RANKINGS
1. Dragonharper - Score = 5.6 Tier = OK
Attempts to Beat: 1
Not a disastrous way to begin a series by any means, but not very confidence inspiring either. When this book arrived, I was surprised at how thick of a paperback it is, and then when I saw it only contained 176 sections, I knew right away that I was in for many long and text driven passages, and it turns out that is exactly what I got, with many of the sections lasting several pages each. Right upon opening the book, we are greeted with an interesting introduction from Anne McCaffrey, the actual novelist of the "Dragonriders of Pern" books, which is the universe this adventure is set in, and she explains how she had to be talked into allowing her precious characters to be used for this gamebook in a meeting she had with Bill Fawcett (author of the "Swordquest" series). I've always been intrigued by how fanatically protective authors can be of their characters, often talking of them as if they were real people, and McCaffrey is no different here. She was finally won over by Mr Fawcett however, who I assume acts as some sort of "producer" for this series, even though he does not write any of the books. This makes perfect sense when you get to the game system, which is almost the same as that found in Fawcett's "Swordquest" series.
Being wholly unfamiliar with the Pern books and anything to do with its world, I was relieved to find an introduction section here that provided at least some background to the world in order to help put the places I would visit and the people I would meet into context, so that I wasn't going in completely blind. For simplicity's sake, I will try not to go too deep into it here, but these stories take place far in the future, when humankind has left Earth and populated a similarly atmosphered planet called Pern. In a convenient way to "go back in time" without actually turning back the clock, it seems that humans have long forgotten the ways of their ancient ancestors, and have since reverted to living as humans did in pre-industrial Earth times. People mainly live in half a dozen "holds" scattered around Pern, with many of them joining guilds at young ages to become farmers or craftsmen. Horses (called "runners" here) are the main mode of transport, and sailing vessels ply the seas looking for fish or delivering cargo between the various holds. Hmmmm, humans populating a world in the distant future, then forgetting or losing all their technology, causing them to revert to an earlier state. Where have I heard this before? I know, "The Legends of Skyfall" series used much the same premise. I wonder if they may have borrowed the idea from McCaffrey, whose Pern books came first, or if perhaps this idea is more prevalent than I realize. Anyway, the most interesting aspect to the world is that every several hundred years, a red planet that shares Pern's solar system comes close enough in its orbit so that it unleashes deadly "Threads" upon Pern. These Threads then fall from the sky all across the planet, and instantly destroy any organic matter that they come into contact with. The only defense Pern has against the Threads are the existence of the Dragons, which have been bred and trained for many hundreds of years by the Dragonriders, who are essentially the defenders of the planet, as the fire breath of the Dragons seems to be the only thing that can destroy a Thread. As we open the story, it has already been a couple of hundred years since the last "Threadfall", and the inhabitants of Pern are already starting to question how much of it is myth, and if perhaps the Threads may never return. (I'm sure that will work out for them!)
We play here as Robinton (and it took me a hell of a long time not to see "Robinson" whenever I read the name), an actual character from McCaffrey's books, although how important of a character I cannot say. Robinton is a Journeyman Harper (sort of a poor man's Dungeons & Dragons bard), having just graduated from Harper Hall, and is ready for his first assignment. He is given the plum job of Assistant Harper to the Master Harper of Benden Hold, which just happens to be the only hold on Pern where the Dragonriders and their Dragons live and train. It also happens to be the hold that is farthest away from his starting point of Harper Hall, so the quest here is to travel across Pern and arrive in one piece at Benden Hold.
As mentioned, the game system here is mostly the same as that of "Swordquest". You have your 7 starting stats of: Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom/Luck (why are these two grouped together? They seem to be rather opposite), Constitution, Dexterity, Charisma, and of course Hit Points. You also begin the adventure with 15 Marks, which is the currency on Pern, and you can use these in various situations throughout the quest. The big difference from "Swordquest" though, is that your Robinton character's stats are not randomly generated, nor do you get to allocate points, you are just told what they are when you begin much like in the "Marvel Super Heroes" series. Robinton thus always begins with the below:
Strength: 13
Intelligence: 16
Wisdom/Luck: 13
Constitution: 15
Dexterity: 14
Charisma: 15
Hit Points: 21
This leads to probably the biggest problem of the adventure, in that whenever you are asked to test a skill, you need to roll 3 D6, and should you roll equal to under your value in that skill, then you succeed. As you can see from the high scores Robinton has been given, you are going to pass the vast majority of the tests. There also doesn't appear to be anywhere to have any of your stats (except for Hit Points of course) decreased, or increased for that matter. Even injuring yourself badly does not result in any loss of Dexterity as you assume it would. I would almost say it doesn't matter that much anyway, as looking at what would happen if you fail a skill check, it mostly results in a very minor Hit Point loss, and many times not even that, making no difference game-wise if you passed it or failed it (should I even bother complaining about this kind of thing anymore?). The worst instances of this occur with the final two skill checks, where failure doesn't matter to your chances of success in the slightest, even though you would expect these to be the key moments in the whole adventure. That all said, at least here, unlike the "Real Life" series for example, you often get an interesting and different narrative description before continuing on your way, which is at least something. I also can't totally condemn the skill checks from a game standpoint either, as while the majority don't really matter if you pass or fail them, there are a few scattered throughout where if you fail....then BAM! Game over. Still, despite there being a decent amount of skill checks in the book, I only failed one on my single playthrough (which was obviously not one of the "game over" ones). There is also a "Lone Wolf" style inventory system here, where you have enough room in your pack to carry 4 items (and this is in addition to the silly amount of musical instruments you are lugging around). However, I'm not sure why the adventure even bothered, as I don't believe there are even 4 items that you can come across in the whole book. So, all of this stands as missed opportunity.
The combat system is also quite simple, and any opponent you meet will be given values that you need to roll using 3Dx6 in order to hit them, and also for them to hit you, with damage inflicted on a successful hit also included. These values do tend to be set on the high side at times though, which can make the combats drag on. However, I didn't find it much of a problem as there are not all that many fights to be had in the adventure, which makes sense as Robinton is clearly no fighter and is meant to be using his head to avoid such situations. And in fact, while it may have contributed to the ease of the adventure, I did appreciate how if you thought through your decisions and acted as Robinton would (ie. realize that you are a minstrel and no warrior), you are rewarded for being clever.
So you set out to travel across Pern towards your ultimate destination of Benden Hold, travelling the first half by sea on a trading ship you have booked passage on, and then continuing on horseback and by foot the rest of the way. Along the journey you make several friends, compose some new songs, perform for some nobles, befriend your trusty horse, and in a wildly out-of-the-blue moment, enjoy the hospitality of a local lord who lets you stay at his home for the night, only to then have you end up shagging his daughter! (Shaguar baby yeah!) For a minute I thought I was back in one of the "Sagard" books. The perils of the adventure come from a more realistic viewpoint, as there are no zombies, skeletons, or orcs that waylay you here. The dangers come from what you would expect might happen should you actually be travelling this path, having to worry about not getting swept overboard in a storm, or avoiding snakes while trudging through a swamp. There are a couple of thieves that you need to overcome along the way who try to make off with some of your musical instruments, but it was a change of pace in that there is really no villain of the adventure. No one is out to stop you from getting to Benden Hold (nobody cares), and there is no one you yourself need to track down or kill. This was a refreshing change for awhile, but it did contribute to the quest ending as a damp squib, as you arrive at the gates of Benden Hold, soaking wet from your ordeal. You enter just in time to witness the hatching of some newborn dragons, and then that's it, the end. I was quite surprised that nothing ever came of the whole angle regarding the Threads, but I do notice there is another "Dragonriders of Pern" entry in this gamebook series, so maybe that will be explored then. I will say though that for a gamebook, the writing itself here is great, which might not come as much of a surprise when you learn that author Jody Lynn Nye would go on to have over 30 science fiction or fantasy novels reach publication. It is interesting to know that a successful novelist got their start writing gamebooks, as according to her bibliography this would appear to be her first book.
One noticeable thing, looking at my map, is that this adventure is very linear (at least right up until the final leg of the journey). Most decisions and skill checks have all the options meet up together again in a few sections, and there is very little room for deviation through much of the quest, although there is some nice narrative differences at least as mentioned earlier. Something happens just before the final leg of the journey though, and it's as if the author suddenly had a flash of inspiration and decided to try and make a proper gamebook out of it. This final span of the adventure sees you needing to travel from one of the holds towards Benden, and you are given two distinct paths you can take. You need to travel through some marshland, and can opt to either join a caravan (at the cost of some of your Marks should you have enough), or you can choose to travel alone. One of these options seemed much more prudent to me than the other, but after winning the adventure and going back to see what happened along the other path, I was struck by how differently they played out, with one of them requiring you to use your head, and the other containing a few difficult fights. This was so unlike all that had come before from a design standpoint that I wonder if there wasn't an outside influence getting involved in the latter stages of writing.
Ranking: Very well written, no doubt about it. It had me interested in the world of Pern, even though nothing much of note happens in this quest. It did come across as more novel than game though, and that's not why I'm playing gamebooks. Still, overall I would say it gets a passing grade because I was, for the most part, enjoying the simple perils of Robinton's journey, along with meeting the various characters he comes across. I sincerely hope though that the game elements will be amped up in future books, otherwise this could end up being a heck of a tough series to review. Oh and a final note on the cover of the book, the illustrator sure took the title quite literally!
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2. Storm of Dust - Score = 6.0 Tier = OK
Attempts to Beat: 7
This second entry, as with the first, opens with a foreword from the author upon whose world in which the adventure takes place, in this case David Drake and his "Dragon Lord"
Or at least, I thought I had the idea. Back when I was in grade 8, I was big into reading about Arthur, Merlin, Lancelot, Gawain, Perceval, Galahad, etc, and devoured any books on the subject I could find. I must have gotten the glossed over versions though, because my memories were of knights in shining armour adventuring across sun drenched meadows, visiting pristine castles, winning the hands of fair maidens, and where honour (even among some of the villains) stood above all. In this world though, Drake decided to go in the complete opposite direction, and is apparently going for dark and gritty. The famous characters themselves are also far different from how many of the myths portray them. The biggest being Arthur himself, who in this gamebook is a maniacal despot, not above using any means necessary (including torture) to get what he wants, which is more power. In his foreword, Drake himself says he thought that in order to be successful in repelling invaders, Arthur would need to be a combination of Alexander the Great and Adolf Hitler, so that is how he wrote him, and it certainly shows. Lancelot makes a cameo here too, and it's much the same situation, as he is portrayed as something of a greedy, self-centred sadist who would have no problem stabbing anyone in the back who got his way. (Chivarly? What's that?). The other member of Arthur's court who makes an appearance here is Merlin, and he is the only one who is what you would expect. He is a powerful wizard (and magic does indeed exist in this world), is incredibly wise, but also tends to speak in riddles. This was all a bold direction to take for an Arthurian legend story, but having not read Drake's novel, it is difficult for me to say how much of this is due to him, or to the author of this gamebook, Neil Randall.
In this gamebook we play as the character of Niall, an Irishman. And now you know just as much about him as I do. No background on Niall is given as we begin, and he doesn't appear to ever recall memories from his past as we are playing as him that would help to colour him in a bit. All we know is that he is Irish, and he now lives in England, and in so doing this makes him a English subject, and he must do what Arthur says. We find ourselves in section 1 inside a tent in Arthur's camp, with Merlin watching on, as Arthur explains to us a mission he is sending us on. There is a certain goblet that Arthur has long been searching for which he believes will grant him ULTIMATE POWAH, but he has so far been unable to locate it. As a reader, we will probably realize right away that he is referring to the Holy Grail, even though he makes no mention of this name or of the goblet's origin (but it is confirmed later in a couple of places that it is indeed the Holy Grail he is after). Arthur goes on to say he firmly believes the goblet to be hidden somewhere in Ireland, being that he has so far been unable to locate it elsewhere, and this is why he has chosen us for the mission, because being an Irishman we would be able to travel to and around Ireland without being hindered. Having no choice but to accept the mission, we then head to our own much smaller tent to prepare to leave.
Before departing, we are visited by Merlin (and this is after Lancelot also pays us a visit and kicks the shit out us for not telling him what our meeting with Arthur was all about), and the wizard goes on to tell us that there is more riding on the quest than we realize. Up until now, we have been told that a dust storm has been raging throughout Arthur's camp for over a week, and Merlin believes this is no normal storm. He demonstrates, using some of the dust, that it is in fact slowly eating through solid materials and even seeping into people's skin. He believes the storm will not stop, and that this is the possible beginning to the end of human life. He has also seen in visions that the goblet Arthur seeks is the source of this storm. Before heading for Ireland, he tells us to seek out the advice of Arthur's dead father, Uther Pendragon, by locating his tomb and speaking with his spirit. Uther's final resting place is believed to be at the Standing Stones (ie. Stonehenge), so we head off in that direction. And this is all basically the prologue!
This then brings me to the first noticeable thing upon handling this book, in that it is half the size of Dragonharper, the previous entry in the series, in both a physical sense and a section count sense. There are only a meager 93 sections in this gamebook, and once I saw that I knew this adventure was going to be in an uphill battle in getting a Good score. Would I be willing to give a Good or higher score to a gamebook with this low a section count? Sure, but it would really have to hit it out of the park, because less sections just leaves you less room for gameplay, and tends to make the adventures very short for obvious reasons. That being the case, I was impressed with some of the gameplay aspects here, predictably brief as the adventure turns out to be. I use short in the game sense though, because as I have already come to expect from this series only two books in, many of these sections are incredibly long. The opening section alone covers 20 pages! And at the end of section 1, you are told to "turn to section 2"........where you then have another 4 pages of text before finally making a decision. (Why not just have all this be one section?). The adventure can neatly be broken into two halves, with interestingly enough the first half being combat driven, and the second half decision driven.
The first half of the adventure sees you set out from Arthur's camp heading toward Stonehenge, and involves an unavoidable fight with a couple of highwaymen on the way there. Niall, like Robinton in the previous book, is given fairly generous stats and is quite capable in combat, so this battle isn't on the hard side, but you will still no doubt likely lose at least a handful of your precious Hit Points in achieving victory, of which you start the quest with 19. I call them precious because at no time in the whole adventure does Niall ever get to recover any Hit Points, which seems to me like a goof on the author's part seeing as how much time can pass between some areas of the adventure, and with Niall at various times eating heartily. Another omission comes from how much damage Niall does on his successful attacks in the first combat against the highwaymen, as it is not given. The combat example in the rules section shows a sword (which Niall uses) doing 2D6 damage, but also states the damage done will depend on the strength and skill of the wielder, so this will obviously not be universal. The highwaymen do 1D6 damage using knives, so we can presume we do more than that, but after winning this fight we decide to take one of the dead men's sword because it is better than ours, and are also told this new sword does 1D6+3 damage, so we can assume our own sword did less. Ultimately, I just had to guess, and went with my sword doing 1D6+1 damage. It is only an issue for this first fight thankfully, as we now have the damage stats for our new sword.
After this encounter, we immediately arrive at Stonehenge, and this begins what for me was the highlight of the adventure. Uther's tomb is located under the monument itself, and Niall is forced to travel through extremely cramped tunnels before arriving at it. Here is where we discover the grisly manner in which Uther met his demise, but through magic as we enter the tomb, his body is reanimated and we assist him in a fight against his similarly reanimated killer who also shares the tomb, which happens to be a giant Man-Bear. The Man-Bear fight I found to be very nicely balanced. It's tough for sure, and took me more than a few attempts to get past, but there are a couple of different approaches you can take, and almost every time I had this combat it came right down to the wire as to who would win. I'm not sure if this was just happy accident on author Randall's part, but I wish every key fight was this well played out. Once we defeat the Man-Bear, Uther tells us that the Grail is kept within a castle somewhere on the Irish coast, although which castle exactly he does not know. This at least narrows down the search quite a bit, so we take our leave satisfied with this information. As we are exiting the tomb however, the Man-Bear comes back to life and kills Uther all over again, by the same manner as before, ripping his head clean off his body, complete with sounds of tendons snapping and bones breaking. As we flee for our lives out of the tomb, we are left with the final image of the Man-Bear holding Uther's still screaming severed head, which from what I gather will be screaming for all eternity. Something about a decapitated but still screaming head has always given me the willies, and this was no different. This whole underground sequence is very well told and extremely atmospheric. Well done Neil Randall.
From here we jump ahead several weeks to the second half of the adventure, as we arrive on the coast of Ireland to begin searching for the mysterious castle. We immediately meet up with two characters from Drake's novel, a fellow Irishman called Mael mac Ronan, and a giant of a warrior called Starkad the Dane. These two are long time companions, who have been sent by another companion of theirs, Veleda, who is a pagan woman and magic user, to deliver a message to Niall. She knows he is searching for the Grail, and should he be successful, wishes to have Niall bring the Grail to her instead of Arthur, as she believes he (along with Merlin, who she hates), cannot be trusted with it. Niall takes it under advisement, then continues his search for the Grail alone. After many more months of searching (and again, no Hit Point recovery anywhere to be found), Niall eventually comes to the cottage of a witch, Morrigan, who tries to seduce him before finally pointing him towards the castle he is seeking.
We then finally arrive at the strange castle where the Grail is located, and the final sequence is all about the choices you make. There is an old man, a young boy, and a servant girl living in the castle, and you need to make several correct choices here in order to succeed. If you do things correctly, you will eventually be presented with a choice of 3 different goblets, and must choose which one you think is the Grail. Unfortunately, while well told, this sequence doesn't quite live up to its potential. The story cheats here by having whichever goblet you select turning out to be the true Grail (or at least implies such), the only differences being in which ending you get, as there are 3 different ones depending on your goblet choice. You are for the most part left with deciding if you want to return the Grail to Arthur as was your initial mission, give the Grail to Veleda instead, or if you want to keep it for yourself. Any one of these results in mission accomplished and victory. While all of these then could be seen as a "successful" ending, I believe one of them is intended to be the optimal one. That optimal ending though can be achieved if you just pay attention to something that was told to you earlier, which I think lessens the impact of this final decision somewhat. At least the Hit Point recovery issue doesn't come back to bite you, as you can get through the whole second half of the adventure, from the Man-Bear fight onwards, without ever getting in a fight or losing a Hit Point. There are a couple of combats you can find yourself in (against Morrigan or Mael and Dane), but only if you did something wrong, and you are likely a goner because their combat stats are sky high, effectively making them an insta-death.
I have to also make mention about the overall tone of this book, because much like with a certain breakfast cereal, this gamebook was definitely not meant for kids. Both the tone and the ultimate goal here do a complete 180 degrees from the first book. Where that was a lighthearted romp across land and sea, where just about everyone you encountered was friendly, this second book is grim with a capital G. All the landscapes here are bleak, with hunger and death prevalent, and many of the characters you meet are only looking out for their own ends. The author doesn't shy away from the graphic violence either, as women being gutted and raped are described, and I didn't think I would ever come across a gamebook where one of the characters you meet tells a story of how he once snuck into an enemy camp and cut off the leader's knackers while he slept. So, some stomach churning passages in here for sure. It was a bit strange though how the whole dust storm angle was never explained. Who or what was responsible for it? If it was God trying to wipe the Earth clean, then by succeeding in the quest I guess we foiled his plans! The dust storm itself did seem to be centered over Arthur's camp, which would lead you to believe it was brought forth by an enemy of his, but this is never followed up on either.
I have left the most unique thing about this book for last however, because here we have a mechanic that I have sometimes thought about but had yet to see fully explored. *Drum roll*.......this adventure actually has a checkpoint system! How it works is, at various times during the quest you may come across an item or have a certain interaction with another character, and might then be told to make note of a specific letter on your character sheet. For example, early on in the adventure you can acquire a polished stone with markings on it, and are then told to mark down an "S" on your sheet. Other moments later on could have you also writing down other letters as well. Should you then happen to die on your playthrough (and all deaths, even ones in combat, send you to the same section), you are given a chart to consult. Depending on what combination of letters you have written down, you are allowed to restart the adventure from a specific section, often already in the middle of the book.
It wasn't lost on me though how much of a waste this whole checkpoint system seems in a gamebook that is only 93 sections long! What are the odds of me finally seeing this implemented, but in the shortest gamebook (section wise) that I have played. A couple of books off the top of my head that could have benefited from something like this might have been the "Fighting Fantasy" book Trial of Champions, where not having to play the opening arena sequence over and over again in a book that took me almost 40 tries to complete could have been a boon. Another one might be the "Cretan Chronicles" book, Return of the Wanderer, which was a loooong continuous trek each playthrough. This latter example even had a ready made story reason for being able to restart halfway through the adventure, in that your patron god could have kept resurrecting you as many times as needed should you have made it to a certain point in the quest. And therein lies the real rub. It is often going to be very difficult to include a reason story-wise as to why your character can respawn somewhere other than having to start the whole adventure over from the beginning. A god bringing you back to life? Sure. Some sort of "turn back time" device? (Such as the Time Stone from The Avengers or The Dagger of Time from the Prince of Persia video games). That could work. Unfortunately, Storm of Dust has none of those, and it really makes no sense as to why you would suddenly materialize elsewhere upon character death with all your Hit Points replenished. Worse than that though, the system here actually allows you to completely bypass the most difficult (and final) unavoidable fight in the adventure. I found out early on that should you obtain that polished stone, then die when fighting the Man-Bear, you are allowed to restart the quest in a section that comes AFTER this battle! You also miss a lot of colorful exposition from the ghost of Uther Pendragon that immediately follows the battle as well, including the information regarding the castle on the coast. When I learned this, I decided not to take advantage of the restart mechanic, and upon dying would start the adventure back at section 1 no matter which letters I had accrued. To do otherwise, while technically not cheating per the rules of the book, felt very "cheap". Still, I am always appreciative and on the lookout for new ideas like this in gamebooks, and think this is a good one in theory, it's just not at all necessary in a gamebook with this few sections. Perhaps author Neil Randall didn't want players to have to read through some of the 20 page long sections anymore, but really, is anyone reading these incredibly long sections word for word on every playthrough after the first one or two times anyway?
Ranking: What a huge change in tone from the first book. Once I got over how the author sullied my boy Lancelot (always my favorite), I came to appreciate the grittiness of the adventure. I also found the few unavoidable combats here to be very well balanced, providing just the right amount of challenge and things to experiment with, if even once again we have an author who seems to have no knowledge on the subject of Hit Point replenishment. I didn't think the second half of the adventure held up quite as well as the first, as too much was given away earlier about what to do in the Grail castle. It's really too bad this had such a low section count and was so short a quest (although not short from a reading standpoint thanks to the many very long passages). If this adventure had been given the 170+ sections the first book contained, I wonder how much better it could have been. As it stands, the increased challenge level and the coolness factor of searching out the Holy Grail in an Arthurian tale give it the clear edge over Dragonharper for me. Just don't eat right before you play.
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3. Revolt on Majipoor - Score = 5.2 Tier = OK
Attempts to Beat: 3
This adventure is set in the world of Robert Silverberg's "Majipoor" series of books, and we are again treated to a foreword from Silverberg himself giving some background information to his thought process in creating his world, along with some information about the various continents of the planet, the races who inhabit them, and the political system which governs the whole shebang. Majipoor itself is a distant planet that was colonized many years ago by humans, who now seem to have lost most of their technology and......oh no, THIS again? To be fair, it's not quite the same situation as some of the other sci fi/fantasy series with a similar premise, as mankind has retained at least some of their technologies (they have flying cars for instance, although apparently only the rich or elite have them), but in other ways they lead the typical fantasy-set middle ages existence, where most carry swords or knives as weapons. Therefore you have some interesting juxtapositions here, where your character might take his flying car to have a drink of ale at a typical inn that you might find in any number of fantasy quests. Magic also seems to exist somewhat, although it is more explained as there being certain individuals who have psychic powers and can thus perform feats that appear as magic to others. The planet of Majipoor was also not only colonized by humans, but by several other races as well, all of which could be seen as having "stolen" the planet from the indigenous race of the world, the Metamorphs (and yes, they are shape-shifters). The Metamorphs have since been forced to live within a reservation on the planet, and are viewed by the colonizing races with distrust. The parallels to the plight of Native Americans here is extremely obvious, and I have to believe this was the point Silverberg was trying to make.
In this adventure, we play as Parras Corbalin, a lieutenant and personal friend of the effective ruler of Majipoor, Lord Valentine. The story begins with us learning that Valentine's young son, Brynamir, has been kidnapped by an unknown individual or group who clearly wishes to start a revolution against the government of the planet, and has given Valentine 30 days to withdraw any and all of his forces from one of the continents of Majipoor (the same continent where the Metamorph reservation is located), or his son will be killed. Believing the Metamorphs to be responsible, or at least to have knowledge of the plot, Valentine assigns us the task of infiltrating the reservation and learning the whereabouts of his son so that he may be rescued. We are given the name of a contact, Cylene, who can help us to gain entry to the reservation posing as scholars, and so off we set to meet up with her and hopefully prevent a full scale world war, which will likely be the result should either Valentine withdraw his forces, or if his son should die.
So, the first thing that caught my eye upon picking up this book is that the actual adventure is written my Matt Costello. Hmmm. That name is familiar. Checking my notes, I discovered that this is the same author who wrote the realistically-impossible-to-fail Daredevil gamebook, Guilt by Association, from the "Marvel Super Heroes" series. This immediately had me wondering if I was in for more of the same here. The answer to that question ultimately proved to be no, but for one major exception, this adventure isn't exactly far off from it either. You meet up with your contact Cylene quite early in the adventure, and spend most of your time traveling with her, first on a sea voyage and then on a cross-country trek, taking skill checks as you go to avoid various pitfalls or to perhaps pick up some information. These skill checks, when failed, don't generally result in much of a penalty, if at all, and they are heavily in your favour to begin with. It is possible to die in some places should you fail several checks in a row, but this seems very unlikely to happen. There are some combats here and there, but Costello seems to have gone out of his way to make sure you have no problem with them, as they often end after a set number of rounds (because someone friendly to you will then intervene on your behalf). The most egregious example of this is the very first combat in the adventure, against some thieves trying to steal your flying car. You are given all the stats for the fight, but are then told the combat ends after ONE round before the thieves run away. Gee, so glad I dutifully recorded all their stats on my record sheet for that fight!
There is one large exception to the low level of difficulty though, and that comes out of nowhere in the form of the unavoidable fight against a Sea Dragon (pictured on the cover) that you must have as you are making an ocean voyage in the opening half of the adventure. This was the second book in a row that contained a single encounter I was impressed with, as the odds don't seem to be in your favour, but the 3 times I played the adventure it always came right down to the wire. The Sea Dragon has a better chance of hitting you then you do of it, and additionally it doesn't actually attack you personally, but it attacks the ship you are travelling on. If it hits the ship 3 times, the ship sinks, and the adventure is over. So right away, I was thinking I was screwed, as the Sea Dragon with its better odds, only needs to successfully hit 3 times, while I will likely need to hit it at least 4 or 5 times (with the damage you do being variable in the form of 1D6 from your sword). The impressive rule for the fight though is that should you be successful on your attack (and Parras gets to roll first each round), then in addition to your 1D6 of damage, the Sea Dragon becomes stunned and does not get to take its own attack. You thus need to roll a 13 or higher with three dice to hit the Sea Dragon, and should you miss, the creature then needs to roll a 10 or higher to get a hit in on the ship. This was the only place I died in the adventure (twice obviously), and on my third attempt just made it through with the Sea Dragon only needing one more hit to sink the boat. A very tense combat, and I would love to see this "stun mechanic" put in place more often in other gamebooks. Well done here Matt Costello.
I'm afraid there are not any other highlights in the rest of the adventure however, as you slowly make your way toward the Metamorph reservation, encountering the different types of races who live on the planet along the way. There was a huge missed opportunity here in the form of the assassin mystery, as in a sequence ripped right out of Fire on the Water from the "Lone Wolf" series, you at one point are travelling by carriage, only to learn that there is an assassin among the group who is trying to kill you. You then need to try and determine who it is, which should make for a great sequence. Unfortunately, passing one easy skill check just flat out gives you the identity of the assassin, and even if you should somehow fail this check, it doesn't matter anyway, as the assassin immediately attacks you one section later and is easily overcome. What a pity. When you finally arrive at the reservation, this whole process almost repeats itself, as you are brought before the Metamorph council and are given several options about how to deal with them, and if you should accuse them or try to gain their trust. But apart from the option of "make a run for it" (and does that ever end well in a gamebook?), it doesn't matter, as they all lead to the same thing. From here you learn the location of Valentine's son and prepare for your final assault on the person who holds him.
As I started to close in on the end of the book, I began to wonder if the adventure was going to end on some kind of cliffhanger, and if there was perhaps a sequel to this book later in the series. The reason for this is that I found myself already on section 90 of a 110 section book (and the entries in this series so far progress through the sections in a somewhat sequential manner, as was done in the "Sagard the Barbarian" series for example), and I was seemingly nowhere near the completion of my quest. If this wasn't going to be a cliffhanger, then how the heck would the author cram in everything remaining that needed to happen in 20 odd sections? The answer turned out to be.....that he was going to speed like hell through the last act, and you would be hard pressed to find a gamebook with a more rushed ending than this. A long journey to your final destination takes place in a single section, and this adventure, without a doubt, must have the quickest and most unremarkable death of the main villain that you will ever see. Not even is there no fight against him, but seriously, one minute he is gloating over you, then half a sentence later his "robes are stained a deeper red", and that's it for him. Congratulations! I find it very hard to believe that Costello didn't envision this adventure lasting a lot longer than it did, and wonder if he found himself up against the wall in some sort of time crunch so that he needed to end it all as fast as he could. It also has to be said that his book has a very heavy romantic subplot running through almost the whole thing between Parras and Cylene. I'm not opposed to a romance in a gamebook, but this is just so heavy handed and cheesy, with such eye-rolling prose that I now have an excellent understanding on what the inside of my eyelids look like.
Finally, like with the previous book, this adventure also contains a checkpoint system, which now has me questioning if this was an idea of series creator Bill Fawcett as opposed to the individual authors. This one works a lot differently however. Instead of noting down letters which can dictate what section you may restart the adventure at should you fail, the system in this book provides a list of the locations on Majipoor that you may have visited on your journey, and the corresponding section number at which you arrive at each. You are then told that you may restart at any of the listed locations, as long as you have been to every location listed before that one. This in effect allows you to restart at the NEXT location from where you last were, even if you perhaps did not successfully make it there. This all seems rather pointless anyway in seeing how generally easy the adventure is (Sea Dragon fight notwithstanding, which occurs in the first half of the quest in any case). So, we end up getting a checkpoint system here that feels even less thought out than the one from the previous book. And again, this book is only 110 sections, so hardly requires such a mechanic anyway.
Ranking: One of those adventures that 24 hours after playing, very little sticks out in my memory about it. The Sea Dragon fight was good, the romance between Parras and Cylene was not. Unfortunately, one of those takes up only a few sections while the other dominates the book. None of the other encounters are remotely difficult or noteworthy in any way. The weakest entry among the first 3 in the series, and if someone were to ask me about this book in a few months I would probably give them the blank Homer Simpson expression, as I don't think by then I would remember anything about it whatsoever. On to the next adventure, which I can only hope to be more memorable than this.
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4. The Witchfires of Leth - Score = 3.6 Tier = Bad
Attempts to Beat: 4
This is going to be a much shorter review than the others so far, mainly because there isn't a whole hell of a lot to this book, and what there is, isn't good. This adventure takes place in the world of C.J. Cherryh's "Morgaine" series of books, and as usual opens with an introduction from Cherryh outlining the universe we will be stepping into. And I have to say, I felt this intro was poorly devised, as if you are unfamiliar with the novels as I am, it reads almost like an undecipherable stream of nonsense as the life and deeds of the character we are to be playing as are rattled off using places and names for which I have no knowledge or context. From what I could gather from all of it, in this universe there exist various "gates" scattered on different worlds, through which individuals can travel. The travel is not just restricted to distances however, as they can also be used to travel forward or backward in time (although travelling backwards is expressly forbidden for the usual time-travel story reasons of possibly crushing an ant and blowing up the universe). The main character of the novels, Morgaine, is a magic using female warrior who has vowed to destroy all the gates using her magical sword, Changeling, because she has seen the destruction they have wrought on various civilizations. The setting here for this particular adventure is a "Conan the Barbarian" type of deal, and the whole thing thus feels like a cross between "Stargate" and "Red Sonja".
In this gamebook we take on the role of Vanye, a warrior who has been exiled from his clan for killing his brother (albeit in self defense), and then refusing to commit suicide as ordered by his father, who also happens to be the lord of the clan. This then makes Vanye an "ilin", who must wander the land until another lord claims his services for the period of one year. He is bound to follow all orders from his new master, and should he do so for the full year and survive, then his soul will be saved from the hell that awaited him for whatever misdeed he was cast out for. Vanye inadvertently frees Morgaine from a gate she had been trapped within, and she immediately claims his services for one year (although I'm not really sure how she is a lord, but whatever). Morgaine wishes Vanye to assist her in destroying the gates, and the adventure begins with the two of them heading off north towards the lands of Leth, where she knows that not only is one of the gates located, but it is being used by an evil sorcerer to pull various kinds of monsters and foul creatures from different worlds through in order to do his bidding.
To say there isn't all that much to this adventure is an understatement. It opens with an utterly ridiculous choice regarding investigating a noise in the bushes as you sit watch around a campfire at night, and doesn't improve much from there. Vanye and Morgaine travel north, encountering a wolf and some bandits along the way, both of which are dispatched with no problems whatsoever, (and the bandits can even be bypassed). The two of you can then find yourself enjoying the hospitality of a local lord whose lands you are travelling through, only to have the lord try and abduct Vanye for his own twisted purposes. Should you be successful in escaping (which isn't difficult), you can strangely find yourself in the exact same situation all over again in the next sequence. Another visit to a lord, another abduction attempt. Escaping from this one however can see you needing to make the correct choice among 4 options given as to what action to take at the key moment. Only one of these choices is correct, with all the others leading to death and game over. I thought there was a clue given earlier that pointed to what action to take in this situation, but that only lead to one of the death endings. So after that bit of annoyance, all the remaining choices felt just as valid as the others, forcing me to just pick one at random. (And of course with my luck, this adventure ended up taking me 4 attempts to complete, as I kept choosing incorrectly until I only had one option left). After this, you have one final 50/50 choice to make (and this time the answer seemed completely obvious), and that's all she wrote. You win. Infuriatingly, you do not get to destroy the gate as you set out to do, and you don't even get to encounter the evil sorcerer, never mind fight him in any way. The book ends as you and Morgaine continue northward by telling you: "The adventure is concluded. Morgaine and Vanye go on to destroy the gate." Good grief.
Even taking into consideration the 110 section length of the gamebook, there is surprisingly little content here. More than that, there is precious little atmosphere provided either, as I got no sense of the lands we were travelling across. Not that it took us very long anyway. And while the characterization regarding Vanye wasn't too bad, Morgaine is a blank slate, and after finishing the quest I knew just as little about her as when I started. She barely says (or does for that matter) anything throughout the whole adventure, which really stinks because she is clearly the main focus here. Or she should have been. But at least the pointless checkpoint system was not in use in this book, so that's something I guess.
Ranking: This book might have been just barely on its way to a passing grade until the frustratingly annoying penultimate choice, which was then followed up by the completely insulting ending to the adventure, which knocked it down several pegs. If you ever wanted to play a gamebook that feels flat out abandoned half-way through, this would be it. I feel like I should go read some of Cherryh's actual "Morgaine" novels just to redeem these characters in my mind. I'm guessing they deserve better than this.
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5. Prospero's Isle - Score = 6.2 Tier = OK
Attempts to Beat: 1
So right away, the cover of this book cannot go uncommented upon. We begin on the left side, where we see a beautiful woman in a forest-green dress astride a unicorn. From there we move to the middle, where we find a just as beautiful (and almost naked) fairy emanating a soft golden glow. And finally, moving to the right side, we see.....a guy in a three-piece suit riding a hippo. One of these things is not like the others. My initial worry on seeing this was that I was in for some sort of fantasy quest with a heavy ludicrous bent, one of those adventures where random things happen for comedic effect and no other reason, leaving me as a player wondering what meaning any of my actions actually have. Thankfully as I played, this did not prove to be the case, and I found myself on a rather enjoyable adventure. Phew!
This adventure takes place in the world of "The Incomplete Enchanter", which was a series of magazine stories written by authors L. Sprague de Camp (what a great author name!) and Fletcher Pratt in the early 1940's. Whoa! We are really going back aways for this one. Although, when this gamebook was published in 1987, I suppose "only" 40 odd years had passed. What really makes me feel old is when I realize that almost the same amount of time has passed from when I first started playing gamebooks as a kid until now writing this, than passed between the start of World War 2 and when I first started playing gamebooks. Yikes! World War 2 seemed like such ancient history then! I mention World War 2 because the introduction here from Sprague de Camp was an interesting read, where he basically gives a short biography of himself, with a focus on how he met Pratt and how they came to work on the series and their methodology for doing so. He also briefly discusses his experiences during World War 2, and how he met and came to work beside fellow writers Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein. I've always been fascinated by these "cabals" of famous authors, and often imagine them meeting together in quiet taverns or dusty libraries to exchange stories, ideas and techniques. This introduction also had me wondering just how old Sprague de Camp was when he wrote it, and assuming it was written in 1987 when the gamebook was published, this would have made him 80 at the time. I only wish I could write nearly as well as Sprague de Camp at any age never mind at 80!
On to the adventure itself, and we play here as the main character from "The Incomplete Enchanter", that being psychologist Harold Shea. Harold lives and works in Ohio, where he and a small group of his colleagues have managed to discover a way to transport themselves physically into the worlds and times of ancient myth, or into any piece of literature. (If you have seen the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie "The Last Action Hero", where a magic movie ticket allows the holder to physically enter any movie, that is kind of the idea here.) Exactly how they are able to do this is left vague, which is probably for the best, as the more you were to delve into such an explanation, the more ridiculous it would likely become. It was during one of these expeditions to the land of Faerie from the 1590 poem "The Faerie Queen", where Harold met and fell in love with the forest huntress Belphebe, who came back with him to Ohio and now lives happily with him as his wife. One of Harold's colleagues, Vaclav Polacek, is jealous that Harold was able to find a beautiful wife while he remains single, so decides to travel into William Shakespeare's play "The Tempest", in order to bring back the beautiful Miranda from that story to make as a wife of his own. Okay, so abducting a young girl (fictional or not), to become his bride is just a wee bit creepy wouldn't you say? And this is supposed to be one of the good guys! Anyway, while attempting to stop Vaclav from entering "The Tempest", Harold and Belphebe find themselves being drawn into that story along with him, and the goal here then becomes for the three of them to just return to their own world.
My first thought here was that if they could travel into any piece of myth or literature at any time, why not just teleport out again right away? Well, this is covered by a brief explanation from Harold that in order to leave a story, they first need to alter the world in some measurable way. Again, not totally sure just how much they need to alter, but also once again this is probably wisely left unsaid. I also thought the author of this gamebook, Tom Wham (what is it with these great names?), made an inspired selection in choosing "The Tempest" as the setting for the adventure, and I have to admit this would not have been anywhere on my radar should I have been looking for a piece of famous literature in which to catapult my characters and to have the adventure take place. It could just be though that Wham wanted the remote island forest setting here, which includes magic, faeries and goblins, in order that he could tell a typical fantasy-style story. I also have to say though, that the whole concept of having your characters enter the worlds that others have created, such as Sprague de Camp and Pratt did with their stories, feels a bit "cheap", because half the work is done for you in terms of the places you visit and the literary characters that you meet.
(Lame I admit, but I couldn't let this author's name pass without making a Wham! reference. And unfortunately, this was the best I could do. But wow is this picture ever so 80s!)
When we begin, we learn that through their previous adventures, Harold and Vaclav have learned how to cast magic spells, although their knowledge and experience with them is quite rudimentary. Upon arriving in a grassy field on the island from the play, Harold, Belphebe, and Vaclav are immediately attacked by an unfriendly creature and then rescued by a group of forest sprites, but not before the creature manages to make off with the spell book that Vaclav had brought along which records the spells that they have so far learned. Taking our heroes to their home within a mountainside, the sprites give us the lowdown on events currently taking place on the island. The island itself has essentially been split in two, with the sprites controlling one half, while the evil witch Sycorax (also from the play) controls the other. During her spare time, Sycorax enjoys using her magic to wreck any passing ships on the rocks just off the coast of the island, and has also assembled a goblin army with which she is using to slowly take over the forest sprite side of the island as well. It is very likely that Sycorax now also has the spell book, which we need to get home, so we determine to set off towards her cave lair in an attempt to steal it back and to hopefully also eliminate her, thus also saving the forest sprites, which would constitute a significant altering of the world, allowing us to finally travel back to Ohio.
The adventure then involves us infiltrating Sycorax's lair, encountering various goblins and even possibly some demons in the process, stealing the spell book and then possibly getting captured and needing to escape, and then sets up a final battle between the witch's goblin army and the forces of the forest sprites. This final battle was very well told, and plays out like a cross between "The Lord of the Rings" and "Peter Pan". Unlike the previous books in the series, there are actually some items to collect here such as swords and a potion, but somewhat annoyingly you can easily find yourself losing them all halfway through the adventure. It's not too big of a deal though, because the challenge level here isn't very high, although that seems to be common up to this point in the series. Most combats are in your favour, and there do not appear to be any instant-deaths in the adventure either. Harold's stats are actually the lowest of any player character's in the series so far, which would lead you to believe the adventure would be more difficult. This did in fact lead me to failing more skill checks here than I think I have in the previous 4 books combined. The thing is though, that a failed skill check here often results in a very minor Hit Point loss (usually just 1 point), before sending you on your way forward again. The big exception to this is the final skill check of the adventure, where the odds of passing it are about 50/50, and where failing it results in a possible whoppingly large Hit Point loss. Should you have bled out some Hit Points on earlier failures, you very well could meet your end here. I managed to just get past this on my first attempt, winning the adventure with a scant 2 Hit Points remaining, but it still shouldn't take you more than two or three tries at most to beat this adventure in any event.
Finally, I have to say that the writing in this book is great. There is just the right amount of humour at work here, as it never overshadows the peril that Harold and his companions are in, and thus never overwhelms the adventure. Most of this humour comes in the form of the spells that Harold attempts to cast, which work, but never in quite the exact way intended. This is how Harold ends up riding a hippo as shown on the cover of the book, as in a brief sequence he attempts to summon a horse as a means of transport, but ends up calling forth a hippo instead. The three-piece suit can also be explained as the clothes that Harold was wearing to the play when he was transported, although it just occurs to me now that he must have been wearing that for most of the quest, which is a strange situation indeed for a fantasy book. Oh and in case you were wondering, Vaclav does NOT end up abducting Miranda from the play, as it is only at the very end of the adventure where we finally encounter Prospero and Miranda, who are only just now arriving on the island, at which time Miranda was still a small girl. Wise move on the part of the author to have Vaclav abandon his plan at this point!
Ranking: This adventure moves into the top spot so far, providing the best experience to date. It is up there with "Dragonharper" as the best written book, but provides a much more interesting and meaningful quest. And while it is quite short (only 93 sections) and the challenge level isn't anything to speak of, looking back on unexplored options gave me a glimpse of some of the replayability provided here, which is probably the highest yet in the series. So overall, a brief but fun experience which would have been better served by either a higher difficulty level, or from repeated playthroughs.
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6. Dzurlord - Score = 5.7 Tier = OK
Attempts to Beat: 12
The first thing I noticed about this entry was that it was written by "Architects Adventure", and I immediately questioned what the heck that meant. Fortunately there is a page at the back of the book explaining that this is "a writing consortium specializing in the design and preparation of materials for the adventure game industry", and goes on to list the 7 members of the group, who have some previously made RPG games to their name. Wow, a gamebook written by possibly 7 different individuals? My initial thought was that this was likely a bad idea, as I'm sure we all know how those group projects at school used to go, when you would have several people all with a different vision pulling in different directions. I think this turned out to be true to some degree, but overall ended up being better than I was expecting.
This adventure takes place in the world of Steven Brust's "Jhereg", which was a fantasy novel published in 1983. As usual, the author of the original work, Brust in this case, opens the book with an introduction, and in my opinion it is a poor one. Brust explains that the story takes place on the planet of Dragaera, and then immediately dives into a very long-winded explanation about how the population is divided into 17 "Houses", each named after a different animal of the planet (Phoenix, Dragon, Hawk, etc) and which is bred to share the characteristics of that animal. One of these houses, named after the "Teckla" (a mouse), makes up a whopping 95%(!) of the population, although they are seen as peasants and looked down upon by the other Houses. And in addition to the 17 Houses, humans (referred to as "Easterners") also exist on the planet, but are generally also looked down upon and treated as outcasts. Magic exists in this world, with everyone having at least some magical abilities save for the Teckla and the humans. He also explains that the 17 Houses take turns ruling the planet in a cycle, with the House of the Phoenix the current rulers. Other than that, precious little information is provided as to the world itself. No mention is made on how humans came to be on the planet, nor even in how long each House gets to rule, or in how each individual Emperor or Empress is chosen from among the House. This is easily one of the most boring of these introductions I have read so far, and unlike the previous ones, did not have me interested in checking out Brust's work in the slightest. Sorry dude.
Onto the adventure itself, we play as Lord Hargen, a member of the Dzur House, which represents a large black tiger and stands for heroism. In the opening section, an assassination attempt is made upon us while we are visiting a local castle, and we are only barely saved thanks to the administrations of a healer friend of ours called Lazarus, who specializes in "revivification", or bringing people back from the dead (Lazarus....jeesh). Having thus survived the attempt on our life, and thinking of no reason why anyone would want us dead, we are rightfully cheesed off and determine to track down the assassin ourselves rather than bring it to the attention of the authorities, because solving our own problems is the way of our House. We then proceed by choosing among several options as to where to go first in order to gather clues and evidence, and thus solve the mystery in addition to having our revenge against our attackers, as we fully plan to kill them outright once we find them.
The quality of this adventure bounces all over the place, so I think I will find it easier to list both the positives and negatives separately below.
Positives:
The challenge level - This is what saved the gamebook from the Bad tier for me, because credit where credit is due, they got this just right. This book is one of those examples that contain several successful endings, with varying degrees of said success for each one. You could say technically that if you reach almost any of these then you have "won", but I usually keep going in an attempt to get the best possible conclusion. You don't have to guess how successful your ending is though, because you are provided a score out of 100 whenever you reach one of them. On one of my earliest playthroughs I managed to take revenge upon my would-be assassin, but never uncovered the various plots going on behind the scenes, and was such rewarded with a 40 out of 100 ending score. Further attempts saw me slowly unravel the intricate plans of the mastermind behind it all, first by moving onto a final score of 60, and then ultimately the 80 score that I finished the adventure with.
I was very surprised this 80 score ending wasn't optimal, as it concluded the story by having Hargen save the Empire, receive hugs and kisses from the Empress (not quite literally), and be declared a hero all throughout the world, with even an annual feast being named after him. And this WASN'T the best ending? As it turns out, to receive the 100 score ending you will need to defeat a very difficult opponent in a combat near the end of the adventure. This fight can be bypassed, but doing so locks you out of the top score. The odds are heavily stacked against you in the fight, because thanks to there being no Hit Point regeneration in the adventure, and because you will have had to go through a couple of combats previously to get here, you will likely always have a significant Hit Point disadvantage when the fight begins. Therefore, I was quite satisfied with my 80 score ending, and didn't want to endure the endless dice-rolling and who knows how many more attempts it likely would have taken only to obtain what turned out to be a slightly different ending. As such, my 12 attempts at the book reflect what it took for me to get this second-best ending (as there is no other higher score except for the 100). You could also make a strong argument that for a gamebook with multiple successful endings, the best one to get SHOULD be very difficult.
The investigation - This links to the above challenge level, but the process here of unravelling the threads of the bad guy's web of deceit kept me guessing right up until the end. The adventure begins like a detective story, with you following up on leads, investigating locations, and interviewing individuals that may have some knowledge of who is trying to kill you. There are several swerves in the plot as you make your way along that I didn't see coming, and just when you think you are about to solve everything and bring the story to a conclusion, some new scheme is revealed that provides you with another evil-doer that needs to be foiled, which helped to keep the suspense level high.
Negatives:
Lack of context - This begins with the intro from Steven Brust I mentioned earlier, but continues all throughout the adventure. Many times I had no clue about the names and places being bandied about here, and rarely was any explanation given. It was only halfway through the quest when I was told that the location the majority of the adventure takes place in, the city of Adrilankha, was actually the large capital city of the whole continent. Up until that point, you could have (and did) fooled me, because Hargen seems to know a lot of the people he runs into, and everywhere he needs to go is seemingly within walking distance. I really thought this was taking place in a medium sized village, which made this capital city business quite the revelation.
The characters - Ever wanted to play a gamebook where everyone involved, including the player character, was an asshole? Look no further! In a way, I can appreciate taking a different approach with the individual we are playing as, but Hargen is unlikable in several ways. We are told many times that being a member of the Dzur House explains why Hargen is hot-headed and quick to pick a fight, but he is also written as a bully, racist, and general numbskull. Most of the situations to which he enters involves him insulting and threatening people with violence....even to his allies! And even when you successfully uncover the plot going on and manage to stop the culprit, it's more in spite of you than because of you, as those allies do most of the work at the end. More than that, you could even argue that Hargen himself was inadvertently responsible for the nefarious plot advancing as far as it did in the first place, and it would have been better if he never existed. Even your supposed friends and comrades act like jerks though, and at one point I started to wonder if I should be rooting for the assassins.
Infuriating outcomes - In a few different places listed following, this gamebook pulls some nonsense that I have seen done before in other books, but still it never fails to rankle.
Opening choice - Ugh. This gamebook begins with one of those choices, right in the first section, where if you pick wrong it's an instant-death. It's not even a choice that you can really use common sense on either, such as: "Do you wish to pick up the poisonous scorpion, or leave it alone?" No sir. What we get here is two courses of action, both of which appear to be quite prudent for different reasons. Only problem is, the authors clearly disagree, and will kill you for choosing wrong. Because it occurs right at the start of the adventure, it only works out to be a minor (although annoying) inconvenience. However, it begs the question as to why authors include these at all. Do they think it's funny?
Railroady first act - The first act of the adventure, that sees your initial investigation of the assassination attempt made against you, is full of choices that all lead to the same place just a couple sections later with no real differences between them. The most blatant of these occur when you are exploring a derelict warehouse, and while travelling along its passageways you come to a couple of different intersections that ask if you want to go left or right. No matter which directions you choose, you always arrive at the exact same room, mainly because if you pick the "wrong" direction, your character usually just turns around and goes back the other way anyway. A lot of gamebooks do similar things, but at least most of them try to disguise it somehow. Here though it is far too obvious. Thankfully this only lasts for the first third or so of the adventure before your options start to open up and your choices have far more meaning, otherwise this book would have scored much lower.
The drugged wine - So this kind of thing maddens me to no end. I'm sure anyone else familiar with gamebooks can relate to this nonsense. This is a situation where you are given a choice among two or more courses of action, but what your character then does is not what was described by the option itself. In this case, Hargen is following up on a lead at a local pawnshop, where he believes the owner may have some useful information. The pawnshop owner acts strangely, and it is clear that Hargen does not trust him, nor should he. You are then asked if you want to accept the owner's invitation to talk about the matter, or just leave the shop. The whole point of coming here was to get information from this guy, so I decided to take him up on his offer to talk things over. I then find myself accepting a glass of wine from him, and then drink it with no questions asked and no option given to refuse the wine! Nowhere in the choice did I say I was willing to accept a drink from this shady character, and what kind of a fool is Hargen to actually swallow this? The wine is drugged of course, leading to an instant game over, thanks for playing. Argh!
The writing - I think this is where having multiple authors may show its drawbacks. To be honest, I'm not sure if multiple people did the actual writing, but it sure reads that way. First of all, the adventure repeats an omission from the Storm of Dust book, in that it neglects to tell you how much damage Hargen does on a successful attack. I had to take my best guess based upon the damage scores provided for my opponents and how I was supposed to be a superior warrior. Section transitions also can oftentimes be very awkward, sometimes seemingly ignoring events that had just happened, and on more than one occasion I had to turn back to the prior section I had been on to make sure I had not made a mistake in where to go next. There are some eye-rolling moments put in here too, such as at one point telling you about something happening that you "don't notice" (huh?), and at another point where you are told about a large statue holding a torch that stands just offshore (they are kidding right?), although to be fair this Statue of Liberty ripoff could have been from the original book for all I know. The bigger sin though might be in the almost complete lack of atmosphere all throughout the quest. Here you have the urban setting in a gamebook, which is loaded with possibilities, but it all could have been taking place on a quiet suburban street for all the description you are given. You are told that some areas smell bad, but that's about all you get and need to make due with that. Even the author(s) seem to forget who and what the adventure is about at times, with Hargen being referred to as a human at one point even though we were told he is not, and in one bewildering moment, Hargen comments that Easterners do not even know enough magic to be able to "set their watches." Wait, their WATCHES? Unless he is referring to setting a night watch around a castle (and I don't think he is), that calls forth some humorous imagery for a fantasy setting to be sure.
Ranking: I had a very hard time giving a score to this, going back and forth on it for awhile. For the first half or so of playing the book, I thought it was heading for the Bad tier, only to redeem itself little by little as I kept playing. This is one of the toughest kinds of gamebooks to score, because there were a couple of elements I really, really liked. But then also a bunch of crap. Ultimately there were more negatives than positives, but I think the positives weighted more heavily and were thus able to offset those negatives just enough so that at the end of the day I was still glad I played it. All I can do is compare it to the other books and decide where it slots in based upon the overall fun I had playing them. With that in mind, I put Dzurlord slightly ahead of Dragonharper, which while being a much better written book with a more interesting world to explore, still sees Dzurlord making for a far better "game", which is my main reason for playing, complete with a challenge level I thought was spot on for an adventure of this short length (115 sections this time). This puts Dzurlord in the middle of the pack overall so far, although if someone were to say it should be lower, I couldn't really argue with that either. I do wonder though how much better this might have been with just one or two authors as opposed to a whole group working on it, if that is indeed how it was written. I think multiple authors would probably end up doing more harm than good, and I am not surprised that there doesn't appear to be many more examples of gamebooks written using this group approach, that I am aware of anyway.
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7. A Warlock's Blade - Score = 7.2 Tier = Good
Attempts to Beat: 1
Boy, the setups for some of these fantasy worlds has now become laughable, and for the second book in a row we have a rambling introduction given by the author of the original work, Christopher Stasheff, who wrote the "Warlock of Gramarye" novels upon which this gamebook is based. He goes on to relate how in the distant future of 3150 AD, humankind has gone on to colonize many different worlds. However, there is one group of people who feel that the whole political system of all the interconnected worlds is becoming too authoritarian, so they decide to strike out on their own in hopes of disassociating themselves from the rest of humankind. They manage to do so, finding their own uninhabited distant planet, and proceed to cut off all communications with any other planets. This isn't quite enough though, so they ditch all their technology and decide to have a computer wipe their memories and implant new ones, so that they all believe they are now living in what is essentially medieval Europe. (No mention of what happened to the computer itself after that. I assume it was set to self destruct?). Good grief. The lengths these authors go to in order to set up these "science fantasy" settings has become ridiculous. Why not just set your novel in medieval times to begin with? Or have it take place in a "Dragonlance" style fantasy world? Why the need to jump through so many hoops involving future technology and space travel just to revert to earlier times? Brother!
After reading this introduction, my expectations were at rock bottom level. Imagine how delighted I was then to find myself happily enjoying the adventure all the way through. Because despite that opening, this plays out very much like a typical "Fighting Fantasy" or "Lone Wolf" quest, which admittedly might cap its potential, but this becomes at least somewhat moot when it provides such a fun experience. We play here as Bran O'Neal (and get used to hearing the name "O'Neal" shouted throughout this book, because you will be reading it A LOT), a teenage boy who is the heir to the leadership of clan O'Neal. The story opens with us joining our father, who is lord of the clan, at a meeting being held among all the lords in the area who are discussing rising up and overthrowing Queen Catherine, who is the current ruler of the entire continent of Gramarye where the adventure is set. The reason for the uprising mainly concerns the point that the Queen seems to be expanding her powers, such as decreeing that only she should be able to appoint new priests to the clergy (and yes, Christianity still exists on this planet), and the local lords see this as only the first steps in her forcing her will upon them. Being the loyal and honorable man that he is however, Bran's father wants no part of the uprising and steadfastly refuses to turn on the Queen. He is the only one though, and the opening sequence sees both you and your father needing to escape the meeting and retreat back to your castle before being lynched by the angry mob.
It is at this point where the "Fighting Fantasy" story elements kick in, when back at Castle O'Neal, a decision is arrived at to send you off in search of a magical sword, known as the Reaper, that your older brother Sean carried into battle in the far north 5 years ago before he disappeared, presumably killed. This sword will help to rally the populace around your cause and also aid in crushing the rebellion. The mountainous and wooded area into which you must go and search for the Reaper is no pleasant region though, and is currently the home of an evil wizard and his nightmarish creations (yes, magic exists on this planet too). So the mission is then: travel through dangerous lands, kill evil wizard, obtain magical relic, profit. Let's get it on!
Very early in the adventure you come across a creature, Neal, who describes himself as an elf but who is portrayed much more like a dwarf (very short, clumsy, and with a big bushy beard), who quickly becomes one of the highlights of the story. He ends up becoming your travelling companion for the remainder of the adventure, and a wonderful job is done in developing the relationship between Bran and Neal, and in watching them verbally spar back and forth at first, only to then slowly become good friends as the quest proceeds. The great characters are not just limited to Neal however, because as you make your way through the adventure, Bran encounters several other characters that are incredibly well presented. At one point you will meet up with Fergus, a giant of a man who was cursed by the evil wizard of the area, and whose wife is now being held in the dungeons of a nearby castle. You see, there is not just one evil wizard to defeat in this book, but TWO, as you have the main bad guy but also his similarly evil protege. Bran and Neal cannot overlook that Fergus is in need, and assist him in rescuing his wife, and also in eliminating the protege in perhaps the best single sequence of the adventure, which involves a before-dawn raid upon the nearby castle, where you join Fergus and his men in storming the gates and then rush through the hallways searching for his wife before she can be put to death by the protege for your actions.
This rescuing of the "damsel in distress" and defeat of an evil magic-user really feels like what would be the end of most adventures, but of course here you still need to defeat the main bad guy and reclaim the sword that you set out looking for in the first place. Having now won the loyalty of Fergus due to your invaluable assistance, he pledges to aid you in your final goal. It is here that a romantic interest for Bran is developed in the form of Fergus's teenage daughter, and this aspect is handled extremely well, keeping it subtle and not bashing you over the head with it (such as was done in Revolt on Majipoor). A direct assault on the wizard's fortress would be futile as you would be greatly outnumbered, so Fergus provides information that will allow Bran and Neal to sneak into the castle and eliminate the wizard through stealth. It is here you are given 3 different options on how you wish to infiltrate the castle, and they all play out a bit differently with various challenges to be faced depending on which approach you take. This was a great inclusion, as up until this point, the adventure did seem to be a bit linear (although the book is only 98 sections, so this is probably to be expected). The approaches eventually link up inside the castle, and you then make your way by stealth through the rooms and hallways to the wizard's workshop for the final confrontation. Some very intriguing story revelations are made by the wizard during this ending sequence, as instead of attacking you he asks you to join with him, and unlike in most gamebooks, here he even makes a very compelling argument for doing so! It was a little disappointing then to have this choice altogether taken out of your hands, as Bran refuses to join him outright and the final fight begins. A missed opportunity here I think, as it could have made for a great end decision, and perhaps even provided two completely different "successful" endings to the story. Oh well. The book is very well written all throughout, and it was no surprise to learn that author Mark Perry has some novels to his credit. There is also a "with" credit given on this gamebook to Megahan Perry, who according to an "about the authors" section at the back of the book, is a 9 year old girl who I am assuming is Mark's daughter? Although it doesn't exactly say, so I suppose she could be another relative of his.
As you can see, this adventure only took me one attempt to complete, which leads me to what is easily the biggest failing of the gamebook, in that your character is completely over-powered. Bran is supposed to one of the deadliest warriors on the continent thanks to his family's training and mastery in the art of using two swords, and indeed he comes across as quite a badass in the narrative descriptions that accompany every successful fight. His stats reflect this also, and he clearly outclasses every enemy he meets. But as if that wasn't enough, much like in the "Lone Wolf" series, Bran can obtain combat boosting items as he makes his way through the adventure, making him nigh unstoppable, and I never came close to losing a combat. Heck, he flat out begins the adventure with chainmail that adds +2 defense to his already high numbers! He also begins with a high Hit Point total of 30, and I was only hit a handful of times throughout the whole quest, never seeing my Hit Point total drop below 20. There are a couple of combats where your opponent will need to roll a 17 or higher on 3D6 to score a hit, which is a bit much. Although there are some moments where you could suffer chunks of damage through taking a bad fall or by inhaling poisonous gas, you are unlikely to fail the skill checks that would lead to these, as most of your attributes are high also. And to top it all off, Bran even has two magic spells that he can use! One is a Healing spell that can restore between 1-3 Hit Points and be used twice a day, and the other is a Misdirection spell that can make it even harder for an opponent to hit you that can be used three times a day. I guess you are meant to keep track of when a new day begins, but to be honest, I forgot about the existence of these spells shortly after my playthrough began, as they are only mentioned in the rules and never in the adventure itself, but also because they are hardly needed at all.
Ranking: Overall, the best entry in the series so far, and it isn't even close. Reminiscent of an early "Lone Wolf" adventure in that it includes various combat bonuses that ultimately skew it to the easy side, but is also incredibly well told with characterization that is top notch. So, while it plays it safe from a gamebook perspective, it also succeeds on several levels in what it is attempting to provide, which proves that trodding familiar ground can still work if done well. The lack of a real challenge hurts it, so I can't go much higher than this on the score, but nevertheless this was a very fun journey, so good job Mark and Megahn Perry!
The Crossroads books appear to be the fantasy-themed equivalent of the Combat Command series, which includes adventures set in the fictional universes of various SF authors. I've played six CC books, and enjoyed one of them - for your sake, I hope Crossroads has a higher proportion of decent gamebooks in it.
ReplyDeleteI've read several of Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels, and remember Robinton being a significant figure in the series. From that perspective, having a gamebook based on his early life could have some appeal to fans of Pern, though I imagine even they would rather play as Dragonriders fighting to save their friends and families from Threadfall. Dragonharper sounds like the equivalent of a Star Wars gamebook in which you play C3P0 helping resolve a diplomatic incident several years before the events of A New Hope.
Although I managed to get the books, Combat Command is another series I know very little about and don't hear discussed much. My understanding was that it includes mass battles in space, which if true would certainly be something unique and sounds quite fun. Mind you, there is a long list of gamebooks that sound good in theory but did not pan out that way, so perhaps I should keep my expectations in check.
DeleteOne thing to bear in mind with the Combat Command books is that some of them have appendices containing significant information at the back of the book. It can be quite frustrating to struggle through the adventure without a clear idea of what some of the technical terminology means, and subsequently discovering a glossary that would have made things a lot clearer tucked in between the final section and the author's afterword.
DeleteThank you for the heads up. I will be sure to remember there is a glossary at the back of the books when I get to them. I'm guessing it's safe to say from your comment that you fell victim to this very thing!
DeleteI had no idea that such a gamebook series even existed - one set in the various worlds of fantasy authors. A quick google search has revealed that several of these books are set in the universe of Xanth by Piers Anthony whose work I devoured as a teenager. Another book is based on the work of C J Cherryh. Of course, this is no guarantee of quality in the gamebooks themselves but I'm still looking forward to your reviews.
ReplyDeleteIf the first book and a half is any indication, there isn't a ton of gameplay here so I am now realizing why it may have fallen through the cracks. Been an interesting read so far though.
DeleteAh well - the Hall of Fame looks like it will continue to gather cobwebs a little while longer at least. Out of interest, have you thought about putting together a general ranking of the series themselves, based on the average score of the books that make them up? That might yield some interesting results, and I'd certainly be keen to see how it plays out. Who knows - Real Life might turn out to be better than Falcon on average, or something equally counterintuitive.
ReplyDeleteReal Life might turn out to be better than Falcon on average
DeleteNot a chance. The highest-ranked Real Life book scored less than the top two Falcon books, and only one other RL book outperformed even the lowest-rated of the Falcons.
Point taken - I was merely being facetious. My maths isn't that bad (and neither is my taste in gamebooks, I hope). Still, I for one would be interested to see a grand ranking of the series themselves. Any plans to do that, John?
DeleteI was thinking at some point to post a big spreadsheet with all the books from the various series I have reviewed listed on it sorted by the scores I gave them. Ranking all the series is a good idea as well and would make a nice addition. They would just be my humble opinions of course (as all the scores are), but at the very least it might help someone who stumbles across it find a new series to play that they have never heard of before.
DeleteI completely agree. I can only imagine how confusing and frustrating it would be to start out as a gamebook collector today, given how variable in quality the things are (and assuming that one has access to the same level of capital as a mid-sized oil-producing Middle Eastern state). God knows it's like panning for gold even with some sense of which publishers are creditable and which exploitative bottom-feeders. Some sort of overview would definitely fill a gap, whether it is organised by series or book. Still, it's your gig, so don't feel obligated to one random buffoon on the internet!
DeleteYou piqued my curiosity so I went ahead and worked it out (hope John doesn't mind!). I included the standalones separately and for the ones that use the different ranking system, I just doubled their scores:
Delete1. Steve Jackson's Sorcery! - 8.63
2. Lone Wolf: The Kai Series - 7.20
3. Golden Dragon - 7.10
4. Way of the Tiger - 7.08
5. Forbidden Gateway - 7.05
6. Clash of the Princes - 6.85
7. Diceman / Webs of Intrigue - 6.8
9. Falcon - 6.78
10. Fighting Fantasy (1-40) - 6.77
11. Catacombs (1&2) / Robin of Sherwood - 6.65
13. Lone Wolf: The Magnakai Series - 6.63
14. Advanced D&D - 6.51
15. Marvel Super Heroes - 6.45
16. World of Lone Wolf - 6.43
17. Cretan Chronicles - 6.37
18. Fatemaster - 6.30
19. Car Wars - 6.21
20. The Last Battledroid - 6.10
21. Middle Earth Quest - 6.05
22. Horror Classics - 6.00
23. Crossroads (1&2) - 5.80
24. Swordquest - 5.68
25. Proteus (1-10) / Hard Boiled / Warlock Magazine - 5.20
28. Sagard the Barbarian - 5.00
29. Legends of Skyfall - 4.60
30. Double Game - 4.38
31. Dragonquest - 3.60
32. Real Life - 3.34
33. Combat Heroes - 3.25
34. Virgin Adventure - 1.65
35. Sagas of the Demonspawn - 1.05
Wow, nice! Did you really go through each page to calculate the averages? I guess you must have!
DeleteAs stated before, I knew that Sorcery would easily be the highest, and if someone had asked me what the worst series I have played so far is, the two that immediately come to mind are Demonspawn and Virgin Adventure. But other than that, some surprises in there for me. I thought Fighting Fantasy would be higher for sure, because it has so many I feel are classics. That said, it has half as many books I thought were equally as bad which obviously evens things out considerably. I guess this speaks to Ed's point elsewhere about the wide variation in the series.
Way of the Tiger would have jumped up a couple of spots if not for the final book (and that entry still irks me to this day). Same with The Cretan Chronicles (although I sometimes wonder if I was too harsh on Return of the Wanderer after some of the terrible books I played after it). And I wouldn't have guessed that Clash of the Princes would be that high up! But two solid entries out of two books is all it takes I suppose.
Thanks for putting this together Kieran!
Yeah, it didn't take that long actually since you helpfully put the ranking tables at the top of each page.
DeleteRegarding Fighting Fantasy, considering the law of averages, it's actually pretty impressive that a series of 40 books made the top 10 (and wasn't that far from the Number 7 spot).
Clash probably is the biggest 'huh?' ranking. Personally I feel AD&D and Marvel are both a bit better than the ranking would suggest but they're still upper table. And of course, I do have a soft spot for old Sagard.
Top work, Kieran - thanks for putting in the necessary effort and crunching the relevant numbers! I think you're right about Clash being the biggest surprise in there (and about poor Sagard deserving better - not *much* better, mind you...). I'd also agree that it's impressive FF managed to land in the top ten, especially with its tail of mediocre, sloppy and plain broken books. I'm perhaps most surprised by the bottom end, though - I really would have thought that those jaw-droppingly incompetent Virgin books would be destined for the bottom. Clearly, there's always something worse. Still, thanks again, Kieran - really interesting stuff.
DeleteYour review of book 3 only reinforces my doubts about this series - I' ve read and enjoyed the majipoor novels but the quality doesn't seem to have carried over to the gamebook version. !
ReplyDeleteNow that you mention it, the intro that gives the background on Majipoor and its inhabitants and political system was the most interesting part of the book.
DeleteSounds like one of the problems with Combat Command - no matter how good or interesting the fictional universe in which the book takes place may be, if the gamebook itself is nothing special (which seems to be the case more often than not), you still wind up with a sub-par adventure.
DeleteI can assure you that the Morgaine novels are excellent but as i previously pointed out, that quality simply does not transfer to the gamebook milieu. In fact, you would be better off just reading the original novels !
ReplyDeleteI have no doubt that is true. I am actually intrigued by the Morgaine concept and might give the novels a shot. The problem is I spend too much time playing gamebooks!
DeleteThe Morgaine books have been on my To Read List for a while - hope they're better than this gamebook! Nice cover though
ReplyDeleteYeah I have to believe these gamebooks are in no way a reflection of the source material as others above have said. I caught a glimpse of the cover of the first Morgaine novel, "Gate of Ivrel", and that would have piqued my interest as a teenager! (And still does really).
DeleteAlthough your review has definitely made me want to read that grimdark Arthurian one, it looks as though this series is proving another slog for you, John. Do you think these books have the same problem as the Real Life adventures, and that their deference to a fixed narrative reduces the scope for interactivity?
ReplyDeleteI think the low section counts of most of the books so far makes it tough to provide a fleshed out game. They do refer to the books as "gaming novels" on the back, so they appear to know exactly what they are. That said, they also have so far been maximizing what they have, as just about every section ends in a choice or a combat (ie. very few "turn to" sections). I would also add that the writing in this series is much better than that of the Real Life books!
DeleteI also have to wonder who these and similar books were written for - most of the authors would mean nothing to the kids playing gamebooks, and I doubt their existing fans would have had much interest in such a lowly puerile form. I remember Sorcery! was similarly pitched at an older demographic, but as far as I can tell was bought near-exclusively by FF's existing readership. Still, Gor must have thought it worth their while to churn them out in some quantity, so someone must have bought them, I guess.
DeleteI know of Tom Wham as the creator of the board game The Awful Green Things from Outer Space, some editions of which have a mini-gamebook in the rulebook. Low on text, and heavy on the random factor, but an unexpected bonus, and not the worst gamebook I've read.
ReplyDeleteI might have to see if I can locate that if the gamebook isn't too mini. Sounds like his Crossroads book might be better written though.
DeleteIt's 15 sections long, and takes up slightly less than an A4 page.
DeleteThe board game it accompanies is quite fun, though it seems a little unbalanced to me. It was apparently inspired by a relatively obscure film called Green Slime, but nowadays it comes across as a blend of the first two Alien films with the quirkiness dialled up to 8 or 9.
Yes it's weird to think that the first publication of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is now closer in time to the Battle of Stalingrad than to the present day. I grew up in the 80s and 90s, so anything before this seems like the distant past; although I am also surprised when young people at work talk about the early 2000s as though they were a different era, whereas to me they seem like yesterday!
ReplyDeleteRight? Growing up I used to tease my dad for always listening to his "oldies" music from the 60's. At the time that music was only around 20 years old. Meanwhile, the music from the 80's that I still listen to today is now 40 years old! Somewhere he is laughing I am sure.
DeleteL Sprague De Camp was a pretty cool guy - probably better remembered these days as the guy who revived interest in Conan the Barbarian than for his own more quirky works.
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, this sounds like a pretty decent gamebook.
I looked him up earlier and he lived from 1907 to 2000, so saw almost the whole of the 20th century.
DeleteFletcher Pratt likewise - a burglar, prize-fighter and librarian (at the same time, by the way), and later a military analyst and respected historian and biographer. 21st-century authors are boring as hell compared to the pulp writers.
DeleteHaha didn't know much about Pratt but he sounds like he was quite the character!
DeleteAnd on top of all that he was only five foot three!
Delete'The lengths these authors go to in order to set up these "science fantasy" settings has become ridiculous. Why not just set your novel in medieval times to begin with? Or have it take place in a "Dragonlance" style fantasy world? Why the need to jump through so many hoops involving future technology and space travel just to revert to earlier times? Brother!'
ReplyDeleteI assume the reason was so they can use elements of Earth culture (eg Christianity in this case) without having to adhere to Earth's geography, history or archaeology. It possibly also was an attempt at wish fulfilment for readers in providing an almost realistic way people could perhaps live in a fantasy world one day in the future.
Anyway, sounds like a solid book alright. Interesting that it's only 98 sections. I take it the average section is several pages long?
Quite. The first time I heard about the trope of 'future colonised planet reverted to medieval / fantasy conditions' I was struck by the clever, haunting nature of the premise. But now having heard it about a billion times, it barely warrants a roll of the eye.
DeleteYou make some good suggestions there. Interesting though how they always want to revert back to medieval Europe. Why not the 1950's or something? lol.
DeleteThis time there were no 20+ page marathon sections in book 7, but yes I would say the sections probably average 2-3 pages. You might get several 1-2 page sections in a row followed by a 5 pager etc. Tough to lose this one, but good fun anyway. Too bad they couldn't have combined the challenge level of book 6 with the adventure of book 7.
Maybe not the most inspiring series as far as gamebooks go, but I have certainly learned a lot about authors I had not previously encountered.
ReplyDeleteYeah I wasn't expecting all that much seeing as how I had heard basically nothing about it elsewhere, but overall it has been ok. Mind you, I still have half the series to go!
Delete