New Gamebook: The Island of Doctor Moreau – An Interactive Adventure

Disclosure: The featured gamebook has been written by GBN’s very own writer and editor, KJ Shadmand.

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Re-imagining classic works of literature as gamebooks is not an easy task. After all, novels tend to be linear and have a single ending, whereas gamebooks thrive on branching narratives that not only allow multiple paths to the story’s end, but even multiple endings!

But this is exactly what KJ Shadmand’s debut gamebook The Island of Doctor Moreau – An Interactive Adventure (Book 1 in his Great Literature Gamebooks (GLG) series) attempts to do. At 570 sections and over 100,000 words of prose, it weighs in at a substantial 475 pages and features a stunning cover by Pontus Unger, 25 haunting internal illustrations by Mays Thamer and a map by gamebook author and artist David Lowrie. There is also a bonus illustration by artist and musician Leonardo D. Coleman.

We at GBN are delighted at the concept of bringing to life one of H.G. Wells 19th century novels, especially one that is less well known when compared to some of H.G. Wells’ other masterpieces such as War of the Worlds and The Invisible Man.

Here is the blurb from the back page of the book:

In the latter part of the nineteenth century, Noble’s Island was known as little more than an uninhabited volcanic outcropping set like an emerald in the middle of the tempestuous South Pacific Ocean. But in truth, it is home to a strange breed of twisted and malformed creatures who are ruled over by their powerful and enigmatic master, the infamous vivisectionist Doctor Moreau, a scientist whose ambition and thirst for knowledge knows no bounds…

YOU are a passenger aboard the ill-fated ship The Lady Vain. When it sinks after colliding with a drifting derelict, you are thrown into a perilous adventure of survival, exploration, and dark discoveries. In this work of interactive fiction, YOU make the choices and decide your fate…

The Island of Doctor Moreau: An Interactive Adventure is a re-imagining of the classic nineteenth century work of science fiction by H.G. Wells, presented as an exciting adventure gamebook. Will you uncover the secrets and survive the perils of Doctor Moreau’s island, the only land within a thousand leagues of anywhere?

Only YOU can decide!

Feedback on the release has been offered by advanced readers who are well known in the gamebook community. Here is what some of them have had to say:

‘…a brilliant debut gamebook…’ Samuel Isaacson, author of the Entram Epic trilogy.

‘…inventive and assured…’ James Spearing, My Gamebook Adventures.

‘…easily one of the most balanced yet enjoyable combat systems I’ve encountered…’ Andy Redfern, Gamebook Authors Guild.

KJ Shadmand’s gamebook went live on all Amazon stores on May 1st as a paperback. A hyper-linked e-book becomes available on the 2nd May worldwide on Kindle.