Fantastic Fights

It’s another bonus episode as we tackle Overlord!, book 4 in the ninja themed Way of the Tiger series by Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson. Now the ruler of a major city our hero must balance the different competing interests and avoid precipitating another revolution that will surely end badly. 

Bonus episodes of this podcast are made possible by my patrons over at patreon.com/hjdoom. My thanks to them and to Stuart Llloyd for the loan of the hardcover special edition text.

Book 53 of Fighting Fantasy is here! Spellbreaker is the debut Fighting Fantasy gamebook from Jonathan Green who has gone on to be an important creator in the gamebook sphere. With art, including cover art, by Alan Langford there’s clearly a wealth of talent on display but does that cohere into a good book? Listen along to find out.
If you’d like to support my nonsense and bag yourself a bunch of gaming goodies you can do so over at my patreon at patreon.com/hjoom.

It’s another bonus episode as we take a look at The King’s Demon based on the 1980s TV show Robin of Sherwood, an extremely influential retelling of the myth of Robin Hood. The book by Graham Staplehurst and Richard Carpenter (with some help from Paul Mason). Art is by the legendary Russ Nicholson. If you’re enjoying this podcast please consider supporting me on patreon at www.patreon.com/hjdoom.

Book 52 of the Fighting Fantasy series is Night Dragon, the sixth book by regular contributor Keith Martin. Another desperate threat has emerged to menace Allansia in the form of the titular dragon who also looms large over the cover art. Internal art and cover art is by Tony Hough but how will our intrepid adventurer get on? Listen along to find out.

It’s bonus time again and this episode I’m playing The Castle of Lost Souls by Dave Morris with art by Leo Hartas. This is part of the Golden Dragon series of gamebooks released by Grafton Books in the 1980s and is based on a Dungeons and Dragons adventure Dave Morris and Yve Newnham serialised in early White Dwarf. This is re-release as a print on demand book in 2013.

It’s book 51. It’s Island of the Undead. It’s Keith Martin and Russ Nicholson. How will our intrepid hero get on and just how many sections will be hidden behind mystery numbers? Listen to find out.

Also I have a new album of melancholy Dungeon Synth out. Baroque Funereal Dirges by Sorrow Tree presents 6 tracks of lo-fi dark ambient music suitable for goblins, witches, and lonely ghosts. It’s available for free at the link below.

https://malesperi.bandcamp.com/album/baroque-funereal-dirges

It’s bonus episode time again and this instalment sees us continue to explore the Way of the Tiger series by Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson (with kind thanks to Stuart Lloyd for the loan of the book). Usurper, book 3 in the series, sees our ninja hero embark on a new adventure as they seek to take back a crown that is rightfully theirs under the dubious law of primogeniture. Will I manage it on my first try? If you’ve been listening for a while you already know the answer to that question but you might as well listen to the episode anyway.

We hit a big milestone in the history of Fighting Fantasy as this episode covers Return to Firetop Mountain, book fifty in the wildly successful series. Ian Livingstone returns to the start of the series and the provides us with another chance to delve into the secrets of Firetop Mountain where the titular warlock has returned once more to bedevil the local area. There’s nostalgia a-plenty but does Return to Firetop Mountain hold up when considered on its own merits? Listen along to find out.

It’s bonus episode time again and we’re delving into a gamebook based on one of the most successful comic books in the world, Asterix the Gaul. Meeting of the Chieftains is a full colour, magazine sized gamebook based in the madcap world of Gaul in the first century BCE. The original comic books are stone cold classics but how will the property survive translation to a new medium? Listen along to find out.

Siege of Sardath is the only book written for the Fighting Fantasy series by Keith P Phillips which means that we’ll either be sad or relieved that there’s no sequel. We’re in classic Fighting Fantasy plot territory with a mysterious evil oppressing the city of Sardath and a journey to be taken through a spider haunted forest in order to find out what has happened and set it right. Art is by Pete Knifton and the cover is by Les Edwards.