I'm accustomed to describing Vulcanverse or Blood Sword as "epic". Vulcanverse is as long as fifteen or sixteen Fighting Fantasy books. Blood Sword is equivalent to six or seven. But if you want a true gamebook epic, what about the thirty-two (and counting) volumes in the Lone Wolf saga?
Joe Dever left copious notes detailing how he planned to conclude the saga, and now his son, Ben Devere, and gamebook author Vincent Lazzari have teamed up to write that story. Light of the Kai is the first part of the Lone Wolf finale, the culmination of more than forty years of adventuring in the world of Magnamund.
Ben says:
"We spent over two years piecing together Dad’s ideas, updating the mechanics, and staying true to his vision. It’s a real labour of love - and a way to say thanks to all the fans who’ve stuck with us. Expect familiar terrains, fresh challenges, and the same epic feel that made Lone Wolf so special."
Players can take a new character or play the part of Lone Wolf himself. (Or herself? I'm not sure if Lone Wolf's sex is ever given in the books...) The action takes the player into the forsaken north, where old foes stir and long-buried secrets await.
There will be a collector's edition, a standard hardback, and a limited number of signed copies. You can also order art prints by Gary Chalk. Yes, you read that right. Mr Chalk, the original and definitive illustrator of the Lone Wolf series, is returning to bring these final chapters of the story to life.
In the short gamebook chapter of the "Magnamund Companion" where we play Banedon, we see a picture of Lone Wolf who is definitely male.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if that was Joe Dever's original intention? I always thought the name Lone Wolf was picked to be gender-neutral, like Avenger in The Way of the Tiger or Alex Dragan in Cthulhu 2050.
DeleteHi. So, I have checked the Cthulhu 2050 Gamefound and it said that the physical book should ship in May 2026. Does this mean that the book will start shipping soon or it's already shipping out to backers? I have played all of the Blood Sword Series and all of the Critical IF series gamebooks. I was wondering if you also have any plans for another gamebook with multiple characters. I find that the Blood Sword Series all together combined was my favorite gamebook because of the fact that you could control multiple characters.
DeletePage 96 and I think it was written by J.Dever himself : https://www.projectaon.org/en/pdf/misc/The-Magnamund-Companion.pdf
DeleteOf course, I read (except for number 3) "Avenger" in French but I have always thought him as a male. At the beginning of Number 4, the servant-girls are admiring Avenger"s muscled body while he's bathing.
On the contrary, I have always thought of "Blood Sword" as gender-neutral. As I adapted it into a Sambahsa novel, the surviving character was even a female. However, the thief was male since in Book 1, a witch calls him "pretty boy" (at least in the French translation).
In French, we have Book 1 of the "Défis & Sortilèges" series (IMO the best gamebook series after Bloodsword) where you play the role of Caithness, a female elementalist with a strong personality. You can legally download the book there : https://www.bibliotheque-des-aventuriers.com/menu/livres_en_ligne.htm#caithness_elementaliste
And we had "les Messagers du Temps" where you could choose to play either the Prince or the Princess of Time, what could lead to different interactions in the story.
Olivier -- that's interesting about the Blood Sword translation, as I was always scrupulous about keeping the text gender-neutral. I searched through in case I'd missed something, and I think I can guess where the French translator put "pretty boy". In English the witch describes the character as "gallant", which is usually used of men but could in theory be applied to a woman. That dialogue is delivered in verse, so the translator probably took full licence to rewrite it.
DeleteIt's interesting too that on p96 of The Magnamund Companion there's a line where the character is escaping on horseback and the guard yells, "Stop that rider!" That's the sort of situation where Jamie or Mark would write, "Stop him!" and I'd have to point out ways to make it gender-nonspecific.
Azrael -- I've seen the final PDF of the Cthulhu book, so it should be printing shortly. Backers ought to be getting their copies over the next month or so. Or so I assume, but I will check with Paweł Dziemski and post any updates here.
Dave Morris:
Delete"Azrael -- I've seen the final PDF of the Cthulhu book, so it should be printing shortly. Backers ought to be getting their copies over the next month or so. Or so I assume, but I will check with Paweł Dziemski and post any updates here."
Azrael:
Thx u. I am looking forward to it for the story. This has the potential to surpass Heart of Ice, which is my most favorite Sci Fiction gamebook. I don't play gamebooks digitally so I am waiting on the physical copy. Will the gamebook also be on Amazon? Also, any plans to have a gamebook or gamebook series where you can control multiple characters much like the Blood Sword Series?
I assume the book will be on Amazon, at least as a paperback version, but that's up to Paweł. I don't currently have a plan for a multi-character gamebook series, but both Legendary Kingdoms and Expeditionary Company fit the bill so may be worth trying.
DeleteLone Wolf is clearly male, as depicted in the cover art of several of the books, and indeed in the image you choose for this post, Dave.
ReplyDeleteAutumn Snow (A character in a later spinoff series) is clearly female, again as depicted in the cover art.
I've never quite understood the drive for "gender neutrality" when it comes to established characters with histories. It would be like playing a Star Wars themed gamebook and thinking the same thing about Luke Skywalker.
Gender neutrality IS logical for most gamebooks, which involve a faceless "you" as the main character.
I suppose it comes down to whether the reader feels like they are literally playing themselves, or assuming the role of / controlling a hero. With that said, I don't think it should be difficult for anyone with an interest in storytelling or roleplaying to assume the role of a character that doesn't exactly match their own characteristics.
Good point, Gaetano. We're accustomed to playing Geralt or Max Payne or Lara Croft or whoever -- although I never feel I'm actually playing those characters, just being a voice on their shoulder. If I ever get around to Shadow King (discussed in earlier posts here) the main character is a specific person, John Sangrail. But Shadow King will be related in first person, like my Frankenstein e-gamebook.
DeleteI'm curious to know how early on in the series it was established that Lone Wolf is male? Presumably it must have been right at the start of book one, as otherwise some readers would assume female and then get a jarring reset later.
And many languages don't make it easy to have gender-neutral characters, of course. When making the Polish edition of Whispers Beyond The Stars, Paweł was probably cursing me for making Alex Dragan either male or female.
Actually, Lone Wolf was established as male as soon as the original Book 1. Section 139 of “Flight from the Dark” ends with a palace sentinel catching sight of our hero and shouting “Stop that man!”. You can check this in Project Aon’s version of the book.
ReplyDeleteThe current edition says “Stop that intruder!” instead, but it’s pretty sure that Joe Dever intended Lone Wolf to be male. The novelizations of the gamebooks written by John Grant also nave an unquestionably male LW.
That's interesting, Efrem -- especially that they changed the line in the current edition. I would constantly remind Jamie and Mark and Oliver not to write things like "Stop him!" but our gamebooks were intentionally gender-neutral. Once Lone Wolf was established as male, why did anyone think they needed to alter the line to "Stop that intruder"?
Delete