40 Years of The Crown of Kings

2025 marks 40 years since the publication of The Crown of Kings, the final volume of Steve Jackson's seminal gamebook miniseries, Sorcery!

The conclusion of the Sorcery! series starts with the Analander climbing through the Xamen Peaks to reach the Mampang Fortress, and then battle their way through the Archmage’s lair. The Crown of Kings came in at a whopping 800 references (a record yet to be broken by any other Fighting Fantasy gamebook) and was as epic an adventure as any Sorcery! fan could have hoped for. It also featured one of the most memorable (and clever) denouements of any adventure ever published, not to mention encounters with a god-headed Hydra and entire societies of birdmen and she-satyrs.

The God-headed Hydra, by John Blanche.

When pressed on the subject of which of the gamebooks he has written are his favourites, Jackson cites two: “Warlock because it was the first. And Sorcery! because it was the most complex. Creating a four-part adventure in which your actions in Book 2 might affect your choices in Book 4 was a real challenge.”

All four volumes are in print again in the UK, courtesy of Scholastic Books. And all four volumes are also now available in Portuguese, from Brazilian publisher Jambô Editora, including The Crown of Kings, which had previously been available in Brazil.

Rather like the recent Danish editions of the Sorcery! series, the Brazilian ones also come with a unique slipcase.

The Brazilian Sorcery! quartet.

The Danish Sorcery! quartet, plus Spell Book.

 

Sagaen om Kongernes Krone

Steve Jackson's legendary Sorcery! quartet has been released in Denmark by Faraos Cigarer as a boxed set that includes The Sorcery! Spell Book. 

You can also buy the titles individually, but the boxed set features John Blanche's painted map of Kakhabad that appeared on the back cover of Issue #5 of Warlock magazine.

Danish speakers and hardcore collectors of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks will find the Sagaen om Kongernes Krone for sale here.

Happy Birthday, John Blanche!

Visionary fantasy artist John Blanche, is 70 years young today!

Anyone who grew up loving Steve Jackson's Sorcery! series in the 1980s with be immediately familiar with illustrations of Jann the Minimite, the Mantis Man of Kharé, the Snattacats of the Forest of Snatta, and the Archmage of Mampang himself, not to mention the effects of sorcerous spells brought to life.

Jann the Minimite

The Mantis Man of Kharé

A Snattacat

The Archmage of Mampang

The YOB Spell in action!

Of course, Blanche also provided the almost hallucinogenic cover paintings for the original Sorcery! releases and painted an image of Kharé - Cityport of Traps for the original large formal release of Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World.

Blanche even produced a full-colour map of the land of Kakhabad to help advertise the series.

Blanche is the art director for Games Workshop and it is his fertile imagination and stunning visuals that have given form to the grim, gothic worlds of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000. But for some, his name will always be synonymous with the land of Kakhabad and Steve Jackson's Sorcery! Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.

So raise a tankard of your favourite foaming pick-me-up and join us in wishing John Blanche a very happy birthday!

Blast from the Past! The Shamutanti Hills

The next tranche of Fighting Fantasy releases from Scholastic Books include the first title in Steve Jackson's seminal Sorcery! series. So it seemed timely today to revisit this classic gamebook title - The Shamutanti Hills!

The first book in the Sorcery! series, aimed squarely at adult gamers, was released in late 1983. TheShamutanti Hills - which bore the dedication ‘To Ian Livingstone’ and which was illustrated inside and out by fantasy art legend John Blanche - saw the commencement of an epic quest to recover the Crown of Kings from the evil Archmage of Kakhabad. In the adventure, the hero has to make his way through the hills of the title, “alive with evil creatures, lawless wanderers and bloodthirsty monsters, the land is riddled with tricks and traps waiting for the unwary traveller.”

Despite being for adults, the game still used the usual Fighting Fantasy gaming mechanics, the cover proudly stating the mantra familiar to Fighting Fantasy fans that, “Two dice, a pencil and an eraser are all you need for this adventure – YOU decide which paths to take, which dangers to risk and which monsters to fight.” The big difference came from what gave the series its name. As well as being a mighty warrior, the hero of the Sorcery! series could also be played as a powerful magic-user.

The ‘simple’ version of the adventure involved the use of no magic whatsoever, as with most FF adventures up until this point (with the notable exception of The Citadel of Chaos). However, there was also the option whereby the reader could opt for the ‘advanced’ version of the game, which relied heavily on magic, with the hero being able to cast a wide range of spells. Each spell cost between 1 and 4 STAMINA points to cast, and each was denoted by a three letter word (following the pattern consonant-vowel-consonant), and often required very specific ingredients to be cast successfully at all.

There was also the option to call on Libra, the goddess of justice, once during the course of the adventure, either to enable the hero to escape a tricky battle, to be cleansed of curses or diseases, or to have their starting attributes restored to their Initial level.

The easiest of the Sorcery! series to complete – and the shortest, despite having 456 references in total, numerous paragraphs being given over to spell-casting rather than plot development – TheShamutanti Hills concludes with the hero battling the Manticore that has appeared on the cover of every edition of the book ever published.

Will Scholastic Books follow in that tradition? We will just have to wait and see...

The Shamutanti Hills is now available as an app from inkle studios.

You can find out more about the creation of the best-selling Sorcery! series - in both book and app form - in Jonathan Green's YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks and YOU ARE THE HERO Part 2, available now from Snowbooks.