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?

Marvellous Maps

The maps that used to appear in the Fighting Fantasy books have always been celebrated, quite rightly, as wonderful works of art.  

Well French Fighting Fantasy fan Alnaro has produced his own maps of some of the most iconic FF adventures, and they too are works of art.

But be warned - spoilers lie ahead!

Alnaro's maps are characterised by the inclusion of creatures, characters and settings that appear in the gamebooks, or on their covers. His map solution for Steve Jackson's The Citadel of Chaos is a perfect example of this.

One of the things that makes Alnaro's map of Ian Livingstone's seminal Deathtrap Dungeon stand out is his portrait of Baron Sukumvit. Another is the fact that it has been presented horizontally, rather than vertically.

The different regions of Fire Island can be clearly seen on this map of Ian Livingstone's Island of the Lizard King, which includes two mini-maps of the gold mine and the prison colony.

Alnaro's map of Scorpion Swamp is less illustrative, but nonetheless striking and effective.

His map of Ian Livingstone's Caverns of the Snow Witch makes it clear what a wide-ranging adventure it is, with the hero travelling from the Icefinger Mountains, across the Pagan Plains to Stonebridge and the Moonstone Hills, and from there to the peak of Firetop Mountain!

Alnaro's map for Vault of the Vampire includes the overland route to Castle Heydrich, as well as detailed plans of the vampire's lair itself.

The beast-haunted land of Lupravia is rendered in exquisite detail in Alarno's solution to Howl of the Werewolf, as is the kingdom of Femphrey that is the location for Stormslayer.

And finally we have the Invisible City, from Charlie Higson's FF adventure The Gates of Death. The Temple of Throff is a nightmare to navigate, but with this map to aid you, you actually have a chance of doing so successfully!

If you have your own maps of your favourite Fighting Fantasy adventures, we want to see them. Find out more here.

Sværd & Trolddom

Now is a great time for collectors of overseas editions of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, and Danish speakers for that matter.

Fighting Fantasy may be almost 40 years old - it is the 40th anniversary next year! - but there are still new translations being published, as well as new titles, of course.

Two of those new titles - Ian Livingstone's The Port of Peril and Charlie Higson's The Gates of Death - feature among Faraos Cigarer's first tranche of releases for Sværd & Trolddom, or 'Swords & Sorcery', as Fighting Fantasy is known in Denmark.

The other two titles are the original Fighting Fantasy gamebook, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, and the seminal City of Thieves.

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain

by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone

City of Thieves

by Ian Livingstone

The Port of Peril

by Ian Livingstone

(Dæmonfyrstens Forbandelse actually translates as 'Curse of the Demon Prince', which was one of the working titles for The Port of Peril.)

The Gates of Death

by Charlie Higson

Fighting Fantasy Guest Authors on BBC Radio 6 this Saturday

Fans of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks will want to tune in to BBC Radio 6 on Saturday morning, between 7:00am and 10:00am.

Rhianna Pratchett and Charlie Higson will be on Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie's show, talking about the titles they have contributed to the FF series in recent years.

Stuary Maconie and Mark Radcliffe.

Crystal of Storms, by Rhianna Pratchett.

The Gates of Death, by Charlie Higson.

Rhianna Pratchett in the Bookseller

Scholastic UK is gearing up for the release of Rhianna Pratchett's brand new Fighting Fantasy gamebook Crystal of Storms, at the end of September, and as a result this article appeared on the online version of The Bookseller on Thursday, International Gamebook Day.

Here are some of the highlights, that will be on interest to Fighting Fantasy fans:

Being tabbed as the newest “special guest” to author a Fighting Fantasy book is something of a childhood dream come true for Rhianna Pratchett. The video game writer and screenwriter was a superfan of the iconic Choose Your Own Adventure-esque series when she was young. Maybe a little overly attached to the books, as they led to an early brush with the long arm of the law (OK, it was the hard nuts at Somerset County Council library services).

“I read Fighting Fantasy a lot as a kid,” Pratchett explains. “I used to get in trouble with my local library for not bringing them back. I remember a threatening letter that they were going to take me to court if I didn't return one of the books. I was reading a lot and I managed to lose it under my bed”

The license was bought and resurrected by Scholastic in 2017, which happily coincided with the series’ 35th anniversary, a burst of ‘80s nostalgia (helped by “Stranger Things” and a resurgence in the popularity of Dungeons & Dragons) and the overall “Game of Thrones” booster shot to the fantasy sector. Suddenly, Fighting Fantasy was cool again. Scholastic has rejacketed and rebooted some backlist, released a tranche of new titles, while Young Bond creator Charlie Higson was the first special guest author to hop on board with The Gates of Death...

