 The Miller brothers wrote the entire first novel, but were unsatisfied with the result; the Millers pointed out that writing a character for a novel is much harder than writing the characters of a game. Hyperion recruited author David Wingrove to assist with the project; the Millers ended up giving Wingrove a detailed draft, and the author rewrote the entire book. The book's design was made to fit the themes of the game; the novels are made to look like journals found in Myst, with embossed covers and pages darkened as though with time and use.
