodreads, Amazon Coverage and Author Interviews: Joystiq, Polygon, Digital Writers Festival (video), Gameological Society, BuzzFeed Excerpt: Kotaku (or check out the hyperlink version at Genius)