Pratchett's Fighting Fantasy title is Crystal of Storms in which the reader/player is a member of the Sky Watch charged with keeping the peace in the floating cloud islands of Pangaria. When one of the islands, Nimbus, crashes into the Ocean of Tempests after an explosion, you set out to explore the other islands, facing off against the elements and sea beasts, in order to try to raise Nimbus from the depths.

Pratchett pitched the idea to Scholastic, inspired by both a portion of Higson’s book in which there was a flying bier, “and I wanted to play with that combination of flying tech/magic idea” and, somewhat more leftfield, after reading of a rare cloud formation mirage that appeared over southern China a few years ago which looked like a floating city... "My tale is maybe a little bit lighter than some others and there is a police procedural element which is quite new to the world. But, I did bring back some classic monsters from the books of the '80s and '90s, and I had a bit of fun with that.”

Click here to read the opening of the adventure.

City of Thieves Live Readthrough

It has come to my attention, through my scrying ball, that your Earthly Plane is currently being ravaged by a terrible disease and, as a result, many of you are unable to leave your homes.

Here in Allansia we are no strangers to pandemics and mass contagions. Most recently Salamonis suffered the effects of a terrible Demon Plague.

To help alleviate the stress of being trapped indoors*, why not join Yaztromo** today, at 3:00pm BST, for a live readthrough of Ian Livingstone's classic Fighting Fantasy gamebook, City of Thieves?

And remember, stay home, stay safe, and keep well.

* Although imagine how stressful it would be if you were living in Port Blacksand?

** Or it may be one of his simulacra minions.

Charlie Higson's The Gates of Death at the Alligator's Mouth Bookclub

The Alligator's Mouth is a children's bookshop in Richmond, Surrey. This Wednesday, 13th February 2019, at 4:00pm, the Alligator's Mouth Book Club is hosting a live reading of Charlie Higson's The Gates of Death.

The team at the Alligator's Mouth is looking for some brave adventurers to help find a cure for a disease that is turning people into demons! They will be reading through as much as of the book as they can, taking it in turns to roll dice for combat and asking for votes on making those tough decisions that make Fighting Fantasy gamebooks so much fun.

In a slight change from the shop's usual Book Club procedure, it is recommended that participants do not read the book beforehand, but it may be too late for that for hardcore Fighting Fantasy fans. There will also be a discussion about other adventure role-play books, and those taking part are welcome to bring their favourites with them to talk about.

Fighting Fantasy and the City of Romans

Last weekend, Fighting Fantasy co-creator Ian Livingstone and The Gates of Death author Charlie Higson appeared together at the Bath Children's Literature Festival to talk about all things FF gamebook-related. The audience was made up of some enthusiastic 10 year-olds and some enthusiastic 40-somethings who had also once been enthusiastic 10 year-olds.

Ian Livingstone and Charlie Higson at the Bath Children's Literature Festival.

Ian and Charlie's talk went down very well - covering everything from the foundation of Games Workshop, through to Charlie's inspiration for a certain contentious character from The Gates of Death - and provoked a number of probing questions from the audience.

Charlie Higson examines the origins of a certain monster in Medieval art.

At the end of the event, having signed books for numerous fans - old and new alike - Ian was the grateful recipient of a model of the Black Lobster tavern, that infamous Port Blacksand drinking den, created by master model-maker Steve Britton.

The Black Lobster Tavern, by Steve Britton.

During the talk, Ian also made an exclusive announcement, slipped in as one of the slides in his PowerPoint presentation...

Fighting Fantasy at the Bath Children's Literature Festival

The Warlock has summoned you to his mountain lair this day to remind you that Ian Livingstone and Charlie Higson will be visiting the Bath Children's Literature Festival, in just over a week's time, to talk about writing Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.

The event is taking place on Saturday 29th September 2018, from 5:30 - 6:30pm, at the Guildhall and is suitable for everyone aged from 9 to 99, or even 999.

Tickets are £7 each and can be booked here.

Charlie Higson is also one of the voices you will hear if you pick up a boxset of four new Fighting Fantasy Audio Dramas, available to pre-order now.

Fighting Fantasy at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone will be appearing at the Edinburgh International Book Festival this weekend, not once but twice.

On Sunday 12th August 2018, between 2:00pm and 3:00pm, Steve and Ian will be at the Baillie Gifford Corner Theatre to take part in a thrilling interactive audio experience in which YOU become the Hero. As the story unfolds, you will be asked to make all the decisions, bringing the worldwide bestselling series of gamebooks to life.

The event is currently sold out, but it may be worth checking for returns nearer the time.

And then on the same day, Sunday 12th August 2018, between 5:30pm and 6:30pm, Steve and Ian will be joined by Charlie Higson to chat about the concept and evolution of the books. Tickets are still available for this event and can be purchased here.

Fighting Fantasy is coming to Bath Children's Literature Festival

The Gates of Death festival tour continues this September, when Ian Livingstone and Charlie Higson will be visiting the Bath Children's Literature Festival to talk about writing Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.

The event is taking place on Saturday 29th September 2018, from 5:30 - 6:30pm, at the Guildhall. Tickets are £7 each and can be booked here.

Charlie recently visited Durston House School in Ealing, where the boys, having been inspired by a previous visit from the author during their annual Literary Festival, had worked together to write their own adventure gamebook, entitled School of Scares.

Back at the end of May, Steve Jackson joined Charlie at the Hay Festival. And here's what Steve had to say about the event:

“Thanks to all those who came along to the Hay-on-Wye Festival of Literature at the end of May to listen to Charlie Higson and I talk about all things FF.

For those who know little about the annual Hay Festival before (like me) this is one of the UK’s largest Book Festivals, in its 31st year.

With Ian and Jon off to UK Games Expo in Birmingham (an unfortunate clash), Charlie and I hosted the Hay event. Scholastic were keen to promote Gates of Death and many copies of Charlie’s gamebook were sold at the signing afterwards. The signing lasted for 50 minutes! Having recently broke a couple of fingers, including my right-hand index finger, many of the fans got rather a scribbly autograph! Sorry about that.

Before we left, we were approached by a familiar face. It was none other than comedian Dara O’Briain, who also read Fighting Fantasy in his youth. And for a few minutes we greeted and congratulated each other, like a meeting of two Japanese businessmen of equal status.

Our talk was packed (tickets sold out well before the event) and it was good to see so many dads who had brought their kids along, helping to pass the FF legacy over to the next generation.

Next stop Edinburgh Festival…"

Charlie Higson and Steve Jackson at the Hay Festival 2018.

Steve Jackson and Charlie Higson at the Hay Festival this Wednesday!

Join the Steve Jackson, co-creator of the Fighting Fantasy series of adventure gamebooks, and long-time fan Charlie Higson, at the Hay Festival, to hear all about Charlie's new book, The Gates of Death.

Suitable for anyone age 9 and above, the Fighting Fantasy talk takes place on Wednesday 30th May 2018 in Hay-on-Wye, between 4:00pm - 5:00pm, and tickets can be purchased from the box office here.

Steve Jackson, Charlie Higson and Ian Livingstone at Forbidden Planet.

Steve Jackson and Charlie Higson appearing at the Barnes Children's Literature Festival

Steve Jackson, co-creator of the Fighting Fantasy series of adventure gamebooks - and author of such classic titles as The Citadel of Chaos, House of Hell, and Creature of Havoc - will be appearing at the Barnes Children's Literature Festival tomorrow, Saturday 12th May 2018.

He will be joined by the actor, comedian and newest FF author Charlie Higson, to talk about Charlie's new book The Gates of Death and all things Fighting Fantasy.

Their talk will be taking place at the Kitson Hall from 5:00pm - 6:00pm, and is suitable for anyone aged 9 and above. Tickets are only £5 each.

To find out more and to book tickets, follow this link.

The Gates of Death is CBBC's Book of the Month for May 2018!

Charlie Higson's new Fighting Fantasy gamebook, The Gates of Death, has garnered a lot of press coverage since it's release last month, along with five further classic titles by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone.

As well as being an Amazon bestseller, the book has been mentioned in The Guardian and The Metro, while Charlie was interviewed on BBC Radio 2 and ITV.

Pleasingly, news of the book has also been picked up by children's news media and has featured in The Week Junior as well as First News.

And now The Gates of Death has been selected as CBBC's Book of the Month! You can find out more, and post your own review of the book, here.