What do you think?
Rate this book
Blood Bowl #4
Rumble in the Jungle
Fourth Blood Bowl novel that follows the rags to riches career of star thrower Dunk Hoffnung and his team the Bad Bay Hackers. After winning the Spike! Magazine tournament final, the Hackers set sail for the fabulous land of Lustria to seek new challenges. In the hot, steamy jungles, Dunk and his friends have to fight off zombies, pygmy halflings, lizardmen and more ? and that's before they face off against the Amazon team in the Tobazco Bowl!
416 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published December 26, 2007
1 person is currently reading
99 people want to read
About the author
Matt Forbeck
210 books314 followersI'm an award-winning, New York Times-bestselling author and game designer and happily married father of five, including a set of quadruplets. For more on my work, see Forbeck.com.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 25, 2016
Well, with this fourth book, the Blood Bowl series comes to an end, along with the adventures of Dunk Hoffnung and the Bad Bay Hackers.
In this volume, Dunk and Dirk discover that their sister, who they've long thought dead, is actually alive, having been sold into slavery and taken to the New World. Determined to rescue their kid sister, the Hoffnung brothers set out across the ocean to the Blood Bowl world's analog of South America, which is a dark and dangerous land populated by cold-blooded lizard men, hot-blooded Amazon warriors and hordes of the living dead.
I've really enjoyed this series, and this last book is no exception. It's full of action, drama and the unique sense of humour that is true to the original game. Fans of the game, in any of its many iterations, could do worse than to read these books. They expand the world the game is set in and this fourth book is the truest to the original game fluff of all four; the author even manages not to mix up Jim and Bob in this book!
I'd love to read more in this series but, as this fourth volume was published in 2007, I think I may be out of luck on that front.
In this volume, Dunk and Dirk discover that their sister, who they've long thought dead, is actually alive, having been sold into slavery and taken to the New World. Determined to rescue their kid sister, the Hoffnung brothers set out across the ocean to the Blood Bowl world's analog of South America, which is a dark and dangerous land populated by cold-blooded lizard men, hot-blooded Amazon warriors and hordes of the living dead.
I've really enjoyed this series, and this last book is no exception. It's full of action, drama and the unique sense of humour that is true to the original game. Fans of the game, in any of its many iterations, could do worse than to read these books. They expand the world the game is set in and this fourth book is the truest to the original game fluff of all four; the author even manages not to mix up Jim and Bob in this book!
I'd love to read more in this series but, as this fourth volume was published in 2007, I think I may be out of luck on that front.
January 19, 2020
The book suffers from a lack of actual Blood Bowl being played.
June 10, 2019
The last in the Blood Bowl-series.
After reading all four books of the series I think the first was pretty good but the three sequels were mostly rubbish. This last one is one of the worst. The problems are the same as in the previous books. The people in the book act very strangely and the plot moves forward mostly without any sense.
One example of characters acting strangely was as the characters were battling the ghost. Without spoiling anything, I'll just tell that a woman runs to the pitch and looks angry. The main character is scared and thinks the woman is going to attack him. And the book goes on describing how the main character feels and how he braces for impact. But then the woman doesn't attack him but the ghost instead. This is all good and well but there is no reason why the main character should think the woman is going to attack him. There has been absolutely no conflict between the two characters. This kind of writing really puts me off.
The plot is quite nice and the happenings fun but it should have been written much better.
After reading all four books of the series I think the first was pretty good but the three sequels were mostly rubbish. This last one is one of the worst. The problems are the same as in the previous books. The people in the book act very strangely and the plot moves forward mostly without any sense.
One example of characters acting strangely was as the characters were battling the ghost. Without spoiling anything, I'll just tell that a woman runs to the pitch and looks angry. The main character is scared and thinks the woman is going to attack him. And the book goes on describing how the main character feels and how he braces for impact. But then the woman doesn't attack him but the ghost instead. This is all good and well but there is no reason why the main character should think the woman is going to attack him. There has been absolutely no conflict between the two characters. This kind of writing really puts me off.
The plot is quite nice and the happenings fun but it should have been written much better.
January 17, 2022
This series starts great, with book 1 Blood Bowl, but then gets worse for each book. I am glad that this book is the end of the series.
September 19, 2010
Book number 7 for 2008 is Blood Bowl: Rumble in the Jungle by Matt Forbeck. Since I'm playing in a summer Blood Bowl league right now, this choice seemed particularly appropriate. Full of the usual mayhem, RitJ is about the Bad Bay Hackers, a team of lovable misfits who are a very talented group of athletes. When Dunk Hoffnung and his brother Dirk, the star thrower and blitzer for the Hackers, discover their sister is alive and part of a Blood Bowl team in Lustria, they pack their bags and head to the distant jungle coast to find her.
The only disappointment for me was a wish that Matt had dealt more with a race of humanoid lizards who serve the Slaan, and ancient race of creatures who fought against Chaos in the time before time. We do get a little taste, but it wasn't quite enough for me. Still, this fourth volume in the series of Blood Bowl novels is a fun summer read, perfect to inspire my Wood Elf team to score more touchdowns in the second half of the season.
The only disappointment for me was a wish that Matt had dealt more with a race of humanoid lizards who serve the Slaan, and ancient race of creatures who fought against Chaos in the time before time. We do get a little taste, but it wasn't quite enough for me. Still, this fourth volume in the series of Blood Bowl novels is a fun summer read, perfect to inspire my Wood Elf team to score more touchdowns in the second half of the season.
August 16, 2013
I remember a cartoon from long ago, where this wicked sport was played. People running around in armour, making crazy plays and whatnot. Blood Bowl reminds me of that, and yes that is a good thing.
I'm a bit flabbergasted Forbeck doesn't have a bigger community here on Goodreads as I can see a clear market for these books. Then again, this market might not be the Goodreads-type.
Anyway, I loved the extremeness of it all, the humour and the clever modern references (I laughed very hard at Tat II). However I did not like the extremeness of it all, the forced humour and the cheap modern references (eVILBAY, really?). So in total it makes for a pretty equal game. It then becomes a question of 3 or 4 stars.
For a book that is centred around a weird new type of football, it completely forgets to talk enough about the games. Most games finish within 5 pages, and there are maybe 5-6 games in the entire book. I wanted a bit more of the bloody sport and its wicked players. 3 Stars.
I'm a bit flabbergasted Forbeck doesn't have a bigger community here on Goodreads as I can see a clear market for these books. Then again, this market might not be the Goodreads-type.
Anyway, I loved the extremeness of it all, the humour and the clever modern references (I laughed very hard at Tat II). However I did not like the extremeness of it all, the forced humour and the cheap modern references (eVILBAY, really?). So in total it makes for a pretty equal game. It then becomes a question of 3 or 4 stars.
For a book that is centred around a weird new type of football, it completely forgets to talk enough about the games. Most games finish within 5 pages, and there are maybe 5-6 games in the entire book. I wanted a bit more of the bloody sport and its wicked players. 3 Stars.
Read
May 8, 2009i would like to read this book
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews