In reopening this hyperfiction novel by Michael Joyce, nothing much beyond the first few "pages" looks familiar–as well it wouldn’t!
Unless you track your progress through hyperfiction and save your place, and I have just set up a small notebook for this and for the Interactive fiction I’m also reading, every read will be different. The story will change dramatically in narrative structure through the choice of sequence taken and thus the meaning and the reader reaction will be different. You will find yourself returning to certain points either by backing up and taking a new path, or by the written-in loops intended by the author to bring you back to a place where the story can again flow without loss of information.
It is such a different process in reading from the linearity of a physical book. While the initial learning of method may at first reduce total enjoyment, the overall freedom eventually should overwhelm the reader with its possibilities and sense of involvement.
Ah, the power!
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology