Richard Morgan – published as Richard K. Morgan in the US, where middle initials signify literary prowess – is a proper sci-fi and fantasy author. But his forays into gaming thus far have involved other people’s universes, in Crysis 2 and the Syndicate reboot.
This is his baby: a digital choose-your-own-adventure book based on his bestselling trilogy, A Land Fit For Heroes.
The game-book, coming to Steam as well as mobile platforms, will feature a story that runs parallel to that of the first book in the trilogy – The Steel Remains.
Indies Liber Primus Games are on development duties, and have done this sort of thing before. They’ll release the book via the Orion Publishing Group’s sci-fi, fantasy and horror imprint, Gollancz – which doesn’t normally do games – and pursue a darker tone than their peers in the game-book sphere.
A Land Fit For Heroes will tell the tales of three unlikely heroes with interweaving stories: Kirellin of House Caith, a skilled war veteran; Calnar, a young Majak warrior; and Ilaria, an accomplished thief. They’ll be “tested to the extreme”, and the player will decide their fates.
“I’m extremely excited,” said Morgan. “It’s a fresh format of storytelling for the trilogy and one I’m really looking forward to developing with Liber Primus Games over the coming months.”
As Liber Primus point out, the choose-your-own-adventure stories that had their heydey in the early ‘90s are currently enjoying an App Store revival. Ian Livingstone wrote a new Fighting Fantasy a couple of years back, three decades after the paperback series began.
You can sign up for updates on the official Land Fit For Heroes site. Are you a Morgan reader? Or, at least, a Crysis player?