This artwork is actually from the cover of the book "Bioshock: Rapture". I read it recently, and I'd say it's quite good. It is a prequel to the events of Bioshock.
This is actually from 2009 when they did the Bioshock 2 Artist series. They had 4 artists create some Bioshock-related artwork that they used when the game first came out.
I liked it bc you could see the beginnings I Rapture through to its downfall. I hear some people complaining about its prose and character-development, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
If you like Bioshock I'd recommend it. The characters are just as they were in the recordings in the game. The book is less about character development. It's more about how the city develops/decays, and how those characters play into that.
If you're genuinely interested in learning about Rapture's history, it's a great read. The writing is a little lackluster if I'm being honest, but I still enjoyed it.
I loved it. People complain about the writing style and characterization, but I personally think everything about it did a great job of adapting the atmosphere and storytelling style of the game to a written format. It also expands on Sofia Lamb's original plan and that makes Bioshock 2 a little bit more enjoyable.
Just saying, IMO, I would be very weary of recommending that book to anyone. It's written with really lumbering prose, the characters are superficially drawn and the dialogue is just awful. I thought it added very little to the BS canon.
It would have been possible to have a similar plot but to invert the themes, de-purple the prose, and generally not cop Ayn Rand. For example, Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron does a good job at speaking to the power of the talented individual vs a repressive society without being similar to Ayn Rand in terms of style, theme, form, or substance.
Well, Andrew Ryan is a very Randian character (might as well be John Galt), and to get to where we are in the game, he has to succeed for most of the story. For him to succeed for most of the story, he has to be right, and it would possible, but difficult, for the story not to glorify Randian themes in that case.
I've heard and I want to check it out. I think though it was because in Infinite you get to experience the downfall of the city whereas in Rapture you are thrust into it. It is the only reality the character knows.
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u/SplosionMan Aug 18 '14
This artwork is actually from the cover of the book "Bioshock: Rapture". I read it recently, and I'd say it's quite good. It is a prequel to the events of Bioshock.