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Rhianna Pratchett revealed as author of new Fighting Fantasy book
Rhianna Pratchett will be the next guest author for the Fighting Fantasy series, Scholastic UK has announced. Crystal of Storms will be illustrated by Eva Eskelinen for publication in October 2020.
Pratchett—daughter of Terry Pratchett—is a video game writer and journalist, and will be the first female guest writer for the series.
Lauren Fortune, fiction publisher, acquired world rights from Rob Kraitt at Casarotto on behalf of Pratchett, and from Philippa Milnes-Smith at the Soho Agency on behalf of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, who own the Fighting Fantasy trademark.
Crystal of Storms is set in the Fighting Fantasy world, where the reader chooses their own path for the story. In the latest title, the reader becomes a member of the Sky Watch and has to keep the floating island, The Nimbus, safe. When this island crashes out of the sky and into the ocean below, the reader must battle storms and sea beasts in their mission to raise the island from the deep.
Pratchett commented: "I first came to the Fighting Fantasy books as a child; reading them surreptitiously under the covers with a torch late at night. It's been such an honour to be asked by Ian Livingstone, Steve Jackson and the team at Scholastic to create a new novel for their vibrant and exciting world. My kid-self has been high-fiving my adult-self all year!
"I hope new and old fans will enjoy exploring the floating archipelago of Pangaria and its colourful, eccentric and dangerous inhabitants. I also hope that some of that enjoyment will occur surreptitiously under the covers late at night."
Jackson and Livingstone added: "We're delighted to have such a well-known and talented writer make an outstanding contribution to Fighting Fantasy. In Crystal of Storms, Rhianna has written an exciting and enthralling sea-based interactive adventure. Her superb narrative-rich writing style will appeal to Fighting Fantasy fans both old and new."
Fortune said: “Rhianna’s charming writing and clever, imaginative world-building is a joy to read–coupled with the interactive, empowering dynamic of a Fighting Fantasy book, Crystal of Storms, is bursting with child appeal. We’re thrilled to welcome Rhianna to the Scholastic list and to the Fighting Fantasy brand.”
Crystal of Storms will be published alongside a backlist title of the Fighting Fantasy series, Livingstone's Return to Firetop Mountain, which was originally published by Puffin Books in 1992.
