Dragonmeet - The Aftermath

A few photos are starting to appear online now, podcasts are going live and others are blogging about their experiences of this year's Dragonmeet.

The Official Fighting Fantasy Website has a piece on the front page, in which the Warlock name-checks me. There is a link to a recording of James Wallis's interview with Ian Livingstone, in which I also get name-checked (and you can actually hear me at about 55:30).

And Sarah Newton's posted some photos of our panel here. (Just don't ask why I appear to be crooning and whistling!)

Curse of the Mummy

On 29 November 1922, the tomb of Tutankhamun was officially opened by Howard Carter. The first official announcement and press conference followed the next day.

Legend had it that any person who disturbed the mummy of an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh would suffer a terrible curse. And the Curse of Tutankhamun was alleged to be more terrible than most. Only, in reality, there was no curse.

However, if you would like to read of a truly terrible curse, exacted upon a brave adventurer, then you should read my third Fighting Fantasy gamebook, Curse of the Mummy.

And if you've read Curse of the Mummy before, why not enjoy my latest Gamebook Adventure, Temple of the Spider God?

Mission: Games Workshop - Kensington

During Dragonmeet on Saturday I took half an hour to get a breath of fresh air and popped into the local GW store. It was absolutely heaving in the shop, but key-timer Billy took the time to chat to me for five minutes, which was appreciated.

There were plenty of the new Necron miniatures around the place, which looked very cool, but what really blew me away was the Astral Claws army on display in the window cabinet. A very impressive piece of work and no mistake!

When the Dragon met the Spider

So, Dragonmeet was on Saturday, and I was there, as were various colleagues and acquaintances of mine, which meant that as well as promoting Temple of the Spider God, taking part in panels and having interesting (and potentially exciting) meetings, I also got to catch up with friends. Which was nice.

Dragonmeet 2011 for me actually started a few hundred yards from High Street Kensington tube station, in a coffee shop, in the company of James Wallis and Tim Dedopulos, where we briefly discussed [CONTENT REMOVED] before heading up to Kensington Town Hall in time for James to interview Ian Livingstone about everything from the foundation of Games Workshop and the early days of Fighting Fantasy, to the future of RPGs and the what OBE actually stands for*.

Ian is a great speaker and James a highly knowledgeable interviewer, and, as a consequence, the allocated hour flew by. What was particularly nice was that I got a mention, as did Tin Man Games Gamebook Adventures. The Tin Man's flesh interface Neil Rennison was there this year as well, and apparently Mr Livingstone himself dropped by the Gamebook Adventures stand early in the day.

Neil Rennison (the Tin Man's organic minion) on the Gamebook Adventures stand

During the course of the seminar, Andrew Kenrick (the current editor of White Dwarf, Games Workshop's hobby magazine) asked Ian Livingstone (former editor of White Dwarf) a question, which was slightly surreal. Ian also revealed that he has written a new Fighting Fantasy gamebook which will be published as close to the actual 30th anniversary of the publication of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain as possible, next year. However, he wouldn't say what it was called, so watch this space...

Fighting Fantasy at Dragonmeet

From left to right - Graham Bottley (Mr Advanced Fighting Fantasy), Jamie Fry (the new Warlock), Ian Livingstone OBE (the most important man in the British games industry), and me

It turns out that Dragonmeet is one of those cons where everywhere I turn there are people I know/have worked with/am working with, and so to begin with it took a while to get anyway, as I stopped to shake hands, chat, be introduced to other people, who will now join the list of those people who, when I arrive at a con, will be everywhere I turn...

After listening to Ian and James's seminar, I made the most of the chance to catch up with various people, took a turn on the Gamebook Adventures stand, and then, before I knew it, it was my turn to be on a panel.

Apparently I am a giant of the gamebook genre.

(Certainly looks like it judging by this photograph!)

