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.

 

Happy New Year!

Back in 1985, the Fighting Fantasy series was in full swing. During that year, seven FF gamebooks were published, five of which just happened to have a non-traditional fantasy setting.

The seven books were, Space Assassin, Freeway Fighter, Temple of Terror, The Rings of Kether, Seas of Blood, Appointment with F.E.A.R., and Rebel Planet.

The final book in Steve Jackson's Sorcery! series was also published in 1985 - The Crown of Kings!

And then there was the Fighting Fantasy monster manual, Out of the Pit.

Last, but by no means least, was the FF adjacent puzzle book The Tasks of Tantalon, written by Steve Jackson and illustrated by Steve Lavis.

Over the coming year, you can expect deep dives into these classic gamebooks and other publications, that are marking their 40th anniversary this year, here on the official Fighting Fantasy blog. 

But in the meantime, you can get an insight into the creation of all of these titles in YOU ARE THE HERO: An Interactive History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks.

The Steve Jackson Fighting Fantasy Collection 40th Anniversary boxset

The Steve Jackson Fighting Fantasy Collection 40th Anniversary boxset is released today in Japan, having been delayed from the end of last year.

The boxset includes the Japanese editions of Steve Jackson's Sorcery! quartet as well as his newest book, Secrets of Salamonis, and is available now.

The Fighting Fantasy 40th Anniversary celebration in Japan

The Steve Jackson Fighting Fantasy Collection 40th Anniversary boxset will now be released in Japan on 16th February 2024.

The boxset includes the Sorcery! quartet and Steve's newset book Secrets of Salamonis, and it is available for pre-order now.

God Save the King!

It probably hasn't escaped your notice that tomorrow is the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.

Royalty has long been a staple of fantasy stories, and that includes adventure gamebooks. So, today we thought we would count down some of Fighting Fantasy's baddest and best monarchs. But be warned, spoilers abound!

#5 - King Salamon LVII - The Gates of Death

The highly respected current ruler of Salamonis first appeared in Steve Jackson's Fighting Fantasy novel, The Trolltooth Wars, and then in Dungeoner, the first book in the Advanced Fighting Fantasy series.

However, when he was next encountered in Charlie Higson's The Gates of Death, he had become infected by a terrible demon plague and... wasn't quite himself.

#4 - King Gillibran - The Forest of Doom

King Gillibran Ironhelm III is the ruler of the Dwarves of Stonebridge. It is he who you are trying to aid by recovering his fabled warhammer in Sir Ian Livingstone's The Forest of Doom, so that he can continue to defend the town against the predations of the Hill Trolls that live to the east in the Moonstone Hills.

#3 - The Serpent Queen - City of Thieves

The Serpent Queen is under the protection of Lord Azzur and can be encountered in Sir Ian Livingstone's City of Thieves.

She is a woman with the head of a giant serpent, the result of terrible experiments performed by Caarth sorcerer-priests in the Desert of Skulls, and her bite is most definitely worse than her bark!

#2 - King Salamon LVII - Secrets of Salamonis

Having not appeared in a Fighting Fantasy gamebook until 2018, only four years later King Salamon returned in 2022, in Steve Jackson's Secrets of Salamonis. The reason for his second appearance on the list is because the previous listing was for his evil demonic self, while in Secrets of Salamonis he is as noble, wise and generous as you might have previously been led to believe.

#1 - The Lizard King - Island of the Lizard King

There is only one monarch whose name appears in the title of a Fighting Fantasy gamebook and that is the Lizard King of Fire Island. Armed with a lethal sword and protected by his pet Black Lion, he is a truly formidable foe. And you have to battle your way past his entire army before you can even face him in single combat!

Bubbling under: the Liche Queens of Trial of Champions and Night of the Necromancer, the Pharaoh Akharis the Accursed from Curse of the Mummy, and Queen Zyteea of the Usai tribe who appears in Bloodbones.

So, who is your favourite Fighting Fantasy monarch? Let us know in the comments below?

Complete the Quest

And the Crown of Kings shall be yours!

This April, Scholastic Books will release the final two parts of Steve Jackson's Sorcery! epic. And each one features brand new cover art by Rob Ball.

Which is next on your reading list?

The Cartography of Kakhabad

Last week, we introduced you to the marvellous maps of FF fan Alnaro.

Well, it is not only the standard Fighting Fantasy series that he has mapped - he has also used his artistic talents to create a quartet of cartographic wonders for Steve Jackson's Sorcery! series. And here they are...

The Shamutanti Hills

Kharé - Cityport of Traps

The Seven Serpents

The Crown of Kings

The Crown of Kings - 35 years of magic

2020 marks the 35th anniversary of the publication of The Crown of Kings, the fourth and concluding adventure of Steve Jackson's seminal Sorcery! series.

Jackson conceived the epic gamebook experiment after holidaying in Nepal, and several of the settlements that appear in The Shamutanti Hills, the first book in the quartet, are named after actual villages he came across on a five day trek he undertook from the city of Pokhara.

