BioShock: Rapture, a new novel that tells the tragic tale of Andrew Ryan's maddeningly ambitious yet ultimately doomed vision for an underwater utopian metropolis, has unexpectedly surfaced over at Amazon. If the listing is accurate, the book will be available on March 1, 2011.

The first scant details about John Shirley’s text-based BioShock prequel released last May. At the time, it was expected that the book would come out sometime around the release of BioShock 2, but obviously that didn’t happen. Irrational Games’ creative director Ken Levine was previously the only writer associated with the novel, but, as Big Download reports, Levine’s input was limited to an introductory chapter. I guess Levine was too "busy" working on BioShock Infinite to write an entire novel. Slacker.

BioShock is my favorite game universe of all time, and to have a chance to see the founding and fall of Rapture (since BioShock 2 sadly missed out on letting players play through it firsthand) from over the shoulder of Andrew Ryan is something I can’t wait to experience.

BioShock: Rapture will be available in hardcover for $18.47, paperback for $10.19, and on the Kindle for $9.99.

Source: Big Download

Should the need arise, feel free to E-Mail me your tips, suggestions, and/or personal philosophies, or follow me on Twitter.