Sarah Newton, Iain Lowson and myself were the 'Fiction and the Games Industry' panel. I'd seen(?) Sarah and Iain speak on a panel at the UK Games Expo back in June, and it was a pleasure to join them on this occasion. Not having an MC we were left to our own devices, but fortunately Sarah had done her homework and come up with a few questions to get the ball rolling before we opened it up to the floor. It felt like the panel went very well, from my point of view at least, and the audience were very appreciative. It was a particular pleasure that at the end one member of the audience took the time to thank me for my Pax Britannia books!

Sarah Newton with her novel Mindjammer

and Yours Truly with The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus

Then it was back upstairs into the main hall for more chats, stints on the stand, and perusing the games that were for sale. I did quite well, coming away with just the two large, hardback tomes this time.

During the day I caught up (briefly) with Angus Abranson - Dragonmeet's organiser and who, it was announced last week, is leaving Cubicle 7 (creators of the Doctor Who RPG, amongst other things) - Fighting Fantasy's new Warlock (a.k.a. Jamie Fry), Graham Bottley of Arion Games, Paul Baldowski (demo-game runner extraordinaire), and Sarah Newton, who was selling her first novel Mindjammer at the Cubicle 7 stand (along with my more recent Pax Britannia titles). I obviously also got to meet Iain Lowson - having only Skyped and Twittered with him before -which was a pleasure, and not just because he presented me with a copy of his stunning self-penned RPG Dark Harvest: The Legacy of Frankenstein.

Iain Lowson (author of Dark Harvest) meets Neil Rennison (of Tin Man Games) and Jamie Fry (Fighting Fantasy's new Warlock)

Having left Dragonmeet, I spent the evening in the company of Neil Rennison talking about future plans for the Gamebook Adventures series, which was all rather exciting. But more about that another time...

So it just remains for me to thank Angus for organising such a great con, and having me as a special guest, and Neil for inviting me in the first place. (I also just want to thank Wilf for his kind comments with regard to me helping to keep Fighting Fantasy alive.)

Until next time...

* Turns out, according to Ian, to mean 'Oldest Bloke at Eidos'. (And in case you're wondering, he's 62 next birthday.)

Two weeks and counting...

Two weeks today I shall be sitting down to start writing the second part of my latest Ulysses Quicksilver Pax Britannia novel Time's Arrow. Part 2 is entitled Black Swan, but as to what happens within it, well that's up to YOU!

If you've not already done so, download Part 1 - Red-Handed for the eReader of your choice, read the story so far and then go here to vote for how you would like the adventure to continue. But hurry! After all, time is ticking away!

Writing

Sometimes it's a bit like this...

Dragonmeet - today!

Yes, it's here at last!

I shall be appearing at Dragonmeet today, as the guest of Tin Man Games.

The event runs from 10.00am, at Kensington Town Hall, and I'm planning on being there for the whole day.

Fighting Fantasy's Warlock is going to be around as is Graham Bottley of Arion Games, publisher of Second Edition Advanced Fighting Fantasy. And Cubicle 7 will be selling my Pax Britannia books.

I'm on the 'Fiction and the Games Industry' panel with my esteemed colleagues Sarah Newton and Iain Lowson, starting at 1.30pm, whilst m'colleague James Wallis will be interviewing Ian Livingstone OBE, from 11.00am - 12.00pm with a Q&A session afterwards.

So, maybe I'll see you there...

The Countdown to Christmas...

... starts here! Or rather here.

There's only one month to go until the Feast of the Nativity of the Christ Child* and so from now until then, I'll be posting an A to Z of Christmas over at TheChrismologist.com. Some of the subjects chosen will be familiar, some not so much, but all shall be enlightening and maybe, sometimes, amusing.

So why not stop by every day of the working week to see what nugget of Christmas lore I shall be unearthing next? And remember that you can find many such tasty information morsels in my book What is Myrrh Anyway? - and its American counterpart Christmas Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas.

* a.k.a. Christmas Day.

The value of fan-fic

As far as I am aware, no one has ever written any fan-fiction based on any of the worlds I have created. (I certainly wouldn't consider Al Ewing's Pax Britannia books fan-fic.) But I can see how such literary homages to your creation could be a double-edged sword for an author.

M'colleague Mathilda Gregory puts forwards a persuasive case for the defence here and it got me thinking. When an author like Sebastian Faulks writes a James Bond novel, or Michael Moorcock writes Doctor Who, is that not a form of fan-fiction? After all, I know that I would find it very hard to write 100,000 words of something if I was committed to it totally, meaning that, in the case of a shared world setting, I was a fan.

And to take my own case, is not the tie-in fiction that I write fan-fiction? The reason I ever tried to get a gig writing for Doctor Who is because I love the show, and always have done. The incredibly rich backgrounds of Warhammer and 40K constantly bring me back to writing for those settings too.

Admittedly, there is a lot of dire fan-fiction out there, in part because it's published having never passed the eyes of an editor. But if we ignore the dross, there are still a few gems out there (or so I'm told).

I was trying to work out what the difference is between fan-fic and tie-in fic (other than the fact that one's contracted and involves payment at the end) and considered whether it was all to do with characters. For Warhammer 40K I've created whole Black Templars crusader fleets and Imperial Fists squads, but my next Doctor Who story Terrible Lizards features the Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory Williams - all three Steven Moffat's creations. So it can't be that.

Perhaps it comes down to professionalism, the fact that there are so many editorial stages - including people responsible for the IP checking your work - but I am sure that many fans know the minutiae of Doctor Who history far better than I. So it probably isn't that either.

Maybe the conclusion we must conclude is, quite simply, that at the end of the day there is no difference between fan-fic and tie-in fiction, other than a possible perceived standard of quality, or lack thereof.

So, I throw this one open to the floor. What do you think?

Signing of the Spider God

There's one day to go until Dragonmeet when you'll be able to get me to sign your Temple of the Spider God... postcards.*

Tin Man Games will be at Kensington Town Hall with iPads in hand to show all you lucky punters the latest Gamebook Adventures titles, including Temple of the Spider God.

And if you’re attending, bring along a 3G enabled iOS device and you may even be able to get a free copy! You can read more about this exciting promotion, and an awesome one day sale, here.

* Well I can't exactly sign your iDevice of choice now, can I?**

** Actually I probably could, if you really wanted me to. After all, I'm told that Sharpies write on practically anything.

Ultramarines - the movie!

If you've not seen the Ultramarines movie on the big screen, now's your chance.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy...

... to quote an infamous fictional writer.

Now, I would never claim that I do nothing but work all day (I have young children for a start) but I have been a tad busy of late.

With so many potential projects becoming commissioned contracts, I sat down the other day to plan my writing schedule for the next few months... and it soon became apparent that I actually know what I'll be writing for the next year!

Currently on the slate are two novels, two gamebooks, seven short stories and a piece for a magazine. And that's just so far.

At least it was until yesterday evening when I received another commission for something a little different. But more on that another time. After all, there's work to be done.

Dragonmeet - 3 days to go!

Okay... Here, as promised, is the updated info regarding my appearance at Dragonmeet this weekend (Saturday 26 November).

The event runs from 10.00am until around 6.00pm (I think), at Kensington Town Hall, and I'm planning on being there for the whole day.

I'm there officially as the guest of Tin Man Games, but Fighting Fantasy's Warlock is going to be around as well, as are Arion Games, and I'm told Cubicle 7 will be selling my Pax Britannia books. So, if you want me to sign a copy of Howl of the Werewolf, or the latest Ulysses Quicksilver penny dreadful, or even your iPod, feel free to ask.

I shall also be on a panel entitled 'Fiction and the Games Industry' with my esteemed colleagues Sarah Newton and Iain Lowson, running from 1.30pm - 2.00pm.

