| Jonathan Green | |
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![Jonathan Green[1]](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/fightingfantasy/images/a/ae/Jon_green.JPG/revision/latest?cb=20090408193001)
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| Homepage | Jonathan Green, author |
Jonathan Green is a full-time novelist, and gamebook author.
Biography[]
He is best known for having written three gamebooks in the original Puffin Books Fighting Fantasy series and the long-lost gamebook Bloodbones which has now been published as part of the new Wizard Books series along with a further two new titles.
Green's books are reputed to be among the most difficult in Fighting Fantasy due to the frequent inclusion of high-level adversaries and because there is often little room for error. For instance, Bloodbones features a final battle against a skill 12 stamina 24 adversary while suffering a -1 Attack Strength penalty (a player starts with maximum scores of 12 and 24 respectively), Knights of Doom includes four skill 12 adversaries, Curse of the Mummy features a skill 13 stamina 25 final adversary and Spellbreaker includes a skill 12 bandit and another skill 12 final adversary.
Reviewers agree that Knights of Doom is one of the hardest of the original Fighting Fantasy series, while Curse of the Mummy is termed "ludicrous" in difficulty by one reviewer and "ridiculously difficult ... as with Jonathan Green's two other gamebooks" by another, and Bloodbones is termed "insanely difficult" by one reader. Spellbreaker includes several passages where a certain dice roll (such as 1-3 out of 6) is necessary for survival and has been estimated as having only an 8% success chance prior to factoring in risks from combat, other statistics, item choice and so on. Although usually raised as a criticism, this aspect also pleases some readers. The books are also often credited with atmospheric writing and originality. Upon their 2007 re-releases Spellbreaker and Curse of the Mummy were edited to make them more playable.
All the books operate on the intersection between fantasy and horror; they are all set in the usual Fighting Fantasy world of Titan. Spellbreaker uses a religious rather than mythological setting including herblore, Curse of the Mummy imitates ancient Egyptian tropes, Bloodbones is pirate-themed with undertones of chaos-worship and undeath, and Knights of Doom borrows Warhammer Fantasy Battle's chaos imagery.
Jonathan Green himself has admitted when interviewed he misjudged difficulty, and in his later works Howl Of The Werewolf, Stormslayer and Night Of The Necromancer, as well as his role as co-writer in Secrets Of Salamonis, he treated gameplay more fairly.
Bibliography[]
Fighting Fantasy[]
Writer
Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks[]
- (#53) Spellbreaker (Puffin, 1993)
- (#56) Knights of Doom (Puffin, 1994)
- (#59) Curse of the Mummy (Puffin, 1995)
- (#26)1 Bloodbones (Wizard, 2006)
- (#29)1 Howl of the Werewolf (Wizard, 2007)
- (#4)2 Stormslayer (Wizard, 2009)
- (#8)2 Night of the Necromancer (Wizard, 2010)
- Number is related to Wizard Books "Series 1" numbering.
- Number is related to Wizard Books "Series 2" numbering.
Map Illustrator
Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks[]
- (#56) Knights of Doom
- (#58) Revenge of the Vampire (Puffin, 1995)
- (#59) Curse of the Mummy
- (#26) Bloodbones (Wizard, 2006)
Outside of Fighting Fantasy[]
Writer
Sonic the Hedgehog Gamebooks[]
- (#5) Theme Park Panic (with Marc Gascoigne)
- (#6) Stormin' Sonic (with Marc Gascoigne)
Pax Britannia[]
- Unnatural History (Abaddon Books, 2007)
- Leviathan Rising (Abaddon Books, 2008)
- Human Nature (Abaddon Books, 2008)
- Evolution Expects (Abaddon Books, 2009)
- Blood Royal (Abaddon Books, 2009)
Warhammer 40,000[]
- Necromancer (Black Library)
- Magestorm (Black Library)
- The Dead and the Damned (Black Library)
- Iron Hands (Black Library)
See Also[]
External Links[]
References[]
