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Fighting Fantasy (Wizard Series 2) #17
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Fighting Fantasy co-creator Ian Livingstone CBE brings the world’s original gamebook series – 30 years old in August 2012 – to the world of the zombie…
Terrible things are happening in Goraya castle…
Insane megalomaniac Gingrich Yurr is preparing to unleash an army of monstrous zombies upon the world. He must be stopped and his undead horde defeated. In this life-or-death adventure the decisions YOU make will decide the fate of the world. Can YOU survive or will YOU become a zombie too?
Terrible things are happening in Goraya castle…
Insane megalomaniac Gingrich Yurr is preparing to unleash an army of monstrous zombies upon the world. He must be stopped and his undead horde defeated. In this life-or-death adventure the decisions YOU make will decide the fate of the world. Can YOU survive or will YOU become a zombie too?
Paperback
First published August 2, 2012
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225 people want to read
About the author
Ian Livingstone
131 books164 followersSir Ian Livingstone is an English fantasy author and entrepreneur. Along with Steve Jackson, he is the co-founder of the Fighting Fantasy series of role-playing gamebooks, and the author of many books within that series. He co-founded Games Workshop in 1975 and helped create Eidos Interactive as executive chairman of Eidos Plc in 1995.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
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July 5, 2013H feels I am letting the side down by not having a review for Blood of Zombies.
I therefore transcribe H's comments:
"This is a classic Ian Livingston instadeathaganza. At one point, I became so demoralised that I attempted to cheat and still failed. It's one of those books where you basically auto-lose if you don't find the right obscure item at the right time. You also auto-lose if you don't keep track of the number of zombies you killed, and kill enough zombies. Sort of brilliant, in a ludicrous, really old school way."
Enjoy.
I therefore transcribe H's comments:
"This is a classic Ian Livingston instadeathaganza. At one point, I became so demoralised that I attempted to cheat and still failed. It's one of those books where you basically auto-lose if you don't find the right obscure item at the right time. You also auto-lose if you don't keep track of the number of zombies you killed, and kill enough zombies. Sort of brilliant, in a ludicrous, really old school way."
Enjoy.
July 14, 2018
To be honest, I bought this because I remember the worlds that opened up to me when I read the original books as a young person and for old times sake. I do not like zombies. I don't think they're a thing I want to encounter, so this was probably not the book for me.
There are a lot of zombies and I died. I didn't really like the modern setting and having guns and bombs and there was nowhere in the book that I wanted to revisit. If you haven't read any fighting fantasy books, I wouldn't recommend starting here. There are better ones.
There are a lot of zombies and I died. I didn't really like the modern setting and having guns and bombs and there was nowhere in the book that I wanted to revisit. If you haven't read any fighting fantasy books, I wouldn't recommend starting here. There are better ones.
June 20, 2015
From the author of the huge Fight Fantasy series.
This is a brilliant ‘Create your own adventure’ story, oozing with zombies, hidden hallways, rats, spiders cockroaches and other terrifying scenarios, all wrapped up in Goraya Castle owned by insane megalomaniac Gingrich Yurr. Every choice you make can determine whether you live or die at the hands of the screeching zombies… all while the master of the castle is out for your blood.
Excellent
This is a brilliant ‘Create your own adventure’ story, oozing with zombies, hidden hallways, rats, spiders cockroaches and other terrifying scenarios, all wrapped up in Goraya Castle owned by insane megalomaniac Gingrich Yurr. Every choice you make can determine whether you live or die at the hands of the screeching zombies… all while the master of the castle is out for your blood.
Excellent
August 11, 2015
Thoroughly enjoyed this book! It kept me busy for quite a few hours. I'm definitely going to go through the adventure again, and try to get all of Yurr's zombies.
June 9, 2014
Crazy horror game in the 80s style of the Fighting Fantasy - insanely hard, short episodes, endless battles, but strangely atmospheric.
August 1, 2023
Not done a Fighting Fantasy book for about 25 years, and this was fun. Until I died for the second time, and then cheated a little. Though the kicker at the end for a PROPER WIN is a nice way of feeding a re-run and completist mentality (but it does mean you can't speedrun it).
Its quite an unusual zombie scenario though - more akin to Resident Evil than perhaps the classic zombie story.
Its quite an unusual zombie scenario though - more akin to Resident Evil than perhaps the classic zombie story.
