The Floating City

 THE FLOATING CITY

Ruth Pracy

Reviewed by Mark Lain

Warlock #8 offered this short FF submitted by reader Ruth Pracy which forms the first part of a trilogy that would continue in The Land Of Changes and end with In Search Of The Lost Land. From the outset there is a feeling that this effort is rather more mystical and almost ethereal compared to the more conventional short subjects that preceded it, but there is also an air of pretension and, in places, an awkwardly slapdash construction to it as well.

The opening spiel comes across as almost pompous in tone. Whether this is to create the feeling of other-worldliness or is just an example of archly up-its-own-arse writing is hard to say, but the latter tends to overshadow the former somewhat. Your character is presented as an opportunistic drifter who happens across an incident where the story of a kidnapped Dwarf is related to you and you see this as a chance to reap the reward that the Dwarf’s master (Lord Karon) will no doubt be offering for saving him. Lord Karon lives in the fabled Floating City of the title, which lies to the north in the Winterworld Mountains and your mission involves trekking across the frozen wastes of Winter and finding your way into the city to save the day (although there is a twist at the end which you might have already been told about if you've met the NPC who gives it away in the name of advice.)

The nature of the setting here is very interesting and the overall world where this and its two sequels take place is probably these three adventures’ most inventive feature, a world which has no seasons, instead having lands of perpetual Winter and Summer, with an inter-connecting area that variously shifts between Spring and Autumn (the Land Of Changes of the second adventure.) This first part is set in Winter so involves an icy wasteland, inhabited by typically tundra-dwelling creatures and full of the perils associated with these environments (ie glaciers, ice flows, and snow.) I really like ice-based FFs as there is a real atmosphere of peril to be felt in them, you don’t meet the usual fantasy fare of Goblins, Orcs, Elves, etc in this type of adventure, and ice FFs are few and far between.

One of the key features of Warlock mini-FFs is the unique encounters and there are several to be seen in TFC including the Tornaq (an aggressive one-eyed female spirit that lives in rocks), the Quiquern (a six-legged toothless dog that can apparently suck you to death, but never does), and the warped concept of the Radical Regenerative (a mutant humanoid that keeps growing extra appendages all the time and can have a Stamina of 20 unless you find its weak-spot and use a harpoon against it which, for some reason, is the only weapon that can really hurt it.) Throughout Ruth Pracy’s adventures it becomes apparent that she is rather fond of warped creature imagery, unpronounceable naming conventions, and bizarre and inexplicable strengths/weaknesses in creatures. Indeed, there is also some otherwise unheard-of news that Yeti cubs have poisonous bites which, whilst adding an extra danger element along the way, doesn’t mesh with any other FF Yeti that I’ve ever met (and there’s no mention of it in Out Of The Pit either) so this sits awkwardly with me in the context of FF world continuity.

The mission itself is a mixed-bag. On the one hand, it can be quite tough to negotiate and there are several key items that you need, but multiple playthroughs will eventually show that there are (as far as I can tell) three distinct true paths, none of which are mutually compatible with each other. This can both add re-playability and add to the confusion as you try to link-up the map of the game and realise that certain combinations of essential items are not possible to find on the same route (for example, you cannot get both the Angekok’s amulet AND a red feather), meaning it could take some persistence to beat this game, unless you happen to stumble across one of the correct routes quite quickly, or the unusual atmosphere and icy setting make you curious enough to want to see everything there is to see. And this is a big problem with this adventure as, to be honest, other than avoiding traps and using cunning/the correct items at two or three pivotal “test” moments, there isn’t all that much to it and the safest of the three true paths is quite short and fairly uneventful. If you have decent enough stats you can flesh things out by taking a more hazardous route which rewards you with more to see and do, but you will have to deal with at least two very tough combats so whether you will survive remains to be seen. That said, you do have two doses of Potion from the start so you have a reasonable hope of survival even if you do take the dangerous option(s), notwithstanding a potential Skill penalty of -3 if you antagonise some Ice Sprites and they shatter your sword to smithereens.

This Skill penalty highlights a frustrating feature of this and, in fact, all of RP’s adventures, in that they are plagued by textual inconsistencies to the point where they seem quite carelessly put together which is at odds with their conceptual depth in the sense of the area they are set and the sense of awe and almost fairy tale fantasy styles and ideas that they contain:

• ·         The aforementioned Skill penalty is offset when you find a spear (which you can only take if you’ve lost your sword – a nice “worthiness” touch) which adds 1 to your Initial Skill but ignores the fact that you have lost 3 Skill already and is therefore purposeless unless you use a Potion Of Skill to restore this stat
• ·         The introduction gives you 5 Provisions and says that these can only be used when the text specifically tells you that you can use them. Annoyingly, I cannot find any section that actually lets you do this, so these are also completely useless to you
• ·         There are numerous typos, punctuation errors, and incorrect paragraph links – typos and dodgy grammar are an irritant that can be over-looked, but bad section links can ruin a game completely
• ·         As is often the case with FFs, there are continuity problems where the text will decide you’ve done something you might not have, or requires you to use something you can’t possibly have if you’ve got to where you are at the time, which is just shoddy

The biggest issue by far with RP’s adventures is that they are fundamentally too short, being padded out with ultimately pointless diversions that have no bearing on the true path(s), and containing far too many episodes that are cut down into multiple paragraphs that can only lead into each other as you are told to “Turn to A”, then “Turn to B”, etc, ad nauseum. This adventure could easily have been cut down to 100 paragraphs and still have been the same actual game, minus all the padding.

On the other hand, a very neat calling-card in Pracy adventures is the multiple endings, only one of which is an actual “win” outcome, where you can survive via various sorts of semi-victories, but not the optimum one that actually constitutes winning. Becoming King or just getting out mean you have survived, but you haven’t achieved the intended objective and the text makes you feel that you are settling for the consolation prize when, choosing another option at key moments, could have led to victory. I like this idea as it is nice to not just fail by dying in adventures all the time but to, instead, experience an anti-climax which leaves you alive and almost certainly encourages you to try again in a bid to get a better result next time around.

Pracy’s writing style can be, as we have mentioned, at times atmospheric and almost dream-like, yet also has moments of pretension and even off-handedness (eg: “You are in trouble”) which gives an awkward feeling of prosaic inconsistency. In places, Pracy really wants you to “feel” her world, whilst in others it seems that she can hardly be bothered to finish a cameo off properly at all.

