kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,547
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on May 2, 2017 14:37:32 GMT
Is anyone still in contact with him? Was just reading some of his old Fighting Fantasy reviews on his website and forgotten how brilliant they are. Looks like the last review he did was Rebel Planet back in 2009! It would be nice to see him finish reviewing the series but guessing that's not too likely now.
For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of reading Per's reviews, they are all available here: user.tninet.se/~wcw454p/ff.html as well as a ton of reviews by others that he compiled (check out Leigh Loveday's reviews while you're at it - hilarious).
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Post by thealmightymudworm on May 3, 2017 21:58:31 GMT
Is anyone still in contact with him? Was just reading some of his old Fighting Fantasy reviews on his website and forgotten how brilliant they are. Looks like the last review he did was Rebel Planet back in 2009! It would be nice to see him finish reviewing the series but guessing that's not too likely now.
For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of reading Per's reviews, they are all available here: user.tninet.se/~wcw454p/ff.html as well as a ton of reviews by others that he compiled (check out Leigh Loveday's reviews while you're at it - hilarious). I've never had any contact with him, though I have read a few of his reviews. Is it him that there's a stub on Swedish Wikipedia for? A search on Twitter has Jamie Thompson most recently linking to a review of non-FF gamebook Heart of Ice which was published in 2013.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,547
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on May 3, 2017 22:18:35 GMT
I've never had any contact with him, though I have read a few of his reviews. Is it him that there's a stub on Swedish Wikipedia for? Not sure. That seems to be the review he posted to the gamebooks Yahoo group in 2007. Though when looking on that group, I see he did a few reviews in 2010 that he never put in the archive (Star Strider and the first 3 Sorcery books).
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Post by thealmightymudworm on May 3, 2017 23:24:34 GMT
I've never had any contact with him, though I have read a few of his reviews. Is it him that there's a stub on Swedish Wikipedia for? Not sure. That seems to be the review he posted to the gamebooks Yahoo group in 2007. Though when looking on that group, I see he did a few reviews in 2010 that he never put in the archive (Star Strider and the first 3 Sorcery books). Ah, obviously the original book was published rather before 2013 then. Oops. I'm quite ignorant about a lot of this stuff - the link in the text goes through to an Amazon page which says it was published in 2013, but presumably that's just the latest version. Plugging that Wikipedia entry into Google Translate shows it describing him as a 'fantasy writer' which seemed like quite a coincidence, but I've no idea whether he wrote the novels After the Campfires and Blood Moon.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,547
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on May 4, 2017 10:08:07 GMT
Not sure. That seems to be the review he posted to the gamebooks Yahoo group in 2007. Though when looking on that group, I see he did a few reviews in 2010 that he never put in the archive (Star Strider and the first 3 Sorcery books). Ah, obviously the original book was published rather before 2013 then. Oops. I'm quite ignorant about a lot of this stuff - the link in the text goes through to an Amazon page which says it was published in 2013, but presumably that's just the latest version. Yeah the original version came out in 1994 as Book 5 of the Virtual Reality series. It was reprinted in 2000 as Book 1 of Panurgic Adventures (and that series never got past #1!) and then again in 2013 as Book 1 of Critical IF. It's definitely worth a read if you can get ahold of any of those versions of it by the way, definitely one of the best gamebooks ever written. The whole Virtual Reality series is pretty excellent to be honest (apart from Coils of Hate which is unplayable pap). Not sure either. It would seem to be a bit of a coincidence, although for all I know it could be a very common name in Sweden.
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Post by a moderator on May 4, 2017 17:51:42 GMT
He definitely wrote After the Campfires, as he sent me a signed copy in return for some FF books I'd managed to track down for him back in 2004 or thenabouts. It's a good read.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,547
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Nov 23, 2018 12:30:53 GMT
Oh no, it seems Per's review archive is gone! 😱
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Nov 23, 2018 13:47:26 GMT
Oh no, it seems Per's review archive is gone! 😱 Is this archive of the right stuff?
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,547
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Nov 23, 2018 14:43:31 GMT
Oh no, it seems Per's review archive is gone! 😱 Is this archive of the right stuff? Yep thanks, just did something similar with Wayback Machine. Wonder how long these archives remain for? Might be worth copying the site - would be a real shame for it to disappear completely.
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Post by offm on Nov 27, 2018 18:39:01 GMT
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,547
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Nov 27, 2018 23:35:33 GMT
Cool, I was just going to stick them all in a Word file, but this is much better - thanks!
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Post by offm on Nov 28, 2018 16:27:39 GMT
I think it's done , i could replicate almost everything execept the review oh howl of the Werewolf.
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Post by drmanhattan on Jun 13, 2021 10:57:04 GMT
He is still listed in Uppsala, interesting he seems to be the only one with his name in the whole of Sweden (maybe not so weird as my name is also unique in Sweden)
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Post by Per on Sept 28, 2023 22:09:17 GMT
Hi, I'm alive.
Some of you will remember me as a guy who wrote reviews and participated in the gamebooks and fighting_fantasy_gamebooks Yahoo groups for much of the noughties, then mostly faded away around 2010. The reasons for my absence were both related and unrelated to the lists themselves, and it was never intended to be permanent (apparently I even popped briefly back in on a couple of occasions around 2011-2012 to participate in unique answers contests). In addition to initial dubiously nested instances of not being able to justify doing this before doing that, later complications included practical difficulties with computer migration and connectivity issues as well as losing track of the forum(s) used by the community.
First and foremost I want to direct a huge apology to Ed Jolley for never getting back to him after my trip in June 2010 when the books were on their way. Naturally I intended to compose a mail with gamebook-flavoured observations from the trip and whatnot immediately on return, but then there was some arbitrary delay or other, I was going to bring up something else but had to prepare for it, one thing became contingent on another, and as time steadily passed, the whole thing seemed correspondingly less urgent, in particular gamebook-flavoured trip observations. None of which should have stopped me from sending a mail just saying, hi, the books arrived, super thanks, more later, maybe, lol? I've felt like a big jerk over it all this time and I'm very, very sorry.
I would also like to offer a smaller apology to Stuart Lloyd for not replying after he got in touch a few years later regarding his Coils of Hate rewrite. I can still remember biking through town thinking about what to write in reply and also musing that it might be a good opportunity to reconnect with the community... only to somehow realize, weeks or months later, that aforementioned practical difficulties had offered enough resistance that I hadn't actually managed to reply at all, had I? And then when he mailed me again after finishing the book, the exact same circumstances repeated themselves with the same outcome! In this case though I think not much damage was done as Stuart had apparently proceeded in exactly the way I was going to recommend, but still, I'm sorry.
It's not the case that I entirely stopped thinking about, or even playing, gamebooks for all this time. There's the time I used Spectral Stalkers as the basis for a 5E D&D mini-campaign, for instance. Adventures were conceptualized but never written down. Some other small things. There are perhaps two that might be of more immediate interest to people here.
First, there are two reviews that were finished but never posted anywhere, one of them for the Wizard edition of Eye of the Dragon, and the other for Andrew Wright's Windhammer-winning Sea of Madness. As a minor spoiler, one of these contains the phrase "prodigious array of hand-waves and ass-pulls" and the other does not. If nothing else I figure Andy W. might be curious about this now because who knows.
Second, a few years back now I picked up, for reasons, three gamebooks which may have been the most recent ones at that time: Port of Peril, Assassins of Allansia and Gates of Death. (If I recall correctly, it was while checking the web for testimony that these books are worth more than the paper they're printed on that I found this very board. And yes, that's roughly how long I've been meaning to post this, the last failure to do so occurring almost exactly a year ago when I went to the forum meaning to actually register only to find it had been made non-public, so, welp, better wait until that's sorted out. And also yes, I'd have opted for Jonathan Green's Wizard titles but they weren't available.) Beyond figuring it might be some fun to do let's plays once I'm signed up, I haven't had any particular urge to read them. Of course, with them being a few years old now, it's possible I'd just end up mocking the same old Livingstonian features in the same ways multiple people already did, but it's a possibility.
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Post by a moderator on Sept 28, 2023 23:16:06 GMT
Glad you're reconnecting with fellow fans (and that those books did arrive). Welcome to the forum.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,547
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Sept 29, 2023 7:49:04 GMT
Good to see you back!
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Post by slloyd14 on Sept 29, 2023 9:34:57 GMT
Welcome back, Per! I'm glad that Coils of Hate ended up how you would have recommended it to be. Your review was very thorough and I found it really useful. I addressed all the issues in the review, except one. I kept the bit in about Tarkamandir polishing his staff because I have the mind of a 13 year old.
I have now joined Green Blood to Coils of Hate together to make Ravages of Hate. Instead of bumming around after fleeing Godorono, you do Green Blood then return to Godorno. I also used your Green Blood review to help me with the project. Many thanks!
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Post by Per on Sept 29, 2023 17:44:42 GMT
I addressed all the issues in the review, except one. I kept the bit in about Tarkamandir polishing his staff because I have the mind of a 13 year old. I always figured that one might have been intentional on the author's part, so keeping it seems like the right thing. Also there's a decent chance Dave Morris wrote it, I think he said he wrote the diamond heist subplot (which I had singled out in my review for being conspicuously free of inappropriately copypasted text) and Tarkamandor follows directly on that.
