About
I was the first boy in Britain to meet a Dalek in the flesh (so to speak) when my Dad took me to the BBC workshops one dark January night in 1964. That early experience probably explains quite a lot. After a childhood spent daydreaming about aliens and vampires, I discovered Marvel Comics and happily gave up all connection with reality to immerse myself in the marvellous worlds of Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, John Romita, Jim Steranko and Neal Adams. Every Saturday I used to head doggedly from newsagent to newsagent, searching out the latest Iron Man or Spider-man comics, which I would buy for 10d each (that’s about 4p in your fancy modern digital money). Since those halcyon days I've written a lot of books. Really, a lot. If you put a copy of every one of my books in a suitcase then you’d need to get a friend to help you lift it. My favorites among my own books are Heart of Ice, a sci-fi interactive adventure story where the Côte d’Azur is a jungle and the Sahara is covered in snow, and my current project, Mirabilis, a comic book epic in the making. I'd say that my fantasy writing has been most influenced by Lord Dunsany, Jack Vance, Mike Mignola and Neil Gaiman, but I should stress that none of those gentlemen is personally to blame.
Description
<p><strong><em>A tragic warrior lost in two worlds... Which one will he choose?</em></strong></p><p>The war in Iraq ended for Freddie when an IED explosion left his mind and body shattered. Once a skilled gamer as well as a capable soldier, he's now a broken warrior, emerging from a medically induced coma to discover he's inhabiting two separate realities.</p><p>The first is his waking world of pain, family trials, and remorse—and slow rehabilitation through the tender care of Becky, his physical therapist. The second is a dark fantasy realm of quests, demons, and magic, which Freddie enters when he sleeps. The lines soon blur for Freddie, not just caught between two worlds, but lost within himself.</p><p>Is he Lieutenant Freddie Williams, a leader of men, a proud officer in the US Army who has suffered such egregious injury and loss? Or is he Frederick, Prince of Stormwind, who must make sense of his horrific visions in order to save his embattled kingdom from the monstrous Horde, his only solace the beautiful gardener, Rebecca, whose gentle words calm the storms in his soul.</p><p>In the conscious world, the severely wounded vet faces a strangely similar and equally perilous mission to that of the prince—a journey along a dark road, haunted by demons of guilt and memory. Can he let patient, loving Becky into his damaged and shuttered heart? It may be his only way back from Hell.</p>
Story Behind The Book
Do you remember Choose Your Own Adventure? Maybe you used to play Fighting Fantasy gamebooks? Fabled Lands uses the same idea, but instead of one storyline it's an entire world with hundreds of quests, characters & monsters. In fact it's an entire role-playing campaign in multiple-choice form.
Reviews
<p>"The quests and open world mechanic are amazing and the characters and setting are incredibly well written."</p>
<div>"The whole of the Fabled Lands series is quite possibly a masterpiece of gamebook writing."</div>
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<div>"The finest example of this gamebook format in existence."</div>
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<div>"Of all of the solo RPG books that I have played over the years these have to be the best."</div>
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<div>"Fabled Lands is one of the most innovative and interesting gamebooks out there. It merges great gamebook writing with the kind of sandbox exploration and non-linear adventuring that has made RPG video games great over the last decade."</div>