The accompanying art here is by Pete Martin and makes for very full and detailed fantasy art (the Floating City itself is especially fairy tale in appearance), but, for the most part, has very little “ici-ness” to it and several images have out of context backgrounds (especially the Radical Regenerative and the arty Yeti montage thing.) Also, the massive picture of the Sedna gives away her secret as the shadow of an old crone is seen in her shroud which hardly makes the great identity reveal moment much of a surprise when/if it comes. Equally, the incidental art contains far too many clues as to what the key items you need for success might be and, whilst on initial playing you will not pick up on this, once you start to build up the game map you will realise what these images are of and the fact that these are the key items you will need to find to win. This adventure came in the period when Warlock had stopped directly linking its cover art to its featured mini-FF so Chris Achilleos’ cover image of what I assume is a Werewolf is nice and atmospheric but has no actual direct bearing on this adventure in any way. I am inclined to think that the full page picture of The Floating City itself that comes immediately before paragraph 1 is probably meant to be the “cover” and it definitely has a sense of awe to it, even if it does take away the big pay-off of seeing/reading the description of the city when you finally reach it.

I am in two minds about this offering. It is unusual in that it borders on fairy tale/Camelot/Inuit legend motifs and there is a nicely weird ethereal atmosphere in parts. The icy setting is not really used to full advantage but is functional enough to feel right, but its relative brevity (if we see through all the unnecessary padding material/section links), annoying plot inconsistencies, and even more annoying stylistic inconsistency tend to make it all feel like a bit of a let-down given the intriguing and original overall world where this and its sequels take place. The multiple true paths and numerous alternate “lose but don’t lose as such” endings add re-playability, but overall this is a missed opportunity. Perhaps if all three adventures in this cycle had been joined together into one book (which would remove the need for excessive padding-out) it would have been more satisfying, but far more proof-reading and play testing would be needed to remove the over-riding feeling that this is basically a bit of a mess.

Dungeon Of Justice

DUNGEON OF JUSTICE

Jonathan Ford

Reviewed by Mark Lain

Following the publication of Warlock magazine’s “Write a short FF” competition winner (The Dervish Stone) in Warlock Issue 4, its runner-up, Dungeon Of Justice, was printed in Issue 5. Whilst TDS was a town/desert effort, DOJ is a more traditional dungeon trawl (unsurprisingly, given its title) that has as many if not, in fact, more merits than the submission that actually won.

The premise is an unusual one for FF, even if it has been used umpteen times for Sci-Fi movies, in that YOU are wrongly accused of murdering an Elven Chief and must undertake a trial by ordeal to determine your innocence or guilt in the aggrieved Elves’ eyes. YOU must enter the titular Dungeon Of Justice, hunt around for a gold idol, then reach the exit in one piece. Get there with the idol and you are judged to be innocent as only the truly virtuous would be able to find the idol, but arrive without it and you are toast as you are clearly guilty (according to their legal system, at least.) Pretty interesting idea as, for once, you are not glory/treasure hunting or saving the world from the latest in a series of homicidal maniacs. Considering that the competition winner did involve treasure hunting, you’d have thought DOJ would have edged it in terms of originality, but obviously not... As this is an early FF the basic rules are used, but with the common Warlock variant of having only five Provisions and carrying two rather than one dose of your chosen Potion. Plus, the Adventure Sheet seems to be green for some reason.

Considering that this is a 200 paragraph effort, an incredible amount of material is crammed into the reduced number of sections and the dungeon is actually very large when mapped. There are a myriad of different directions you can go in, some longer than others, some criss-crossing into others, and some heading off into more exclusive areas, so replay options are many, especially if you want to see everything, and it’s worth the effort doing so regardless of whether you have already beaten it as there is a lot of imagination on show here. It is probably fair to say that Ian Livingstone’s first Trial Of Champions foray in FF #6 Deathtrap Dungeon is the benchmark by which all FF dungeons should be measured given the sheer variety of physical traps, mental challenges, combats, item-seeking, rival players, etc, but Dungeon Of Justice holds up pretty well considering it is a fan-written effort and is half the length in section terms.

Firstly, this dungeon is pretty dangerous and there are some very entertaining ways to die - slipping into a furnace, falling into a bottomless pit, getting eaten by baby birds, falling foul of (ahem) “false idols”, etc and this is another example of a FF where it’s worth dying just to read the lengthy descriptions of your own demise! Secondly, some encounters are unique and can only be seen in this adventure - the Xlaia (a two-headed rabid dog with solid gold claws) and the unusually weak and undignified (for Dragons) Mud Dragons are interesting, but my favourite is a moment where you have to fight your own reflection which exactly duplicates your stats bar a -1 Stamina penalty that it suffers due to the effort involved in changing from 2D to 3D (very inventive justification.) Along the way you can run into other individuals who are also being judged (with the mixed results that would be expected in terms of helpfulness or otherwise) and this adds colour to the idea that this form of justice is common practise and that “participants” can spend years roaming around the twisting and turning corridors trying to find a) the idol and b) the way out. An interesting point to note on this is the way certain areas will send you to other parts of the dungeon that do not map out logically – is this intentional to create a maze effect and disorientate you the more you wander around aimlessly or are there bugs in the text that just send you to the wrong paragraph? It would be easy to write this off as the latter option but there is a possibility that this is intentional design as it adds depth to the whole concept of finding people who have been stuck in there for years. We all know FFs are notorious for wrongly inter-connecting sections, but it seems to fit in this case and this adventure seems too well-rendered for there to be such glaring continuity errors.

A welcome inclusion is several red herrings (and the opening spiel does warn about these) including a seemingly essential three-part door combination, a gold key, and an illusory version of the gold idol. It is nice to see such obviously useful finds turning out to not be the sole answers to life and death and, whilst there are some essential items, the shopping list for the true path is thankfully not all that long. However, actually finding the gold idol really is very difficult - I mapped the whole dungeon and still hadn’t found it, leaving me to have to resort to reading each paragraph in turn, then tracing the section links back to a point that I’d located previously - even if the route to it is rather convoluted: you need to throw yourself (probably quite counter-intuitively) into a river, then FAIL a Skill test, and finally PASS a Luck test to get washed up at the point where the idol is hidden. This presents an interesting situation in that this adventure partially meets the usually wildly inaccurate claim that you can win an adventure even with rock-bottom stats. A high Skill is of very little use as you will struggle to fail the essential Skill test in the river, plus most combats are fairly easy and a lot of them can be avoided completely. There are a lot of Stamina penalties (mostly for stupid acts like throwing yourself down things) but these are semi-avoidable with a couple of key items (the Cloak Of Levitation is particularly important) and some common sense. Luck tests are common so a high Luck is handy, but with two possible Potions Of Fortune, plus a chance find that stops your Luck ever dropping below six, you could probably get through on nowse and learning from several previous failed attempts alone, even if you have crap stats.

The handling of the idol discovery itself seems oddly dismissive. Finding either of the handy keys (gold or iron), the door combination or, in particular, a (useless) big ruby, is met with a verbal fanfare, but the idol is mentioned in its paragraph in an off-hand way and you could be forgiven for skimming over it and not even realising what you have found. You don’t even get a Luck bonus for finding the idol. This is something of an anti-climax, especially when you’ve narrowly-avoided drowning to get to where it’s hidden, but it could suggest that, as you know you are innocent, finding it is inevitable (maybe?)

The sheer scale of this dungeon makes finding the true path a tough task (although you can take a few different routes as long as you hit the key sections on the way) and 14 of the 200 sections of this adventure are instant deaths which seems high but dungeons are always especially difficult to negotiate so this suits the genre and is acceptable. Any less deadly moments and this would have been too easy as a) this is a dungeon, and b) this is intended to kill all but those with genuinely clear consciences, so it makes sense at least.

For a non-professional FF, this is very well written with long descriptive paragraphs that set the scene atmospherically. If there were a criticism of the prose it would be that your character seems a little arrogant at times, especially in the final (victory) section where you just shrug your shoulders and wander off in search of treasure again. Are you like this because you know you are innocent so never had anything to worry about? Is this bravado to show the Elves that you are not phased by their deadly trial? Or, has the writer assumed that, as you’ve won, you don’t want to be bogged down in descriptions of your relief as you gush with positive emotion? Whatever the explanation, almost all of this adventure does feel like an oppressive and unfair ordeal that you are unlikely to survive so it works for me in that the context and approach mesh nicely.

Alignment of image to paragraph text in Warlock’s A4 format is always a problem with these mini-FFs but in this case (barring the full page images) the pictures have been put next to the corresponding descriptions to give you an idea of what you are looking at. The art is by Bob Harvey whose work I do not like generally, but his pictures here are not as stylised as usual and, discounting his ridiculously pygmy-ish Elves, are passable. Warlock often matched the colour cover art to the featured mini-FF and for Issue 5 the Mud Dragon graces the cover which is atypically subdued and very dark and murky. As a cover this is too understated for my tastes, but it does accurately reflect the dark cavern that the Mud Dragons live in, plus these are a very unique species that we might not normally be able to visualise so it works as a cover for the adventure better than it does as a magazine front.

For me this adventure is better than the one that it came second to in the competition. Both make very effective use of the shortened length and fit a large amount of material in, but DOJ seems more logical, is more challenging, has more to discover and, most pertinently, is a million times more original as no mention of Harrison Ford or George Lucas was needed in this review! A good effort in spite of its weak title that makes it sound like a cheap S&M porn movie.

The Dervish Stone

THE DERVISH STONE

Paul Struth

Reviewed by Mark Lain

Issue 1 of Warlock magazine ran a competition where readers were asked to submit a 200 paragraph FF adventure using the basic rules from The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain, the prize for the lucky winner being £100 cash (quite a lot in 1984) and the publication of their adventure in the magazine. The winner was this submission by Paul Struth which would be the featured mini-adventure in Warlock number 4 and, in spite of some glaring plagiarism from the George Lucas back catalogue, it’s actually quite a decent way to pass an hour or so.

The premise itself is simple in the spirit of WOFM’s mercenary treasure hunting vein. A dervish called Shanhara once found a massive diamond and hid it in a secret, booby-trapped location that everyone then forgot how to find. YOU have stumbled across a parchment instructing you to go and find the diamond and YOU cannot resist, so off YOU go. The trip itself begins in yet another typical Titan town with the usual inn, chance to buy stuff, etc, followed by the bulk being a trek across the Twin Suns Desert to locate and negotiate the cave where the diamond is hidden.

The idea of a desert with “twin suns” brings to mind Tattooine in Star Wars and the sheer number of references (nay, blatant thefts) from not only Star Wars, but also Raiders Of The Lost Ark and Flash Gordon make up the bulk of the key moments in this adventure, which, whilst fun, can get repetitive and is frankly corny:

• ·         From Star Wars we get: Twin Suns on a desert wasteland, use of a Jedi mind trick to get past the authorities, a cantina bar moment where even the dialogue about “he doesn’t like you... neither do I” (which I paraphrase, unlike Struth!) is stolen, encountering a Sandcrawler (which is at least a creature this time, not the Jawas’ mobile robot emporium), and a lengthy (and fairly lethal) episode over a carnivorous pit in the desert which is clearly a Saarlak (stolen, for a bit of variety, from Return Of The Jedi rather than Star Wars!)
• ·         Lifted from Raiders is the entire final section’s trap network within the Lost Cave Of The Dervishes itself: a pedestal that needs weighting to avoid triggering traps, a crossbow bolt trap, a big stone door that slides down on you, and, most blatant of all, a big stone ball that chases you down a corridor
• ·         The Flash Gordon steals are only marginally more subtle (I emphasize the word ”marginally”), with a trial that involves sticking your hand in various holes and seeing if something nasty stings you (ie Prince Barin’s world) and a ride across the desert on Griffins that sort of echoes Prince Vultan’s Hawkmen

Given that most of the interesting moments are made up of the above, you might expect this to be dull beyond all possibility, but it is not and the atmosphere of oppressive and relentless sand and heat, along with a feeling that you really are just wandering aimlessly into a yellow abyss, are very well put across. The desert meanders in various directions (many of which lead to you dying of exposure) although the deeper into it you get, the easier it is to survive, as the instant death sections are the same two over and over (due to the limited number of paragraphs available) so you get used to recognising their numbers and going in the other direction when they are offered. It will take several attempts to make any real progress though, plus the showdown with Kuperan (a hitherto unseen Fire Giant creature type) is really pretty tough, both within his lair and then flying over the Saarlak equivalent whilst trying to stay on a Griffin, so there is much to encourage replay. Numerous nomads and another unique creature type (Laupers – a desert catperson) add variety along the way as some are hostile and some can help you, which all adds up to quite a bit being crammed into a small number of paragraphs and Struth has done well to get as much fun stuff in as he does.

The opening town (Alaysian) is not as involved or as well-designed as the desert, but it does give a prologue to the main event and adds colour (literally) and variety to what would otherwise just be a hot and dangerous slog in the desert. Plus, you can get to tackle a fairly scenery-chewing loony in Alaysian, should you feel inclined, although the town serves mainly to help you buy the items you will need later on.

In terms of difficulty, this adventure is very varied, being weighted neither in your favour nor against you. Instant failures are reserved for the desert and the two main set pieces (the two-part Kuperan episode and the final cave full of traps) which avoids any early disappointments and lets you get a decent handle on what is involved to help with subsequent attempts. Most of the combats (barring two in particular) are very easy and most of your foes are very weak, plus combat only happens in logically necessary situations ie with stupidly aggressive foes or in important moments where you would expect to fight for your life. In the later stages there are a lot of Luck and Skill tests (including a jumbled one where Skill and Stamina get mixed together, if you happen to spot this) so you will not complete the final part without a high Luck score, although this balances out against a lot of opportunities to gain Luck points, including one where you are awarded a Luck point when it’s not actually been possible to lose any Luck yet (ditto, two different Skill bonuses)! Likewise, you start with 20 Gold Pieces, are immediately given another 20 (if you interpret the text that way) and can get lots more, although only the starting 20/40 GPs are of any actual use to you as you need these to buy all the useful items in Alaysian. A further unusually generous move (especially for a 200 section short, although it does replicate the double dose in WOFM and is not unusual for Warlock magazine short FFs) is that your standard-issue Potion that you select at the start contains two doses, although you might need both to raise your Luck or Skill sufficiently.

Due to the A4 format of Warlock magazine, this adventure does suffer from a problem associated with all this magazine’s mini-FFs in that some sections offer moves to sections that are on the same page which does encourage cheating a bit. The only way to realistically avoid this would have been to position these paragraphs on different pages (and, conversely, some numerical distance apart), but this is just a minor criticism of the structure and it doesn’t detract from playability or enjoyment. I suspect there are also some inaccessible wasted sections that you can’t actually access due to your always having certain items otherwise you would not have survived that far but, again, you don’t notice this as long as you don’t read every paragraph or are curious to see what would happen in the other (impossible) scenario.

It is worth taking a moment to assess how successful this adventure was in satisfying the brief to win and to see whether this was chosen on its fun appeal or its meeting the criteria of the competition:

·         ”Using the same system as WOFM” – just about, other than the opening Gold

·         “Design a game of 200 references” – check

·         “An exciting and original background” – you are as greedy and self-satisfying as you are in WOFM so it’s not original, but it is interesting enough to make you want to play it

·         “perhaps a jungle or a desert wasteland” – taken literally, it’s a desert wasteland!

·         “A mission to find somebody or something” – check, you find somebody AND something

·         “make it sound believable” – the desert is very well executed

·         “present a real challenge” – it’s tough when it needs to be, but is not overly hard

All things considered then, the brief was met and this should have been a worthy contender, but the sheer amount of idea theft (especially at a time when Star Wars and Indiana Jones were still very recent) works against its originality, even if it does not detract from the overall enjoyment.

The cover of Warlock number 4 depicts the Griffin riding section of the mission and is lovely to look at with its colourful presentation. The incidental art in the text is by House Of Hell’s Tim Sell who has no distinct style as such, but his humanoids tend to look like they’re melting which is a bit odd to my eye. This is hardly an issue, though, as the images are often nowhere near their respective paragraphs so it’s hard to make the involving connection with the art that you would in a gamebook format anyway.

For a first non-SJ/IL magazine offering this is certainly no masterpiece, but it’s still fun and atmospheric to play. Credit has to be given for such effective use of a limited number of sections and there’s plenty of material to keep you interested. As it’s short it can be played through quickly and is far from dull. If only the best moments had any shred of originality to them...

#55: Deathmoor

DEATHMOOR

Robin Waterfield

Reviewed by Mark Lain

On first picking it up, four things immediately strike me about this book: 1) It is suspiciously thin; 2) The cover is appalling; 3) Paragraph 400 is an instant death; 4) Promisingly, it is by one of the most consistently good FF writers. On playing it, the reality of these four first impressions can be summarised as: 1) It’s relative brevity is surely an act of mercy on the player; 2) The cover is worse than the contents; 3) This is an indication that you can expect to fail umpteen times; 4) Yes, RW’s first three FFs were all good (he wrote the only genuinely great Sci-Fi FF for a start), but his fourth (this one) is the exception.

Given the status accorded to the FF books from number 51 onwards as highly sought-after (and often expensive) collectors’ items that also in playing terms are very rewarding, #55 Deathmoor, whilst still not cheap to get your hands on, has none of the elements that make the last few books generally so rewarding:

• ·         The extended adventure concept – missing, Deathmoor is surprisingly short
• ·         The plethora of extra rules to get your head around – missing, the very basic FF rules are used here (Skill, Stamina, Luck, Provisions, Potion, Gold)
• ·         Lengthy, descriptive paragraphs that add depth – missing, RW actually seems as bored as the player (only #4 Starship Traveller shows the same level of author disinterest in the project) and appears to be desperate to get this over with
• ·         Rich conceptual design and depth of setting to give a more “adult” or “advanced FF” feel – missing, this is the kind of facile effort that would be unsatisfactory to even the youngest and most undemanding/inexperienced adventure gamer
• ·         No evidence of play-testing to iron out numerous bugs and continuity errors – missing, this one actually flows properly (that’s a plus, by the way)

So, other than the last point, it is not really surprising that this book gets over-looked and that so few people ever mention it much. Coming as it did between the high concept boardgame tie-in of Legend Of Zagor and the historically-rich Chaos epic that is Knights Of Doom, Deathmoor must have seemed very tired. Had it been released early on in the series, it might be easier to have a more favourable opinion of this book, but it just doesn’t offer enough to be relevant as a later entry.

Easily the laziest part of this book’s conception is your mission. You are an adventurer who is currently living it up diving for scarlet pearls off the Isles Of Dawn when you are called to the court of King Jonthane of Arion as his daughter has been kidnapped and the villain of the piece is demanding a huge amount of gold as a ransom. Granted, FF rarely uses the “fighting through perils to save a Princess” plot idea, but that’s because it’s a hackneyed concept that’s better suited to Disney than to role-playing. To add insult to injury, however, it’s not long before you meet two plumbers called Oiram and Igiul (read them backwards) at which point you realise you are playing Super Mario Brothers (there are different coloured mushrooms to contend with later in the book, as well) and that Waterfield really was on auto-pilot with this one. The opening section actually tells you that you are too late to get the commission because your rival (Fang-zen) got there first which means the first part of the adventure proper involves catching up with him and nicking an all-important document from him that is basically the contract to do the rescue job – perhaps it would have been easier just to say “Oh well, never mind then” to the King and have gone off and found a better adventure to get involved in. Once you’ve got the document you then have to chase an Ogre called Otus who is the connection between the King/YOU and the kidnapper himself (Bowser, presumably?) Bowser turns out to be called Arachnos and is an agent of Chaos, but is not anything like as genocidal as most agents of Chaos, given that he is (on the surface at least) just in it for the money (rather like RW was when he wrote this book, I fear!)

And that’s the plot, crappy but workable, assuming the adventure environment is full of surprises and intrigue... which it is not, instead it’s full of often inexplicable instant deaths, illogically looping paths that lead to parts of the moor that would otherwise be miles from each other if you map it, and lots of new creature types that don’t seem to exist anywhere else. The final item is not a bad point in itself (innovation is always welcome) but several of the new creatures just seem to be other creatures with new names - surely the Pterolins are just Rocs and Pelagines are Fishmen? Conversely, the Blackhearts (crosses between Dark Elves and Orcs), the hideous (and wonderfully-named) Tantaflex, and the Semerle (a missing link fish-reptile thing) are all imaginative inclusions. In most cases, any unfamiliar creatures are well described, even if those without illustrations can be a bit hard to visualise, and I really don’t want to imagine the bizarre and disturbing sex act that spawned the first Troll-Orc! Mention must also go to the Flintskins, a primitive and wary tribe that you need to be careful when dealing with (and are they corruptions of Flintstones or Skinflints?)

As is often the case with later FFs, there are three distinct stages to the adventure, starting with a look around Arion, then negotiating Deathmoor itself, and finally a short dungeon that forms Arachnos’ lair. Arion is quite fun (you can play Pinfinger in an inn) but has nothing that you can’t see in every other largish Titan conurbation (inns, docks, market, rich megalomaniac’s house), whilst Arachnos’ lair is a bizarre downwards tunnel tumble offering side passages and an inordinate number of ways to die. As for the main event, Deathmoor itself is tedious, has little of interest, and is not inherently all that deadly. Instead the apparent profound stupidity of your character is a major obstacle whilst on the moor – amongst other idiotic acts you can sleep-walk over a cliff and/or lose key items in two separate combats without there being any logical reason for dropping them, other than that the book wants you to. Sadly, RW’s apparent vindictiveness towards the player is where this book really becomes overly harsh to play and he seems to be taking his frustration with the project out on YOU:

• ·         Instant deaths, many of which are off-hand in their handling, are very common and often make little sense and can come as a real surprise and seem out of context
• ·         Also, some of the instant deaths could surely be avoided by combat but the book decides far too often that you are dangerously out-numbered
• ·         It is possible to fail as soon as you start by making the wrong choice at paragraph 1
• ·         Failing to get the document in Arion means you can’t progress beyond that stage and, even if you do, there’s another 50/50 progress/instantly fail decision to make as soon as you leave Arion and catch up with Otus
• ·         The encounter with the Cradoc involves yet another 50/50 life/death decision about which of its heads you need to cut off
• ·         Luck tests are in abundance
• ·         Arbitrary dice rolling to determine your fate is in even greater abundance
• ·         In the style of Steve Jackson’s tougher books, there are certain points where you need to make a judgment call on whether to go to a section you learned about earlier in the book. Unfortunately, the hints that you need to do this are so subtle and are almost off-hand remarks in the text which means you are fairly unlikely to pick up on them
• ·         Some “important” information is of little relevance and can be substituted with guessing which takes away the feeling of success you should get from what ought to be moments of achievement
• ·         It is possible to find a code-breaking document that is incomprehensible and seems to serve no purpose (or did this get forgotten?)
• ·         Worst of all, the final showdown with Arachnos can only be won by solving a maths problem that is so ridiculously difficult that it makes any other FF puzzle seem like simplicity itself

Oddly, one area that you would expect to see included in a book this unreasonable would be tough combats, but most of the foes in Deathmoor are actually very easy to beat (assuming you have a Skill of at least 9), very few have special attacks, and some even suffer Attack Strength penalties or can be weakened by surprise attacks (or dropping a house on them in the case of the Marsh Orcs, which is the only real injection of light relief anywhere in this adventure.) Even more out of context are certain scattered acts of unusual generosity which, whilst few and far between, seem at odds with the generally unbalanced nature of this book and do add to the feeling that this was thrown together in a few days with hardly any care. When you fight Fang-zen (your rival who, you would assume, can give a good account of himself against you), his Skill is two less than yours, ie he could have a Skill of 5 so he isn’t much of a hardy adventurer then really. It is also possible to increase your Initial Luck to 14, and to fully restore your Skill and Stamina by being blessed. Also, money is not difficult to come by, even if it has scant use once you leave Arion (and you start with 20 GP anyway.)

The subject of the Initial Luck increase gives me mixed feelings. If you also use the Potion of Fortune you could actually have an Initial Luck of 15 which is an unusually high allowance in a FF book, but you will certainly need it due to the number of Luck tests that this book throws at you. The location of the +2 Luck bonus (a temple that is a relic of the ancient civilisation that used to live where Deathmoor now is) exposes another example of the lazy construction of this adventure. We are told about the civilisation early on in the story, yet this is almost entirely ignored for most of the book bar a couple of isolated moments.

In some parts, there are moments of unpleasant grisliness, especially when we are told that the word “WAIT” has been spelled out in the severed limbs of the 15-year-old Princess’ friends, and Waterfield does seem slightly obsessed with getting you lost in misty marshes and/or burning people to death in his FFs. One of the real strengths, though, of his books is the lengths he goes to do describe environments/experiences/backgrounds to create a real sense of place, yet this is all but absent from Deathmoor. Only when you need a compass (or have to blunder aimlessly around without one) do you get the feeling of an oppressive moorland – compare his writing in this book with his background descriptions in #18 Rebel Planet or his dreamscapes in #28 Phantoms Of Fear and it’s hard to believe this is the same author. There are moments of player belittling that bring to mind Space Assassin, “That was stupid” being probably the worst example here of giving you little motivation to stay interested. Even the winning paragraph can only be bothered to stretch to a few sentences and there is hardly any feeling of victory to be had from it.

One of the new creatures offered here is a Cradoc (half Dragon-half Ogre) and it is this that graces the cover in what is amongst the worst FF cover images ever. The Cradoc just looks ridiculous – what was Terry Oakes thinking? Furthermore, this is another example of a FF cover that shows a far from important moment from the book, but it does at least reflect the lackadaisical nature of the package as a whole. If there is one person who has made an effort, it’s Russ Nicholson, whose internal art is as effective as always, even if most of the new creatures are quite manically drawn, whereas the more familiar moments are more controlled in their rendering.

Overall, Deathmoor is a fairly minor entry to the series which is blighted by harshness and just generally not being very interesting. It is no surprise then that it has faded into relative obscurity and is surely of more interest to collectors than to gamers. Play it if you are curious and can get hold of it, but this is easily one of the least essential from an adventuring perspective (which is, after all, the real reason why FF exists.)

#50: Return To Firetop Mountain

 

RETURN TO FIRETOP MOUNTAIN

Ian Livingstone

Reviewed by Mark Lain

For anyone who originally discovered FF by way of The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain, the prospect of a sequel is a very juicy one indeed. Cunningly released as a 10^th Anniversary book, set 10 years after the first and, originally, intended to be the series’ swansong, this book ended up being such a success that Puffin gave the series a stay of execution, if only for a further nine books. To further increase the appeal of this offering, the idea that the original’s writing team of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone would work together on it would surely be too much excitement for one FF fan to cope with. Could we even get art from Russ Nicholson to top all this off? In a word, no. However, the internal art is by the equally great Martin McKenna, so this was still looking promising at the conceptual stage. Things started to lose their attraction when SJ bailed out supposedly due to other commitments, leaving IL to put this book together all on his own. For me, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as I always preferred Ian’s initial half of the book to the rather more manic Jackson second part, but that’s just because there always seemed to be far more to see and do in Ian’s bit, and there’s no question that the original wouldn’t have been anything like as varied and surprising if it had just been a Livingstone dungeon trawl.

So, what common Livingstone-isms do we get as a result of IL writing it by himself?

• ·         Linearity – check
• ·         Cameo from irritating idiot wizard Yaztromo – check
• ·         Long shopping list of often dangerously well-hidden essential items – check
• ·         Sequel with so-so introductory prologue bit before we get to the bit we are really waiting for (like in #21 Trial Of Champions) – check
• ·         Theory that anyone can win no matter how low their initial stats being a complete lie and you having little hope unless you roll maximum Skill and Luck and damn high Stamina – check
• ·         Often very difficult trivia challenges with Inquisitor-type figures – check
• ·         Lots of instant deaths and/or life/death situations – check
• ·         Over-enthusiastic sidekick who instantly dies - check

It may seem, then, that this book is a typically harsh later series entry peppered with Livingstone’s oft-criticised combination of wandering down tunnels and deciding whether to open doors or not, interspersed with occasional traps along the way, mixed in with a large number of factors that are likely to make you die. Which it is, to an extent, but there is much more to it than just this as the construction and thought that has gone into making this really feel like a return to Firetop Mountain rather than a cheap cash-in follow-up are what really make it a winner.

The initial pre-mountain section is much of a much-ness. There are two choices of route, one much longer and more dangerous than the other, and it doesn’t take a genius to work out which is the correct one that yields what you are going to need later in the book. The longer route is basically a series of cameo sequences involving a boring boat ride, Yaztromo, a fake Yaztromo Doppelganger (in a nightmare encounter that can go on forever), a little town with various quirky people/locations in it, and then a potentially fatal lift you hitch on a bird that takes you to the entrance to the mountain itself. The shorter route is duller, but does get you to the mountain a) a lot faster, and b) much more likely to be alive and actually get there at all! Indeed, getting to the mountain and re-living what made the original book such a seminal experience for us all is probably what we started playing this book for in the first place... and we are not disappointed at what we find. The map of the first (Livingstone) half of the original has been re-used here and it makes for a real trip down memory lane, although you are explicitly told that YOU are NOT the adventurer who killed Zagor the first time around which does slightly distance you from the point of the exercise here. However, the overlaying of the new version onto the old is so vivid and well-written that this alone makes this book essential to any FF fan. You do find yourself having to pretend to be surprised here and there, but seeing what various moments from the first book look like 10 years later really is a wonderfully nostalgic experience, amongst which are:

• ·         The Giver Of Sleep’s case is still there, dusty but empty
• ·         The skeleton of the (now dead) sleeping Orc guard is in its recess in the tunnel wall
• ·         There are marks on the wall where the paintings were hung in the painting room
• ·         The health-restoring “Rest ye here, weary traveller” seat is still in its position, but the lettering has worn off making it a bigger risk to sit on (although it still works)
• ·         The remains of the dummy-levered iron portcullis trap can be found
• ·         The ferry boatman still works the river (and is still prone to lycanthropic episodes if provoked)
• ·         Some corridors have caved in and several doors are now padlocked or barred shut

This first half of the mountain isn’t just a re-tread of familiar territory, however, as other dangers and inhabitants have moved in which add variety and mystery to the proceedings. Once you have negotiated the river, you are faced with a complete re-design of the dungeon. Gone is the frustrating Maze Of Zagor (thankfully) and in its place is an extended dungeon section which is less original than Jackson’s part in the original, but seems more fitting to the idea of this just being basically a dungeon trawl. The second section is far tougher than the first (which in itself is not without its fair share of perils) and opens with a choice of two different “tests” rather akin to the series’ two Trial Of Champions outings. You can choose either (very tough) combats or a pair of mental tests, one of which is so difficult that you’ll wish you’d risked the Stamina on the combats instead. From there on in, you find yourself in a typically Livingstone-y dungeon cycle of items/combats/traps/death-avoidances until you eventually (if you ever get there) get to take on Zagor himself.

