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We’re About to Get a ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s Novel
I’ve never gotten too invested in the Five Nights at Freddy’s series of indie horror games that made its debut barely over a year ago before quickly turning into a kind of bizarre cultural phenomenon where most of its fans watch others play it rather than play it themselves.
I’m familiar enough with these games to know there’s a depth to the seemingly shallow narrative, but I would not have guessed that there would be enough to fill the pages of a novel. Like, a real one, with hundreds of pages and everything. I’ll let series creator Scott Cawthon explain.
“I’ve been working alongside a professional writer for the last ten months crafting this story, and I’m very excited about the finished product,” writes Cawthon in a post on the game’s Steam forum. “It expands the mythos and reveals a human element never before seen in the games.”
The book is coming to the Amazon Kindle (as well as the Kindle app) on Dec 22, followed by a hardback release that’s expected sometime next year.
I’m not sure how the hardcover edition will perform with Five Nights fans, who seem to prefer to experience this series through a third party, but I suspect it will be a huge hit as an audiobook.
In related news, the next game in this series will be RPG spin-off titled Five Nights at Freddy’s World. It will feature the same cast of animatronic monstrosities, but it will not be a horror game.
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war, but it was a cheerful illustrator from England who helped to define the terrifying war-torn imagery that inspired what we now know as Grimdark (a hybrid genre combining horror with sci-fi/fantasy).
Unfortunately for fans of Warhammer 40,000, Trench Crusade and countless other sources of Grimdark thrills, veteran artist John Blanche passed away this week after struggling with health issues for the past few years.
While the artist retired back in 2023, he leaves us with an enormous legacy of iconic artwork that continues to inspire gamers and storytellers around the world to this very day.
The news is especially gloomy as it was only last year that Daniel Lowman and Napoleon Dynamite himself Jon Heder released The Grim & the Dark: The Search for John Blanche, a documentary following Heder’s exploration of the Grimdark genre culminating in a heartwarming encounter with Blanche in his own home.
Below is one of my favorite pieces by Blanche, his highly influential depiction of Warhammer 40k’s God-Emperor of Mankind on his Golden Throne.
We send our deepest condolences to John Blanche’s family, friends, and fans.
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