"The modern master of the gamebook format" (Rob Sanders)... "Can do dark very well" (Jonathan Oliver)... "Green gets mileage out of his monsters" (SFX Magazine)... "It takes a firm editorial hand and a keen understanding of the tone of each piece to make a collection this diverse work, and Green makes it look effortless" (Starburst Magazine)... "A charming blend of camp creatures, humour, and genuine horror" (Set the Tape)
Remember, the USP of this series is that you can play through any adventure as any Investigator.
So, those currently available to download from ArkhamHorror.com are...
The Kingsport Metamorphosis Jacqueline Fine, the Psychic Lucius Galloway, the Dreamer Lola Hayes, the Actress
The Tides of Innsmouth Silas Marsh, the Sailor KÅhaku Narukami, the Folklorist Marion Tavares, the Trawler
The Darkness Over Arkham Agnes Baker, the Waitress Nathaniel Cho, the Boxer Rex Murphy, the Reporter
Bonus Investigators George Barnaby, the Lawyer Stella Clarke, the Letter Carrier Skids O'Toole, the Ex-Con Amanda Sharpe, the Student Sister Mary, the Nun (released to mark the publication of The Kingsport Metamorphosis)
These are the 14 Investigators available to download from ArkhamHorror.com.
However, there are two more Investigators available - Jenny Barnes the Dilettante, and Joe Diamond the Private Investigator - whose character sheets can be found in the graphic novel The Terror at the End of Time.
So, I think you will agree, the Arkham Horror Investigators Gamebooksoffer endless replayability, and any Investigators that might be released in the future will also be compatible with any existing adventure in the series.
First published in 2012 as part of Monstrous Missions, and later released as a self-contained novel for the US market in 2016, in Terrible Lizards, the Eleventh Doctor and his friends join a group of explorers on a Victorian tramp steamer in the Florida Everglades. The explorers are searching for the Fountain of Youth, but neither they nor the treasure they seek are quite what they seem...
If you are interested in peeking behind the curtain, to find out how a book comes to be, you can listen to the podcast here. And you can order pre-loved copies of the novel here.
You are an Arkham Investigator – your choices will decide the outcome of a terrible murder mystery and a sinister plot threatening Arkham – in this brand new gamebook adventure in the world of Arkham Horror.
When a renowned professor is found dead, it’s up to the Investigators of Arkham to discover what occult horrors were involved. Pick your path, Investigator, and collect allies along the way to hunt down his killer before they strike again. However, Arkham is full of mysteries, with many wishing to keep the truth buried, and who are hungry to usher in a new era full of death and darkness to devour the world as you know it. Can you stop them before it is too late?
The Darkness Over Arkham is released in the US and as a global eBook on 7 May 2024, and in the UK on 18 July 2024.
In case you haven't been following my Twitter and Facebook feeds, Moon Knight: Age of Anubis, my first Marvel gamebook, is published in the US today in paperback today, and around the work as a global ebook! Several reviewers have read it already, and the good news is they like it.
"I know less than nothing about Moon Knight and am about five movies behind in the MC Universe, but thankfully it didn’t matter one iota. I have a massive amount of nostalgia-laden affection for adventure gamebooks anyway, and this one is an absolute blast... The story itself is solid and of good quality. This is much better than some of the writing found in old “Choose Your Own Adventure” type books (I write this with fondness for those books, of course)... More than anything, it’s a sense of adventure that shines through loud and clear. That’s the most important part of this gamebook: the enthusiasm of the author is contagious.
My character may have lost multiple times, but Moon Knight: Age of Anubis is a sure winner!"
"I am happy to report that Moon Knight: Age of Anubis was more than a one-hit wonder. I read it through multiple times without repeating many scenes. And even with a couple of repeated scenes, each round felt unique and held my interest. What’s more, I know that I still have plenty of scenes I never even got to. This means that I can read it through several more times (at least) and get different adventures each time... So if you’re looking for some fun and have an hour to spare, pick up Moon Knight: Age of Anubis and save the world with Moon Knight!"
I know I'm a little late to the party, sharing what 100 years of the BBC means to me, but it took Sunday night's episode of Doctor Who - Jodie Whittaker's last as the Thirteenth Doctor - to prompt me into action.
I have not been a fan of Thirteen's run for one major reason, the poor quality of the writing. There have been some great scenarios, but Chris Chibnall never seemed to make the pay off worthy of the set up. And don't get me started on how he messed with the lore*.
Every series has had its dud episodes and, in my opinion, your typical season is roughly 50% good and 50% bad, apart from a few standout series, notably Season 3. (But more on that later.) However, in the case of Thirteen there were barely any episodes that could be considered good across all three series.
Having slept on it, I think that The Power of the Doctor was the best Jodie Whittaker episode of them all, with some lovely nods to Classic Who and past companions, as well as past Doctors.
Warning! Some of what comes next could be considered spoilers, so if you've not watched The Power of the Doctor yet and you intend to, best stop reading now...
Still here? Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you.
My favourite bits included:
The return of Ashad.
The return of Graham.
"And if that's not enough, I was an air hostess in the early Eighties."
"Nitro 999."
"Tag, you're it!"
"I know these teeth."
Durdle Door**
I feel that the most consistently strong series was David Tennant's second as the Tenth Doctor, i.e. Season 3. Which is why I'm excited to see what Russell T Davies comes up with for the 60th anniversary next year.
Season 3 is special to me for another reason - it's when I started writing tie-in fiction for Doctor Who. First was The Horror of Howling Hill, a Decide Your Destiny gamebook featuring the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones, published in 2008.
Who knows whether I will return to Doctor Who in the future, but I would never turn down an opportunity to write for TV's favourite Time Lord.
But the BBC means more to me than just Doctor Who. Its programmes have inspired me over the years and will have inevitably influenced the content of the stories I have told. And to top it all, once I was interviewed about Fighting Fantasy gamebooks for Radio 4.
So thank you, BBC, and here's to the next 100 years!
* I hope not irrevocably.
** Just up the coast from Broadchurch. May Jodie or Chibs have a house down there in Dorest.
In other news, Further Associates of Sherlock Holmes, edited by George Mann, is still available to buy. Why am I telling you this? Because it contains my first published Sherlock Holmes short story, Sherlock Holmes and the Beast of Bodmin.
This wonderful anthology includes stories by Stephen Baxter, I. N. J. Culbard, Adam Roberts, Emma Beeby, James Lovegrove, Nathan Duck, Mark Morris, Dan Whitehead, Chris Roberson, Maura McHugh, Andrew Lane, and Yours Truly.
My story, Paradise, sees a gang of Orlocks looking for a lost dome, rumoured to be an oasis of fresh water and clean air; a veritable... paradise. But the Dust Dogs aren't the only ones searching for it...
Paradise is the first piece of Necromundan fiction I have had published since 2003.
The 'Other Stories' include four of mine, that first saw print a few years ago. If you missed them at the time, look out for Judge Fear's Big Day Out and Other Stories when it is published on 12th November.
Some of you may remember that back in 2016 I wrote a novelisation of the unmade Robin of Sherwood TV movie The Knights of the Apocalypse.
If you're a fan of the seminal '80s sword and sorcery TV series, or even if you've never seen a single episode before, you might be interested to know that the show is being repeated, from the beginning, from 13th July on ITV4.
When one choice can lead to triumph or failure, life or death, glory or destruction . . . which will you choose? With Choose the Future, YOU decide how, when, where and with whom the Doctor will fight to save the world! In this brand new adventure, Night of the Kraken, the Twelfth Doctor meets a roguish time-smuggler and faces a terrifying creature from the deep with a plan to destroy the Earth. The fate of the Doctor and the universe he protects are in your hands...
Basically it's Doctor Who meets Poldark meets H P Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. What more do you need to know?
Wonderland, the anthology of original works inspired by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane, is published today by Titan Books.
Featuring 18 stories by the likes of M. R.Carey, Genevieve Cogman, James Lovegrove, Alison Littlewood, Cav Scott, George Mann, Catriona Ward and Yours Truly, reviewers and book bloggers have been going all Mad Hatter over the book.
Here's what one reviewer had to say: "There is something for everyone here... What the anthology tells me as a whole, is that Lewis Carroll’s story is a living entity, ripe for adaptation and inspiring to every new generation and reader."
Tin Man Games are having another sale of their games on Steam, and among the titles on offer at a knockdown price are The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, which I worked on, and my Warhammer 40,000 gamebook Herald of Oblivion.
In the June of 1997, issue #210 of White Dwarf magazine was published and contained within was a strange pull-out called Inferno! "Issue Zero". It was a teaser for a forthcoming bi-monthly short story magazine, being put out by a new branch of Games Workshop, the Black Library. One of the stories contained within the taster copy of Inferno! was The Hounds of Winter, by Your Truly.
Skip forward 21 years and Inferno! is coming back this week, in the form of a short story anthology, and to celebrate Black Library are making the early issues of the original Inferno! available again through their Print on Demand service. Which means that you can get your hands on hard-to-get-hold-of short stories of mine, including the ever-popular Salvation - a story of Ultramarines, Tyranids and humanity that appeared in Inferno! #1 - and the first ever Nathan Creed Necromunda story Bad Spirits, which appeared in issue #3, not to mention the Kislevite mercenaries versus vampires slug-fest that is Dark Heart, in issue #5.
To find out more, simply follow this link. But don't hang around - this offer is only available for one month!
And in case you're wondering, I wrote a total of 13 short stories for the original incarnation of Inferno! - five Torben Badenov stories, five Nathan Creed stories, two Space Marines stories, and one Warhammer fire wizard story - along with various comic strips and other pieces.
George Mann's latest anthology of Sherlock Holmes' stories is published today. Entitled Further Associates of Sherlock Holmes, it contains my first published Sherlock Holmes short story, itself entitled Sherlock Holmes and the Beast of Bodmin.
The premise behind the anthology is that each story is told by one of Holmes' associates, in my case Sir Henry Baskerville, the poor put upon subject of the murder plot in The Hound of the Baskervilles (which is one of only four Sherlock Holmes novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle).
The following is taken from the book and explains why I chose Sir Henry to be the narrator of my tale.
The Hound of the Baskervilles has long been my favourite Sherlock Holmes story, so it was only natural that I would choose that as my jumping off point. This time last year I was in Cornwall, and crossed Bodmin Moor, which is allegedly home to its own beast.
This year I am in Cornwall again and on the way down visited Lanhydrock House, which could easily pass for Baskerville Hall - or even Trelawny Hall from Sherlock Holmes and the Beast of Bodmin.
A vast island chain, covered in the ruins of ancient and otherworldly civilizations, the Archipelago appears every few centuries, far out in the southern ocean.
At such times, pirates, adventurers, wizards, and legendary heroes all descend upon the islands in the hopes of finding lost treasures and powerful artefacts. A few, drawn by the blood of their ancestors, search for the fabled Crystal Pool, whose waters grant abilities far beyond those of normal men.
It is only the bravest, however, who venture into the islands, for they are filled with numerous deadly threats. Cannibal tribes, sorcerous serpent-men, and poisonous water-beasts all inhabit the island ruins, guarding their treasure hordes and setting traps for the unwary.
This book of fiction collects all-new stories set within the Ghost Archipelago, including my own A Nice Little Nest Egg.
There's also a killer cat in my short story Sherlock Holmes and the Beast of Bodmin that appears in Further Associates of Sherlock Holmes - edited by George Mann and published by Titan Books - that's coming out later this month.
The Kickstarter to fund production of SHARKPUNK 2launches at midday GMT on Saturday 28th January 2017.
SHARKPUNK 2 will be available to backers of the Kickstarter in three different formats - eBook, paperback, and a special faux sharkskin effect bound hardback.
If you just want the eBook, your basic pledge is the MAKO SHARK reward.
If you want the paperback, your basic pledge is the GREENLAND SHARK reward.
And if you want the hardback, your basic pledge is the GREAT WHITE reward.
But remember, there are also are all manner of other rewards on offer, including a very limited number of Sky Sharks postcards signed by the movie's director Marc Fehse.
One of the more unusual, unexpected, and unforgettable gigs of my writing career (which is 25 years young this July) was being invited to write the novelisation of Richard 'Kip' Carpenter's unmade teleplay for Robin of Sherwood: The Knights of the Apocalypse.
Whilst writing it early last year, and immersing myself in all things Sherwood again, I was reminded of various landmarks in my life that featured the very best interpretation of the Robin Hood legend on screen, ever!
I was a teenager when the series was first televised. I remember balmy summer evenings, making sure I was back home after playing with my friends in the street to watch Robin of Sherwood, and having to draw the curtains to avoid the sunlight reflecting off the tiny TV screen. I was oblivious at the time to the fact that a fair proportion of the viewing public would be watching it for the tousled, '80s-mullet good looks of the lead actor(s)* - I tuned in to enjoy stories of action and adventure, of derring-do and dastardly deeds, of mysticism and paganism.
It was the magical and supernatural elements of the show that appealed to me the most, and what made the programme so different from all the other on-screen iterations. I thought the addition of the pagan shaman Herne was inspired, I couldn't quite believe the Baron de Belleme was about to carry out a satanic sacrifice on what was purportedly a children's show in Robin Hood and the Sorcerer, I was chilled by the appearance of Cromm Cruac, and I thrilled at the arrival of the gigantic wolf's head in The Time of the Wolf. I particularly delighted at the twist ending to the episode Rutterkin. But most of all I was blown away by The Swords of Wayland, with the angelic figure of Lucifer being summoned via the method of reversed-wax-melting.
When Robin of Sherwood was on, the Sunday morning after would find my friends and I in the local church choir dissecting the incidents of the previous night's episode when we were supposed to be getting ready to sing the anthem at the Eucharist.
Jump forward a few years and I found myself sharing a house with nine other young people in Leamingston Spa, all of us students of Warwick University. It turned out that I wasn't the only one upon whom Robin of Sherwood had made such a big impact. My friend Mike - who everyone called Bez at the time, as you do - was also a fan. Saturdays would often find us trawling the local video hire shop for shockingly-bad horror movies to watch that evening.
But one particular day we made a diversion to WHSmith, where we found Robin of Sherwood on sale in VHS format. Being poor, impoverished students, we decided to go halves on The Swords of Wayland two-parter. Taking it back to our rented house, we watched it for the first time since it had been on TV half a decade or more before - and it was just as good as we all remembered, if not even better, because our mutual friend Dave had a much bigger TV than my parents did at home.
When the time came to leave university, I somehow managed to inherit The Swords of Wayland (I'm still not sure how or why) and it inspired me to shell-out some of my hard-earned cash (I was a published author by then) to buy all three series on video, which were replaced, in time, by DVD box sets.
Robin of Sherwood had a big impact on my writing career, long before I came to write The Knights of the Apolcalypse novelisation. My first published book, the Fighting Fantasy adventure gamebook Spellbreaker, features a band of outlaws, each bearing a moniker that could have easily described one of Kip Carpenter's Merries - Outlaw Leader, Scarred Ruffian, Staff-Wielding Outlaw, Veteran Brigand - and their leader just happened to be in possession of a magic swords. My second book, Knights of Doom, featured a Mercenary Champion, who looked suspiciously like Nasir when he was taking part in Owen of Clun's death game, and even some dodgy mummers.
Later, when I was working as a teacher in West London, I wrote a Christmas production about the history of Christmas**. One scene featured a mummer's play; I adapted the mummer's play from the Robin of Sherwood episode The Lord of the Trees, finished it off in the same style, the play having no ending in the show.
And the tone of the show, the quality of the writing, its heart, its warmth and its humour, has stayed with me ever since. Every couple of years I watch the shows again, in order, and I'm looking forward to introducing them to my children next time. (I listen to Clannad's soundtrack album Legend even more often***.)
Having loved Robin of Sherwood for more than two-thirds of my life (and 'loved' is not a word I use lightly) I am always wary of new adaptations and wonder how some people can dare to do Robin Hood again when the definitive version was produced back in the 1980s. But that said, I have an itch to tackle the legend myself, in my own way, by putting a spin on things. Will it be ready by the time the third Hooded Man convention takes place in 2018? Who knows, but the thing is, it doesn't really matter, because I'm the lucky so-and-so who got to write Robin of Sherwood again, 30 years after the show ended.
Talking of which, because The Knights of the Apolcalypse novelisation wasn't available anywhere outside of the original Indiegogo campaign to fund the audio version, there's no one convenient place for people to leave their comments and reviews. If you would like to do so - and reviews, no matter how brief, are always very valuable and helpful for authors - please feel free to do so in the comments after this blog post. After all, nothing's forgotten...
Here's to you, Mike! :-)
* Something which only really dawned on me when I attended my first Hooded Man convention back in 2014!
*** The show is also responsible for my life-long love of Clannad. I think I possibly wrote Spellbreaker whilst listening to their album Legend on loop!
It's arrived! Six and a half months after I completed the manuscript, I am now in possession of copies of my novelisation of Richard 'Kip' Carpenter's Robin of Sherwood: The Knights of the Apocalypse.
A number of people have already received theirs and have given glowing reports of the book, which is always pleasing, but the best thing I've seen online to date is this!
I'm a big fan of the Series 3 episode 'Cromm Cruac', so inevitably I love cuddly Cromm.
I loved Robin of Sherwood as a child, and it is one of those things that has influenced me as a writer, with my early books in particular often referencing elements of the show. When I was watching it on TV back in the 1980s I certainly never imagined that one day I would end up authoring a Robin of Sherwood book.
I grew up close to where much of the series was filmed and I must remember to take a copy to the Tithe Barn in Bardford-on-Avon* next time I'm down in Wiltshire, for another photo op.
One day, when I have more time, I must write a blog post about my experience of Robin of Sherwood fandom, and the path that lead me to adapt Kip Carpenter's last Robin of Sherwood script - including the part my university friend Mike played in it all - but for now all that there remains for me to say is thank you, to Barnaby Eaton-Jones for offering me this once in a lifetime opportunity, and to everyone who has been lucky enough to snag themselves a copy, enjoy! (I shall look forward to reading your reviews online.)
And remember, nothing's forgotten... Nothing is ever forgotten...
The typo that got away; 'crenulated' should of course read 'crenellated'.
* Which stood in for the interior of Nottingham Castle. (I also lived in Nottingham for two years, and visited Sherwood Forest many times.)
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