The Shamutanti Hills concludes with the hero - the Analander - battling the Manticore that has appeared on the cover of every edition of the book ever published. The second book in the series, Kharé – Cityport of Traps, charts the hero’s challenging journey through the titular city to the spell-locked Northern Gate, through which he has to pass to continue the quest for the Crown of Kings.

The Seven Serpents, the third book in the series, takes the hero across the inhospitable Baklands – a treacherous wilderness of deserts, forests, and swamps – and a vast lake, as the Analander attempts to hunt down and do away with the Archmage’s assassin-agents of the title, seven deadly and magical serpents. And in The Crown of Kings, the hero has to climb through the Xamen Peaks to the Mampang Fortress, and then battle his way through the Archmage’s lair.

The Crown of Kings was a whopping 800 references in length - a record yet to be broken by any other Fighting Fantasy gamebook) – was a suitably epic finale to Sorcery! series, and 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.

When Jackson talks about the Sorcery! series, he does so, understandably, with great fondness. When pressed on the subject of which of the gamebooks he has written are his favourites, he 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. Also making sure they were all good adventures in their own right; you didn’t need to have completed Sorcery 1 to play Sorcery 2. I was very proud of Sorcery!”

Of course, in more recent years, the Sorcery! series has been turned into a series of apps by inkle studios, as well as a multi-player role-playing campaign published by Arion Games, while the first two parts of the Analander's momentous quest are now in print again, courtesy of Scholastic Books.

     

Advanced Fighting Fantasy Bundles of Holding

Greetings, Adventurer.

Are you ready to undertake a new quest? The quest to find the Bundles of Holding and recover the treasures contained within?

Launched in 2013 by longtime adventure gaming writer and game designer Allen Varney, the Bundle of Holding has presented hundreds of bargain-priced, time-limited offers of tabletop role-playing game PDF rulebooks and RPG-related ebooks. Not only that, but ten percent of the revenue from each Bundle of Holding offer (after payment gateway fees) is donated to a charity. Since its founding, the Bundle of Holding has made donations totalling over half a million dollars to more than three dozen recognised institutions, mostly chosen by the contributing publishers.

And now Advanced Fighting Fantasy is back on Bundle of Holding. Presented here in its handsome 2011 Second Edition, as published by Arion Games, Advanced Fighting Fantasy is a complete role-playing game set in the classic Fighting Fantasy world, with a fast and adaptable system ideal for beginners and well suited to long-term campaigns.

For just US$7.95 you get all four titles in this revived offer's Starter Collection (retail value $40) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks:

• Advanced Fighting Fantasy Second Edition: Graham Bottley's completely rewritten RPG (2011) that revises Marc Gascoigne's original 1989 rules and adds lots of new material.
• Heroes Companion: Mass battle rules, loads of new magical styles, wilderness creation, organisations, hirelings, and more.
• The Sorcery Spell Book: The AFF version of the grimoire from Steve Jackson's four-book Sorcery! gamebook series (1983-85).
• Out of the Pit: The original, indispensable monster book with 250 loathsome creatures.

And if you pay more than this revival's threshold price of $18.29, you'll level up and also get this offer's entire Bonus Collection with five more titles worth an additional $59:

• Crown of Kings - The Sorcery Campaign: A full-length campaign based on the Sorcery! series.
• Beyond the Pit: Another 250 dangerous and intriguing denizens of Titan.
• Titan: A 128-page sourcebook about the Fighting Fantasy world. Discover Titan's history, kingdoms, and great powers. Includes the Titan Map.
• Blacksand: The City of Thieves, Port Blacksand, is home to rogues and pirates, and a destination for the bravest Heroes. This sourcebook adds rules for Firepowder weapons, naval sorcery, and sailing. Includes the Blacksand Map.
• The Warlock of Firetop Mountain: A full-length RPG scenario based on the first and most famous Fighting Fantasy gamebook.

And that's not all! Also available now is the More Fighting Fantasy bundle, with recent supplements and adventures. Three of these supplements are debuting in this offer and have never been available until now!

For just US$9.95 you get all six supplements in this offer's Starter Collection (retail value $38) as DRM-free PDF ebooks, including Rough Guide to the Pit, Demons of Doom, The Titan Herbal, and three short AFF adventures: Crooked King's Cup, The Floating Dungeon of Varrak Aslur, and Inn of Lost Hope.

And if you pay more than this offer's threshold price of $20.29, you'll level up and also get this offer's entire Bonus Collection with seven more titles worth an additional $57, including the three titles premiering here: the monster manual Return to the Pit, the city guide Travels in Arion (plus the Map of Arion), and the Weapons and Armour Catalogue for Stellar Adventures. You also get the rest of the Stellar ebook line - the rulebook itself, its Starship Catalogue, and the four-part scenario The Kaladarian Response.

The charity designated by Arion Games owner Graham Bottley that these bundles will support is CoppaFeel. "My wife has been selected to be part of a team of 100 inspirational people trekking through the Himalayas in October to raise money for the breast cancer awareness charity CoppaFeel," says Graham.

Don't delay - in 20 days these offers will have expired!