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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Jun 25, 2020 20:28:56 GMT
Last one for now.
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Post by The Count on Jun 25, 2020 21:20:18 GMT
The most childish cover I've ever seen for an FF book. There's was definitely a feeling with the new books that they're aiming for a more child-friendly market. The intro of Port of Peril and the Bum-Faced Monster of Gates of Death spring to mind. It's weird because they're still being released alongside the more mature originals. Those aren't for children - they are for infantile simpletons. Continuing down this road is an insult to most of the series - the nonsensical Gates of Death makes Sky Lord look like War & Peace... I've said elsewhere that one of the things I liked about FF as a child was that I wasn't being talked down to, and my parents encouraged me to read from a young age so were more concerned with me raiding my dad's book cabinet for his collection of horror so aside from subtly vetting House of Hell and Beneath Nightmare Castle first, liked that I was reading more mature material than I was getting at school. There are far worse things that kids can see on TV and especially online than contained within even the most "adult" FF.
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Post by The Count on Jun 25, 2020 21:21:30 GMT
I'm changing career to doing book illustrations. I would buy this and get it framed!
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Post by The Count on Jun 25, 2020 21:24:16 GMT
Ta-da! That worried-looking cloud worries me. I liked this (apart from the cloud) until I looked at the large version. Oh drear... is this being aimed at a 3 year old?!?
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sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,679
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
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Post by sylas on Jun 25, 2020 21:59:29 GMT
That worried-looking cloud IS me.
And discussion on that cover completely blew up on FaceBook. Most of it not in a good way.
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Post by daredevil123 on Jun 25, 2020 22:06:23 GMT
I'm not making any judgements about the book itself - it could be brilliant for all we know - but that is surely the worst FF cover of all time.
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Jun 26, 2020 9:04:11 GMT
And discussion on that cover completely blew up on FaceBook. Most of it not in a good way. I went over and had a look and yes, you are right. I have to say that that gif of a man vomiting half a pint of milk into a bucket [implying that is as a result of seeing the artwork] DID make me genuinely laugh, as did some of the other comments. There was an exchange on there that was quite heated. To some extent I think this ties in with some of the other changes we are seeing to 'franchises' in the wider world, say in cinema. Where something established a while ago is taken and altered ... and those who complain about the change are excoriated and denounced, sometimes in quite loaded terms. Compare and contrast recent FF with Lone Wolf - go over and have a look at the Lone Wolf reprints and artwork on Magnamund.com. They are amazingly good.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,472
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Jun 26, 2020 9:44:20 GMT
Although I'm not crazy about the cover, it could depict a naked Jonny Vegas covered in treacle and I'd still buy it.
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Jun 26, 2020 11:27:51 GMT
As I've pointed out before, it is a sad fact of the current publishing environment that publishers prefer to publish things with "known" names attached rather than works by other writers. Hence people like Madonna, David Walliams etc. getting book deals. Scholastic are just following the trend. They obviously feel that to get the right "buzz" and interest in the range they need to use people with fans/fame outside of gamebooks. I mean, if even a fraction of those kids reading Higson's Young Bond books pick up a FF gamebook, that's a win as far as Scholastic are concerned. I've a feeling that if the range survives long enough we'll see the JG titles. Interesting. Do you happen to know if this is this a peculiarly Anglo-Saxon phenomenon? Is it happening on the European Continent for example? Is there a Boris Becker Cookbook? Or a Juliette Binoche Book of Children's Verse?
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Post by a moderator on Jun 26, 2020 12:15:44 GMT
Compare and contrast recent FF with Lone Wolf - go over and have a look at the Lone Wolf reprints and artwork on Magnamund.com. They are amazingly good. Though with the more recent Lone Wolf reissues, the new cover illustrations may be all right, but a lot of the changes made to the text are for the worse.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Jun 26, 2020 17:03:37 GMT
Ta-da! That worried-looking cloud worries me. What is the main creature supposed to be there? It looks like a dog got into a teleporter and didn't realise Tweety-Pie was already in there until it was too late. No words for the cloud. I do think though (altough I don't want to give Scholastic any ideas) it's time to bring up the 2008 German cover of Warlock of Firetop Mountain again You mean this abomination? "You swing open the chest's lid, and gasp at the Warlock's hoard. The Warlock of Firetop Mountain has been carried away by kittens and you are now the owner of the Sorcerer's riches. "But you'll have to hurry home with them – Mum will be wondering why you're late for tea!"
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Post by Zhu Bajie on Jun 26, 2020 19:03:05 GMT
The cover for Crystal of Storms is great, I love it and so do the two small Zhus. The author has made several comments about it being written 'for children' so I think there is a deliberate move being made with this book. Just hope we get to make friends with the Aakor rather than fight it!
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Post by dragonwarrior8 on Jun 26, 2020 20:02:47 GMT
Just hope we get to make friends with the Aakor rather than fight it! With that cover I wonder if there will be any fighting at all!