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Post by CharlesX on Sept 29, 2023 20:25:20 GMT
Welcome back, Per! I'm glad that Coils of Hate ended up how you would have recommended it to be. Your review was very thorough and I found it really useful. I addressed all the issues in the review, except one. I kept the bit in about Tarkamandir polishing his staff because I have the mind of a 13 year old. Did you keep this one then?
Which probably falls under scatology\soft porn, which I'm slightly into.
Anyway, that's a very minor point and detracts from what is undoubtedly a brave and very good re-creation of this work. It reminds me of things like Jakob The Liar* and The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas in that I wish I liked it more than I do - because it's so hard to do right.
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Post by CharlesX on Sept 30, 2023 10:03:20 GMT
Second, a few years back now I picked up, for reasons, three gamebooks which may have been the most recent ones at that time: Port of Peril, Assassins of Allansia and Gates of Death. (If I recall correctly, it was while checking the web for testimony that these books are worth more than the paper they're printed on that I found this very board. And yes, that's roughly how long I've been meaning to post this, the last failure to do so occurring almost exactly a year ago when I went to the forum meaning to actually register only to find it had been made non-public, so, welp, better wait until that's sorted out. And also yes, I'd have opted for Jonathan Green's Wizard titles but they weren't available.) Beyond figuring it might be some fun to do let's plays once I'm signed up, I haven't had any particular urge to read them. Of course, with them being a few years old now, it's possible I'd just end up mocking the same old Livingstonian features in the same ways multiple people already did, but it's a possibility. Interesting the way many people on this site (and some others, such as Demien's gamebook page) take this rather negative view about Sir Livingstone's work, which I'm sure would face a heavy barrage of feed-back on other websites; I don't know reeling some names off the top of my head if people would do the same about the late Gene Roddenberry, old JK, or Joss Whedon (Mr. above criticism), whether they would George Lucas, but Stephen King has been criticized a lot because his work is cliche and overlong and many of his film adaptations aren't as good as his books. I actually think it's a real tribute many FF writers can write as good as, often better than the original founders. To me it's annoying and depressing when Sir Ian comes up with playable, interesting gamebooks such as Port Of Peril and Assassins Of Allansia but ruins them with his cliches - and so we've come full circle. Anyway, great to hear from you Per Jorner, I've loved reading your reviews and hope know you'll be great on this site.
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Post by slloyd14 on Sept 30, 2023 11:22:57 GMT
Second, a few years back now I picked up, for reasons, three gamebooks which may have been the most recent ones at that time: Port of Peril, Assassins of Allansia and Gates of Death. (If I recall correctly, it was while checking the web for testimony that these books are worth more than the paper they're printed on that I found this very board. And yes, that's roughly how long I've been meaning to post this, the last failure to do so occurring almost exactly a year ago when I went to the forum meaning to actually register only to find it had been made non-public, so, welp, better wait until that's sorted out. And also yes, I'd have opted for Jonathan Green's Wizard titles but they weren't available.) Beyond figuring it might be some fun to do let's plays once I'm signed up, I haven't had any particular urge to read them. Of course, with them being a few years old now, it's possible I'd just end up mocking the same old Livingstonian features in the same ways multiple people already did, but it's a possibility. Interesting the way many people on this site (and some others, such as Demien's gamebook page) take this rather negative view about Sir Livingstone's work, which I'm sure would face a heavy barrage of feed-back on other websites; I don't know reeling some names off the top of my head if people would do the same about the late Gene Roddenberry, old JK, or Joss Whedon (Mr. above criticism), whether they would George Lucas, but Stephen King has been criticized a lot because his work is cliche and overlong and many of his film adaptations aren't as good as his books. I actually think it's a real tribute many FF writers can write as good as, often better than the original founders. To me it's annoying and depressing when Sir Ian comes up with playable, interesting gamebooks such as Port Of Peril and Assassins Of Allansia but ruins them with his cliches - and so we've come full circle. Anyway, great to hear from you Per Jorner, I've loved reading your reviews and hope know you'll be great on this site. In the past, I would have been more critical of IL's work because it didn't contain anything too innovative gameplay wise. However, I remember enjoying it as a child and it has grown on me in recent years. I guess I got a bit pretentious game design wise when I was trying new things and now I care less, I can feel that I can just admit enjoying a combat heavy scavenger hunt.
