In response to B’s comment on this post, I decided it was about time to kick the gamebook collection into the next stage. What’s next when you own all the books in English? You start buying foreign versions!
From the left, those are two French and one German copies of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. The middle (French) one is a reissue from 2003; both others are original imprints.
Le Sorcier de la Montagne de Feu is an interesting version. The paper is thin and glossy, reminding me of a bible, but aside from the translated text the book seems more or less the same.
However when you turn the book over and flip it around it contains a few dozen dense pages of puzzles! From what I can tell they are fantasy themed versions of classic logic and word puzzles and solutions are even included at the end. My copy seems to be a special edition for younger readers (is the text different?); there was also a normal (sans puzzle) version released in France as well.
Der Hexenmeister vom Flammenden Berg is a beautiful book. Trade sized, with rigid card covers and the almost Tolkien-inspired cover my copy is in astonishingly pristine condition considering its 35 years old!
Interestingly the text seems to omit about half of the art! I can only speculate why, but perhaps it was due to it being a children’s book and some images were considered a bit too grisly? Compare entry 275 with the French edition above:
The book seems lacking with so much art missing. I can only hope they reinstated it for later versions!
I also purchased these three:
Two French and one Spanish. The left two are reissues, the right an original. All are in fantastic condition (as new actually). Because of my Japanese copy of Demons I had to get a French one; the other two were bought because they were exotic 🙂
Needless to say finding foreign versions isn’t easy (I bought these online) but I find them very interesting and may try and get a few more languages. (I also got a French Lone Wolf.)
That’s an photo of my FF collection right now. In a week or so it will expand even more due to the brand new books that just came out!
And yes, they’re still good reads. Every time I do a post like this it always takes much longer than expected since I get sidetracked reading through the books. Maybe I should review a few here on the blog?
You should write reviews of them.