"THE BOOK OF JER3MIAH: Premonition," by Luisa Perkins and Jared Adair, Deseret Book, $16.99, 247 pages (f)
A well-written novelization of the Mormon Web series "Book of Jer3miah," "Premonition" will appeal both to people familiar with "Jer3miah" and to people who have never heard of it.
"Jer3miah" began as a class transmedia project produced by professors and students from Brigham Young University in 2009. Since then, through a partnership with Deseret Book, the professors, Jeff Parkin and Jared Cardon, have released a DVD of the first season of "Jer3miah" and now a print version of it, written by Luisa Perkins and Jared Adair.
The spiritual thriller follows the adventures of Jeremiah Whitney, a university freshman whose call to protect a mysterious Mesoamerican box immediately makes him a target of a dangerous conspiracy group. With the lives of his family and friends in danger, Jeremiah learns he must follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit in order to keep himself and the box safe.
Perkins does a great job of getting the reader inside Jeremiah's head as he struggles to understand why he was called to protect the box and who he can trust. This writing style also smooths over some points in the story that were more difficult to swallow in "webisode" form, where the viewer is left to guess what Jeremiah is thinking.
The actual text of Perkins' novel is a close match to the scenes in the Web series, but included in the familiar story line are a couple of extra scenes and a host of scanned documents about the conspiracy provided by Jared Adair.
"The book continues to blur the boundaries between reality and fiction with Jared Adair (a character from the alternate-reality game) acting as a co-author. Jared Adair is a pseudonymous hacker/corporate whistleblower who provided the confidential documents interspersed through the novel that give additional background on the conspiracy," Parkin and Cardon explained in an email.
In addition, although "Premonition" is the same story as season one of "Jer3miah," Parkin and Cardon agreed the book may be the start to fans' solving the mystery of the box — and the conspiracy group that is willing to do anything to get it.
"We see the DVD and the novel as distinctive and complementary," they said. "Our hope is that this new series of books will give fans some answers to the burning questions they have after watching the Web series as well as reach a whole new audience of readers who love a good conspiracy thriller and like to do a little sleuthing of their own."
"Premonition" doesn't include any swearing or sexual content, and there is some mild violence.
Twitter: jmhenrie