Gamebook Friday: What is a typical JG adventure?

I may be picking up my skald's harp and singing a new story into being next year, so this Gamebook Friday I have one simple question to ask you.

What would you expect from a typical Jonathan Green gamebook adventure?

Answers on a postcard or in the comments below, please.

Tie-in Tuesday: Night of the Kraken Readthrough

Are you a fan of Doctor Who, specifically the Twelfth Doctor? And are you a fan of interactive fiction?

Well, if you answered 'Yes' to both those questions, then you should join Olly Mc on Facebook, on Friday evening at 6:00pm for a readthrough of my Doctor Who Choose The Future adventure Night of the Kraken.

Here's the blurb from the book's back cover:

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?

Happy 53rd Birthday, Doctor Who!

And what better way to celebrate the occasion than by joining the Doctor on one of his most recent adventures?

Tie-in Tuesday: Doctor Who and the Cybermen

The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine (#504, November 2016) features the Doctor's second most hated/loved enemy, the Cybermen. It comes with four variant covers, but I had to go with #4, featuring the most up-to-date iterations of the alien cyborgs.

You will be upgraded!

Among the many Cyber-related features gracing its pages is a piece on the different types of Cyberman the Doctor has encountered during the last two millennium/53 years.

The steampunk CyberKing has to be one of my favourite Cyber-creations.

I can't imagine why.

I have always preferred the Cybermen to the Daleks (the #1 Doctor Who villain, although I love Davros) and particularly enjoyed the Tenth Doctor Christmas Special The Next Doctor. If I get the opportunity to write another Doctor Who Choose the Future gamebook, I want it to feature the Cybermen and I have the perfect story for them. So, fingers crossed.

Doctor Who: Choose the Future - Night of the Kraken

If this one sells well, there may be more Choose the Future books in the... future.

As an aside, it is frustrating that DWM doesn't review the Puffin Doctor Who books, while a book about Worzel Gummidge is, just because it starred John Pertwee post-Who. As far as I am aware the magazine doesn't even include the Puffin titles in the 'Coming Soon' section.

It's frustrating not only because the Doctor Who books I've written are all for Puffin but also because a few more reviews and increased exposure who doubtless help boost sales. It's as if they're not considered real Doctor Who books, whereas everything I submit has to be approved by the Cardiff production office, just like the Big Finish audios or Ebury's DW novels.

So come on DWM - how about featuring the Puffin titles in future?

Tie-in Tuesday: Lovin' the Kraken

Apart from one rather strange review, in which the reviewer seemed put off by the smell of the book more than anything else, my latest Doctor Who gamebook Choose the Future: Night of the Kraken has been receiving a lot of love online.

First there's this review by blogger and book critic Kathryn White.

And then there's this one, written by Antony McGarry-Thickitt, over at Geek Syndicate. I particularly liked this bit:

"I always consider it a good sign when I see Jonathan Green’s name attached to any interactive fiction project. Green has a long and successful record writing these types of books and so I was reasonably sure that Night of the Kraken would be a solid adventure in its own right. I wasn’t wrong."

Gamebook Friday: Alice's Night of the Kraken in Wonderland

People have been saying some rather nice things about my two most recent gamebooks on Amazon lately, which is always very pleasing for an author.

First of all, here's a review from Amazon.com about Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland:

"This book is so creative and cool! Its basically Dungeons and Dragons meets Goosebumps choose your own path set in Wonderland... To do combat you either need two 6-sided dice or a pack of 52 playing cards, depending on how you want to play/what you have available, but you don't need to do combat to enjoy, you can read through and pretend you win every battle!"

And then there's this review from Amazon.co.uk about Doctor Who: Choose the Future: Night of the Kraken:

"In all honesty I was hoping for, but not expecting, a fully-fledged adventure gamebook where I would be fighting Sontarans armed with some dice and a pencil. But Doctor Who doesn’t entirely lend itself to that medium and ‘Night of the Kraken’ is still more in the ‘choose your own adventure’ bracket than adventure gamebook. 

