Category: Gamebooks

Meeting Robert Blond at the Christmas Book Fair

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

Today was the last day of the International Book Fair in Sofia. My book harvest this year was primarily gamebooks because there was a shortage of books I wanted and didn’t already buy before it. The Black Friday promotions were too good.

The Gamebook association organized a signing with one of our local gamebook celebrities, Robert Blond, who published a new book and a short story. I had a chance to read both. I finished the short story before it was published and the book – before writing the post.

The 2024 edition of Agamor is also out, which holds 4 gamebooks. One of the books is an official spinoff of Blood Sword. It’s expected to be published in English as well.

We also got a translation of Simon Duhope’s Shadow Chaser, which was surprisingly sophisticated. Took me 3 days to discover the path to the end.

The Shadow Chaser is available in English. Agamor is of local significance as of today.

Another writer who visited the city this week was Rhianna Pratchett. Despite being subscribed for updates on the publisher’s Facebook page, Facebook let me see the event’s announcement after it was over. Missed that opportunity.

Rhianna Pratchett is the author of Crystal of Storms. Would’ve loved to attend her signing.

The Alley of Books

~ Veselin ~ 3 Comments

I’ve been a big fan of book fairs ever since I was a child. I hunted for comics and Karl May books, then gamebooks, then sci-fi, and so on. I usually visit them multiple times so that I don’t miss anything. Couldn’t do the multiple-visit tour this year due to my work trip where I damaged my computer and the consequences of that. At least I visited it once.

The Alley of Books’24 is happening right now on Vitosha Boulevard and near NDK.

Here’s my record-breaking harvest:

  • Bion by Satanasov is a comic book. Got the first part. I’ve heard good things about it
  • 2 Gamebooks by Lubomir Nikolov, frequently featured here
  • Dodger by Terry Pratchett. Pratchett influenced me as a youth and is one of my favorite writers. I missed 3-4 of his books, and here we are – filling a void in my Pratchettist degree
  • Travis Baldree’s second book – a fantasy bookstore?
  • Brandon Sanderson’s The Sunlit Man from Cosmere
  • Orconomics vol 2. This time I’ll be prepared for a bloody fantasy rather than a satire.

There were more books I wanted to buy but sitting on the shelves is not perfect. I challenge myself to read 5 out of these 7 by the end of October. I’m the most excited about Bion and Dodger.

You Are Deadpool

~ Veselin ~ 5 Comments

An adventure gamebook in the shape of a comic book. Best of both worlds 🙂 It has 5 sub-stories, each with 100-ish episodes.

September starts strong with a 5/5 book that I would not dare to review. It’s Deadpool. I hate superheroes but Deadpool hates them too, so I think it’s fine.