Classic 1980s gamebook series Lone Wolf is being reprinted in paperback for the first time in decades
Final instalment The Light of the Kai will release in two volumes and finally bring the New Order series to a close next year.
Influential fantasy gamebook series Lone Wolf is being reprinted in paperback form for the first time in over 30 years, before a final instalment in the saga releases next year.
Created by the late author Joe Dever, Lone Wolf first released in 1984 as a series of branching-path gamebooks in the vein of Choose Your Own Adventure and Fighting Fantasy. Unlike those series, which are made up of typically standalone adventures, Dever’s books shared a single world - Magnamund - based on a Dungeons & Dragons campaign run by the author in 1977, and formed a single ongoing story across an initial 28 novels released up to 1998.
Dever passed away in late 2016 after the release of book 29 in the series. His son Ben Devere and co-author Vincent Lazzari have since released a further two books based on Joe’s original notes, with a final two-volume book in the series, The Light of the Kai, planned to release in 2024. Books 21 through 33 together form the New Order series, with the publication gap between 1998’s The Hunger of Sejanoz (book 28) and 2016’s The Storms of Chai (book 29) leaving Dever’s planned story unfinished for 18 years.
While Lone Wolf books have been reprinted a number of times since the series’ original run, the entire saga has not seen a consistent physical edition in over three decades due to the rights repeatedly changing hands.
RPG publisher Mongoose Publishing re-released 17 of the books from 2007 to 2013 to coincide with its creation of the Lone Wolf RPG in the mid-noughties. The rest of the series was then due to be republished instead by German company Mantikore-Verlag, before the licence once again changed hands, leaving the series unfinished after book 22.
Dever’s own imprint Holmgard Press released books 23 through 29 before the author’s death, with books 30 and 31 - written by Ben Devere and Lazzari - following in 2019 and 2020.
Ahead of The Light of the Kai’s release in two volumes next year, Holmgard Press has announced that it will reprint the complete Lone Wolf series, marking the first time that the entire saga has been available in a consistent edition. The first five books have previously been released as hardback Definitive Editions, including Gary Chalk’s original interior illustrations, plus new cover art, extra material and expansions created by players from the Lone Wolf community. The new paperback editions will include the Definitive Edition material.
The first five books in the series, comprising the Kai arc, have already been released in paperback. Books six and seven, marking the start of the Magnakai series, will be released in May, with the rest of the series following during the rest of 2023 and into next year.