November 21, 2015
I'll give the book props for cheesiness ala Army of Darkness and budget zombie flicks. Aside from that, there's not much to recommend. It's supposed to be a special edition gamebook, but there's nothing spectacular about it.
App-wise, it's similar in polish to other Tin Man Games, so there's no complaints there. The game system is different from all other Fighting Fantasy gamebooks and is in a way too simplistic and punishing. One - just one - unlucky roll can kill you or basically makes it impossible to finish the gamebook. It's so superfluous that it's almost pointless to play. Doing hardcore mode is basically just abusing the unlimited bookmarks the app allows you.
The story itself is ok - you've been kidnapped while being a mythology-obsessed student - and now needs to put an end to a dastardly plan to eradicate all humans. Even the premise is a bit silly - for example, you got kidnapped while touring the world (student? really?). The writing itself is pretty bland and ignores it's own inconsistencies - like zombies crawling all over the manor despite it not being ready to release them yet, or none of the still living inhabitants reacting to grenades and machine gun fire all over the manor. Or the fact that you had been starved for almost a week and still rather hale.
I know, the tone of this gamebook is such that it's not meant to be taken seriously. I just got the feeling that there's no attempt at storytelling, and just glossing things over to get to the zombies. It also only works if you enjoy the journey, which I didn't. This gamebook adhered absolutely to the One True Path approach. Deviate even slightly (right instead of left, for example) and you either die a horrible death, or miss out killing one zombie and lose, or miss out one item and lose. With each replay you get a little further in, following the exact same path you took previously.
Plenty of much better gamebooks out there.
App-wise, it's similar in polish to other Tin Man Games, so there's no complaints there. The game system is different from all other Fighting Fantasy gamebooks and is in a way too simplistic and punishing. One - just one - unlucky roll can kill you or basically makes it impossible to finish the gamebook. It's so superfluous that it's almost pointless to play. Doing hardcore mode is basically just abusing the unlimited bookmarks the app allows you.
The story itself is ok - you've been kidnapped while being a mythology-obsessed student - and now needs to put an end to a dastardly plan to eradicate all humans. Even the premise is a bit silly - for example, you got kidnapped while touring the world (student? really?). The writing itself is pretty bland and ignores it's own inconsistencies - like zombies crawling all over the manor despite it not being ready to release them yet, or none of the still living inhabitants reacting to grenades and machine gun fire all over the manor. Or the fact that you had been starved for almost a week and still rather hale.
I know, the tone of this gamebook is such that it's not meant to be taken seriously. I just got the feeling that there's no attempt at storytelling, and just glossing things over to get to the zombies. It also only works if you enjoy the journey, which I didn't. This gamebook adhered absolutely to the One True Path approach. Deviate even slightly (right instead of left, for example) and you either die a horrible death, or miss out killing one zombie and lose, or miss out one item and lose. With each replay you get a little further in, following the exact same path you took previously.
Plenty of much better gamebooks out there.
March 19, 2013
In Blood of the Zombies, you've been kidnapped and sold to a megalomaniac who wants to build an army of zombies to exact revenge of those who mocked him. Now you must find a way to escape from the castle before you too are turned into one of the undeads. The story itself is nothing special, I've read better Fighting Fantasy stories to be honest but it has a certain old school charm about it.
I read/played through this on the Android app. What I like about the app is that you can pick a difficulty level to reflect how you might play (cheat) in the real life counterpart. On the easy setting, you have the ability to heal yourself whenever you want, go back to the previous decision and unlock any option even if you do not possess the required item and on the hard setting, you must survive the whole adventure on limited health. Luckily you're given unlimited bookmarks so you can go back should your decision turn out to be unfavourable or a fight didn't turn out as you hoped.
The difficulty of the book is tougher than I thought. I started off with the medium setting and kept dying to hordes of zombies so I resorted to the easy setting and cheated my way through. Even though I've completed it once on the easy setting, I think it will take a miracle to replicate the same success on the hard setting.
I wish there's an option to switch weapons so I don't have to waste my shotgun shells on one or two zombies but luckily in my playthroughs so far there's been just enough ammo.
This was a great nostalgia trip and it was fun to play through the story despite how difficult it can be. For sure, it will take me a while to complete all of the achievements in the app.
(Originally posted at http://www.paperlessreading.com/2013/...)
I read/played through this on the Android app. What I like about the app is that you can pick a difficulty level to reflect how you might play (cheat) in the real life counterpart. On the easy setting, you have the ability to heal yourself whenever you want, go back to the previous decision and unlock any option even if you do not possess the required item and on the hard setting, you must survive the whole adventure on limited health. Luckily you're given unlimited bookmarks so you can go back should your decision turn out to be unfavourable or a fight didn't turn out as you hoped.
The difficulty of the book is tougher than I thought. I started off with the medium setting and kept dying to hordes of zombies so I resorted to the easy setting and cheated my way through. Even though I've completed it once on the easy setting, I think it will take a miracle to replicate the same success on the hard setting.
I wish there's an option to switch weapons so I don't have to waste my shotgun shells on one or two zombies but luckily in my playthroughs so far there's been just enough ammo.
This was a great nostalgia trip and it was fun to play through the story despite how difficult it can be. For sure, it will take me a while to complete all of the achievements in the app.
(Originally posted at http://www.paperlessreading.com/2013/...)
January 17, 2013
So I got as far as 325, died of Attack Dog attack... Lost all Stamina. First time I've ever played according to the rules though;) With dice and all. I'll give it another go some other time for sure, because I really want to know how the story turns out. Remind me a lot to House of Hell. And I love zombies.
July 24, 2019
Addictive. It's going to take a while for me to figure out how the hell to get out of Yurr's place whilst still taking out every last zombie...sigh.
December 20, 2012
This was fun and certainly made for a pleasant few hours of nostalgia.
June 24, 2013
Podéis encontrar la primera reseña en castellano del librojuego en el enlace: http://www.laespadaenlatinta.com/2013...
August 13, 2014
This book was read by me with exciting moments and zombies. but I don't thing I can win this book.
October 22, 2021
Ian Livingstone penned Blood of the Zombies, published in 2012, to mark the 30th anniversary of Fighting Fantasy. The modern, real-world setting was a departure for Livingstone, and as far as I'm aware it's only the second book in the whole series with such a setting (the other being Steve Jackson's House of Hell).
The dark storyline, in which a student, travelling in eastern Europe, gets kidnapped and imprisoned by a crazy rich man, seems to me to be heavily influenced by the film Hostel, released seven years earlier. Which is no bad thing: it's a great premise for a gamebook.
Blood of the Zombies is full of in-jokes that FF fans will appreciate but which don't undermine the integrity of the book's world; and there's a new combat system which is simplicity itself. It's compellingly written by Livingstone, who always writes well; and the artwork, by Kevin Crossley (in his only FF book, though Jonathan Green brought him back in his Ace gamebooks), is excellent, featuring some very sexy-looking female zombies.
The book has been called impossible due to the inevitably high amount of stamina that you can't help losing. I'm not sure, though. I got really far with quite a bit of stamina still left; and, if you read the rules carefully, there's no mention of having to cap your stamina at its initial level. Are we sure that, with a high initial stamina score and lots of lucky dice roles, Blood of the Zombies can't be won?
I really liked this book. I think it's underrated. You see a lot of it's world in the successful playthrough (I feel like I almost made it, if only I'd managed to pick up one crucial item - a pulley - among the profusion of items that you can pick up along the way); and I have the inkling that there's a really good, complex, map in there waiting to be made (though I didn't make one).
It's one that I think will reward repeat tries. I wonder if you marry Amy if you're successful? It would be worth coming back, just for that, as she's very pretty and is going to be very grateful to you for rescuing her; and then you can spend the rest of your days playing through the rest of the FF books together in FF marital bliss 🙂
The dark storyline, in which a student, travelling in eastern Europe, gets kidnapped and imprisoned by a crazy rich man, seems to me to be heavily influenced by the film Hostel, released seven years earlier. Which is no bad thing: it's a great premise for a gamebook.
Blood of the Zombies is full of in-jokes that FF fans will appreciate but which don't undermine the integrity of the book's world; and there's a new combat system which is simplicity itself. It's compellingly written by Livingstone, who always writes well; and the artwork, by Kevin Crossley (in his only FF book, though Jonathan Green brought him back in his Ace gamebooks), is excellent, featuring some very sexy-looking female zombies.
The book has been called impossible due to the inevitably high amount of stamina that you can't help losing. I'm not sure, though. I got really far with quite a bit of stamina still left; and, if you read the rules carefully, there's no mention of having to cap your stamina at its initial level. Are we sure that, with a high initial stamina score and lots of lucky dice roles, Blood of the Zombies can't be won?
