Review of Fighting Fantasy by Christopher Cooper (age 9)

On Saturday, I saw David Walliams and Horrible Histories. They were both very funny and enjoyable, in Horrible Histories I went up on stage as Cleopatra to show a timeline of the Egyptians and how long they were around for, thousands of years.

Later we went to see Charlie Higson and Ian Livingstone talking about the new Fighting Fantasy book ‘Gates of Death’. Fighting Fantasy books are game books where you choose what you want to do next creating a new adventure each time. This is the first Fighting Fantasy book that Charlie Higson has written but he has written about 15 other books.

My Dad also remembered him from a TV programme called The Fast Show. He spoke about how he loved video games so this was a perfect book for him as it was a mix of a game and a book. He told us about all the ideas he had for the book including the bum faced demon he saw originally on an old wood carving. Ian Livingstone started the Fighting Fantasy books 27 years ago and they nearly got banned because some people didn’t like the idea of children fighting demons. He also created the Games Workshops shops but he does not own them anymore. He explained how he used diagrams to make it easier to write the complicated stories. As well as all of this he has also worked on computer games including Tomb Raider. At the end they, answered lots of questions including that Charlie Higson wants to write another Fighting Fantasy book and they want a woman to write one too – the books are definitely for boys and girls. I told them about my idea of a monster,  a three headed zombie I had drawn and told them I did not have time to write a complicated book. This is the first time I had heard about Fighting Fantasy books but I am now a fan.

Thanks Christopher for your lovely review – the Bath Festivals team.