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Item - Lords of Doom

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Series: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Gamebooks — no. 10
Translated Into: Los señores de la muerte (Spanish)
I signori del destino (Italian)
Ubawaret ryuu no tamago [奪われた竜の卵] (Japanese)
Author: Niles, Douglas
Illustrators: Elmore, Larry (cover)
Magnuson, Diana (interior)
Date: September, 1986
ISBN: 0880383097 / 9780880383097
Length: 190 pages (218 sections)
Number of Endings: 8 (not including death by combat)
User Summary: As Gilthanas the elf, you must discover the fate of the good dragons' eggs, which have been stolen by the forces of evil.
Demian's Thoughts:

This gamebook fills in a small gap in the Dragonlance Chronicles and will be of particular interest to fans of that trilogy. As a game, the book isn't particularly exceptional, but it's quite entertainingly written, especially thanks to the presence of Fizban, a very powerful but absent-minded mage whose role in the story will make the most sense to those familiar with the Dragonlance novels. The adventure isn't very hard to complete, but it's fairly replayable due to the various paths to victory.

More reviews by Demian

Guillermo's Thoughts:

(review based on the Spanish translation)

This is the third Dragonlance gamebook in the series, covering the journey of a party of minor Dragonlance characters to the city of Sanction, which is only summarily described in the third Dragonlance Chronicles novel, Dragons of Spring Dawning. As a story, the book is probably interesting within the context of the Dragonlance storyline, though I personally had a hard time putting up with the mellifluous and trite romantic tension between the characters Gilthanas and Silvara.

As a game, the book is not as fun as the author's previous effort, Escape from Castle Quarras. It consists of two different paths, thus making the book replayable after you've completed it, though the adventure's final part is always the same no matter which one you take. For the most part, the book is rather easy to complete successfully. It also lacks any of the innovative features of other books in the series, such as the use of a spellbook or the ability to control more than one character. Overall, as a gamebook this is average at best.

More reviews by Guillermo

Kveto's Thoughts:

The third Dragonlance entry in this series, and certainly the worst of the lot. In this, you play the boring Elf, Gilthanas, a minor character in the Dragonlance Chronicles, in a search for the good dragon eggs. In Dragonlance proper, Gilthanas is an annoying elf prince, greatly outshone by his younger sister, Laurana, in every conceivable way. But this novel tries to turn him into a dashing action hero, nothing like the original character.

Beyond that, there is the boring romance he has with a dragon disguised as an elf, Sylvara, which, if you've read the original books, you already know how it turns out.

This book was created to fill a gap in the Dragonlance saga and to piggyback on its success. It fails in general.

I wish Douglas Niles had instead novelized his module Dragons of Ice and had Laurana as the protagonist.

More reviews by Kveto

Errata:The illustrator's first name is incorrectly listed as "Diane" rather than "Diana."
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