Gamebook store

Monday 27 August 2012

Fabled Lands Book 6 is back in print

Fabled Lands
The new edition of Fabled Lands Book 6 goes on sale today. As you can see from Kevin Jenkins's cover, the action takes place in the Oriental land of Akatsurai, which has a strong flavour of Heian and Kamakura Japan with a little bit of Thai, Burmese and Chinese folklore thrown in for good measure - although, to avoid the usual archly indulgent exoticism of a Western writer looking East, I mostly avoided Japanese terms. So no ninja, samurai are "knights", and the Emperor is referred to as the Sovereign, a better translation of the role in the period I was drawing on for inspiration. (Sixteenth century explorer Will Adams thought the Japanese Emperor was more like a Pope.) I would have used the term Lord Protector instead of Shogun, too, except that might have caused confusion with the title of General Marlock in Book 1.

The blurb is a bit small to read on the image here, so to save you eye-strain:

The LORDS OF THE RISING SUN rule the exotic kingdom of Akatsurai. But proud warrior clans constantly seek to overthrow them. In the turmoil of war, there are countless opportunities for a quick-witted adventurer. Will you spy for the Shogun? Become one of the Sovereign's chivalrous knights? Or just play one side against the other in your pursuit of riches and power? 


Track down the elusive, raven-winged Tengu to learn the secret arts of sorcery and swordplay. Defeat the vampires, skilled in martial arts, who guard the Lost Tomb of the Necromancer. Enter the dreadful cloisters of the Noboro Monastery, where you will fight the most dangerous opponent of all — yourself.


29 comments:

  1. Excellent news. Dare I ask when book 7 will be out?

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  2. As soon as I can overcome my reservations about Kickstarter, Stuart ;-)

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    1. How much should you sell with FL 5 and 6 to start FL 7 even without a Kickstarter adventure? If the project goes on as it started, you could earn quite a lot for them... or at least that's what I hope. :)

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  3. Great! Time to get Enlightened!

    Cheers

    Joe

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    1. Ah, so *that's* the sound of one hand clapping.

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  4. Btw the publication really took me by surprise. I okayed the proof this morning, thinking that it would take about 5 days to go live, like Court of Hidden Faces did. Then a few hours later, I suddenly started getting alerts that copies were being sold! So far Amazon hasn't linked to the first edition reviews, but fingers crossed...

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  5. As soon as I saw this post, I ordered. I wanted to post a comment to express my excitement, but I had time for one thing on my break, and that was ordering a copy.

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    1. Sounds like you've got your priorities straight, Mark. I didn't realize that we ended up publishing on the 30th anniversary of the publication of Warlock of Firetop Mountain, which British readers will know was when the gamebook craze got started on this side of the pond. Hopefully that's a good omen.

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  6. That was a nice surprise! Instant purchase.

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  7. Ordered! So great to see these books back in print - thanks for all your hard work (and to everyone who makes this happen!)

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  8. What? Already on sale? You've been quicker than a lighting bolt, what a surprise! It seems that I have to order something on amazon... :)

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  9. Oh unfortunately it's not available on amazon.it for the moment, I'll wait for it, hopefully it's only a matter of time...

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    1. With book 5 I think it took about a week to get onto the continental European Amazon sites. So check back on Thursday or Friday and hopefully it should be available then.

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  10. It's already on amazon.de
    I'll try to order it through my normal bookstore tomorrow, though, see what happens.
    Congratulations on completing the reprints.
    Are you confident that POD versions like these will be available for a long time, instead just the next 1-2 years? Since they're just files on some amazon hard drive, they should be able to print them at any time, even in 50-10.000 years.
    At least that's what I hope ;)

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    1. That's my thinking, Alexander. Years after we are all dead, the unstoppable hydra-like entity that is Amazon will continue to grow, and as long as it endures these books will remain on its servers for people to order. (Offer only guaranteed until the Sun goes red giant, though.)

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  11. It's like a dream though, isn't it? Think 20 years back, could you have imagined books that never go out of print, no matter how many people buy them?

    And when the sun goes red giant, Doctor Who will comfortably sit in a space ship to watch the spectacly, probably reading Fabled Lands.

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    1. I picture the Doctor reading Heart of Ice, actually, but otherwise that sounds about right.

      All of our gamebooks published next year (including the new one by Jamie) will be set up as POD so that they should in theory remain in print indefinitely.

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  12. Great stuff! Dave I now have a brand new ipad with lots of new games and gamesbooks. With the exception of the existing megara apps would you please remind me what we can expect from sparkfurnace / fabled lands llc in the next year? Regardless of your answer, please take my money :)

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  13. Ah, that's what we like to hear. Okay, in the coming year, if all goes according to plan, we should have:

    (i) All six FL apps from Spirit Media on iOS, Android, Kindle and Nook. Spirit's artists have cooked up some stupendous images that I'm hoping to be able to show on the blog soon.

    (ii) At least five reissued gamebooks in both print and epub3 versions. (You'll be able to buy the latter in the iBookstore.) These will include Down Among the Dead Men, Heart of Ice and Necklace of Skulls, and two of them will also appear in deluxe apps by Inkle Studios.

    (iii) An all-new gamebook by Jamie, also in print and iBooks versions, which we're calling "Undeadwood" for now.

    (iv) My Frankenstein app will be out in epub3 and Kindle editions, and my follow-up to that will be released by Profile Books next spring. (Nothing to do with Frankenstein this time.)

    (v) The US edition of Dark Lord: The Early Years goes on sale in October, and Jamie and I have just finished the first book in a new SF series with the working title of "Starship Captain".

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  14. Btw if anyone feels like giving Lords of the Rising Sun a review on Amazon - we've only got one so far, sob.

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  15. Two reviews now! Thanks, guys.

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    1. Excellent news!!
      Thanks for all of this! I'm waiting for the kickstarter for the next books

      Ikaros

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  16. Just ordered my copy of FL 6 on amazon.it, it's now available. As soon as I can I'll post a review, be sure! :)

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  17. A childhood dream: Fabled Lands 7 - 12

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    1. Is that Heisenberg on our blog? An honor, sir.

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  18. Hi! Any news on Books 7+? Really itching here to shove some money your way - whether through amazon or through kickstarter doen´t matter; just get those books going ^^

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  19. Just belatedly purchased my copy from Amazon now, and will review with gusto upon reading. Thanks to some very good finds in secondhand book stores here in New Zealand this will help me finish my FB set. Now back to Down Among the Dead Men...

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  20. Interested in doing an interview with you for G*M*S podcast on FL, esp 7-12 :-) but not much on your blog later than this entry. Will try to find an email to contact you directly, but thought I'd post here in case I fail that Skill roll.

    Given second hand sales of the originals on Amazon can be as little as 1p (plus eye gauging £2.80 P&P), I'm guessing the likelihood of the unpublished books is dependent on sales of the new versions ~£6 or so, rather than the cheaper used titles. How have sales been going? Are we ever going to be able to explore the Underworld?

    For new players (readers?) which version (print or digital?) and what title should they start with? In what order would you play the six current books? Is there a map (even unpublished) of how the 12 books interconnect?

    I'd like to ask, as much as an academic as critic, how you came up with the non-linearity and the quest format, with return visits to locations showing persistence. And lots more jest ions besides. As I said I'll try to find out your email now to restate these queries, but if you read this first, please contact me at DoctorMikeReddy@gmail.com

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