Award-winning author John Boyne has said he is happy to “join in the laughter” after it emerged he accidentally included monsters from a popular video game in his latest novel.
Boyne’s latest work, ‘A Traveller at the Gates of Wisdom,’ is an historical novel set across more than 2,000 years – beginning in the year AD 1 and ending in 2080.
One section features a list of ingredients used by a character attempting to poison Attila the Hun; however, it was pointed out on Twitter that the ingredients are, “straight of out of the Zelda game, Breath of the Wild.”
If those ingredients look weird to you, it is because they are straight of out of the Zelda game Breath of the Wild pic.twitter.com/JpebdXJqP1
— Dana Schwartz (@DanaSchwartzzz) August 3, 2020
The Irish author has said he will leave the error as it is and promised to add Zelda to the acknowledgements page of the book when the paperback version is realeased.
“I actually think it's quite funny and you're totally right. I don't remember but I must have just Googled it,” he wrote. “Hey, sometimes you just gotta throw your hands up and say "yup! My bad!”
On The Pat Kenny Show this morning, he said mistakes are “always going to happen when you write any kind of historical novel.”
“It turns out that I made one massive error in one of the chapters where I am referring to a dye that is used to dye a dress red,” he said.
“I Googled what the ingredients are for red dye and, in my rush maybe, I wrote down these ingredients but it turned out it was from a video game – and I am not even a video gamer.
“It was something to do with Zelda the Queen of the Forest or something and I took these various ingredients that are used to kill people in the video game.”
LOL that is actually kinda hilarious. I'm totally willing to own it. Something tells me I'll be telling this anecdote on stage for many years to come...
— John Boyne (@john_boyne) August 3, 2020
He said the book also includes another error that sees a character in South America handed a Spanish name, even though the segment is set before the Spanish arrived on the continent.
He said criticism of his work can be hard to take at times but sometimes you have to hold your hands up.
“I don’t think my skin is that thick to be honest,” he said “Like anybody, I can be a little bit sensitive maybe.
“There are some things you just have to laugh at. With the thing about the videogame, you can’t take yourself too seriously; you have to be able to join in the laughter on that.
“Other times, I feel like, as a reader, I am not sure I read books in order to look for the mistakes and then tell the author, ‘well I am smarter than you because I found this.’
“I think you can just let yourself go with the book and I am not entirely sure it matters if a name didn’t arrive until 50 years later.
“But we all read in different ways and that is fine.”
Someone remind me to add Zelda to the acknowledgements page when the paperback of TRAVELLER is published... oh lord... pic.twitter.com/CDUR9pQK5w
— John Boyne (@john_boyne) August 3, 2020
The Dubliner said his latest novel follows characters from completely different times and locations that have gone through exactly the same life experiences.
He said it explores the idea that “while the world keeps changing through millennia, our human emotions and experiences stay the same.”
You can listen back to the full interview here:
