You Are the Hero: An Interactive History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks

by Jonathan Green, Iain Mccaig (Cover Artist)

May Your Stamina Never Fail!

Fighting Fantasy gamebooks - the publishing phenomenon of the 1980s - have sold over 20 million books worldwide, in over 30 languages. But when Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone sat down to write the original Fighting Fantasy gamebook, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, they could not have predicted that this one, simple adventure would go on to spawn over 100 books, let alone begin to guess at the impact it would have on a generation of children growing up in Thatcher's Britain.

Part history, part celebration, YOU ARE THE HERO chronicles four decades of the Fighting Fantasy phenomenon. Written by Jonathan Green (author of eight Fighting Fantasy gamebooks), this mighty tome will appeal to anyone who ever whiled away a washed-out summer holiday with only two dice, a pencil, and an eraser for company.

Genres: Nonfiction

324 pages, Hardcover

First published March 31, 2024

About the author

Jonathan Green is a writer of speculative fiction, with more than seventy books to his name. Well known for his contributions to the Fighting Fantasy range of adventure gamebooks, he has also written fiction for such diverse properties as Doctor Who, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000, Sonic the Hedgehog, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Moshi Monsters, LEGO, Judge Dredd and Robin of Sherwood.

He is the creator of the Pax Britannia series for Abaddon Books and has written eight novels, and numerous short stories, set within this steampunk universe, featuring the debonair dandy adventurer Ulysses Quicksilver. He is also the author of an increasing number of non-fiction titles, including the award-winning YOU ARE THE HERO – A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks.

He has recently taken to editing and compiling short story anthologies, including the critically-acclaimed GAME OVER and SHARKPUNK, published by Snowbooks, and the forthcoming Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu.

To find out more about his current projects visit www.JonathanGreenAuthor.com and follow him on Twitter @jonathangreen.

Reviews

[Thom]

A very complete summary of four decades of Fighting Fantasy books and related items, conventions, authors and artists. The third revision of a project started in 2014.

I started with an electronic edition of the 2014 book, but when I learned there was a newer one, sought it out, eventually satisfying the quest with an interlibrary loan. This book is probably more common in England. The update to this edition is numbering (and adding to) the sections, then providing references between them. The reader can go start to finish (as I did), or jump around, or some combination of the two. And yes, the final section is #400 - much like many of the Fighting Fantasy books it describes.

There is a *lot* of information here, and unfortunately, occasional duplication within entries. Size wise this is a large book, which really brings out some of the larger artwork. Toward the back, websites and online presence are described, and the screen shots of those pages is very small - not exactly readable. Not art, so using a full page would be a shame. Probably the best alternative would have been to drop those screen shots and have a simple URL which linked to all of the pages (or archive versions if they are now offline).

I look forward to re-reading Fighting Fantasy and Sorcery! in a book club style fashion soon. I'll gladly purchase this book once I find a copy in a local book or game store.