A Feather in Dust Chapter Four by Boundless Library

Inspectors' Review:

• How about some tea, boss?

• These photos seam important...I've pointed them out just for you.

• The paper is lovely to roll in!

• Necklaces taste delicious!

• Where's our circus tent?!?!?

• There's STRING!

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Boss' Review:

For added context, A Feather in Dust is a Boundless Library monthly subscription that provides you with immersive stories you can touch. The creator was one of the founders of Mysterious Package Company, which is one of my favourite company. I have been reviewing all the chapters so if you missed the first chapter, check it out here!

Last chapter was a little disappointing in terms of materials but, woah, did they up the ante with chapter four! This package was filled with additional reading material and a few beautifully crafted tokens that worked into the narrative seamlessly. I don’t want to give too much detail about the story to prevent spoilers but this chapter was divergent from the previous ones that focused on the character, Alkonost, need to travel to Big Tree. In this chapter we see a budding relationship between Alkonost and another character that was rich and sweet. I truly fell in love with the characters and this was through the trappings of how the paper materials were presented. They had excellent pacing to allow the building but also made a few connections to previous information players had gathered. At this stage I do regret not taking notes about the things I learned as I kept having to unpack the previous chapters to reaffirm connections I was making. Now, while this relationship was excellently developed, I do wish there was more reference back to the overall storyline. The later online content did provide information about the author’s journey to “Big Tree” that was quite fascinating but I would love to be able to contextualize Alkonost’s relationship in the greater story going forward.

As for puzzles, I have mentioned before this experience in primarily narrative based. You pour over the letters, tea ceremonies, notes, flyers, reports, and more to piece together the story taking place. The additional step for Boundless Library is the online content that contains articles, interviews, oral stories, and more. This online content focus more on the author while the physical components focus on the character Alkonost. The one “puzzle” element is that players are meant to find the next location Alkonost appears to be going to on her journey (this journey that the author also took). I have felt this can be hit and a miss. I wish there was more sign posting and a way to check your answer without necessarily spoiling it. The next chapter provides the answer but I wish I had a way to check. This experience is meant to be collaborative and I think would greatly benefit from Boundless Library having their own dedicated group or forum to allow conversations. I will say finding the location requires careful observation of all components and quite a bit of googling. Overall the puzzle paled in comparison to the rich story telling as I felt it needed more framing to locate as it’s kind of just thrown in off chance and thus can easily be missed.

Customer services remains the same. They ship out timely and are receptive to changes which is the hallmark of a good company in my opinion. They also respond to emails and messages in a timely manner and are very helpful.

In the end, I was much more happy with Chapter Four over Chapter Three. The rich storytelling was endearing and so well put together. I wish there was more to the puzzling but I will note I have plenty of puzzles in my life that I am content without all the puzzles – I still love this experience. Some people may not like this style though. If you love rich story telling you can handle and touch I think this experience is really excellent option. It is a little on the pricy side but the quality is amazing. Two more chapters until this story ends and I am excited!

Check out Boundless Library here.