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Loading... City of Thieves (1983)by Ian Livingstone
![]() Top Five Books of 2021 (443) No current Talk conversations about this book. ![]() ![]() The fifth book in the series and from what I remember, one of the better ones. To me it seems that the books Forest of Doom, City of Thieves, Deathtrap Dungeon, and Island of the Lizard King were, to me, the more memorable books in the series. The first one was obviously experimental, as was Starship Traveller and Citadel of Chaos, but it feels that with the books that I have got to now, the writers had settled down on a style that seemed to work. However the ones that came after I have little memory (with the exception of Scorpion Swamp). In this book you are a seasoned adventurer who has arrived in a small town that is being bullied by an evil undead warlock named Zanzar Bone. You are approached by the mayor and asked to go and find a friend of his who lives in the city of Port Blacksand, the city of thieves that the title of the book derives its name. However, there is a little twist because when you do find Nicodemus, he simply tells you that he is too old to go off adventuring so he tells you how to kill Zanzar Bone and sends you on your way. While the majority of the book is set in Port Blacksand, it moves away from the other books slightly in that the end game begins once you have left Port Blacksand. Zanzar Bone does not live in the city, nor is he the ruler of the city, rather your adventure in the city is simply one of locating somebody, who then tells you what you need to search for to be able to defeat your enemy. It is actually a reasonably easy book, and while they talk about a one true path, it is quite easy to find it. However, there are a number of other objects that you need to collect (such as the Skeleton Key) which will make your quest significantly easier. The one item I could not find (though I suspect that it is located somewhere near the start) is the merchant's pass. One could suggest that this is another assassination job, though it is clear that Bone is a bully and needs to be taught a lesson, and of course you are the one who has to teach him a lesson. One of the interesting things is that these books tend to be very black and white, particularly with the fantasy ones. In a lot of fantasy novels I note that the settings are generally black and whiteL the good hero goes out to fight and kill the evil villain. I guess it is reflective of our desire to see and compartmentalise the world into black and white as opposed to the shade of grey that exists in. I guess it is also something pushed down upon us from above, so that we will always see our country as being the white, and anything opposed to our country as black. Unfortunately it is not necessarily the case because there are instances where an immoral government uses this concept to bring the population on side. I want to finish off with something about undead. In many novels the undead are always protrayed as evil. I suspect that this may have something to do with our Christian heritage, as the Bible clearly puts necromancy into the realm of evil. That may be the case, but what about the idea of animating corpses? Is that necessarily evil, and is animating a corpse generally evil? Personally I think it comes down to our attitudes towards the dead. To a culture that sees a corpse as nothing more than a diseased shell to be destroyed, with the spirit being disconnected from it, then maybe it is not. However to a culture like ours that, while believing that the soul breaks away from the corpse, our treatment of the corpse reflects our attitudes towards that person in life. The Greeks would defile or respect corpses depending on where they wanted the dead to land up. A defiled corpse (for an example see Antigone) would wonder around the Earth as a half-man for eternity, while a properly disposed of corpse would return either to Hades, or any other realm that the deceased achieved in life. Personally, it really comes down to culture, and what the culture does with the corpse really is what that culture believes. I question the right that we have to insist that an alien culture treat a corpse as we expect it to be treated. no reviews | add a review
Is contained inFighting Fantasy Collection 8 Books Set Pack (from book 2 to 9) (Bloodbones, City of Thieves, Creature of Havoc, Deathtrap Dungeon,House of Hell, Stormslayer...) by Steve Jackson Fighting Fantasy Box Set: Gamebooks 5-8 (City of Thieves, Crypt of the Sorcerer, House of Hell, Forest of Doom): 2 by Steve Jackson Inspired
This is the latest title to join "Fighting Fantasy's" brand-new look! The multi-million selling gamebook series is back with a hugely popular revamped, updated package, a brilliant new interactive website and the monsters, dungeons and peril to capture a whole new generation of imaginations. Zanbar Bone and his bloodthirsty Moon Dogs are holding the town of Silverton to ransom. Only with the help of the mysterious wizard Nicodemus do you have any hope of saving the townspeople... No library descriptions found.
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