Fighting Fantasy: Bloodbones

[David Whyld]

Not really interactive fiction in the normal format (but it's fiction and it's interactive so it still counts ), but the new Fighting Fantasy gamebook, Bloodbones, has finally put in an appearance.

It was originally supposed to be the final book in the first Fighting Fantasy series and tipped for release in 1996, but then the series had been floundering for years (no big surprise given the quality of the later books IMHO) and Bloodbones got cancelled. Ten years later, it's finally been published.

Anyone here read it/planning to read it/thinking about it but undecided at the moment?

[revgiblet]

I would love to read it for old time's sake, but don't intend to buy it.

[David Whyld]

You aren't missing much. It's pretty dire.

[revgiblet]

I agree with you in that the earlier ones were better. What makes this one so bad?

[David Whyld]

It’s just bog standard FF fare for the most part. Not very well written, uses the same ideas that have been used so many times in previous books that it sometimes feels like you're just rereading an old one. It’s got enemies jumping out at you every few sections for more generic combat. No real pacing or tension. It’s also possible to stuff up the book partway through if you don’t buy an item earlier on, though at the time there's no reason to assume you'd ever need that item. All in all, it’s a big disappointment. Considering it’s been lying around some editor’s office for the past ten years, you'd have thought they'd have gone and at least improved it a bit in that time. But no, it’s bad. Just plain bad. Buy it only if you're an obsessive fan of the series and can’t bear to have a title missing in your collection; don’t buy it if you expect a decent read.

[revgiblet]

I always enjoyed the more imaginative ones. 'Appointment with F.E.A.R.', 'Talisman of Death', 'Robot Commando' (Dinosaurs and mechs in one book! Inspired!), 'City of Thieves' and so on.

[MrToad]

It was originally supposed to be the final book in the first Fighting Fantasy series and tipped for release in 1996, but then the series had been floundering for years (no big surprise given the quality of the later books IMHO)

And I thought it was me just growing up.
Its good to know the later books were just plain bad.

[MrToad]

'City of Thieves'

What a book!!!

Even the bit were you get to play a game with some creatures called 'Bays'. Which basically involves hitting a ball with a stick and it was called BaysBall........*sign*.....what a book!

[David Whyld]

I could never stand City Of Thieves. Then again, it was an Ian Livingstone book so it probably went without saying that it wouldn't be up to much.

[revgiblet]

I could never stand City Of Thieves. Then again, it was an Ian Livingstone book so it probably went without saying that it wouldn't be up to much.

I think I actually preferred the Ian Livingstone ones to Steve Jackson's at first. I think that 'Talisman of Death' (which was number 11 or 12) was the first to be written by 'outside' authors.

The opening of my game 'The Sisters' is a tribute to the opening of 'House of Hell' by the way...

[David Whyld]

Actually Scorpion Swamp, book 8, was written by the other Steve Jackson (the guy behind the GURPs role playing game) and not the Steve Jackson who co-founded the series.

[revgiblet]

Actually Scorpion Swamp, book 8, was written by the other Steve Jackson (the guy behind the GURPs role playing game) and not the Steve Jackson who co-founded the series.

Hey, well you learn something new every day. I always thought the GURPS Steve Jackson was the same as the FF one. :blush: