Item - Who Kidnapped Princess Saralinda?

This book is a nice change of pace from the last two. It's a mystery, the solution to which is consistent regardless of which paths are taken. There's quite a bit of non-linear exploration of the castle, and a map is provided which makes the whole thing feel a little like a game of Clue (Cluedo if you're British). There's not nearly as much senseless coin-flipping as in the past two adventures, though there are some frustratingly arbitrary deaths based on the reader's birthday and the current day of the week. The writing style is pretty cheesy, but at least some inventively weird things can happen -- in one path through the book, I turned myself into a crust of bread but got gnawed on by a rat before I could change back; this caused me to contract a nasty disease, go insane, and eventually attempt to hunt down and kill King Henry! That doesn't happen every day.... All in all, this is yet another flawed but fun entry in the series.

More reviews by Demian

(Review based on the Spanish translation.)

There is indeed some non-linear exploration in this adventure but it's not very substantial (plus the investigation aspect is so simplistic it's barely worth writing about). While there are a variety of paths the player may take in both the Wizard and the Warrior adventures, they all tend to lead to the same place anyway, which makes the book less interesting than it should be. As Demian mentions, there is also a weird path where you become sick and begin losing your mind. I found this at least to be a high point in the book. Regardless of its simplicity and easiness, I had some fun reading this adventure. It won't hurt you to try it if you can find a copy.

More reviews by Guillermo

I only have read 3-4 of these books. As I recall, this was my favourite. It involves a mystery where you explore your own king's castle. The writing does a good job of making the castle familiar yet scary and daunting. It has some really good set adventures, particularly on the wizard's side.

For the warrior, choosing your weapons should be obvious. As you are exploring a castle, you think you'd be penalized for choosing the lance, longbow or crossbow, but not really. Instead you find the battle-axe is missing. If you have chosen the axe you must go with one weapon fewer. Which makes no sense as you make this discovery in the armoury. Why not just grab another weapon to replace it?

But overall, good artwork, excellent cover and a different type of story.

More reviews by Kveto