And while we're on the subject of Dragonmeet, m'colleague and games industry legend, James Wallis, is going to be interviewing m'colleague and games industry demigod, Ian Livingstone OBE, from 11.00am - 12.00pm with a Q&A session afterwards. I can guarantee it will be a great listen; Ian is the best after dinner speaker I know!

A Steampunk Evening - update!

The Steampunk Evening organised by the Pornokitsch guys, and taking place on Thursday 8 December, has had a timing update.

It will now be running from 6:00pm until 8:30pm, which basically means that if you attend you'll get to spend even more time at Blackwell's Charring Cross alongside such luminaries as Kim Lakin-Smith, China Miéville, Philip Reeve, Adam Roberts, Lavie Tidhar and Plarchie the Squid.

And remember, tickets are not necessary and the event is free to attend.

RIP Mistress of Pern

Fantasy novelist Anne McCaffrey, best known for her Dragonriders of Pern books, passed away yesterday. She was 85.

Her legacy with live on as will her words of wisdom for aspiring writers.

“First — keep reading. Writers are readers. Writers are also people who can’t not write. Second, follow Heinlein’s rules for getting published: 1. Write it. 2. Finish it. 3. Send it out. 4. Keep sending it out until someone sends you a check. There are variations on that, but that’s basically what works.”

Love for the Spider God

Temple of the Spider God is still going down a storm all over the globe. The latest review to hit the Web over at Appa Snap even gives it 9 out of 10!

You can read the full review for yourself here.

You can buy the Temple of the Spider God app here.

World's Collider Interview

Next up on the slate for me is a short story for the forthcoming World's Collider anthology.

Author Richard Salter, who is editing the anthology, is going to be carrying out a number of interviews with the people involved in the project. As my story - Dead Lights - is first in the collection, I'm the first to be interviewed too.

The interview is available to read on Richard's own website here.

Forbidden Planet Signing

Three weeks today I will be at the Forbidden Planet Megastore in London (Friday 9 December, 5.00-6.00pm), signing copies of Dean M Drinkel's new horror anothology Phobophobia, along with this lovely lady...

Seriously.

As well as Barbie Wilde* and myself, Dean M Drinkel will be there too, along with Adrian Chamberlain, Wayne Goodchild and Dave Jeffery.

To find out more about the event, click here.

* She was in Hellraiser II, y'know.

Herald of Oblivion... obliterated!

This is how my work space looked ten minutes ago.

This is what my computer screen looked like two minutes ago.

You do the math. ;-)

Right, what's next?

The demise of Floor to Ceiling Books and the birth of Strange Chemistry

So, Floor to Ceiling Books is closing its doors after over two years of sterling service to both the world of publishing and the book-buying public. It's been a great read, a fantastic source of information and, I'm pleased to say, I even got to guest post on it once.

The reason? Amanda Rutter is setting up a brand new YA imprint under the watchful eye of the mechanoid masterminds behind Angry Robot Books. This is very exciting news indeed (for all sorts of reasons) and you can read more about it here.

Avent and Monie

I've mentioned these two before, but if you've not checked them out yet you really should.

To give you a bit of background (and cash in on their fame!) I went to school with Messrs Avent and Monie where their careers in comedy began.

They're now part of BBC 3's Funny in 15 initiative and have an ever-increasing number of video sketches available to view here.

Judge not lest ye be judged

Tin Man Games have announced a deal with Rebellion (who own Abaddon and Solaris Books) to create the first-ever interactive digital gamebook based on the popular 2000 AD character, Judge Dredd.

Utilizing their successful and well-established Gamebook Adventures technology (with seven titles already under their belt, including Temple of the Spider God), Tin Man Games will be working closely with members of the same Rebellion team responsible for the most recent Judge Dredd tabletop role-playing game to develop the title.

“We’re privileged to be working with a great group of writers and artists that really understand the Judge Dredd universe”, said Creative Director, Neil Rennison.

You can read more about this exciting news here.

Time's Arrow in SFX Magazine

So, I'm in this month's SFX magazine.

That's right, me.

It's not one of my books that's being reviewed, it's part of an interview with Yours Truly about the startling steampunk experiment that is Pax Britannia: Time's Arrow.

That's it there, on page 23 of the Red Alert news section.

The piece includes a link to this.

And while we're on the subject of Time's Arrow, here's what one reader (who's entirely new to the series) had to say about Part 1 - Red-Handed:

I can say, as someone who has only read the first Ulysses Quicksilver Pax Britannia novel before I read this one, it's fairly accessible. There's quite a bit of mention of earlier stories, but while I understood that I was coming in on the middle of a series, I didn't feel particularly lost. While this story very much seems to follow on from a cliffhanger in the previous book, I felt I had enough information to still enjoy it. Plus, once that cliffhanger was wrapped up, the new story was completely fresh and accessible.

What I ended up with was a fast-paced, science fiction, steampunk action-adventure, with some cute nods to genuine Victorian science fiction. The interactive part of the story was fun, and it's really got me looking forward to the next installment (which is why I was willing to skip ahead in the series). And now I've got some time to get caught up!

Dragons, Steampunks and Phobias

Just as a quick heads-up, I shall be attending various book-and-game-related events over the next few weeks. Here's a run-down.

Dragonmeet 2011

Saturday 26 November

I'll be at Dragonmeet along with Neil Rennison (the Tin Man's flesh interface) bigging up Temple of the Spider God and maybe making an appearance on a panel or two. (More info, nearer the time.)

A Steampunk Evening

Thursday 8 December

I'll be joining the Steampunk fun and festivities at Blackwell's Charring Cross alongside such luminaries as Kim Lakin-Smith, China Miéville, Philip Reeve, Adam Roberts, Lavie Tidhar and Plarchie the Squid. Tickets are not necessary and the event is free to attend.

Phobophobia Signings

Friday 9 December

Some of us who have contributed to Dean M Drinkel's Phobophobia horror anthology (published by Dark Continents) will be signing copies of the collection first at the Forbidden Planet Megastore in London from 5.00 - 6.00pm, and then later at the official launch at the British Fantasy Society open night at the Mug House, from approx 6.30pm the same evening.

House of Love

Jonathan Oliver's House of Fear anthology of haunted house stories has been receiving a lot of love on book blogs and genre websites lately.

Here's what Spooky Reads had to say about the book:

In a classic twist from his editing last year’s strong horror anthology The End of the Line with its focus upon the Underground, Solaris’ editor Jon Oliver has continued to pull out the stops with House of Fear to deliver a top-notch collection of short stories themed around the haunted house. And he really has created a quite sublime selection here, and some dark delights are afoot for the horror fiction massive.

The contributors to this tome of terror include some of the genres finest writers, and as with the previous anthology, the selection is far from staid in its nature. Each story is lovingly crafted, with a different focus, some classic, others contemporary, some retrospective; all of them are worthy however, and I can’t emphasise how enjoyable making my way through this book was...

Jon Oliver has weaved together a strong selection of dread literary vignettes, and created a worthy collection in House of Fear. It’s exciting stuff indeed, and as with last years The End of the Line, is proof of Oliver’s eye for detail in the sea of horror fiction and ability to bring together a strong body of written works, cementing together a terrible construct that’s greater than the sum of its parts.
8/10

And those Keepers of the Keys to the Kingdom of Geekdom over at the Geek Syndicate said this:

In House of Fear, Jonathan Oliver has gathered nineteen short horror stories by both horror and science fiction authors who have all excelled in creating believable tales with well fleshed inhabitants and worlds that could well be our own. Each and every story will give you that delightful frisson of fear, and yet all are without a single vampire within them...