"However, it is a well written and structured adventure aimed at a much older audience than the ‘Decide Your Destiny’ books. The reader also, sort of, gets to play the Doctor. The book is written in the second person rather than the first, which is the more traditional for adventure gamebooks, so you direct his actions rather than being him. This does feel more suitable for Doctor Who. 

"Despite its relatively short length of 150 sections there’s a fairly intriguing story and a relatively complex adventure. The author creates a believable historical setting with plenty of atmosphere that engrosses the reader in the interactive setting. 

"One of the major strengths of the adventure is that there are two quite independent explanations for events depending upon what options you select relatively earlier on. The less obvious one is reasonably tricky to find so this gives the book extra potential for replay. 

"As normal with gamebooks there are several possible endings. These are mostly partial victories where you win by immoral methods or genocidal tactics. To gain one of the few true victories you must succeed by being faithful to the spirit/character of the Doctor. It is also possible to kill the Doctor off, and the only way to ‘regenerate’ is to return to page one. 

"This is possibly the best crossover yet between adventure gamebooks and Doctor Who. It is a strong start to the new ‘Choose the Future’ series."

I've you've read  Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland or Doctor Who: Choose the Future: Night of the Kraken, why not go and line and post your own review?

Gamebook Friday: The Kraken Released!

It's a brand new choose your own style adventure gamebook, it features the Twelfth Doctor, and there's my favourite submarine monster in it... What more do you need to know?

Release the Kraken!

New Book Day! Doctor Who: Choose the Future: Night of the Kraken

In the same week that the Doctor's new companion was announced, a previously untold Twelfth Doctor story is unleashed upon the space-time continuum...

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...

Tie-in Tuesday: Doctor Who: Choose the Future: Night of the Kraken

There are only two days to go until my latest Doctor Who book is released.

First there was 2010's Night of the Humans...

Then there the 2013 minisode The Night of the Doctor...

And now there is the first in a brand new series of Doctor Who adventure gamebooks, Choose the Future: Night of the Kraken.

It's about time...

Gamebook Friday - Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland and Doctor Who: Night of the Kraken

Now available via Amazon, as well as direct from the publisher Snowbooks, is Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland, featuring the awesome artwork of Kev Crossley.


Several years after the events of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Alice finds herself back in Wonderland and called upon to save the world of playing cards and talking animals from the increasingly deranged Queen of Hearts. But all is not as it first appears in the fluctuating dream world and soon Alice is battling to save herself from the nightmare that is rapidly overtaking the realm. 

Have you ever wondered what would have happened if Alice hadn’t drunk from the bottle labelled ‘Drink Me’, or if she hadn’t joined the Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse for tea? Well now you can find out. In Alice’s Nightmare in Wonderland, YOU decide which route Alice should take, which perils to risk, and which of Wonderland’s strange denizens to fight. But be warned – whether Alice succeeds in her quest or meets a dire end as the nightmare escalates will be down to the choices YOU make. 

Are you ready to go back down the rabbit-hole?


In other gamebook-related news, I am very pleased to announce that next Spring will see the release of my latest Doctor Who book, Night of the Kraken.

It is the first in a brand new series of choose your path adventure gamebooks called Doctor Who - Choose the Future, in which, rather than play the part of a character who meets the Doctor during the course of one of his adventures*, you actually get to decide what the Doctor does next.

And the best news is, if the first books in the series do well enough, there will be more to come. So, watch this space...



* As long-time readers of this blog will know was the case with my previous Doctor Who gamebook The Horror of Howling Hill.

Tie-in Tuesday - Doctor Who: Night of the Kraken

Coming in 2016...

In 18th-century England, the Twelfth Doctor meets a roguish time-smuggler and faces terrifying creatures from both the land and the sea. Will the Doctor find a way to save the world?