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Post by MikeH on Jul 11, 2006 0:47:57 GMT
Bit of a negative one this, but I'm interested to hear thoughts on the first LW series, with the style, characters and places still being established, and the series approaching a time of burgeoning popularity. So, of this undoubtedly excellent series of 5 books, which do you think the weakest?
For my money, Chasm of Doom stands out as disappointing. There's none of the sense of exploration of particularly the 1st and 3rd books, the wonderful set-pieces like the coach trip in the 2nd, or the exotic location of the 5th. The evil characters are dull in comparison to most others, with Barraka especially poorly-drawn and forgettable. I find the Ruanon battle scenes a little boring, and the book ends fairly abruptly with an overriding sense of anticlimax. As a gamebook compared to the many others available in other series it's adequate, but compared to the LW titles around it, it's disappointing.
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Post by Black Cat on Jul 11, 2006 1:47:15 GMT
I already gave my answer in this thread. Incidently, there's also polls for the other series.
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Post by MikeH on Jul 11, 2006 3:38:27 GMT
The other poll was for favourite book wasn't it, whereas this is for the reverse? Plus the previous was a couple of years ago. Maybe it is retreading old ground, but I was genuinely interested.
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Post by Black Cat on Jul 11, 2006 4:04:12 GMT
Oh, it's about the weakest book? I didn't read the question at all and simply assumed that you were doing another "which book was the best" thread when I saw the name of each book in the poll. My mistake...
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Post by Al on Jul 11, 2006 8:18:54 GMT
I agree that COD was the weakest, although that is like saying what do you dislike the least when you like all of them! al
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Post by outspaced on Jul 11, 2006 9:05:41 GMT
Fire on the Water is just too linear. personally, I find The Chasm of Doom to be the best of the first five. Lots of memorable encounters (the Famous Asajir Players, exploring the mines, the Battle of Ruanon, the confrontation with Barraka), multiple routes to Ruanon, evocative writing (certainly superior to the novelisation The Sacrifice of Ruanon) and it was the first Lone Wolf book I ever bought. Happy memories . . .
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Post by Wolfus on Jul 11, 2006 14:15:24 GMT
There is no weak or weakest book in Kai series...
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Post by Zipp on Jul 11, 2006 19:01:17 GMT
I disagree with Outspaced in that Chasm was the best. I think Shadow on the Sand is the best of the first series. But I do agree about Fire on the Water. While the story is dynamic, it is very linear and introduces the Sommerswerd as a collectible special item. And, from a difficulty standpoint, the Sommerswerd is the bane of the Lone Wolf series.
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Post by Black Cat on Jul 11, 2006 22:26:16 GMT
The worst for me is Caverns of Kalte... A little bit too much like dungeon crawling once you are in the caves...
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Post by dreadmack on Jul 11, 2006 22:30:49 GMT
I liked the entire first 5 books, though I feel they improved with each new addition. Chasms of Doom was actually a favorite of mine (it and Caverns of Kalte were the first LW books I ever found and purchased). I just enjoyed the storyline, and somehow it seemed like an exciting "branching out", after the first three books - to me Flight through to Kalte are almost a mini-trilogy centered around Vonotar and his betrayal.
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Post by HuntingWolf on Jul 12, 2006 12:48:48 GMT
Caverns of Kalte was a tad boring.... Who wants to freeze their balls off on a freakin' no-man's land like Kalte? Ok, sure, Vonotar went there to hide, but crap man! I'm SURE that the Darklords were lookin' for him too! Loy-Kymer woulda been slaughtered, but that's a price I'm willing to pay even though he seemed nice enough. Haha.
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Post by Thomas Wolmer on Jul 12, 2006 20:03:48 GMT
I'm with outspaced... FotW is just way too linear, and the part I like best, regaining the Sigil after being robbed and then exploring some of Ragadorn, is only reached on a non-optimal path (it's better not to get robbed). TCoD on the other hand is one of my fave LW books ever (although SotS ranks even higher) - I like the many "tempo changes".
Second non-favourite is TCoK - there's something about the icy climate that makes it feel so cumbersome... but unlike FotW it's still a book I look forward to replaying whenever I get the get the idea to play through the whole series.
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Post by Runeheart on Jul 13, 2006 13:39:09 GMT
Said it once, said a dozen times. Book 4 is the best of the first five, only because it shows LW developing from an errand boy to a leader of men (I know everyone is entitled to an opinion, but anyone who chooses Book 4, I will have an issue with, and you wont be my friend anymore...you've been warned Al, I like you but I just can't bring myself to forgive you...) but I do take on board that Barraka is probably the most disappointing of boss battles (any plans to improve this, Zipp?). Book 5 has the best pacing and is the most exciting ( with the best chase sequence ever!!) of any gamebook I've read.In fact sometimes I grab that book and just read the chase sequence trying to find as many encounters as possible.
For me Book 3 was the weakest, the story didn't really gel for me, but I don't like trudging through snow much either...although my favorite item is in this book (no guesses...) and you can also find more potions in this book then any other (more then 6).
but Book 2 is the worst for replayability, it is way too linear, the storyline is good it was the path through the book that bought it down, if Joe ever felt like rewriting any books that would be at the top of my list of all of them (if he ever needed a hand, please ask...)
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Post by HuntingWolf on Jul 13, 2006 18:20:10 GMT
I'm betting that in the very last book, Ulnar will somehow or another lose his life, and Lone Wolf will be King of Sommerland.
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Post by amarande on Jul 14, 2006 17:18:42 GMT
I'm going to have to say the weakest book was Flight from the Dark.
Yeah, it's how a lot of us got started (though personally the first LW book I got was Shadow on the Sand, and I actually started getting the Magnakai series before I got the rest of the Kai series - FWIW, the order I got my books was something like, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 1, 2, 10, 11, 3, 4, 12, 15*, 20, 13, 14, 18, 17*, 19*, 21, 23, 27, 24, 25, 26, 28, 16 ... a pretty weird order. The * books being the sadly abridged ones, though it seems that 15, 17, and 19 were probably the least butchered of these ...).
But it's ... well, just good, rather than really great like the other books in the series. It's sparse, and often provides comparatively little story within the adventure - it doesn't have the descriptive richness of the other "travel" LWs like The Kingdoms of Terror or Dawn of the Dragons or even Fire on the Water. It seems somewhat more like a Fighting Fantasy adventure, though without the insane difficulty usually associated with that series.
Naturally, FFTD was also Joe's first effort, so that explains why it wouldn't be as good as the future books, but still ... I generally enjoy the rest of the Kai series better. Too often FFTD felt like moving a token on a map (especially if you go through the part of the book with sections 42/86/etc.) - again, it just really didn't seem to have enough "meat" to it.
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