The Zagor character is an interesting one for many reasons. For a start, he was named retrospectively and is never referred to as anything other than “The Warlock” in the first book, but we would no doubt have known him as Zagor by the time the second book came out, given his appearance in The Trolltooth Wars novel and his write-up as one of the key evil wizards of Allansia in Titan – The Fighting Fantasy World. The way he is handled in the two Firetop Mountain books is dramatically different, and this second book’s Zagor is a far cry from the reclusive, treasure-coveter of the first. For a start, he is now undead, given that “somebody” killed him in the first book and he has used magic to resurrect himself and is now slowly re-building himself from body parts that he is plundering from the locals in Anvil (although he is still missing an arm and he quite fancies nicking yours, as it turns out) making him into a super-intelligent Frankenstein’s monster affair. He has also become something of a megalomaniac in the Balthus Dire vein – his throne room has a huge Z on the door and he has started minting his own coinage (called “Zagors”) so he is not quite as subtle as he used to be either. Neither does he disguise himself as an old man, nor does he feel the need to store his power in a deck of cards anymore. Indeed, when you finally locate him, he wants to fight you half-naked and with big knives, so you do get the feeling that he’s perhaps become a bit of a pompous tosser over the last 10 years. It’s good in a way that Zagor is rather more sinister and imposing than he was in the first book, and the build-up that other NPCs give him is certainly justified this time around, plus we are surprised to see just what the re-animated Zagor is all about, but you do get the feeling that this is Zagor to the power of 10 and that he has been souped-up for an early 90s audience. The surprise of what he now is is welcome, but the disparity from the original Zagor is a little awkward. One thing he has in common with the first incarnation is the fact that his Achilles heel(s) can be found inside the mountain. In the first book, his decision to scatter his treasure keys all over the dungeon made no sense at all (although it is eventually explained away in The Trolltooth Wars), whereas this time we get the explanation that he has to balance out his use of a regeneration spell with the requirement to leave the objects of his destruction around the dungeon to allow potential vanquishers to make him pay the price for his sorcery. A little far-fetched, but at least it is logical this time around. The objects that you need to find to give him his just desserts are six teeth made from various substances (you are initially told it’s four that you need, but it turns out to be six), including one that seems to have element-changing properties in that it starts out as silver and later is referred to as bronze, although continuity was never a strong point of FF books, especially the later ones. These teeth have (in five cases, continuity out the window again then) numbers on them which are, and remember this is a Livingstone adventure, the references you eventually need to turn to to use them. In an unusually helpful move, there are also pages from books strewn throughout the dungeon that have the numbers written on them (including the missing one) and tell you what beats what (in a scissors-paper-stone stylie) which does make the pre-Zagor Elemental battle a little fairer than it would have been if you had to guess what to use and when. The Elemental battle itself is more climactic than the final showdown with Zagor and does add an extra element of challenge and interest and makes the tracking down of all the teeth seem all the more valid and essential to your victory (which it is, as you can’t get to Zagor without completing the Elemental fight.)

...And that’s pretty much the plot. Zagor is back from the dead, needs body parts from Anvil’s people to re-build himself and Anvil’s people need someone to kill him again, YOU are that someone and you have to find the tools you need to complete the job. Simple in the style of the early FFs, but it does at least make sense this time around, which is more than can be said for the original book! However, as this is book number 50, this is far harder than the first Zagor outing. We’ve already covered the list of standard Livingstone FF features that are included and, whilst this is far from impossible like some of his books, it is certainly very tough given how many items you need and the fact that it is very seldom that you can recover any lost Stamina (you set out with no Provisions, for a start.) Skill bonuses are more plentiful and you can carry two swords and acquire armour to make Skill penalties less likely. Also, only a few select special encounters are particularly hard, but those that are are VERY hard. Zagor himself is not as strong as you would maybe expect (Sk 11 St 18) but there is no way to weaken him so you have to face him with these stats and chances are that yours (Stamina especially) will be pretty low by this point. In typical IL style, there are lots of instant deaths (30 count), although Luck tests are less common than was the norm by this stage in the series.

A big plus of this book is how much Livingstone’s writing has progressed from the first FF. Descriptions are far longer and immersive and there is a great feeling of re-visiting somewhere you haven’t been for 10 years when you find the mountain entrance (even if your character has never actually been there at all!) There are some seemingly cramped moments where many rooms are crushed into a small space, but the urgency of the prose and the many and varied situations/encounters make up for this.

McKenna’s art works well in the context that this is a whole new Zagor we are dealing with, so the cosy familiarity that would have been present had Russ Nicholson drawn the art for this book is replaced with McKenna’s more gothic and “real” looking drawings. As for the cover, it is stunning with its royal purple border, huge “50” proudly presented at the bottom, and quite frightening-looking undead Zagor looming over Firetop Mountain and a teeming horde of baddies. The difference between the two concepts and Zagors is reflected well through the contrast between this cover and the first book’s (at least in its first form) “old man” cover. As usual, Wizard’s reissue covers dumb down the effect too much to be of any interest.

For fans of the first book, this is essential playing material. There is much fun to be had from revisiting the dungeon, from seeing what has changed and what has stayed the same, and from seeing what Firetop Mountain is like without Steve Jackson’s input. For fans of the more “out there” FF books (particularly those in the 20s and 40s parts of the series) this may seem a bit old hat in that it is basically just a traditional dungeon walk-through, but for anyone to whom The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain will always have a special significance, then this is a great book despite its continuity problems and the lack of anything remotely ground-breaking being included. Would this have been the best ever FF if SJ hadn’t backed out? Would it have been blighted by out-of-place (for the idiom) hidden paragraphs accessed by doing maths whenever it seemed appropriate? Or would we have been bored by another visit to the Maze Of Zagor? Who knows, but for me Ian has made a really good fist of going it alone with this and this book is certainly a worthy sequel rather than a bigger-budget, louder, and showier, but otherwise pointless sequel, which would have been a great shame. Plus, for anyone for whom this still isn't enough Zagor, it has an open ending suggesting he might be back for another sequel...

#34: Stealer Of Souls

STEALER OF SOULS

Keith Martin

Reviewed by Mark Lain

Keith Martin’s later efforts would be amongst some of the better and more imaginative FF books in the latter part of the series (#38 Vault Of The Vampire, #46 Tower Of Destruction and #52 Night Dragon in particular), but his debut effort is on a far less ambitious scale. Stealer Of Souls is, for the most part, a fairly conventional back-to-basics adventure scenario that brings to mind #7 Island Of The Lizard King in its initial structure (boat trip to luridly-named island, followed by trek through primitive environment, then a dungeon trawl) and then any of a number of entries in the 30s part of the series as you pass into another “dimension” of some kind (in this case, the Empire Of Illusions) to face off with this particular book’s baddie of the week, this time an arch-mage who is stealing souls as part of his world-destroying evil plot (ho hum, were we not getting a little bit fed up with world-ending lunatics by this stage in the series?)

