In the book we see him rising from being a good con-man to the head of Fontaine Fisheries before finding Fontaine Futuristics. Frank Fontaine is a pivotal character in the first game. If he had been more careful he wouldn’t have brought Fontaine down to Rapture, I’m glad he did as Fontaine’s story is my favourite thing about the book. Almost as soon as she first meets Ryan she is formulating a plan for a new kind of Rapture. A rule that screamed disaster from the start, people are told they are free but not free to leave? Ryan asked people who were considered experts in their fields but never looked deeper into it, had he done so he might not have brought some of the more ‘dubious’ characters into the fray such as Dr. The place is said to have next to no rules except that you may never leave. He is so hateful towards unions that I had to laugh, what with me being a pro-union man myself.įrom the start of the introduction of people to Rapture the signs are written on the wall. What I never saw though was the level of Andrew Ryan’s paranoia, its hard to have sympathy for a man who thinks 2 men having a gunfight is their ‘right’ as free men. I understood why he wanted it to exist & I liked the idea of a man obsessed with ‘freedom’. I thought Bioshock 2 did an amazing job of showing me more of Andrew Ryan’s vision (the kids ride?) when he first built Rapture. I loved reading about the construction of Rapture, it made it feel all so possible.
The book jumps years at times so we see the construction of Rapture, the possibilities & problems that come with such a place, the introduction of plasmids, the little sisters/big daddy program & its downfall. Instead it focuses on Andrew Ryan attempt to live his dream of building the city under the sea. The book is set before the first game, so much before that Rapture isn’t actually built when the book begins. That looks quite unlikely but having read this book I think I’m ok with that now. I really enjoyed my tours through Rapture & had always wished for another Bioshock game that dealt with the civil war inside Rapture (as in before the first game).
I love the Bioshock games (including the multi-player of Bioshock 2) & find the story very fascinating.