We’re on the penultimate book from the first run of Fighting Fantasy novels and it’s also writer Keith Martin’s swan song after eight books. Revenge of the Vampire is a direct sequel to the excellent Vault of the Vampire and sees Martin re-united with artist Martin McKenna. It’s a great creative pairing but is Revenge of the Vampire on the same level as Vault of the Vampire? Listen along to find out.
Episode 57 - Magehunter
We’ve reached book 57 and Magehunter by Paul Mason with art by Russ Nicholson and cover art by Ian Miller. This one has a reputation for being quite the Chinese puzzle box of a gamebook but is that reputation justified? Also will we hunt a mage? Yes. Yes we will. Good job Magehunter on a fully accurate title.
Episode 54 - The Legend of Zagor
Book 54 sees us tackle Zagor, the warlock of Firetop Mountain himself for the third and so far final time. Written by Keith Martin but attributed to Ian Livingstone for some reason it sees us plunge into a new world, Amarillia and search through a magical castle in search of the items that will help us to slay the evil warlock once and for all.
Don’t forget that the Lindenbaum Prize will also be opening for submissions soon. This is your chance to win actual money for writing a 100 section gamebook. The winner will be decided by a popular vote and the considerations of a panel of judges (including me). Find all the information here: https://www.lloydofgamebooks.com/2024/11/20242025-lindenbaum-prize-announcement.html
Bonus Episode - The Crystal Maze
This bonus episode sees HJDoom tackle the gamebook adaptation of the enormously popular and enormously difficult 90s TV game show The Crystal Maze in which teams of players do fiendishly difficult tasks at the behest of a bald musical theatre legend and get the slender chance to win a cheese platter in the titular maze. It’s a cult classic but will it transfer to the gamebook format? With Dave Morris and Jamie Thomson at the helm there’s a fair chance it will.
This episode is made possible by the generosity of my patrons at www.patreon.com/hjdoom. As well as supporting bonus content all patrons sent a whole bevvy of gaming materials and access to my patreon blog where I’m currently writing a development diary as I write a new gamebook.
Bonus Episode - Heart of Ice
It’s bonus episode time again! This time we’re playing through Dave Morris’s seminal Heart of Ice, often touted as the very finest adventure gamebook of all time. It’s the 24th century and Earth has gone very strange indeed as a quixotic computer messes with the climate and the human race clings to an increasingly precarious existence. It as has art by Russ Nicholson which always makes me happy. These bonus episodes, which are free to everyone, are only made possible by the generosity of my patrons. If you’d like to contribute to the running of this podcast, as well as getting a few freebies, then you can do so at patreon.com/hjdoom.