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Post by kolinovic on Jan 12, 2011 11:10:52 GMT
I was reading something recently which reminded me of the "Indiana Jones" feeling to Shadow on the Sand, and it got me thinking about which is everyone's favourite LW book.
This has been done to death before, but I figured that, if we broke it down by series, and then had a play-off between the best of each series we'd figure out the Forum's favourite.
I'm looking at it from two perspectives - the first play-through, and the considered view after exploring them in depth.
For me, Fire on the Water was probably my favourite on the first play through. I loved the story, the constant sense of danger, and the fantastic finish to it. Obviously, the subsequently realisation that it's a railroad took a bit away from it though.
Shadow on the Sand would be my standout book of the Kai series. The descriptions are really vivid, you can almost feel the heat and smell the spices in Barrakeesh; the chase around the city and into the palace is fantastic; then the race for the Book of the Magnakai is great too.
Honourable mentions to the Chasm of Doom, which has a great story, and some epic battles. The Caverns of Kalte feels like it lacks a structure up until you actually meet Vonotar, which detracts somewhat from my enjoyment of it. Flight from the Dark, and indeed its rewrite, remains one of my least favourite of the whole series.
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Post by askhati on Jan 12, 2011 11:23:45 GMT
What kolinovic said - SotS has some of my favourite scenes of the series in.
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Post by huanchoo on Jan 12, 2011 12:48:36 GMT
Well, for me it is definitely Shadow on the Sand. I don't think I've enjoyed another book later in the series (Magnakai & GM) that can beat SotS.
For one, the book is unique. It has 400 sections divided into two parts. Part 1 describes your escape from the guards & Part 2 describes your hunt for the Book of the Magnakai. It also gives you a sense of foreboding when you find out that your supposed ally is a friend of a Darklord, & also the climactic battle for your life with Haakon.
This book also heralds the return of your old friend Banedon (since Flight from the Dark) & what's more, the Skyrider!!
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Post by bittermind on Jan 12, 2011 14:33:53 GMT
My vote goes with Flight From the Dark. There's an element of pure nostalgia here - it was the first Lone Wolf book I ever played; the tone of it was utterly different - and far more desperate - than those of the Fighting Fantasy books I'd played at that time. There was a real story to it; I liked that. And, man, I really put some thought into choosing the right disciplines ("Wow, I just glimpsed that you can use Sixth Sense in Paragraph 1! I better pick that...").
Don't forget you only get 5 disciplines in FFtD; the fun's gone from that side of it completely by the time Shadow on the Sand comes around, and you get 9 to play with. ("Which DON'T I want...? Mind Over Matter... Animal Kinship... Mind Over Matter... Animal Kinship...?")
Factors that came out in the replays / factors that appeal to grown-up me: it's utterly, utterly non-linear. Nearly 20 years later, I still get lost if I wander away from Banedon and the Giak war party.
And - a big point in the book's favour - no smegging Sommerswerd! You remember when you had to scrabble around looking for that one weapon you were actually skilled in? Remember when it didn't take a superpowered Zakhan to make a fight difficult? Those were fun times. Strange how I always tended to pick an '8' for my Weaponskill - I was big into Quarterstaves then (back before I knew about the buzzkill that was coming up in the next book...).
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Post by Honza on Jan 12, 2011 14:48:35 GMT
I too vote for Flight from the Dark. This was first LW book and also first gamebook at all I've played. Bittermind is right, it is non linear and has a feeling of a weak, inexperienced runner instead of an almighty hero with flaming sword.
In addition, that time, current LW books were sold out, and this was reedition of book 1, then there came books 4, 5, 6 and 7 and only after that books 2 and 3 were re-released. I wondered for a long time, what "Sommerswerd" or "Kalte Firesphere" could be.
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Post by Black Cat on Jan 12, 2011 18:48:27 GMT
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Post by joe101 on Jan 15, 2011 16:51:50 GMT
The throne begins to revolve. A terrible howling fills your ears, changing almost instantaneously to the growling of a harsh guttural language, the like of which you have never heard before. Words and sounds that the mouths of men could never be shaped to speak roll through the chamber like thunder. It is the dark tongue, spoken by Haakon, Lord of Aarnak, Darklord of Helgedad.
Along with the rest of the book being awesome, this paragraph alone is the reason why SotS is my favorite in this poll.
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Post by beowuuf on Jan 15, 2011 17:37:21 GMT
It's very cinematic, isn't it. You can just see and hear it perfectly, and even feel the pacing of it as you read. A great moment.
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koreth
Kai Lord
The Cener Druids rule all. Accept it.
Posts: 110
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Post by koreth on Jan 16, 2011 4:08:56 GMT
Shadow on the Sand is my favorite, with Flight from the Dark a close second.
The balance of political intrigue, sudden plot twists, and reappearance of Banedon from Book 1 really worked well. In my youth, I never gave much thought to what would happen after LW had 10 Kai Disciplines, but finding out about the Magnakai skillls was a revelation. It was an exciting book at each turn. It really worked well for me.
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Post by luposolitario on Jan 16, 2011 14:47:14 GMT
It's Caverns of Kalte for me, without a doubt. There's no other gamebook that so strongly delivers the sensations of a hostile artic world, where the very environment is your worst enemy. The sun reflecting on the ice can render you temporarily blind; the ice can crack beneath your feet, swallowing your equipment and your companions; you must stay awake all night to prevent the strong wind from sweeping your tent away, and in the morning you have ice in your clothes; you can kill a wild beast and use its body fat to keep you warm. There's creatures the like of which you'll never find in other regions of Magnamund. Ikaya is an ancient fortress, full of mysteries and forgotten rooms and corridors, haunted by otherwordly monsters.
The atmosphere alone makes this book the best for me, but from a gameplay standpoint, it's one of the best in the series. You can get to Vonotar through so many different routes, and in practically every situation you have at least two different options, starting with the choice of paths in Section 1. Battles are few but though, and there's many items to pick up. And when you meet Loi-Kymar, the story picks up as well, making for one of the best climaxes in the series when you get face-to-face with Vonotar.
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Post by pi4t on Jan 16, 2011 22:21:28 GMT
FFTD is my favourite of the lot. In addition to the things Bittermind and Honza said, all of which I agree with (excepting the quarterstaffs comment: I picked the broadsword, and got a pleasant surprise in the next book), the writing style is so different. I'm a fairly new reader of LW, and can still feel the excitement I felt when I clicked 'next' and reached the disciplines section of book 1! Book 2 feels a lot more epic, as if LW is participating in something more important than he can imagine, as he is, and the writing changes to suit this. It continues going in this direction during the rest of the books.
I happen to prefer the other method. It gives a refreshing change from the FF books, for a start! Thus, FFTD is my favourite book in the entire LW series. So once I finish it, I know it'll only get worse... I envy you, you SOTS people.
As a side note, the first time I played, I decided immediately that I'd have sixth sense, then forgot to mark it on my sheet! I then filled it up with other disciplines (hunting, tracking, mindblast, weaponskill and healing, as I recall), but didn't doubt that sixth sense was on there somewhere. I went right through 2 books (picking mindshield at the start of book 2) before I noticed that I only had 3 disciplines left to choose from!
