''City of Thieves'' is a single-player adventure gamebook written by Ian Livingstone and illustrated by

Iain McCaig Iain McCaig (born March 19, 1957) is an American artist, writer, and filmmaker. He was involved in the '' Star Wars'' franchise and many other iconic film and book projects, including an album cover for Jethro Tull's Broadsword and the Beast.Rei ...

. Originally published by Puffin Books in 1983, the title is the fifth gamebook in the ''

Fighting Fantasy ''Fighting Fantasy'' is a series of single-player role-playing gamebooks created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. The first volume in the series was published in paperback by Puffin in 1982. The series distinguished itself by mixing Choos ...

'' series. It was later republished by Wizard Books in 2002.

Plot

''City of Thieves'' is a fantasy scenario in which the hero is retained by the village of Silverton to save them from Zanbar Bone, lord of the undead; to do this, the hero must first travel to Port Blacksand to enlist the aid of the magician Nicodemus. The player takes the role of an adventurer on a quest to find and stop the powerful Night Prince Zanbar Bone, a being whose minions are terrorizing a local town. Hired by a desperate mayor, the player must as the adventurer journey to the dangerous

city-state A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world since the dawn of history, including cities such as ...

of Port Blacksand (the titular "City of Thieves"), and find the wizard Nicodemus, who apparently knows of Bone's one weakness. What follows is a series of challenges as the player must locate certain key items, escape Port Blacksand and eventually confront Bone.

Reception

Marcus L. Rowland reviewed ''City of Thieves'' for the January 1984 issue of ''

White Dwarf A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes fro ...

'', rating the title 8 out of a possible 10. According to Rowland, "Most encounters in the city are potentially lethal, several being no-win situations where the best outcome involves injury or loss of money."

Reviews

*Review by Don D'Ammassa (1984) in Science Fiction Chronicle, #61 October 1984

References

{{Authority control City of Thieves Books by Ian Livingstone City of Thieves