The combination of grass-roots plotting combined with “seen-it-a-hundred-times-before” structure makes this book something of a forgotten series entry and it rarely gets much attention in the context of the FF cannon, but I find it hard not to like it, if only for its sheer straightforward-ness. The actual nature of your mission is probably one of the least inspiring of the whole series – you are engaged by the wizard Vanestin to go to the fun-sounding (and otherwise unexplored in the series) Isles Of Despair and rescue another wizard (Alsander) who has been kidnapped by the titular Stealer Of Souls (aka Mordraneth) and is imprisoned in the Iron Chasms on the island. Needless to say, once you find him, he convinces you that you need to track down Mordraneth and despatch him before things get out of control at which point you switch from playing the liberator to becoming an assassin and immediately feel that your goal is now going to be rather more satisfying.

As with many of the books in the 30s section of the series, there are three distinct stages to negotiate here: a boat ride and item-riddled island trudge, followed by the dungeon that is the Iron Chasms, and finally the trippy Empire Of Illusions itself. It is possible to get into three combats in the first handful of paragraphs if you are trigger-happy, but these can be avoided and most of the initial encounters can be friendly and helpful if you don’t try to kill them. The Iron Chasms take up a large proportion of the book and can take ages to get through, plus there is more than one “correct” route, so you do get a feeling that these are as massive and labyrinthine as they are made out to be which is a bonus especially as so many FF environments that should be huge are sold short and don’t take too long to get through. The inhabitants of the Chasms are much less varied and colourful than those in the first section (limited mainly to Orcs acting as guards), but this seems sensible as the Chasms are essentially the barrier to stop people getting at Mordraneth’s evil realm so chances are there wouldn’t be much there other than guards and prisoners (ie fresh souls to steal.) The Empire Of Illusions is the best part by far and is, literally, colourful as each corridor has its own distinct hue to it. An added peril exists in this part as you need to use your judgement to decide if what you are faced with is real or just an illusion and it can be quite tricky to make the right choice. Having already saved Alsander, you are now armed with a small number of spells to help you defend yourself against the illusions in the Empire, but it is equally easy to make the wrong choice and waste a valuable spell as it is to get it right, so there is a lot to think about here, which is in stark contrast to the very basic “adventurer wandering around” of the first two sections of the book and makes for quite an unexpected final part. Once you locate Mordraneth you have to survive an initial spell-exchange (so you need to actually still have some spells with you, meaning you need to have been very sparing with their use thus far), followed by a final straightforward combat to complete the book. The sheer imagination that has gone into the illusory section is a sign of what would come in Martin’s later books and is the part that really makes this book worth playing. Yes, the Iron Chasms go on forever, but there is a logical point to that and your reward is making it to the Empire Of Illusions and experiencing a brief but still really interesting gamebook coda.

As the Chasms are such a huge part of this book and as they are filled with generally pretty run-of-the-mill creature encounters you could be mistakenly made to think that this book has the dullest encounters of any FF ever, but there are nonetheless one or two sparingly-used and very unusual creatures to meet. The second encounter in the book is with a rarely-seen Sea Giant (they get a write-up in Out Of The Pit, but you scarcely ever actually see them in FF books) and the penultimate creature you can come up against (if you take a certain turning) is an equally rarely-seen Blue Dragon that breathes lightning rather than fire (although it is played-down considerably when it turns out to be an illusion), plus one of the bizarrest FF creatures I’ve ever seen appears in the form of a Diadrone (even if the illustration looks like an evil balloon with overly-thin legs), so there is definitely pleasingly subtle use of “specials” in evidence here. Only the strongest encounters are particularly tough to beat, so, again, the real killers are few-and-far-between, which makes this book (unusually) not weighted against you and it is one of the rare books that actually holds up to the claim that you can complete a FF book even with rock-bottom starting stats, although decent Skill and Luck will definitely make the job a lot easier. Of less advantage would be a high Stamina score (as most combats are pretty easy), but this is one of those FF books that regularly penalises you for not eating (or at least it does in the first section where you seem to be eating constantly) so you could find yourself very weak by the time you reach the Iron Chasms, although it then comes as something of a relief when the book completely forgets about the eating need from there on in, and focuses instead on being an adventure rather than a multi-course meal.

Considering how generally conventional this book is, the challenge level is anything but the normal FF fare and this book is unusually easy, especially if you pass an early Skill test to get a weapon that pretty much guarantees you will win unless you are terminally useless at adventures! A really remarkable feature is that there only seem to be eight instant failure paragraphs, which has to be an all-time low, and the majority of them are reserved for the final section (and, again, this makes sense.) Equally unusual is the sheer number of paragraphs that you need to turn to to complete the book (you can go almost everywhere just in one playthrough), but this is handled well here as it is not that noticeable thanks to the logical construction of the three parts of the story, unlike KM’s later FF #51 Island Of The Undead where you are genuinely exhausted after ploughing through about 250 arduous sections to get to the end.

In retrospect, a FF written by Keith Martin and with illustrations by Russ Nicholson is a mouth-watering prospect, but this is not typical Martin fare and Nicholson’s art, whilst always very good, also seems a little lacking in this book. The usual comic book fantasy look of RN’s work is played-down here and many of the images look a bit half-arsed and either rushed or incomplete. Admittedly, the art is still far better than some other FF artists’ efforts, but, in the context of Nicholson’s FF-defining images in books such as #1 The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain or #2 The Citadel Of Chaos, Stealer Of Souls’ art just doesn’t quite have enough impact for my liking. David Gallagher’s cover, on the other hand, is stunning. It is very economical rather than unnecessarily busy like some FF covers and the blue-white colours work very well with the central image of Mordraneth. In many ways, this cover reminds me of my favourite Iron Maiden LP cover image, Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, and it is easily one of my favourite FF covers.

All things considered, this is far from essential, but it does have a real charm to it and is a genuinely likeable book that is nice to play as a respite from the more elaborate FFs. The final section is the book’s real saving grace, but this one does not deserve to be as over-looked as it seems to be. OK, it’s very easy and it’s pretty long in places, but it is certainly worth giving a chance. The Curate’s Egg of the series without a doubt, but there are far worse FFs than this, especially in the 30s part of the series.