I really liked this book. I think it's underrated. You see a lot of it's world in the successful playthrough (I feel like I almost made it, if only I'd managed to pick up one crucial item - a pulley - among the profusion of items that you can pick up along the way); and I have the inkling that there's a really good, complex, map in there waiting to be made (though I didn't make one).
It's one that I think will reward repeat tries. I wonder if you marry Amy if you're successful? It would be worth coming back, just for that, as she's very pretty and is going to be very grateful to you for rescuing her; and then you can spend the rest of your days playing through the rest of the FF books together in FF marital bliss 🙂
October 30, 2022
Blood of the Zombies is certainly a haunting adventure.
This one has a great premise! You study mythology in Bolingbroke College, so you head off through Southern Europe, looking for traces of mythical creatures. After being duped by an elderly man, you find yourself taken prisoner and shackled to a wall in the dungeon of a medieval castle.
This is a contemporary adventure where you'll be using a variety of weapons ranging from crowbars to a 50. Cal. The combat has been tweaked so that the zombies can only withstand 1 point of damage. As a result, weapons will deal maybe 1D6+1 damage meaning that you'll be rolling a die to see how many zombies you take out. For example, if you bump into a pack of four zombies, you'll roll a D6 to see how many you take out in your first round of combat. Oftentimes, you'll be able to do substantial damage which feels nice and brutal.
The biggest downside of this adventure, however, is that you'll be taking an awful lot of unavoidable damage throughout your journey. If you've had a bunch of bad luck, you're out of luck because without your medkits, you'll be rolling your ankles and taking shrapnel to the legs a lot. The second biggest downside is that, in order to actually finish the book, you need to be keeping track of how many zombies you slay throughout the adventure because that number's actually the finishing reference. If you're not keeping track, then you're not going to win. I don't understand why you need to slay each and every zombie, but it is what it is. I'll list the number of zombies at the end because I couldn't find the number online so I had to go through the adventure twice as I wasn't keeping track the first time (lol) so scroll carefully if you don't want it to be spoiled.
All in all, the books pretty good. It's your typical dungeon-crawler filled with T-junctions for days, and you basically steal anything that isn't bolted down. There's a cute reference to The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, and the artwork is fantastic.
This is a fun little book, a solid 4/5, I'm looking forward to making a video on it.
4/5 - cheers.
___________________
225
This one has a great premise! You study mythology in Bolingbroke College, so you head off through Southern Europe, looking for traces of mythical creatures. After being duped by an elderly man, you find yourself taken prisoner and shackled to a wall in the dungeon of a medieval castle.
This is a contemporary adventure where you'll be using a variety of weapons ranging from crowbars to a 50. Cal. The combat has been tweaked so that the zombies can only withstand 1 point of damage. As a result, weapons will deal maybe 1D6+1 damage meaning that you'll be rolling a die to see how many zombies you take out. For example, if you bump into a pack of four zombies, you'll roll a D6 to see how many you take out in your first round of combat. Oftentimes, you'll be able to do substantial damage which feels nice and brutal.
The biggest downside of this adventure, however, is that you'll be taking an awful lot of unavoidable damage throughout your journey. If you've had a bunch of bad luck, you're out of luck because without your medkits, you'll be rolling your ankles and taking shrapnel to the legs a lot. The second biggest downside is that, in order to actually finish the book, you need to be keeping track of how many zombies you slay throughout the adventure because that number's actually the finishing reference. If you're not keeping track, then you're not going to win. I don't understand why you need to slay each and every zombie, but it is what it is. I'll list the number of zombies at the end because I couldn't find the number online so I had to go through the adventure twice as I wasn't keeping track the first time (lol) so scroll carefully if you don't want it to be spoiled.
All in all, the books pretty good. It's your typical dungeon-crawler filled with T-junctions for days, and you basically steal anything that isn't bolted down. There's a cute reference to The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, and the artwork is fantastic.
This is a fun little book, a solid 4/5, I'm looking forward to making a video on it.
4/5 - cheers.
___________________
225
September 15, 2025
the best👍💯
August 10, 2025
Je n’ai pas encore réussi à le finir, mais je l’adore. À chaque fois, je prends une mauvaise décision, malheureusement, mais je garde espoir.🤞
January 1, 2015
This one was a little different from the fantasy fighting books I used to read, in that it wasn’t your classic swords and sorcery style. Which I think I prefer. So I didn’t like this one as much as the previous one I read, but hey, at least I know that now!
Still, it was engrossing and interesting enough.
Still, it was engrossing and interesting enough.
March 25, 2022
Ótimo livro jogo.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews