Gamebook Friday: Review of the Year - 2025

Strangely, 2025 will go down in history for me as the Year of Valiant, even though all most of you have heard about the Valiant gamebook appeared in this news item back in September.

I started this year finishing writing the first Valiant gamebook, and have ended the year working on the second. Valiant will be out in March, so look out for more news about that in the New Year.

Out before then is my third Arkham Horror gamebook, The Kingsport Metamorphosis, which was announced during Arkham Horror Week in October, after The Tides of Innsmouth was published in the Spring. To find out more about any of my Arkham Horror gamebooks, click the image below.

Last, but most definitely not least, among the gamebooks I have worked on this year, is Shakespeare Vs. Cthulhu: What Dreams May Come, which came out in ACE Gamebooks' 10th anniversary year.

As of writing, it has received three 5-star reviews on Amazon, one of which has been written in the style of William Shakespeare himself:

"O gentle reader, lend thine ear awhile,

And hark to Shakespeare Vs. Cthulhu: What Dreams May Come,

A book most strange, where inked worlds intertwine—

The Avon bard with eldritch horrors wed."

This was the first ACE Gamebook I have self-published, and the first book my son has laid out, and I am very pleased with the result. Two overseas publishers have already signed up to release the book in their territroies, which is very exciting.

Talking of overseas editions of my books, there weren't so many this year - certainly not compared to last year's seven! There was a new edition of La Nuit du Loup-Garou (the French language version of Howl of the Werewolf) and Pax Britannia: Unnatural History was published in Hungary.

Next year, however, I am expecting a glut of overseas editions of my gamebooks.

In terms of events, this year I attended AireCon, Dragonmeet: Call to Adventure, the UK Games Expo, and Dragonmeet. I already have my place booked at UK Games Expo 2026, and next September we will be holding Fighting Fantasy Fest 6 in West London.

My wife turned 50 in 2025 and it was her desire to visit 12 places she had never been to before in 12 months. This resulted in us going overseas five times! The countries we visited were Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Hungary, and Denmark. 

Yours Truly in Faraos Cigarer, in Copenhagen, with my Danish FF gamebooks. 

All of them were amazing and have provided me with all sorts of material for future stories or games, especially an exhibition at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen about the role of the Sorceress in Viking culture. I even got to see the lengendary Gundestrup Cauldron in the flesh, as it were.

An image of the horned god Cerunnos on the Gundestrup Cauldron.

I have also had some health issues to contend with this year, which I need to get a better handle on in 2026, but throughout it all - the highs and the lows - I continue to have my furry companion by my side.

Conker the Cavapoo is now three!

In the New Year I will continue to work on the second Valiant gamebook, but I also have a new gamebook coming to Kickstarter. So, watch this space.

Wishing you a very happy and healthy New Year!