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Post by Per on Sept 30, 2023 13:04:33 GMT
Interesting the way many people on this site (and some others, such as Demien's gamebook page) take this rather negative view about Sir Livingstone's work, which I'm sure would face a heavy barrage of feed-back on other websites; This may properly belong in the "Ian Livingstone gets no respect" thread in general FF, but it doesn't seem strange to me that when roughly post-Trials is the baseline, views are dominantly negative, while at the same time, the people criticizing the Livingstone checklist would have no problem acknowledging his seminal contributions if that's the topic. I wrote largely positive nostalgia-tinged reviews of Caverns and Temple while I can recognize there were plenty of signs of autopiloting back then already, and Demian's review of Caverns in particular was an eye-opener of sorts. Anyway, if Port and Assassins break away from that trend they should certainly get their full tribute of praise, indications just don't point that way. All is good so long as nobody unironically loves Crypt, but that will never happen.
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Post by CharlesX on Sept 30, 2023 13:36:53 GMT
Interesting the way many people on this site (and some others, such as Demien's gamebook page) take this rather negative view about Sir Livingstone's work, which I'm sure would face a heavy barrage of feed-back on other websites; This may properly belong in the "Ian Livingstone gets no respect" thread in general FF, but it doesn't seem strange to me that when roughly post-Trials is the baseline, views are dominantly negative, while at the same time, the people criticizing the Livingstone checklist would have no problem acknowledging his seminal contributions if that's the topic. I wrote largely positive nostalgia-tinged reviews of Caverns and Temple while I can recognize there were plenty of signs of autopiloting back then already, and Demian's review of Caverns in particular was an eye-opener of sorts. Anyway, if Port and Assassins break away from that trend they should certainly get their full tribute of praise, indications just don't point that way. All is good so long as nobody unironically loves Crypt, but that will never happen. You have either not met or forgotten Vagsancho (he thinks extremely highly of Crypt Of The Sorceror). Alternatively, perhaps you disregarded him, which seems sensible. I haven't heard of this Ian Livingstone gets no respect thread and I've no idea how old it might be, but I will look it up, thank you for the suggestion (Edit: Can't seem to find it, which either means it's very old, the search engine's cra*p or it doesn't exist and personally setting up an "Ian Livingstone gets no respect" thread was meant as a witty suggestion, probably one and two though).
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Post by Per on Oct 18, 2023 19:03:35 GMT
As suggested, here's a rerun of my completely bogus Seas of Blood review from October 2003:
About two weeks later, this reply was posted:
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Post by CharlesX on Oct 18, 2023 19:58:11 GMT
Would anyone be a Good Samaritan and post reference 127 of Seas Of Blood? But paragraph 127 could just as easily mean that number paragraph (rather than reference), not counting or counting the introduction.
Most of the review makes an elaborate, convoluted sense, like Russell Brand wrote it on one of his average days.
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Post by Per on Oct 18, 2023 20:16:19 GMT
Would anyone be a Good Samaritan and post reference 127 of Seas Of Blood? 127 Will you cut across the front of the line of ships, heading for the coast of the Eastern Rim (turn to 34), or give full sail to the Banshee and try to speed your way through the attacking vessels (turn to 19)?Of course I didn't have the faintest idea what was in section 127, but I'm sure everyone can see how it is laden with piratical privilege.
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Post by CharlesX on Oct 19, 2023 12:12:16 GMT
As suggested, here's a rerun of my completely bogus Seas of Blood review from October 2003: A novelization of Space Assassin by Iain M. Banks (If that is what you mean) would be one of the coolest things ever!
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Post by schlendrian on Oct 19, 2023 16:50:41 GMT
Granger, J, 1971, "No Evidence for Neolithic Game Books and Prof. Xcrypowizc Is a Big Fat Jerk", Monthly Notes of the Archaeological Society (Aug), p 4. Excerpt from this article's resumé: "As the gateways of the Heldenberg site require no three digit number code written somewhere into the megaliths of Stonehenge, it can conclusively be shown, that basic gamebook concepts were entirely unknown to neolithic people."
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Post by andrewwright on Oct 22, 2023 10:09:33 GMT
WOW WOW WOW! Great to have you back Per, hope you have been well. Your erudite and incisive reviews have been much missed over the last decade, nevertheless you will find, if you haven't already, we are currently dwelling within a veritable splendour of gamebook renaissance, with second and third generation fan books being self-published in a flowing cascade across the internet, not to mention brand new FF titles! Your return counts as a win for all. :-)
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Post by Per on Oct 22, 2023 20:13:52 GMT
Hi! "Erudite and incisive" does sound a little nicer than "scathing and malicous". :) Where is Red Dragon Pass and all the brand new Virtual Realities though? Where?
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