Item - Spellbound

This is my second foray into Dragontales, a series I'm growing to like. This is an odd numbered book meaning you portray a female character, so the romance angle is stronger.

You play a student of magic who can't quite master her spells correctly. Your teacher sends you on a mission to another wizard and adventure ensues. It does a fairly good job of capturing adolescent concerns and budding romance with some low-key action. A high number of endings as well as some hard choices make it interesting.

My main question is that your female teacher can fall in love with the rival wizard who happens to be a centaur, which always lends me to wonder exactly how that works. You know what I mean. I guess I shouldn't think about it so much. In the end, we are all half centaur.

More reviews by Kveto

[Rating: 4/10]
[Recommended? NO]

Rhondi Vilott's "Dragontales" gamebooks are a pleasantly refreshing exploration of the limitless potential of the epic fantasy genre, providing within each title an adventurous sort of excursion into danger with a bit of romance on the side. It shouldn't come as a surprise that the same approach returns in "Spellbound", what with its fairly lengthy quest of a familiar nature and the way readers are intended to play through it. Distinctively different enough in tone yet reminiscent of both the "HeartQuest" and "Endless Quest" series in more ways than I predicted, this is a moderately paced story with a commendably well-conceived setting and cast of characters (for the most part), and while the narrative and set-up are admittedly on the predictable side of things, the eloquently fashioned tone is quite readable. It's a seamless experience overall, but I couldn't help finding myself strangely dissatisfied by the end of it; perhaps I was hoping for something a little more ambitious or innovative, since I thoroughly enjoyed reading good portions of the book and found it ended before it made much use of what the experience had going for it. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily - but it made me more analytical upon my next few re-reading exercises, to which I came to the conclusion that, alas, some paths are more satisfying than others, and that the intuitive incompleteness was owing to the fact that not every path was... well, completely written.

This title is recommended to a precisely particular extent: a majority of fantasy readers and gamebook lovers alike will relish in the refreshing feel and thoughtfully designed adventure offered here. But a few warnings are to be had (which keep me from recommending this title wholly) - not all copies are created equal! Original printing editions feature proper passage pointing, well-formatted pages and some absolutely stunning cover artwork by the brilliant Tom Hallman... while reprintings and reissues are cheap, shallow, incorrectly embedded and outright ugly to look at, if not unreadable and inaccessible (numerous errors, omissions and problems with the writing itself). Furthermore, don't be surprised if the entirety of the book is not as good as the best parts (ex. alternative routes)... but don't be afraid to give this one a shot if this sounds up your alley! ^^

(Mysteriously disappears into the shadows.)

More reviews by Shadeheart

I liked Spellbound pretty well, but I do have a bone or three to pick with it. The first problem I have is this: The centaur on the cover, Thoren, is described in the book about fifty thousand times. His picture is on the cover, Rhondi, we knew what he looked like before we knew who he was, LOL. The second problem is in the love interests -- It is interesting that the two choices you have are completely different -- One is very much a "bad boy," and the other is the typical "good ol' boy." The bad boy, Barek, was the first one I myself came across, but to be honest I didn't trust him from the get-go. And I was right not to -- Most of the book, he's a total jerk, if not downright evil. But when I came across the other love interest, Rob, he was so dreadfully boring that I actually ended up preferring Barek -- And I am not the type of girl who usually prefers the bad boy! My last issue is that the main character herself, Lisa, can be a bit of a whiner and a weakling. But then again, not every character can be strong and strong-willed, and this gives her an element of realism as a human character. Despite these traits, she does manage to stick up for herself when she really ought to, so she's not so much of a doormat that I can't relate to her -- She's just got self-esteem issues, and considering her problems with not being able to properly utilize her magic, this isn’t unbelievable.

Despite these few things I didn't like, I found most of the endings in this book to be interesting -- Even and especially some of the bad ones. There's actually a couple endings where you end up cursing yourself and heading down the path of evil, which despite liking to do the moral thing most of the time, I found more interesting and satisfying than some of the good endings. Some of the good endings were a little bland, but enough of them were satisfactory enough that it all balanced out.

So to sum things up -- I wasn’t spellbound by Spellbound, but it was worth reading.

More reviews by yangkymyin