Friday 10 January 2020

Gamebook Friday: Curse of the Mummy is 25 years old this year!

My third Fighting Fantasy gamebook, Curse of the Mummy, will be 25 years old later this year*. I was recently reminded of this fact when Family Green visited the Tutankhamun exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London. (Tickets are still available.)


It must be the fourth time I've seen artefacts from King Tut's tomb - twice in situ in Egypt, and once before in the UK - and I even wrote my university thesis on Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egyptian Art. So you won't be surprised to learn that Curse of the Mummy isn't the only thing I've written that was inspired by the wonders of Ancient Egypt.

Egyptian death and the afterlife: mummies (Rooms 62-3)** appeared in The Book of the Dead, published by Jurassic London in 2013.

Then there was Worthless Remains, a Ulysses Quicksilver Pax Britannia story that was published in Clockwork Cairo: Steampunk Tales of Egypt. (There was also a Spring-Heeled Jack story called Favoured Son that was never actually written but which had a strong Egyptian theme.)

Wonderful Things came out last year in Scarlet Traces: A War of the Worlds Anthology, and even featured Howard Carter as the protagonist!

Of course, any Warhammer 40,000 story about the Necrons - like as But Dust in the Wind - comes with an automatic Ancient Egyptian hit, but in my most recent such tale, Journey of the Magi, is a double whammy, since a trio of Thousand Sons' sorcerers are the protagonists.

I also have an idea for a Egyptian-themed Scrooge & Marley (Deceased) story, and the ACE Gamebook I will be writing next is another cursed tome - Dracula - Curse of the Vampire - which will be illustrated by Martin McKenna, who also happened to illustrate Curse of the Mummy!


* This is going to be a regular thing now, since I've been published every year since 1993. There was a hiatus from 1998-2001, when I didn't have any books published, but in that time I still had short stories and magazine articles come out in the name.

** Which has to be the weirdest title I've ever used for a published story.

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