Explore top written fiction from the year and add some of these gems to your reading list. Click image to interact with graph. Made with love in Tableau Public. You can see the winners in this interactive visualization.
Goodreads Choice Award 2019 Nominees
If you like your video game stories, then read on! I just got back from a conference that inspired me to make a data graphic with some of the most celebrated video game RPGs in the modern era. – Josh
Tableau is incredibly robust and my experience at TC17 in Las Vegas showed me just how much so. My visualizations has always focused on designing for the interactive experience, and with the #data17 knowledge I acquired, I was able to merge many ideas into a more fully realized data-driven experience with my work.
There’s a data set that I picked up in the spring and worked on but then abandoned because I didn’t feel like the story I was building did justice to the subject I was passionate about: role-playing video games.
Role-playing games (RPGs) stand as giants in the world of video games. The level of immersion when playing these games is remarkable and your connection to the characters and story is much more palpable because in a sense the player controls his or her own destiny in the game.
In my Tableau work, I wanted to convey some of the impact and meaning behind these creations and help people more fully appreciate and explore video games as vehicles for art.
I was inspired by the amazing viz work of Jonni Walker to attempt this approach. He arguably sets the bar for beautiful data stories in Tableau and stretches the limits of the software’s capabilities.
There were some tradeoffs I had to make so that the dashboard retained its interactivity and the images could still play a key role in pulling the audience through the story. This was a remarkable experience building on my background in photography and writing in order to create a data-driven story.
Here are some quick tips I learned:
I hope you enjoy. Happy vizzing!
UPDATE: Ragnar was unstoppable at the end. All those that challenged him were laid bloody and broken at his feet. His prowess in the cage secured him the crown but it was at the cost of his fellow fictional brothers and sisters. May his crown of destruction weigh heavy on his brow…
The Story So Far.
Tom Bombadil buried his Rd1 opponent (IT) without looking back and enjoyed the top spot among all cage match fighters for almost 10 days straight. But he fell steeply in the contest, only narrowly defeating the old god Mr. Wednesday with 50.11% of the votes in Rd3, the closest of any fight. He trailed Devi in Rd4 until the very end when he pulled off an upset .
Ragnar has clawed his way through the competition, never ranking higher than #4 until his ascent in Rd3 to edge out Kell Maresh and then trounce Georgia Mason in Rd4 to head to the finals as the #1 seed.
Our Prediction: Tom B. to take it all. Middle Earth rises again!
Click to explore different artists’ visions of the Major in all her incarnations.
Ghost in the Shell is one of the most profound pieces of fiction from any genre or culture. Period. The storytelling is intricate and powerful. The philosophical questions it poses make one consider the meaning of life and reconsider just how far technology should go. And the bad guys, well, they could be anyone or no one. There is no way to tell in this world what is real and what is not. Blink, and you might get your eyes cyber hacked.
The numerous layers of meaning in the Ghost in the Shell saga make it an unparalleled experience, whether in print or on the screen.
In five days, the live-action Ghost in the Shell movie comes to American cinemas. Certain quarters of the web have taken issue with the casting of the Major (Scarlett Johansson), but I am hopeful that the film will be faithful to the themes of the Japanese manga and anime and introduce new audiences to the acclaimed world the Major inhabits.
The West has its pop culture icons – Luke Skywalker, Batman, the Avengers, etc., etc. Major Kusanagi is one of East Asia’s.
Welcome to your newest sci-fi/cyberpunk/dystopian fix. This one has staying power.
Some of the most recognizable characters in contemporary science fiction and fantasy literature are going toe-to-toe. Unbound World’s Cage Match 2017 competition is giving authors a shot at writing how a fight, say between the queen of Dragons and a modern god, might go down.
It provides some entertaining scenarios from authors who are obviously having fun with the battle royales. Our pick to take it all home, The Martian’s Mark Watney – and who the contributing author predicted would win his round – got beat by some adolescent magician wannabe, and one that’s not even from Hogwarts.
Check out the rankings as they stand in round 2. We’ll have updates throughout the cage match. Go Daenerys!
EVERYONE has a list of the best reads of the year. That makes it fun – but daunting – to go through a slew of recommendations.
How are you supposed to trust your Booktube buddy’s taste even if you do both like the same genres? Easy. Just crowdsource the best books.
That’s right, instead of pouring over YouTube or Goodreads for hours on end to learn about new books, we just crunched the data and looked at what was most popular across book types. We took all 3 million votes from the Goodreads Choice Awards and found out which books and genres ended up on top in 2016. (But we still watched some YouTube videos with great book recommendations!)
Take a look at this interactive collection of the top books as voted on by the social web. Your next TBR may be only a click away! You can check out a quick tutorial here.
Click to interact
Welcome to the 2016 Book-O-Picker.
Pick books effortlessly by searching from more than 1,400 authors and their books. Create a better TBR today!
(Books published 1915-2015).
What books from the last 15 years are most popular with book lovers? Diving into Goodreads bookshelf data, we found that dystopian and fantasy fiction have been huge among this social reading community.
Explore the chart by hovering over sections with your mouse or tapping the screen (better on desktop). Hover over the authors’ names to light up the bubble chart like a Christmas tree or click their names for more book details.
What did we learn at a glance?
George R.R. Martin really does average five years between books in his Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) series. Suzanne Collins, author of the Hunger Games books, has a highly rated young reader fantasy series called the Underland Chronicles that she penned before her YA dystopian trilogy. And Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series, though found on many bookshelves, consistently fell below the average ratings for books published in the same year. Explore and enjoy this treasure trove of book goodness. Send us feedback or questions on what other book charts you’d like to see. Happy reading!
Click to go interactive chart
The Star Wars book galaxy has gotten a reboot along with the movie franchise, and there are 25 new books that have been published so far.
With less than 24 hours until Star Wars either flies again or self destructs (creatively) at the box office with Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens, we take a look at what the creative minds behind the books have done with the space saga. Disney has wiped the slate clean and designated official, or “canon,” books to continue the story of Star Wars (all the previous volumes of Star Wars books are now considered “legacy” or unofficial). This has created lots of debate among fans. The Internet has plenty to say on it…
Click to interact with R2-D2 and pick a Star Wars book.
The “canon” books are just starting to roll out. Only 24 novels (and one novella) exist (minus the movie adaptations). The majority are junior novels, putting the original works for adults at a mere eight books. I understand this to a degree – it prevents spoiling the new movies by not giving away what happens to the major characters after Return of the Jedi. Instead authors mostly focus on new/side characters and other aspects of the galaxy. I’ll reserve judgement on whether or not the Star Wars canon novels can become something great. I listened to Aftermath and loved it. It’s got fans split, but Star Wars is as American as apple pie and everyone has an opinion on where it should go.
Check out the interactive visualization on the “canon” books that are already available. Help R2-D2 get the right book for you!
REIGN of Books 