ASSASSINS OF ALLANSIA (Fighting Fantasy)

Classic fighting fantasy, but new.

Good book, gets better the more you read

great read

Fighting Fantasy has been a part of my life since the 80s. So I’m always in favour of new entries to expand the world of Titan and beyond. Enjoyed this book, lots of nods to others from Ian’s other books. Hopefully Azzur won’t escape us next time!

Assassins of Allansia is set up to be a direct sequel to Ian Livingstone’s previous book, The Port of Peril, in that YOU are the very same hero who defeated Zambar Bone (again) in that particular outing. This is not immediately apparent however, and the background intro begins with your character accepting a wager with a ship’s captain that you can survive for thirty days on Snake Island, a particularly dangerous speck of land off the coast of Port Blacksand. Things take a deadly turn for the worse one night when the first of many Assassins attempts to bump you off, and it soon becomes obvious that somebody wants you dead......... Thus you progress through the land of legend and nostalgia, stopping at familiar locations as well as previously unexplored territory, all the while trying to survive a multitude of assassination attempts on your way to a showdown with your nemesis. Livingstone’s writing is excellent as ever, transporting you effortlessly into his backyard, the fabled Allansia of old. We have the opportunity to visit the most infamous city on Titan, Port Blacksand, and even drop in for a pint at the Black Lobster. There are brief location cameos in the form of Zambar Bone's ruined tower, which you spot from the Red River, and even a brief mention of Firetop Mountain. This all adds to the cohesion and flavour of the setting, making you almost feel at home in the ‘land of danger’, which the author achieves with effortless grace. There are plenty of people to meet and interact with during the course of the book, and unfortunately for your character, the vast majority of them are out to get you! Moving on to the actual gameplay, there will be some surprises given the authors previous form, in that the book is actually very generous in most places. There is no huge shopping list of items that are vital to achieve victory, instead the author uses a different method of measuring your success throughout the adventure. There is no combat meat-grinder, where you have to defeat ultra tough, double-digit stat opponents one after the other; as far as I can tell there is only one Skill 12 opponent in the book (and you don’t need to kill them), most are on the lower end of the stat scale. Another thing which is conspicuous in its reduction is the lack of instant death paragraphs, which for a Livingstone book must be an all-time low. Instead, in many places where you would expect to find them, are some moderate to severe stat penalties. I would hesitate to say it was too easy, but I believe that it might even be possible to complete the book using the minimal stats, as boasted in the introduction to every FF book out there (and which almost every book makes a mockery of). Lastly I come to the subject which has been somewhat controversial amongst old school FF fans, the artwork. For Assassins of Allansia we have a brand new interior artist in Robert Ball, who has thus far been solely in charge of the cover art for Scholastic. Although the illustrations are still digital grayscale, they are a vast improvement upon what was previously on offer, and much more in keeping with the spirit of Fighting Fantasy. We have curves instead of blocks, and a much more mature feel to the images presented to us. Perhaps the negative feedback was heeded, after all? In summary, I would say that Assassins of Allansia is easily the best new FF book we have had in years, and far better than the previous two Scholastic releases. The story is great, continuing from where Livingstone left off in Port of Peril, the setting and atmospherics are superb and the array of opponents along the way are a real treat. Even the artwork is a remarkable improvement, if not the glorious illustrations of the old days. If this is what we can expect from the series going forward, then things are looking up indeed....... a must-buy for old FF fans and new readers alike. OVERALL SCORE...... 84%

Although this isn’t in the same league as some of the author’s earlier classics, this is probably the best of the four Fighting Fantasy adventures that Ian Livingstone has produced since the original run of the series. It is certainly better than ‘The Port of Peril’ even though, to some extent, it also relies overly upon familiarisation with and references to past FF gamebooks. However, whereas ‘The Port of Peril’ often just did this for the sake of it and, being quite brazen and clumsy, somewhat to the detriment of old FF adventures, ‘Assassins of Allansia’ takes a more intelligent and interesting approach which benefits earlier works. The first stage of the book makes for quite a lacklustre and uninspiring beginning that completely lacks the excitement or interest needed to attract the reader to the adventure. You are faced with the considerably dull and slightly farcical scenario of agreeing to stay on a small island for a month to win the ‘princely’ sum of twenty gold pieces. Quite why you would decide to do this for such a paltry amount seems a little unbelievable. There isn’t really a great deal to do on the island other than look for food, which seems a little pointless as you begin the adventure with the usual provisions. However, the island section serves as a bit of a cover for the real scenario – that you are being hunted by numerous deadly assassins hired by Lord Azzur to avenge the death of Zanbar Bone. This makes the whole island episode feel a little pointless and unnecessary and merely tagged on to make the adventure longer. But, on a more positive note, you could argue that this is a cunning pretext to later surprise the reader with the true storyline (if the title or the blurb on the back didn’t already effectively give this away). From this point the adventure has direction and becomes more enjoyable as you attempt to chase down Azzur before his assassins can kill you. It soon becomes obvious that as part of the gameplay the reader’s objective is to take out all the assassins. Of course, this is a lot easier than finding a set of items or bits of information as the assassins are obviously actively seeking you out. Most don’t have great statistics and rely on trying to trap you in some way. Overall, the adventure lacks challenge and you’ll probably complete it in a couple of attempts. It maybe another romp through the established landmarks of Allansia but it also establishes that this is a sequel to ‘The Port of Peril’ where you are actually playing as the same character; which is something quite rare in Fighting Fantasy. Interestingly it also serves as a prequel to an FF masterpiece.

I really loved this book, the cover is amazing, golden with one of the bosses of the game, it's one of the best covers so far. The story is simple but great at the same time, if you're a fighting fantasy fan you'll love this book because you go through several places from other books and several creatures you already know from them, specially from Ian Livingstone's books, "City of Thieves" for example. It's really great that in certain parts the book doesn't reward cowardice, and doesn't reward foolishness as well, you have to pay attention to the details of the pharagraphs and what they are telling you, pay good attention to the details of certain characters and stories, so when you face them you know what to do. The only downsize of this book is the ending, unfortunately is really disappointing and you don't get to do something you're waiting to do for the whole book, but i guess Ian wanted to save it for a sequel or another cool or amazing book. Still the adventure is real fun, and I loved the characters and the options you have on this one, I think you can revisit and do it several times until you have the right path to get everything you need ;) I think it's a solid good book and the artwork it's ok, better than Gates of Death, but still we need better artwork to make the journey memorable, still I loved almost everything about this book, except the ending, 8 out of 10 for me :) will go back to it again in the future!

Assassins of Allansia is a pretty weak book, that I is a shame to the series. I will explain. I'm a fan of the FF series, but I think Ian Livingstone should really change how he write the books. Although Assassins of Allansia is a slight improvement over Port of Peril and the embarrassment that was Blood of the Zombies, is still far from good. Too many fights - almost one after the other -, with little time used to actually develop a good story. No puzzles, no twists. Just plain hack your way to the end. Normally for Livingstone books, you want to take everything that isn't nailed, but was refreshing to see that many items are just red herrings, or useful ones, but not required to proceed - all except one. But, as in Blood of the Zombies, he again task you to complete something 100% or fail. And, again as in BoZ, doing this 100% leads you to make some incredible dumb decisions, with the most sound ones leading you to failure. The book only escapes from a 1 star because I know worst books, and there isn't broken numbers.

Item came in excellent condition!

Came packed and arrived in perfect condition. I remember playing this gamebook when I was in my 20s and now can play it all over again. I highly recommend this product and Amazon is an amazing place to shop. Top marks and happy gaming everyone :)

Excelente livro como todos da série!

molto interessante a mio figlio è piaciuto molto

Artículo nuevo, el envío rápido, nada más que decir. Genial!