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Post by a moderator on Jun 26, 2020 23:03:16 GMT
Well, the series title hasn't been changed to Friendship Fantasy, so we can but hope.
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Post by dragonwarrior8 on Jun 27, 2020 0:32:38 GMT
Well, the series title hasn't been changed to Friendship Fantasy, so we can but hope. Please dont give them any ideas! lol. Although based upon what Im seeing and reading here I wonder if this book will be made ridiculously easy.
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Jun 27, 2020 8:48:35 GMT
Aside from the upcoming release of Crystal of Storms later on this year... two simple questions:
1) Where is the brand new Steve Jackson gamebook which I understand he was/is writing? 2) Why is Jonathan Green no longer writing for the FF series?
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Post by Law on Jun 27, 2020 9:31:59 GMT
...
Please no... This is going to be 'Gates of Death' taken up to eleven, focusing more on frabjous whimsy and nauseating "free-roam" gameplay; that wastes dozens of sections on boring traversal.
When this comes out, I will be playing the 'Bloodsword' collection.
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Post by Law on Jun 27, 2020 15:58:36 GMT
Synopsis on Amazon:
You, the hero of this story, are a member of the Sky Watch keeping the floating archipelago of Pangaria safe. When the Nimbus isle suddenly crashes out of the sky into the Ocean of Tempests below, you must explore the remaining islands, and battle both storms and sea beasts in your mission to raise Nimbus from the deep.
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Jun 28, 2020 19:40:43 GMT
By the way folks, my intention is to raise a smile or otherwise create some amusement in these times. I'm not pouring scorn or venting my spleen on anyone or anything, just a gentle sending-up of a trend we're seeing in FF... Which is best?
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Jun 28, 2020 19:41:57 GMT
Iain McCaig eat your heart out!
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Post by vastariner on Jun 28, 2020 20:59:07 GMT
By the way folks, my intention is to raise a smile or otherwise create some amusement in these times. I'm not pouring scorn or venting my spleen on anyone or anything, just a gentle sending-up of a trend we're seeing in FF... Which is best? Actually, that first Forest of Doom could be a realllly creepy encounter in a gamebook - you are confronted with kids dressed as ghosts, but you don't know whether they actually ARE kids, or a bunch of Demon Princes masquerading as kids, and you have to make a choice instantly whether to use your banish-to-the-abyss item or not...
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Post by dragonwarrior8 on Jun 29, 2020 0:53:33 GMT
By the way folks, my intention is to raise a smile or otherwise create some amusement in these times. I'm not pouring scorn or venting my spleen on anyone or anything, just a gentle sending-up of a trend we're seeing in FF... Which is best? The Caverns of the Snow Witch one actually made me laugh out loud. Fantastic!
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aggsol
Wanderer
Bored...
Posts: 93
Favourite Gamebook Series: Lone Wolf
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Post by aggsol on Jun 29, 2020 9:06:52 GMT
I haven't read any of the new one neither Port of Peril, Assassins of Allansia nor Gate of Date. I dunno why... but it is VERY likely I'll read Crystal of Storms
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vagsancho
Knight
Posts: 809
Favourite Gamebook Series: CRYPT OF THE SORCERER
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Post by vagsancho on Jun 29, 2020 9:31:45 GMT
The cover for Crystal of Storms is HORRIBLE! HORRIBLE! HORRIBLE!! HORRIBLE!!!! Make me wanna puke.
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Post by daredevil123 on Jun 29, 2020 9:55:45 GMT
I haven't read any of the new one neither Port of Peril, Assassins of Allansia nor Gate of Date. I dunno why... but it is VERY likely I'll read Crystal of Storms Is it because your profile picture is more or less on the cover?
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Post by schlendrian on Jun 29, 2020 19:46:03 GMT
The CotSW is my favourite as well. I love that it features a snow witch and the ork from the original cover, but in vastly different circumstances
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vagsancho
Knight
Posts: 809
Favourite Gamebook Series: CRYPT OF THE SORCERER
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Post by vagsancho on Jun 29, 2020 20:00:55 GMT
There are awesome covers who helped us to become addicts in the fighting fantasy adventures... Awesome covers... Like Caverns of the Snow Witch City of Thieves Crypt of the Sorcerer House of Hell And there is garbage, absolute garbage like crystal of storms... Garbage!! Make me wanna puke...
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Post by linflas on Jul 2, 2020 7:22:54 GMT
As I read somewhere else, that gonna be more Rihanna than Pratchett. First FF book for girls, well, why not ?
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Post by philsadler on Jul 2, 2020 8:57:16 GMT
As I read somewhere else, that gonna be more Rihanna than Pratchett. First FF book for girls, well, why not ? Because the readership is 95% male?
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Jul 2, 2020 9:11:07 GMT
As I read somewhere else, that gonna be more Rihanna than Pratchett. First FF book for girls, well, why not ?Because the readership is 95% male? Also there were gamebooks specifically aimed at girls [admittedly not FF though] and at the height of the gamebook craze. Starlight Adventures.
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