Item - Sceptre of Power

This, the first part of the Kingdom of Sorcery Trilogy, is only an average gamebook. The story moves right along, which is a good thing, but there are far too many arbitrary deaths (and little challenge other than the avoidance of these deaths) to make it terribly entertaining. There are multiple paths to the ending, though, so at least the replay value is fairly high.

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(review based on the Spanish translation)

After the disaster that Prisoners of Pax Tharkas was, Morris Simon delivers the first volume in what was called "The Kingdom of Sorcery trilogy," which is a major improvement over his debut book. This trilogy, which comprises books seven, nine and eleven in the main series, casts you as the son of a very powerful mage, who died under mysterious circumstances. Your task in the trilogy is to progress from being an apprentice to becoming an archmage and eventually facing a group of arch-villains who want to conquer the world.

This book covers for the most part the player character's journey to the academy of magic, the experiences during the first few days of his stay there, and the final confrontation against his father's murderer. Gameplay is balanced enough, taxing all the character's skills, with enough interesting ones to keep the reader engaged.

No matter which path you take through the book, it consists at first of dangerous encounters on the way to the academy of magic, and secondly of playing through the learning process of your few first magic spells. This learning process is always challenging and often involves personal risk. The book's main strengths, however, do not reside in its gameplay, but in the complex plot that develops and always keeps the player on her / his toes, as well as in the interaction with nonplayer characters, both allies and antagonists, which are as well developed as those of any TSR fantasy novel.

Like the Harry Potter series of books which came out years later, this book is good both at recreating the tribulations of college life and at telling a coming of age tale, though its limitations are certainly noticeable. It feels frustrating to spend an entire adventure learning spells and then having very few chances to use them afterwards. Nonetheless, the book is playable and entertaining enough that its strengths are enough to outweigh its flaws. Recommended.

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