YOU ARE THE HERO - The first reviews

Thanks to the fact that Amazon are a law unto themselves, despite YOU ARE THE HERO's official publication day being this coming Sunday, some lucky individuals have already managed to get their hands on the book and give it a read. And, as a result, two reviews have appeared online already.

The first I became aware of was this one on The Realm of Chaos 80s blog:
"The book is a joy! An absolute joy!... Even if you have a slimmest interest in FF this book is worth buying. Every page brings a new memory, a new fact and a bigger, broader smile!"

And then this one appeared on Amazon itself:
"This absolutely excellent new publication is the definitive history of the triumph of the Fighting Fantasy book, chronicling their rise, their fall and their 21st century re-birth as essential tablet/phone apps. Crammed full with all the art work you will ever need about the series, maps, full colour paintings, concept work and much much more. Even if you only have a cursory flick through the books back in the day, you NEED to own a copy of this one."

Of course, having said that these are the first reviewers, they are in fact the first reviews written by the book-buying public. YOU ARE THE HERO has already been reviewed by SFX Magazine, and three other individuals, whose quotes appear on the back cover.

If you happen to read YOU ARE THE HERO, a favourable review on Amazon would be much appreciated. And, to be honest, if you're the sort of person who's going to purchase the book in the first place, I would hazard to guess that your review will be a favourable one. ;-)

YOU ARE THE HERO reviewed in SFX 252

The October issue of SFX Magazine came out today* and although YOU ARE THE HERO isn't officially published for another 18 days, it has been reviewed inside.

* I'm not sure why, since it's still August.

Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 - Hitting the Headlines!

Well, the geek press anyway.

YOU ARE THE HERO and FIGHTING FANTASY FEST both get a mention in the latest issues of SFX and SciFiNow magazines.

In SFX, FFF 2014 appears in the 'Event Horizon' part of the mag*, while SciFiNow features a full interview and six-page article with Messrs Jackson and Livingstone**.

Ian Livingstone on Blood of the Zombies, Fighting Fantasy Fest, and Karen Gillan. Obviously.

Perhaps you've stumbled across this very blog because of the aforementioned magazines. Well, have no fear, tickets for FIGHTING FANTASY FEST are still on sale here, and you will soon be able to pre-order your very own copy of YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks (all 270 pages of it!), which now has an official publication date of Sunday 7 September - the same day as FIGHTING FANTASY FEST!

YOU ARE THE HERO in big, bold letters. Cool. 

Curse of the Mummy features one of the ten nastiest deaths in Fighting Fantasy, apparently. 

* Although the piece was written by the work experience girl and features one glaring inaccuracy.

** And Curse of the Mummy even gets a mention!

Steam Golems, Stormslayers and Sunday the Seventh of September

As a result of being tagged in a recent post on the British Steampunk Community Facebook page, I discovered Mini Art Studio's Steampunk miniatures, amongst which I found this Security Golem...

After reminding me that I need to write a piece for SFX magazine about Ted Hughes' The Iron Man, the miniature made me think of my own Steam Golem from Stormslayer...

Stephen Player, the artist who illustrated Stormslayer, teaches an illustration class and has used the art brief for the book with his students. As a result, every once in a while new interpretations of his original illustrations appear online, usually over on DeviantArt, such as these...

The last of these images is by the artist Emerson Tung. Emerson also created an alternative image of the Eye of the Storm (the giant fish-shaped brass flying machine) from the book, which appears in YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks.

And of course YOU ARE THE HERO is going to have its official launch at FIGHTING FANTASY FEST 2014 on Sunday 7 September. Buy your ticket now and become a part of Fighting Fantasy history yourself.

Fighting Fantasy Author Jonathan Green On “The Books That Made Me”

In case you missed it, I was on SFX.co.uk again on Thursday, this time as part of Waterstone's “The Books That Made Me” campaign. (Thanks to Scott Malthouse for making this happen.)

YOU ARE THE HERO gets a mention, as does Pax Britannia and my Dreaming In Darkness novella The Serpent's Egg.

Here's the link...

Beowulf Beastslayer!

“Listen! We of the Spear-Danes in the days of yore, of those clan-kings, heard of their glory, how those nobles performed courageous deeds!”

I am delighted to announce that BEOWULF BEASTSLAYER has been mentioned today on SFX.co.uk. In fact, there's not just a mention - there's a full-blown interview with me about the project.

You can read the interview for yourself here (and thanks to Dave Bradley for making it happen).

In other BEOWULF BEASTSLAYER-related news, it looks like I have both a publisher and an artist on board for the project, so the Kickstarter to fund production of the gamebook is gradually moving closer to launch (although I have plenty to do on YOU ARE THE HERO before that happens).

In case you'll wondering just what exactly BEOWULF BEASTSLAYER is, it's going to be a Fighting Fantasy-style re-telling of the Anglo-Saxon epic. In the book you will play the part of the eponymous hero battling such monsters as Grendel, Grendel's mother and a dragon, as well as sea serpents and all manner of other creatures along the way. Will your adventure follow the course of the original story or will you carve out a new epic all of your own?

To express your interest in this project, please visit the BEOWULF BEASTSLAYER Facebook page, click 'Like', and share the link with all your friends.

A History of A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks

In the build-up to the launch of my History of FF Kickstarter, I thought it might be fun to let you know a little more about how this project came to be in the first place.

2012 was always going to be a big year - and I  don't mean because of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee or the Olympics. 2012 marked the 35th year of 2000AD, 15 years of the Black Library, my 20th year as a freelance writer, and the 30th anniversary of the publication of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain.

With that in mind, I got in touch with David Bradley at SFX Magazine about the possibility of writing a piece about the anniversary. In the end Jes Bickam commissioned me to write the history for the SFX Fantasy Special.

The Legacy of Firetop Mountain was commissioned at 2,000 words. I managed to persuade Jes that 3,000 would be nearer the mark. What I actually handed in at the end of the day was over 7,000 words long, and even then I had only just scraped the surface of the history of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.

When I set about writing the article I contacted all sorts of people who had been involved with FF in the past, but not all of them were able to get back to me before my deadline. And so suddenly I had even more interview material that I wasn't able to use. What I really needed to do was to write a book about the subject.

When I approached Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone about the idea, they were both very enthusiastic and keen to have their story told, and so, several months down the line, here we are, on the verge of the launch of the History of FF Kickstarter.

But if this book is still to happen, it's going to need your support. So tell all your friends, get the buzz going, and watch this space...

Until next time...