Jonathan Green, perhaps better know for his steampunk, creates a gruesome story of happy families...

All in all this is and excellent book for those who truly love horror, but I would suggest that you don’t read it just before you go to sleep.

GS Rating 5/5

You can what Jon himself had to say about putting together the collection when he was interviewed by the guys at Read Horror both here and here. But to end on, here's a piece from the interview which struck a happy chord with me:

Read Horror: How closely do the stories we see in House of Fear resemble the original submissions pre-editing?

Jon Oliver: Ninety-nine per cent of the time they are the final product. I don’t think I’ve asked anybody to re-write anything. There may have been the odd typo here and there, but on the whole the stories were submitted as you see them on the page. There was no editorial interference on a massive scale – these people know what they’re doing.

More Reviews of the Spider God

Temple of the Spider God continues to hold its own in the RPG and Dice Game rankings on the App Store and has received some very nice reviews from players/readers in the US. Here are just a few of them.

Brings back the good old days!
This game is awesome, it brings back the memories from the choose your own adventure type books I used to read when I was younger... I've played it thru multiple times and still haven't done everything to do. Great game. 5 stars, will buy more of your products. Thank you.

Great Old-School Gamebook Fun
A fantastic homage to the gamebooks of yesteryear, updated to take advantage of new technology with welcome features like bookmarks and achievements. Highly recommended to anyone with fond memories of the Fighting Fantasy series.

Expert App
Brings excitement back to reading. Dynamic gameplay while keeping the reading spirit alive. Like a video game you read... Keep the gamebooks coming.

The small matter of research

Sometimes people ask me how much research I do for any particular project, so I thought I'd show you.

I am currently in the final stages of completing my first gamebook for Warhammer 40K, Herald of Oblivion. I know this universe pretty well, but I don't have an eidetic memory, so it's more a case of I know where to look for the information I need in the first place.

I used all of the books and magazines in the photograph above during the process of writing and re-writing Draft One of Herald of Oblivion, and that doesn't include the odd bits of info I checked online or which I was confident enough to put in without checking, or the things I checked from other sources altogether.

So, as you can see, even for a fictional book about a fictional universe there's a fair bit of research to be done. And there are probably still going to be things that the editors pick up on the first read through that will need altering.

The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus (Vol.1) - a new review

From the Department of Awesomology:

A New Age Of Steam: The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus

Full disclosure time: I've never fully 'gotten' steampunk as a genre in fandom... These days it seems the genre is developing it's own voices in fiction and I recently cast my trepidation aside, donned my top hat and monocle, adjusted my sword cane and stepped out onto the foggy streets of a London that never was as I purchased and subsequently devoured Pax Britannia: The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus by Jonathan Green.

...someone has to keep the Empire from slipping off the edge and plunging headlong into chaos and that someone is our hero, Ulysses Quicksilver. Dandy, epicurean, swordsman, rake, and agent of the British Crown. The Omnibus chronicles the first three adventures of this unique hero...

Pure escapism at it's finest, The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus was a helluva good time... These are books that I would love to see adapted to the small screen, though I can't see anyone but David Tennant playing Ulysses and I fear he may already have played a similar role in the recent past. The setting of Pax Britannia is an engaging one, with it's desktop difference engines, robo-bobbies, and submarine cruise liners and overland rail lines. The urban sprawl is equal parts Conan Doyle and Ridley Scott, and the setting is so very much a mixture of the age of steam and the world of cyberpunk that it more than lives up to its genre. The characters are enjoyable, Ulysses himself being our cocky, improvisational, elegant hero who often finds himself way over his head but makes up for being out of his depth with a mixture of guile, pluck, and good old fashioned British ingenuity. His faithful batman Nimrod also deserves a mention, as does the long-suffering Inspector Allardyce, Quicksilver's Scotland Yard nemesis. Green's writing is engaging and fun, moving at a steady clip that makes each adventure great reading for a lazy Sunday or three. As a collected edition, the book is huge (clocking in at 734 pages)...