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Post by torben on Jan 17, 2011 6:25:12 GMT
For me it is FFTD, too. If for nothing else, then just for hooking me up with LW: When I still was a teen I first came across FF, and was deeply intrigued by them. Then I found LW and was hooked immediately, because it was just "better stuff", and FFTD was and is quintessential of what made LW superior to FF for me back then (and partly still does today): 1. More forgiving to play: Many if not most FF books require you to find out one and only one correct path, and often even then you need supermaxed stats to have a chance of winning. FFTD allowed you dozens of possible paths to victory, and many of them could be completed with mediocre or poor stats. Needless to say, LW sadly went downhill in that area with later books, until it was as much a chore from a gameplay perspective as FF. 2. A coherent and credible world When I first read LW I was actually presented with a map and a backstory, while the early FF books I read did not have that and often felt out sync, e.g. each time you have to defeat a super-evil wizard that threatens the world but has never been mentioned in any other book before. Also, though JD introduced quite a lot of creatures in FFTD, they reappeared constantly and in that actually gave you the impression of a credible world - the average FF book let you wander a town or dungeon without ever encountering the same creature twice, making you wonder how so many species could have lived in sustainable populations in such constraint spaces. From another perspective, this is also a reason why I like the early LW books more, because in the later books the creatures and the setting became weirder and weirder, and you also start encountering super-powerful wizards that you had never heard of before (well, almost never). 3. Epicness When I was younger, I did really like the epic stories of good vs. evil in fantasy, and LW of course was exactly that. I also liked being the savior in that story, probably result of some teenage angst I nurtured at that time. As I grew up, however, my worldview became more complex, and today I perceive such “epic” stories as bland – someone being evil because he is evil is no longer a credible characterization for me. I also lost of my appreciation of great heroes, nowadays I feel it easier to connect with more average characters. However, exactly that elevates FFTD above the later LW books for me, because even though there was a huge conflict taking place, in FFTD you were just one lone survivor on the run with a message to deliver, not the almighty God-killing super-awesome Uberfighter with the sword from the gods. The Drakkarim were enemy warriors instead of a different species altogether inherently different and incapable of redemption, the Dark Lords were evil overlords instead of just some pawns in an increasingly incredible array of evil overpawns brought forth by the "true evil overoverlord" in a weird cosmic conflict, the Cener druids were a mysterious cult instead of just another gang of said pawns, and so forth. 4. Price Back then in Germany, LW was paperback and cost about half of the price of a FF book, which were hardcover. That does not matter much to me now anymore, though… So, in total, I vote for FFTD, even though its prose is rather bland compared to the later books, but it still wins out for me on account of most freedom to explore, balance (no SS here!), and a setting where LW is still a mediocre Kai apprentice on the run.
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Post by ramthelinefeed on Jan 23, 2011 19:50:07 GMT
I will always have a soft-spot for Flight From the Dark - from the minute I picked it up, in 1984, it seemed hugely more atmospheric than the 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books. Gary Chalk's illustrations were as much a part of that as the text - he had such an individual style. Those little kararmi eyes peering out from behind a log, or a drakkar with his death mask, giaks, kraan, a vordak - brillant. And as others have said above, it's marvellously non-linear, great choice of possible routes, good gameplay.
However my vote goes to Caverns of Kalte - "great variety of routes and special items, and I really felt that ice!" (as I once wrote in a Lone Wolf Club Newsletter poll lol) The way Dever bring the arctic environment into the story and gameplay is very well done. I loved the advernture side of it too - struggling not to lose your guides, and then falling into the Caverns and sneaking into Ikaya via the basement - brilliant.
Fire on the Water lets itself down a bit due to linear gameplay, and I never found Chasm of Doom quite so atmospheric in its scenario. Part II of Shadow on the Sand can be very predictable to play through, although Part I in great.
I still like them all, to be honest.... the only book in the whole series that pisses me off is Prisoners of Time: boring linear gameplay and ridiculously hard combats!
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Post by Muarikh al Ahdath on Jan 27, 2011 4:15:45 GMT
I will go a bit of a different route here and vote for Chasm of Doom. In my opinion this is the book where Lone Wolf came into his own. Not only was he more than a match for just about everyone in single combat, he was also respected enough to rally troops to repel a frontal assault on the battlefield. He just seemed to ooze confidence to me. I also thought this book had the first really cool "boss" fight. Add in the lure of putting the Dagger of Vashna into my special item list and I was sold! I certainly can see the validity of all the other votes too though as this was a special series of books.
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Post by beowuuf on Jan 27, 2011 8:31:42 GMT
I like that all the Kai books have a different feel. I cam to Chasm of doom later (I think it was one of the last books I acquired) but I really enjoy it. If some of the books are great gamebooks, and some of the books are very cinematic, this one a very good story. The beats - more than many other books - feel very natural. The investigation, action scenes, large battle scenes, and confrontation at the end feel very well paced and plotted. Still would throw up Fire in the Water. I don't care if it's the most linear, I don't care if people quibble over some of the rules and rulings, it is just epic in feel. It is an epic tale condensed into a gamebook, or a grand film. I ca just imagine beat for beat the Sommerswerd destroying zagarna, and it feels as big as LOTR.
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