As those of you who’ve read An Instruction in Shadow will know, towards the end of the book Stephen gets hold of a mysterious coded letter. I didn’t include the decoded version since it wasn’t necessary for the story (chronologically, the reader is going to find out the important bits of the letter immediately at the start of book #3). I did think some readers would find it an interesting puzzle, though, so I left the coded version of the letter in the book to see how long it would take people to figure out.
It took them about 24 hours. Never underestimate the collective time and energy of Internet fans.
But not everyone was able to track down that decoded version, so for those people, as well as for those who’d be interested in how Stephen ended up decoding the letter, here’s a decoded version, with Stephen’s comments/annotations.
NB: this little extract assumes you’ve read An Instruction in Shadow and will make absolutely no sense otherwise, so be warned. It’s also not particularly reader-friendly since it’s a direct transcription of Stephen’s notes; since it’s written for his eyes, he doesn’t go out of his way to explain anything. This extract is also included in Book #3, so readers who don’t follow this blog won’t be missing anything.
Chapter 1 will be following next month.
Helpful annotations. I was wondering how he knew where to email based on the message. Thanks!
In our defense we kinda of got lucky me and some other fans tried to code break it but we got the American version and not the version Stephen used which I believed was an earlier British paperback!
The real funny story was that it was a fan’s son who cracked it because he was bored during a weekend! But yes I have heard that some fandoms actually cracked a fictional language and found out plot points years in advance. So yes the internet can be quite powerful.
The more interesting question is – who or what is the “other cult”?
Thanks so much for providing this.
I love how much effort and detail you put into these kinds of things.
Gosh, I love everything you write! It’s always so detailed and intriguing. I hope you go to a book festival soon so that I can meet you!
Seconded. 🙂 I would suggest you come to a con in America. But, well, sigh.
How fun of you to include! Something to occupy my mind while waiting for the next book 🙂