If you're looking for a fun read for the holidays that has an eclectic mix of the old and the new, I say give The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus a try. Recommended.

Happy. With. That.

You can purchase your copy of The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus (Vol.1) here.

Have you voted yet?

Just a quickie to remind you that you now have just under one month in which to vote on how you would like my latest Pax Britannia novel Time's Arrow to continue.

So download Part 1: Red-Handed here, read, inwardly digest and then go here to have you say with regards to what you think should happen next.

This is your chance to be part of publishing history, so don't let such an amazing opportunity pass you by. If you haven't already done so, buy Pax Britannia: Time's Arrow Part 1 today!

The Eye of the Storm?

I post a link to these fabulous steampunk (or should that be clockpunk?) animals over on my Pax Britannia blog, but looking at this one...

... is it just me or could it be the weather-changing flying-machine the Eye of the Storm from my sixth Fighting Fantasy adventure gamebook Stormslayer? Particularly when compared to the schematic visible in this picture...

The Eye of the Storm - by Stephen Player

The Eye of the Storm - by Zeo-X

Back to the beginning (kinda)

Available now from the Black Library is the eBook edition of my first ever novel, The Dead and the Damned.

First published in December 2002 (almost nine years ago!) it tells the tale of Kislevite mercenary Torben Badenov and his band of hard-bitten swords-for-hire.

The Warhammer universe explodes with adventure and sudden violence as Badenov's Band, rogues and brigands all, take on all comers as they roam the Old World. Led by their raven-haired commander Torben Badenov, whose lust for glory is only surpassed by his ferocity in battle, the motley gang roams the wretched towns and haunted forests fighting until every last unholy creature they encounter joins the dead or the damned.

In the (almost) decade since TDATD saw print I've written another twelve novels and am currently at work on my fourteenth. TDATD itself has been out of print for a number of years so if you've been wondering what my early forays into Warhammer fantasy fiction were like you should check it out here.

A word of warning, however. If you go into it expecting to read a short story collection rather than a novel, you'll probably enjoy the experience more... but it's still got one of the most awesome Clint Langley covers you'll ever see!

Review of the Spider God

Temple of the Spider God has been out for two weeks now and the glowing reviews continue to roll in. In case you own an iPad, iPod or iPhone and you haven't bought it yet (it's only £1.99) then you might want to read these.

First up there's this from Pocket Gamer:

The latest in Tin Man Games' series of interactive text adventures is written by Fighting Fantasy author Jonathan Green – and it shows. Its well-written narrative is pacy, exciting, and weaves a compelling yarn, whichever path you take...

It’s a great modern equivalent to the books many of us loved as youngsters, with the same kind of attention to detail and thrilling fantastical touches that made these adventures so enjoyable.

So Temple of the Spider God might be more book than game, but you knew that. If a Gamebook Adventure is what you're after, you'd be hard-pressed to do better than this.

Then there's this from Dial-a-phone:

The success of written fantasy role-playing games comes down to the quality of writing, and as you’d expect from an experienced writer, it’s absolutely excellent. Green’s words paint a detailed picture, but never tip over the edge to where your imagination isn’t needed – absolutely imperative in a book like this – and the beautifully drawn pictures accompanying the text (the best yet in a Gamebook Adventure) work together to pull you into the story. The overall effect, if you’re willing to invest the time, is an engrossing gaming experience that’s both exciting and compelling.

If the chance to revisit childhood memories attracts you to the Gamebook Adventures, you won’t be disappointed, and neither will the newcomer to the genre. Temple of the Spider God is well-crafted, thrilling and intelligent, with more than enough content and alternative choices to keep you occupied for weeks, and the obvious amount of care and attention invested in its creation makes it an essential purchase for the lone adventurer.

You can find out more about Temple of the Spider God (as well as buy it) by following this link.