Jonathan Green

Jonathan Green is a freelance writer. He writes science fiction and fantasy novels for adults, adventure gamebooks for children, and fun non-fiction books for all ages. He has written for various intellectual properties, from Sonic the Hedgehog and Doctor Who, to books set within Games Workshop's Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 game-world universes.

Biography

He is best known for having written three gamebooks in the original Fighting Fantasy series and the long-lost gamebook "Bloodbones" which has now been published as part of the new series. He also wrote "Spellbreaker", "Knights of Doom" and "Curse of the Mummy" in the original series, and a number of other novels and gamebooks.

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.Fact|date=October 2008 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 combatFact|date=October 2008, other statistics, item choice and so on. Although usually raised as a criticism, this aspect also pleases some readers.Fact|date=October 2008 The books are also often credited with atmospheric writing and originality.Fact|date=October 2008 Upon their 2007 rereleases "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.

Green has also written a number of novels for the Games Workshop Black Library label, on similar themes. These include "Necromancer", "Magestorm", "The Dead and the Damned", and "Iron Hands" (set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe). He co-authored several Sonic the Hedgehog gamebooks for Puffin Books with Marc Gascoigne.

In 2003 Green co-created the Pax Britannia science fiction Steampunk setting for Abaddon Books' new novel line. He wrote the first book in the series "Unnatural History", which features a Victorian Bond-style dandy adventurer called Ulysses Quicksilver, and is now the sole writer on the Pax Britannia line.

Bibliography

* "Non-Fiction Books":
** "Match Wits with the Kids" (June 2008, ISBN 978-1848310001)
** "What is Myrrh Anyway?" (October 2008, ISBN 978-1848310278)
** "Go Gos Are Go Go" (1997, ISBN 0-14-038675-0)

*"Fighting Fantasy adventure gamebooks" (Puffin Books):
** Book 53 - "Spellbreaker"
** Book 56 - "Knights of Doom"
** Book 59 - "Curse of the Mummy"
** Book 60 - "Bloodbones" (unpublished)

*"Sonic the Hedgehog gamebooks" (with Marc Gascoigne):
** Book 5 - "Theme Park Panic" (ISBN 0-14-037847-2)
** Book 6 - "Stormin' Sonic" (ISBN 0-14-037848-0)

* "Pax Britannia" (Abaddon Books):
** "Unnatural History" (February 2007, ISBN 1-905437-11-0)
** "Fruiting Bodies" (June 2007) - a short story which appears in "El Sombra" by Al Ewing (June 2007, ISBN 1-905437-34-X)
** "Leviathan Rising" (March 2008, ISBN 1-905437-60-9)
** "Human Nature" (April 2009, ISBN 1-905437-86-2)

*" List of Black Library books:
** "The Dead and the Damned" (December 2002, ISBN 1-84154-266-0)
** "Crusade for Armageddon" (July 2003, ISBN 1-84416-025-4)
** "Magestorm" (February 2004, ISBN 1-84416-074-2)
** "Iron Hands" (August 2004, ISBN 1-84416-094-7)
** "Necromancer" (February 2005, ISBN 1-84416-158-7)
** "Conquest of Armageddon" (December 2005, ISBN 1-84416-196-X)

*"Fighting Fantasy adventure gamebooks" (Wizard Books):
** Book 26 - "Bloodbones"
** Book 27 - "Curse of the Mummy"
** Book 28 - "Spellbreaker"
** Book 29 - "Howl of the Werewolf"

* "Decide Your Destiny":
** "The Horror of Howling Hill" (March 2008, ISBN 978-1-40590-404-9)

References

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*
* [http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/g/jonathan-green/ Jonathan Green] at Fantastic Fiction
* [http://www.blacklibrary.com/author.asp?id=31 Black Library profile]
* [http://www.abaddonbooks.com/authors.php] Jonathan Green at Abaddon Books