Almost four years ago now, after a trip to Australia, I decided to recollect all the Fighting Fantasy books I was a great fan of in my youth. In a matter of months I had obtained many of them, and as the years went by I would continue collecting. Not only the old books (from the 1980s) but also the new reprints by Wizard books, including the few new adventures (Howl Of The Werwolf, Bloodbones) they have put out.
In four years my collection has become near complete. I am missing only 3 actual gamebooks, those being Deathmoor (#55), Knights Of Doom (#56) and Revenge Of The Vampire (#58). On the rare occasions when any of these are offered for auction on ebay they are invariably very expensive or in the UK. Just yesterday I missed a winning bid on a copy of Deathmoor. My highest offer was $21 and it went for almost $60…
Other items I would like to have, in the interests of completing the collection, would be the last FF RPG ‘manual’ Allansia. I doubt I’ll ever have it though, for it’s one of the rarest FF-related items ever printed and routinely goes for hundreds of dollars at used book vendors. I’d also like to get the two-player gamebook, Clash Of The Princes (that I once owned) and any of the other peripheral books, such as the Zagor gamebooks, Goldhawk novels or the colour puzzle books (Tasks Of Tantalon, Casket Of Souls).
I remain optimistic I may be able to pick up one of more of such items in my upcoming Australia trip.
Anyway, the true purpose of this post is to report that Wizard books is once again rebranding and re-releasing the FF gamebooks! Renumbered re-releases of Warlock Of Firetop Mountain, Citadel Of Chaos, and Deathtrap Dungeon are already out (in the UK) and a brand new FF book – Stormslayer – is due in October!
Furthermore, they will continue to release older books but seem to be planning to prioritize new titles. The next confirmed new book (due early 2010) is called Night Of The Necromancer, and future planned titles seem to include Escape from Oblivion, Claw of the Fleshless King, The Cold Heart of Chaos and Assault on the Fortress of Evil.
I must admit I was a bit leery when I heard about the rebranding a few months back. But this seems like good news indeed – the series must be popular for them to be planning so many new entries! Unfortunately the books will not be available in the US at all, so I’ll have to turn to my usual contacts for sustained FF goodness 🙂
In related FF news, the iPhone game is due in October, and the DS game is due in 2 weeks!
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You can be absolutely positive I will be getting this. However I may wait until my plane trip to actually play it 🙂