Golden Dragon Gamebooks #3: The Lord of Shadow Keep

Here we are with the third book in this series, the Lord of Shadow Keep. I believe that this was the one that was originally intended to be a book in the Fighting Fantasy series before it ended up here, presumably after considerable editing to shrink it down to the required number of paragraphs to suit this format. It will be interesting to see whether this is different to the others in the series. Once again, the rules are the same, with the same requirements for character creation. I wonder if I’ll use something other than Vigour this time?

 This is interesting; I ended up with Vigour of 28, Agility of 4 and Psi of 9 - the maximum! Basically, I am a rather clumsy genius who will likely spend his time stumbling around the dungeon knocking into things. Apparently I am a knight once again in this one, and so I will adopt the name Sir Isaac. Stuff falling on my head is something I have obviously got used to. I start with a sword, armour and backpack, and am given the advice that ‘I am unlikely to succeed on my first try.’ Wow. That’s...wow. Defeatism at its finest.

 Turns out a crusade against the Goblins by this order of knights has gone very wrong, the army defeated (are they sure it wasn’t Ewoks they were fighting?) and now, apparently, I work for a tyrant and have become a symbol of oppression. Hang on, what? Deciding to leave, I find my now-aged liege, who spins a yarn about evil, and apparently some vampire/necromancer has ensorcelled him...basically, it’s King Richard, Prince John was my boss, and I need to free him from an evil spell. Got it. I get a magic sword and a ring, and am told I am now one of his Paladins. Splendid, promotion! Of course, if this is true to history, then King Richard will be as bad as his brother,but what the hell. (I’m joking around with this a little, but the parallel is really drawn on heavily here. Robin Hood versus the Vampire of Doom? God, that’s probably already a SyFy film, isn’t it.)

As soon as I start, I see a rider in black. This bodes ill, but wanting to see what my new sword actually does, I turn to face him. And...he dies. I didn’t have to roll a dice. Excellent! Looting the body, I find a parchment that can be used to open doors - this smells like a needed quest item, so excellent. Then, I reach an oily black river...with a ferryman across it. I call out to Charon and ask him to take me across the Styx...and hang on. I was joking, but that actually IS HIS NAME. And this is the ‘River of Death’. He takes the scroll, pickpockets all my cash, but I get to the other side. T

he brief venture into Greek mythology over with, I continue on to a dangerous swamp, where I run into a stooped old man. This road is really crowded, perhaps I should find a better path. He introduces himself as Shambol Eyehawk, and demands that I get out of his way. Being a brave and noble paladin, I do just that, and as a reward, get given a staff and a bag of acorns. Pocketing these items, I stumble off to a pub, appropriately called the ‘Knight’s Rest’, and step in for a pint.

Among the patrons is a Knight in rusty armour, so he seems like a good person to talk to. He calls himself Stentorian of Stout, and wants to have his armour oiled. Yes, seriously. This seems like a lark, so I pour oil into his joints from my lantern, and point him in the direction of some ruffians. Naturally, I join in the murder of three people I have never met on the say-so of a mad old guy in a suit of armour. During the massacre, no-one else in the inn so much as turns a hair, and afterward, I am able to enjoy a nice warm meal amidst the carnage. Stripping their bodies, I find seven gold pieces and a locket of hair...and the growing realization that I have been working for a bad guy too long.

Finally, I reach the Keep, and knock on the door to begin my stealthy attack. The door is answered by a ghoul, who leaps out at me and tries to eat my skin. Fun times. And then...I get killed. Eaten by the ghoul. I guess the warning at the start of the book was quite right - this was a difficult one to get through. Old Sir Isaac is now someone’s lunch, and the King will continue to rot away until another ‘Paladin’ can turn up to start killing strangers and looting their corpses. I’ll be honest, I struggled with this one a little. The first two books were quite rich, and sucked me in nicely, even if I didn’t get that far into the second one, but this time...I couldn’t get into the flow. Charon, the Knight of Snout...didn’t really work for me, if I am honest. Nevertheless I might still go back for another try, though this is the weakest of the books thus far. Still, I press on tomorrow with Eye of the Dragon.

Golden Dragon Gamebook #2: Temple of Flame

Well, after yesterday’s adventures in the Crypt of the Vampire, I’m rather eager to push on to the next book in the series, the Temple of Flame, which appears to have an Aztec theme to it according to the cover. This one is by Dave Morris and Oliver Johnson, two names I trust, so I think this one is going to be good. The rules are the same as before, with no funky extra statistics to worry about - though based on the last book, Vigour is the most important. 

 Breaking out my trusty dice, I roll up my character’s statistics. This time I end up with a Vigour of 28, a little worse than last time, but with an Agility of 8 and a Psi of 6. This one is a lot more dexterous than before, and I have hopes that his odds of success will be higher. I am directed to name my character once again, and given the theme, I select the name Montezuma. Or Monty, for short. I trust that there will be many opportunities for me to get my revenge! And heck, this time I start with a magic sword! No need to delve for it in some tomb, I get given it. Why do I suspect I’m not going to be able to hold onto it? 

 Apparently, three of us are wandering around in a chamber, all Knights of Palados - whoever that might be - including Damontir the Mad. And come on, selecting someone nicknamed ‘The Mad’ for any sort of expedition is an exercise in stupidity anywhere. Have him guarding butterflies in the Jungle of Obscurity, not on some sort of a secret mission. Your other ‘friend’ Valedor, is walking down a corridor when his magic sword sets off a trap, and he falls to his death, almost taking you with him. Great, some magic there! Damontir just walks off, rehearsing his role in Raiders of the Lost Ark, presumably. 

 Then my character wakes up - apparently this all happened years ago, and you have been trying to revenge yourself ever since. As a Dragon Knight of Palados, you are the greatest warrior in the world. Well, there was this guy named Thodd who was stronger, but he wandered into a forest and was never seen again. My quest is to explore a temple of Katak, the Flame God, knowing that Damontir is already there. So I do get to have my revenge after all! Splendid! I start out wandering through the mud-splattered, fetid jungle, wearing full armour and probably dying of heat exhaustion. The Spanish wore cotton armour for a reason in Mexico and Peru. 

I stumble across a monkey being transfixed by a viper, and tempted as I am to let nature take its course, I leap into action against the viper. As a reward, the monkey - leaving his nuts alone for a moment - shows me a secret path through the jungle, getting me around some quicksand. He then decides to follow me into battle...this can only end badly. My new friend and I move on through the jungle, getting to the grave of a lost noble. Being a man of great honour, naturally I must have a look at what is inside. Success - there is loot! A sceptre and a pectoral. Both go into my backpack, and Monty heads back to civilization in order to retire to a life of luxury from his booty. No, wait, instead he heads off into the jungle, hacking his way into the undergrowth. 

And there it is...the Temple of Katak, lost for centuries to the jungle, and I have found it! I have discovered it! I alone… Wait a minute, there are two men-at-arms wandering around. Curses! Well, I suppose I can’t lurk in the shadows, ambush them, bury them and all their friends, then return to civilization and deny all knowledge while claiming the discovery for my own. Right? Turns out - surprise, surprise, they work for the evil Damontir. I charge them, while they shoot arrows at me. Because I am the greatest warrior on the planet, but my tactical brain...less good. Somewhat pincushioned, I dive in to attack! I kill one of them, but am almost killed in the process. The remainder races off into the undergrowth, preferring to risk jaguars and snakes than the nearly-dead greatest warrior ever. 

On the bodies I find a hipflask of gin and some gold...excellent! The gin might not heal me, but if I drink it all, I probably won’t care anymore. I stagger to the top of the temple, the monkey Minki on my tail, and find a sleeping sentry. Naturally, as a Knight, I can’t just murder him in his sleep - knocking him cold doesn’t occur to me, so I wake him up and fight him, hacking him to death while he struggles to wake up. Because that is honourable. Stealing his spear, I see an obvious way down - probably a trap - and it starts to rain. I suppose a dark and stormy night is in the offing. Avoiding the trap, I suddenly feel compelled to touch some mysterious glyphs. Somewhere, I think, the fat lady is doing her warm-ups. 

And she is right to do so, because I am then insta-killed by a trap. Without even making it into the damn temple. All that Damontir will know is that two of his guards ran off one night; he probably won’t even know why! Well, according to the rules I have set myself, my adventure ends there. I found this book very atmospheric, actually, and there is a good sense of wandering through an unexplored land. Though I didn't get anything like as far as I did in Crypt of the Vampire, I did get the sense that this was a deep book.

Generally speaking, I’m going to say that the standard of writing is a deal higher than in the normal Fighting Fantasy books - heresy, I know - but these books seem to be rather deadlier. Once again, I get insta-killed, and while last time I had a chance to avoid the trap, this time there was none. Not even a chance to use my amazing Agility score to duck out of the way, or something like that. Still...a good book. Recommended.

This book is available in print at Amazon US and Amazon UK.

Golden Dragon Gamebook #1: Crypt of the Vampire

Today I start my long-awaited look at the ‘Golden Dragon Fantasy Gamebook’ series, one of the many rivals to Fighting Fantasy that appeared during the ‘golden age’ of gamebooks in the 1980s; this one I missed out on at the time for some reason, but given the people involved, I think I can assume that I am in fairly safe hands; the two writers of this series were key in one of my favourite role-playing games, Dragon Warriors, as well as the Blood Sword gamebooks that I enjoyed (which are just coming back into print again, and are definitely on my to-buy list.) 

 One immediate impression I get as I open the book is that it looks very much like a Fighting Fantasy in style; were it not for the different logo I would be quite prepared to think this was one. I suspect that is no coincidence; indeed, at least one of these books was originally destined to be part of the Fighting Fantasy series before ending up in this alternate imprint. I’m reading the original version, I should clarify; these have been reissued recently. 

 First of all I roll my statistics - Vigour, Psi and Agility. I get to a good start with my Vigour, 30 out of a possible 32, which suggests I might survive for a while, but Psi is not so good - 5 out of a possible 9. Agility is worse at 4, again out of 9. Basically I appear to be a lumbering barbarian who struggles to get through doors, so as the book calls upon me to name my character, I opt for ‘Thodd the Barbarian’. Bonus points to anyone who gets the reference. Fortunately the combat rules suggest that I won’t need my dud scores to fight, so I might get somewhere… 

The adventure starts with my character wandering through a wood in the middle of the night, when I come across the entrance to Castle Dra…to a mysterious castle. I think personally I would just keep on going, but Thodd wants in, so I attempt to get in - only to find my first battle, against a Gatekeeper! I stomp him without too much trouble, and head into the grounds, where I see an Elf with a bow walking towards me. Talking fails, so I fight...again. Welcoming place, this. He actually does quite a bit of damage to me on his way down - despite suffering from ‘fever’. So far I have killed a sick man and a servant. I am a real hero. His fever, incidentally, was caused by two odd marks on his neck, and with his dying breath he asks me to deal with a ‘Dark Lord’ by midnight. This is not at all ominous. 

Heading for the entrance to the hall, I decide to throw three gold pieces into a pool, almost at random, and see a strange, evil face appear - I am forewarned, apparently, that my quest to kill a Dark Lord will involve fighting someone evil! Walking down a corridor, I steal the Dark Lord’s lantern so I don’t trip over his other victims, and enter his library. Thodd loves books; he finds them very absorbent, so he looks over the tomes. Pulling down the Encyclopedia Vampirica, he sits down at a chair to study it more closely. (‘V’ for Vampirella, no doubt. She probably has a centerfold.) The chair, of course, tries to eat him, but he gets up, noticing hidden creatures in the shadows. It’s still better than a Premier Inn. Going upstairs, I find some dusty bedrooms and an offered the choice to have a nap - but Thodd has bad people to smash and loot to find! 

Returning to the ground floor, there is a room with a crucifix that seems tempting. Probably a trap, but what the hell, smash goes the door. Inside is Brother Cadfael - sorry, Father Harkas - who gives me nourishing herb tea and a crucifix; I turn down the Potion of Iron Will. He also gives me a lantern, and I dutifully add it to my collection, swinging one in each hand. Looks kinda cool in the dark. The High Priest of Exposition gives me the story, of a fallen noble house gone to evil, and challenges me to deal with him. Which I was anyway; it’s a dull old night out here, and there’s nothing else to do. 

Off I go to the wine cellar, and stumble down to a door. Even Thodd has more sense than to taste the wine...yet. He’ll save it for the ‘I killed the Bad Guy’ party afterward. Inside are two silver candlesticks, which I promptly steal, and then am caught in the act by a witch, who tells me to get out. When I refuse, she summons a monkey, and after yelling, “Damn Dirty Ape”, Thodd runs off, fearful that Roddy McDowell will turn up at any minute. 

Further down the corridor lies an evil chapel, and once again, I wander inside, peeking around at the dark candlesticks, chalice of obviously-blood, and sinister sigils. There seems to be nothing of interest, so I wander off - evidently Thodd’s attention span is about that of the average goldfish. Now comes the gallery of evil; the first twelve Lords all looking pompous, the 13th looking like a Vampire. Perhaps he had it done at a Hammer Horror convention? On the ground is a dead skeleton clutching a glowing sword, and given that I am an adventurer, I must loot the corpse. Hell, it’s probably how he got the sword in the first place. Stepping through, there is another painting - and this one starts firing arrows at me! Fortunately, I have a spare lantern (and big points to the book for noting that possibility, by the way) so I throw one at the painting and burn it to a crisp. Take that, Mondrian! 

Venturing along a long, twisted corridor - and ignoring a door (was this book once longer, and that edited out, I wonder?) I find another door with a golden hand. This almost demands to be opened, so in I go, to see a man who wants to play chess with me. So that’s where Bobby Fischer ended up! Of course, there is more than first meets the eye; it turns out to be an invitation to step into the board and fight the Black Queen. Naturally, I win, but she really does me a lot of damage on the way; I’m down to only twelve points of Vigour. Fortunately, I get it all back and then some - and more smarts to boot! Thodd can have another try at those ‘Where’s Wally’ books when he gets home. I even get a White Bishop as a momento. 

Actually feeling fairly confident, I wander deeper into the dungeon, and find a chest to examine. Of course, it tries to kill me - well, a magic rope has a go that was resting on it. Fortunately the word to disarm it - Nesool - is on a scroll in the chest, so I only get hurt a little. There is a potion inside, and down the hatch it goes, healing me up. I’m quite far in now, and back on maximum health - all of this seems very promising. No doubt I am being set up for a huge fall. Dodging another trap, I find an oil-lamp, and stuff it in my backpack in the event I need to destroy more art. Instead, I use it to kill two lurking assassins...don’t know why I even wrote it down! 

Then I die under a pile of rubble. 

You get to see the Count. More than poor Thodd did.

Wow. Er...wow. That was sudden. I was really enjoying this one, actually - it had me hooked in classic Fighting Fantasy style, and I was going to say how fair this book seemed to be - plenty of chances to top up health. Then I get smashed by a Gygaxian insta-kill trap, which I had to throw four or less to save...and predictably, failed with a double-4. This book, I will say, is huge. For a book with only 290 paragraphs, it seems to have lots of twists and turns to it, and the dungeon has a heck of a lot of scope. Aside from my demise...I will recommend this one. An excellent start to the series, and I hope it bodes well for tomorrow’s book!

Buy it on Amazon US or Amazon UK.

New Cover

Public Service Reviews: Battle Beyond The Stars

This is Space Cowboy, from the Planet Earth. That is the character...and a line of dialogue from this movie.

Last night, I partook in a guilty pleasure; I watched the Roger Corman flick, Battle Beyond the Stars. I'm going to sneakily confess here that it's one of my favourite sci-fi movies, though that might well have something to do with the fact that it was one of the first ones I ever watched – I had it on video long before I had Star Wars, and watched it a darn sight more often. When the anniversary DVD appeared I snatched it up; it's a surprisingly feature-heavy collection, especially for a Corman movie. But then – it's a surprisingly good movie. 

Yes, it has characters called 'Space Cowboy', and the plot is a bit of a rip-off of the Magnificent Seven, but then...the Magnificent Seven was a bit of a rip-off of Seven Samurai, so there is plenty of precedent there. The cast list is...good. George Peppard, just pre- A-Team, Robert Vaughn, long-post UNCLE, essentially revisiting his role from the previous movie, and Richard Thomas manages to hang it together, even if there are few times where the director really should have asked for another take. And it is also a surprisingly deep one. 

Among the mercenaries that the lead hires are a hive consciousness, a pair of twins who communicate and fight with heat, a talking starship, and...a warrior Valkyrie played by Sibyl Danning. Maybe my argument isn't great here. There is no real established setting, but there is one that is implied, and it's rather different from the source material. In Magnificent Seven, civilization is creeping into the wild frontier, but here – it seems to have collapsed. Cities in ruins, warlords carving out power for themselves, no sign of any civilization at all. 

Let's not forget the effects. They spent almost enough money on them in this movie, and it shows. There are the occasional clunky shot, but the modelwork is good – supervised by James Cameron, of course – and it actually fits the movie. Today something would probably be slammed together with CGI, and it wouldn't work half as well. The soundtrack is by James Horner, and you can already hear the first signs of movies like Wrath of Khan and Krull. Literally. Try listening to his early soundtracks back to back sometime (Horner's pieces are among my favourite to write to) and you'll definitely see some similiarity. Heck, you could probably swap the soundtracks of Khan and Krull and it would still work. 

 There were a hell of a lot of Star Wars ripoffs created around this time, but this is one of the few that is actually watchable today, because it adds something extra to the mix, pushes ahead with a storyline that someone actually took some time over. Again, it shows. Where something like Starcrash could only really be watched as as parody, this movie can still be watched as a movie. Recommended.

Coming Out of Hiding...

Well, it's about a month since I last posted anything here on the blog; moving house has taken all of my time for...well, longer than that, really, but the last four weeks were really manic while I found a place, moved everything, built new furniture (lots of bookcases, mostly...) and got everything set up. There are still a few tweaks to do, but I think everything is just about done now, so I can start thinking about getting back to work. By which I mean that I am absolutely aching to get started and am raring to go, but I'm giving myself another week to get over all of the madness before I seriously begin to write again.

Next on the list is Alamo 8: Stars in the Sand, which follows on directly from Sacred Honor with Alamo returning to Hydra Station. I'm not going to give any spoilers, but I've got the plot basically worked out, and you can expect to see it sometime towards the end of September. There have been a lot of requests for another Spitfire Station book, and that was always in the pipe – so that one comes next, scheduled for the end of October. This one is provisionally titled 'Ghost Ship', and will stay that way unless I can think of something better. Then – Alamo 9: The First Duty, for November, so you can expect to see three more Alamo-verse novels this year. Eagle Squadron: Not In My Name will probably follow in January.

The first half of the year was positively manic; every month seemed to throw something new at me to leech away my time, but it looks as though with the move most of that is probably receding into the distance and I can concentrate fully on the work – which means you can expect to see this blog getting a lot more active in the days and weeks to come. Ideally, I would like to make a post every day, though whether I will attain this goal remains to be seen. I know that I will be doing more gamebook runthroughs; the ones I did of the Sorcery! series were liked, and I definitely want to do more. I've picked up the six 'Golden Dragon' gamebooks, and I think I will run through those next, and there are quite a few on my shelf that are positively begging to be enjoyed. I'd like to do a lot more with this blog than I have been, and I think that now I should have the opportunity to do so.