Vault Of The Vampire is better than Dracula, basically. Needless to say Ravenloft was my favourite Dungeons & Dragons setting, and Vault Of The Vampire placed me like a stake through the heart of my own Draculastory, one I didn’t have to share with a reedy Jonathan Harker and one that wasn’t written as a collection of insipid letters and journal enteries. It seems a bit mean-spirited to single out one particular Fighting Fantasy book for being contrived, but even at my tender age with an enthusiasm for vampires I recognised Vault Of The Vampire as a collection of generic vampire tropes, and ‘Mortvania’ as the pseudo-Germanic Uberwald that it was.
While most Fighting Fantasy books are either archetypical Dungeons & Dragons/Tolkein-inspired dwarf tossing, or else dragged kicking and screaming from popular culture and made to wear a slightly different coloured dress and told your name is Krazy Ken (see Freeway Fighter), Robot Commando appears to be entirely the product of a 13-year-old’s fever dream where giant robots herd dinosaurs… IN SPACE. In honour of this year’s 30th Anniversary Fighting Fantasy book by the almighty Ian Livingstone, here’s our not entirely serious and completely subjective run-down of the ten best in the landmark game book series.Īre you kidding me? There’s a flipping TRANSFORMER FIGHTING A T-REX!Ĭirca 1986 this was basically the equivalent of printing a book cover showing Harry Potter firing Pokéballs at Barack Obama – only perhaps even more exciting because we kids of the day didn’t have DeviantArt to act as a haven for imaginary (non-sexual) couplings. The story of an unbreakable bond between boy and dragon and their fight to fulfil their destinies, Eragon has all the vital components of a page-turning fantasy book.įor those who love the work of master storyteller Paolini, this year sees the release of his unmissable science fiction debut To Sleep in a Sea of Stars. In a world of magic and unimaginable dangers, the fate of the entire Empire soon rests upon his shoulders, and to survive he must take up the legendary mantle of the once-peaceful Dragon Riders. so when Saphira emerges from her egg, Eragon raises her in secret until two dark Ra’zac come looking for the stone.Įragon’s once simple life is thrust into peril. When Eragon finds a mysterious stone in the mountains, he hopes it may hold some value, but his life is changed forever when the strange polished stone, hatches. Įragon is the bestselling first instalment in Christopher Paolini's beloved fantasy series, The Inheritance Cycle.Īt the story’s opening, fifteen-year-old Eragon is a poor farmhand living in Alagaësia, a land ruled over by the fallen dragon rider, and now evil, Galbatorix. Essun's fight to save her daughters in this dying land, begins. Her husband murders their beloved son in cold blood and kidnaps their daughter, a world-spanning empire falls, and a great rift has been torn into the Stillness throwing into the sky enough ash to block the sun's light for years to come.
Book one follows the story of Essun, a woman living an unremarkable life in a quiet town until three tragedies strike in one day.
Considered a work of science fantasy, the trilogy is set in a far-future Earth, upon a continent known as the Stillness, which is plagued by apocalyptic natural disasters known as Seasons, that can last for generations. With fascinating geologic forces and systemic issues of oppression, marginalization and the misuse of power at its heart - The Fifth Season and the entire Broken Earth trilogy is lauded for the complex and richly-coloured world in which it is set.
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With this remarkable work of fantasy fiction, Jemisin became the first black author to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2016, and what's more, the next two instalments in the series The Obelisk Gate and The Stone Sky also went on to win the same prize, making Jemisin the first-ever author to win the award for all books in a trilogy. Published in 2015, The Fifth Season is the first fantasy novel in N.