Item - Night of the Tiger

The Endless Quest appeared to end with #36 in the mid-80's. Other offshoots had been attempted, such as the Crimson Crystal and Advanced D&D Adventure Gamebooks, which didn't last long. But in the 90's, they rebooted the original series, starting with book #37. I read a few but as it was over 10 years later I was growing out of gamebooks.

The format had changed. Rather than 157 pages the books were nearly 200. And rather than pages, there were sections. In other series this resulted in short sections, usually a paragraph which results in lots of annoying page flipping. But in this series the sections are pages long, resulting in about 40 sections total.

On to the book itself, I was attracted to the cover. A great picture of a Rakshasa, a tiger-man lounging evilly, drinking from a cup. Just don't look at his paws, which kill the image.

In this book, you play a young mage attending wizard school with a total of three spells at your disposal, a great throwback to the early books. You are on a quest to avenge your destroyed village and free your people.

The book is set on an island with a definite Indian flavour. This is a welcome change as Indian mythology seems ripe for fantasy. The jungle features a different array of beasts from the usual and a few fun encounters, like a ghost tiger and a battle with villagers turned into ravens. You shrink yourself to pass under a talking door and fight a living doll under the villain's bed, etc. The writing is descriptive and excellent. For instance, when you cast a spell to shrink yourself, it describes the sensation of your skin shrinking in chilling detail.

Overall, an excellent book.

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