Item - The Endless Catacombs

This is a truly awful book, which disappoints me greatly; Margaret Weis is certainly capable of doing better than this. The story aspect of the game is cliched but not too bad and certainly more developed than is usual for a gamebook. It's the game aspect that's terrible. There are really no choices anywhere in the book that have any purpose. Either a choice has an obvious correct answer (things like "Do you help your friends or do you run away and give up?") or you end up winding in circles until you eventually reach the correct answer anyway. This would have worked better as an ordinary novel, except that it wouldn't have been a very good one.

More reviews by Demian

(Review based on the Spanish translation.)

There is some validity to the criticisms that have been levied against this book: it is extremely linear and railroady a lot of the time, and the choices needed to complete it successfully tend to be quite obvious (Margaret Weis has always been more of a story writer than a game designer, so it is no surprise that she expects the reader to act more as an author than a role-playing character). Still, I can't help but have something of a soft spot for it. While your character is a relatively novice thief, you also get to make decisions for a well-balanced party of high-level AD&D-type characters (contrary to what happens in many books in this series, where player characters do not feel like D&D heroes at all). Moreover, the book captures the dungeon crawl elements of the D&D game quite well (similar to the first few titles in the series). The excellent illustrations by Jeff Easley also contribute to making the experience enjoyable. The story being told, while extremely cliched, is still passably entertaining. Overall, while highly flawed, this is still a book worth reading.

More reviews by Guillermo

From one of the writers of Dragonlance comes a pretty poor offering, of which the most interesting thing is the name of the book.

You play an adopted gypsy who, surprise, turns out to be of royal blood. A long convoluted adventure with too many characters to keep straight, but I guess it was practice for the large cast of Dragonlance characters. The only fun thing I remember was an Iron Golem fighting a rust monster.

Boring choices as well. But the cover art is nice.

Note: This is the first Endless Quest I read, borrowed from my cousin. I didn't understand how they worked so I started reading on the first page, which is kind of a teaser, to show you an important choice. It starts you right in the middle of the story. Dead confusing.

More reviews by Kveto

[Rating: 2/10]
[Recommended? NO]

The Endless Quest series aims for a different sort of target with its title "The Endless Catacombs", which could be considered a unique example of a story which struggles to balance the author's supposed artistic ambitions and the intrinsic need to appeal to a commercial audience/appeal to the masses under a restrictive creative license. Equal parts invigorating and frustrating, it's a little hard to know precisely what to expect heading into this title due to the somewhat unusual use of interactivity/tone, coupled with the mixed impact of the choices and overall narrative. This is a very unusual sort of story because the bar is set so low and the stylistic tone of the writing is obviously held back despite the apparent potential. Self-insert protagonist Gregor is underwritten, and despite a hint of classicality here and there most of the other characters, while undoubtedly more interesting than the hero, fails to stand out as more than a cookie cutter resemblance of the tropes this story rearranges and repetitively uses.

The reliance on a strict sense of the necessary conventions to be included in the series (as in the hallmarks of the Endless Quest books) is only further let down by the overwhelming sense that this story could've really been something truly wonderful had it been given a more straightforward, unrestricted-by-the-series treatment. I am relatively unfamiliar with the remainder of the author's prolific and voluminous body of work, but even I could tell at a simple glance that she was altogether unfamiliar with the conventions, consistencies and aspirations of the series commonly found in each title. Furthermore, the book - as with the rest of the series - would've benefitted greatly from the inclusion of a combat system to tie together the threads of immersiveness with the reader's imagination. Unfortunately, the flatness of the writing and the lack of dimensional development to the overall dungeon-exploring experience left me relatively disappointed as a whole - though I must say, Jeff Easley's cover artwork for this book is absolutely stunning. (Seriously, the cover would make a lovely fantasy poster - just the right amount of compositional contrast, color saturation and supernatural flare. It's a shame the story within doesn't quite reach this level of artistic ambition.) Despite my endless love for fantasy, this gamebook quest, considering my recommendation standards, simply shall not pass. ^^

(Mysteriously disappears into the shadows.)

More reviews by Shadeheart