1. The Forest of Twisted Dreams
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrators: Earl Norem (interior and American cover), Josh Kirby (British cover)
First Published: August, 1984
ISBN: 0-380-88047-4 (American edition), 0-552-52282-1 (British edition)
Length: 103 pages
Number of Endings: 15 (not counting conditional failure)
Plot Summary: The recently-won Magic Helmet of Cornwall has been
stolen by giants, and you must travel through the mysterious Forest of
Twisted Dreams to retrieve it.
Translations: Danish, French
My Thoughts: This is an enjoyable but flawed book. The writing is
sometimes atmospheric and sometimes cheesy, and the gameplay is interesting
but far too luck-based. While deciding which spells or weapons to use is
always an interesting challenge, it tends to come down to the flip of a coin
(or several coins) no matter what choice is made. If there were more of a
game system in place, this might be acceptable, but as it is, there's far too
much starting over, following the same path, and just hoping for better luck.
Worse than all the flipping, though, is the fact that victory for the Wizard
depends on what time of day and day of the week it is while the player is
reading -- if it's the wrong day and time, failure is inevitable. This is a
pointless barrier to victory, and it detracts from enjoyment of the book. Of
course, all is not lost, since even when the Wizard's path is blocked, the
Warrior's is not (with adequate luck), and both paths lead to the same ending
anyway. Not surprisingly, the option of playing two different characters
makes replay value fairly high, though there aren't quite enough options to
prevent things from getting tedious what with the high death rate inherent in
the story's dependence on lucky coin tosses.
2. The Siege of the Dragonriders
Author: R. L. Stine (writing as Eric Affabee)
Illustrators: Earl Norem (interior and American cover), Josh Kirby (British cover)
First Published: August, 1984
ISBN: 0-380-88054-7
Length: 103 pages
Number of Endings: 18 (not counting conditional failure)
Plot Summary: An army of men riding on dragons have destroyed the
kingdom's harvest and threatened world domination; you must discover who they
are and devise a way to stop them.
My Thoughts: One of the great mysteries that plagued my for years of
gamebook reading was whether or not Eric Affabee was a pseudonymous reference
to the Monty Python "Eric the Half a Bee" song. Finally, years
later, I discovered from Contemporary Authors that it's actually a
name used by R. L. Stine. Unfortunately, though, if the name is in fact a
Monty Python reference (which seems pretty likely), no other humor shows
through in the writing, which is rather dry and tedious. For some reason,
the author feels a need to keep bringing up old foes of the Wizard and
Warrior even though these characters have never been mentioned before;
without actual past references, all of these supposedly startling revelations
have a way of falling flat. Despite these attempts at establishing a past
history for the Wizard and Warrior, the book's internal continuity is
non-existent; the paths for the Wizard and Warrior lead to completely
different backstories for the adventure (and ultimately to separate
successful endings, unlike the previous volume), plus there's at least one
choice which makes no sense. On page 48, the Wizard is given two
options -- to prevent the Warrior from attacking a dragon, or to prevent the
Warrior from attacking a dragon because the Wizard thinks this will cause the
dragon to take him somewhere important. This is pretty much a non-choice,
but what makes it particularly frustrating is that if you think the dragon
will take you someplace good, it instead eats you, but if you stop the
Warrior from attacking it without having any thoughts, the dragon in fact
takes you someplace good! Very strange. These flaws aside, gameplay is a
little less frustrating than the previous book but still almost entirely
based on luck. I didn't run out of things to try as quickly before winning
this time, though I still didn't feel a particular sense of accomplishment in
my eventual victory.
The British edition of this book is not part of my collection; the scan
is courtesy of Slick.
3. Who Kidnapped Princess Saralinda?
Authors: Megan Stine and H. William Stine
Illustrators: Earl Norem (interior and American cover), Josh Kirby (British cover)
First Published: November, 1984
ISBN: 0-380-89268-5 (American edition), 0-552-52284-8 (British edition)
Length: 103 pages
Number of Endings: 12 (not counting conditional failure)
Plot Summary: King Henry's daughter is to marry to son of his enemy,
thus bringing peace between two kingdoms; alas, before the wedding can occur,
the princess is kidnapped, and you must explore Henry's castle and find where
she has been hidden before it is too late!
My Thoughts: 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.
4. Ghost Knights of Camelot
Author: David Anthony Kraft
Illustrators: Earl Norem (interior and American cover), Josh Kirby (British cover)
First Published: November, 1984
ISBN: 0-380-89276-6 (American edition), 0-552-52286-4 (British edition)
Length: 103 pages
Number of Endings: 17 (not counting conditional failure)
Plot Summary: The kingdom is threatened once again, this time by the
ghosts of past champions, guided my a mysterious evil....
My Thoughts: This was a thoroughly disappointing adventure; the
Knights of the Round Table show up, you kill them, you discover who summoned
them, and then it's all over... not counting all the senseless coin-flipping,
number-guessing and time/date-checking that bogs things down in the meantime.
The story is even thinner than usual, the encounters are boring more than
anything else, and the gameplay is poorly designed and meaningless -- it just
makes no sense to penalize the reader for happening to read the book at the
wrong time of day or on the wrong day of the week; I've complained about this
before, but it's so monumentally wrong that it's worth mentioning again. The
only thing I found at all entertaining was the horrible monster encountered
on page 69, though even this strange beastie is nothing I haven't seen
before. Oh well; maybe the next one will be an improvement....
5. The Haunted Castle of Ravencurse
Author: Lynn Beach
Illustrators: Earl Norem (interior and American cover), Josh Kirby (British cover)
First Published: February, 1985
ISBN: 0-380-89523-4 (American edition), 0-552-52295-3 (British edition)
Length: 103 pages
Number of Endings: 19
Plot Summary: King Henry's coffers are running low, but he knows of a
dangerous old castle where you can probably obtain some treasures valuable
enough to replenish them....
My Thoughts: As I had hoped, I found this book more entertaining than
the previous one. Although thin on plot, it manages to successfully capture
a bit of the fantasy dungeon crawl feel that makes so many gamebooks so
entertaining. There are numerous challenges to overcome, two treasures to
find, and multiple paths to victory (including a bit of non-linearity in some
places; the treasures can be obtained in any order). It feels rather brief,
but at least it manages to be enjoyable while it lasts. As in the third book,
a map is provided at the front of the book to add flavor and help with
strategy. Also like book three, this one relies a little less on random
chance than the others, though it's still possible to die as a result of
guessing the wrong random number, flipping a coin poorly or reading the book
on the wrong day of the week; you can't have everything!
The scan of the British edition above is from my own collection; thanks to
Slick for providing the image that was used here until I was able to get my
own copy.
6. Revenge of the Falcon Knight
Author: Scott Siegel
Illustrator: Earl Norem (interior and American cover)
First Published: February, 1985
ISBN: 0-380-89524-2
Length: 103 pages
Number of Endings: 23 (not counting conditional failure)
Plot Summary: While being exiled by the king, Sir Ashley, the Falcon
Knight, proclaims his innocence and begs you to clear his name. There's a
traitor to root out!
My Thoughts: This is the second above average adventure in a row;
like the third book, it's a mystery, though this time, the starting clue is
not a map but a list of potential suspects, one of them Cimmerian, a
character previously under suspicion in that earlier adventure (showing a
minor bit of continuity in the series). The book's plot, while rather weak
when fully revealed, is at least consistently presented, and the mystery
takes many tries and much persistence to unravel. It's unfortunate that most
of the time, it is random luck that serves as an obstacle rather than real
puzzles to solve, but the book manages to be entertaining nonetheless. It
was at very least good enough to make me deeply regret the series' lack of a
meaningful game system.
7. Challenge of the Wolf Knight
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Earl Norem (interior and American cover)
First Published: September, 1985
ISBN: 0-380-89944-2
Length: 103 pages
Number of Endings: 21 (not counting conditional failure)
Plot Summary: King Henry's cousin is coming to visit, but before he
does, you have been asked to make the countryside safe by investigating tales
of a mysterious wolf-headed knight.
My Thoughts: It seems kind of confusing to have a book about an
unrelated Wolf Knight right after an adventure featuring a character known as
the Knight of the Wolves, but perhaps I'm just being nitpicky. In any case,
something very surprising happened when I read this book... I finished it
successfully on my first attempt! Close to pure luck, I suspect, since I'm
not exceptionally skilled and this is not too different from the other books
in the series, but it was a rather gratifying experience. That's not the
only thing that made me appreciate the book, however; also worth mentioning
is the fact that this is the first adventure to feature a new set of spells
and weapons. The new spells are nothing too special, but some of the new
weapons have magical powers, making the job of equipping the Warrior much
more interesting than before. Unfortunately, the adventure itself is nothing
too special, though it's not terrible either. Just another typical fantasy
quest with a bit too much reliance on luck and the feeling that with a little
more work or complexity, it could have been a much better gamebook.
8. Conquest of the Time Master
9. The Dragon Queen's Revenge
10. Tournament for Terror
11. The Imposter King
12. The Scarlet Shield of Shalimar
13. Cavern of the Phantoms
14. Carnival of Demons
15. Invaders from Darkland
16. Attack on the King
17. Conquest of the Barbarians
18. Warrior Women of Weymouth
