Phantoms of Fear

Background - 

A small English country pub in the rural countryside, a twenty minute drive from the industrial metropolis of Puffin HQ.  Ian sits in a quiet corner, the only patron there nursing a pint.  So many thoughts were swimming around his head, chief among them about where the next Fighting Fantasy book was coming from.  The Autumn sun had long fallen away into a cold night when Ian left the pub.  He had only had one drink despite the length of his stay.  As he walked down the path towards the car park a sudden flash lit up the night to his right.  With the afterglow still in his sight, he saw wisps of smoke rising from the location of where the flash had been.

There he finds a curled up naked humanoid form.  

Ian "Hello, are you ok?"

The smoking body slowly stood up in front of him.

Ian "Robin?!  Is that you?"

 The likeness of the R.O.B.I.N AI was uncanny.

Ian "Robin, what are you doing outside of HQ?"

The R.O.B.I.N looked coldly at him.

R.O.B.I.N "I need your clothes, your keys and your Ford Sierra."

Ian "Robin, what are you talking about?"

R.O.B.I.N "I need your clothes, your keys and your Ford Sierra."

Ian "Robin, I am not giving you my clothes, and there is no chance in hell you are getting the Sierra."

R.O.B.I.N "I have come from your far future, I am the R.O.B.I.N 2000.  I have travelled through time for the sole purpose of writing the perfect Fighting Fantasy book."

Ian "What on earth are you talking about?"

R.O.B.I.N "For that to happen, we have concluded, that you must be eliminated, then the bizarre item hunts will never become a thing."

With that the R.O.B.I.N's eyes turn blood red and starts menacingly approaching.  Ian legs it.

Fast forward through an amazing adventure to Ian in an industrial warehouse and the R.O.B.I.N 2000 is sinking into a pit of molten slag.  Just before it disappears it holds up a book.  Its arm and the book are now the only thing above the lava like substance.  Ian swoops in and grabs the book before it catches fire.  He looks at the book title, Phantoms of Fear.  Worth a shot he thinks as a disheveled Ian heads back to Puffin HQ.

So Phantoms of Fear came out in October 1987 and is the third book by Robin Waterfield.  His previous ones were Rebel Planet, which started strongly but petered out, and Masks of Mayhem.  Masks I thought had a good story but had broken mechanics.  I remember getting Phantoms from the library when I was a kid.  I can see it clear as day sitting there on the shelf.  What I can not remember is anything about the adventure itself.  Interestingly I think this is the first name repeat with fear being used with Appointment with Fear.  Lets see how this goes.

Covers - 

Oh my.   I am not sure what I can possibly say about this cover.  Well I like the font for the title.

It looks like some kind of snot demon.  Everything is coming out of its nose.  A host of red dragon and demon bogeys.  Most of it would be fine if they were not coming out of the nose!  This does not make you want to pick up the book and gives absolutely zero indication of what it is going to be about.  I wonder if this is an encounter. 

Terrible.

So in the interest of using my new toy, and that coincidently in my FF Universe, Robin is an AI, lets see what AI could do for the cover.

 

Well not bad I guess, hard to get a good snot demon.

Premise - 

I am a Wood Elf from the forest of Affen in North East Khul.  My father was a great warrior and my mum was a Shaman.  I have inherited both their talents but its at pains to tell me I am not as good as either of them.  So I clearly have parent issues.  But as they have died I am now the Defender Shaman of the tribe.  Probably as even though I am not the best, there must be a lack of suitable options in Affen.

I wake up from a dream, I am a bit part shaman so dreams are kind of my thing.  My dream is of our village and everyone is working away like a normal day.  There is a shock as a voice booms out and everyone looks.  However the twist is that it is my own voice I hear.

I tell the crowd that I must leave as the Demon Prince Ishtra is gathering a force of damned, chaotic and evil creatures.  Unsurprisingly to take over the world, starting with the wood elves.  They would normally be all over the place but the boy Ishtra holds them in his sway by magic.  I have to go now and fight him while his army is still small, before it is too late.

Waking up again, I realise it is a very important dream, as the Gods use dreams to communicate but never before by using my own voice.  So they must be serious.  Alas I have no idea how to beat Ishtra but the Gods wouldn't put me on an impossible quest (but many FF authors would).  How do I find out more information?  Back to sleep!

Playthrough - 

Right, we have the normal Skill, Stamina, Luck of course but we get a new stat called Power.  This is used for spells and dreaming.  The deities communicate through dreams, they tell you what to do, although open to interpretation, and allows you to refresh and restore.  I can control my dreams in something called active dreaming.  This basically means you can control your dreams.  I used to be able to do that, as a kid I would realise I was dreaming and then fly down to the shops and eat sweets.  I might not have that option here though.  

My training though allows me to exert my will to manipulate and be effective in that world.  Thus by dreaming you encounter situations which parallel in a bizarre fashion the everyday world.  I have no idea how this will play out.

Interestingly power can go above its initial roll!

We also have spells.  I am told I am not a great magician, just like I am not a great warrior or shaman.... but I do know some spells.  It costs 1 power to cast a spell, and I can only cast in the real world.  The spells I know are - 

• Protect - Cast a spell of invisibility (but be careful, enemies inside the spell will still see you)
• Illusion - Make something appear as something else (within reason, no molehills into mountains)
• Weaken - Reduce foe stamina by 4
• Levitation - Float for 4 meters
• Finding - Show up a hidden passage, treasure or a hidden enemy
• Fire - Use as a weapon, barrier or even just to light a fire

No picking here though which I like, I just need to see if its worth using the power.

We get absolutely zero provisions, apparently I am confident ill find food in the forest.  When I do they will get four stamina back.  No doubt I am a bang average forager.

Potions are back, pick one of skill, strength or fortune.  Ill very likely go for stamina to make the blog last longer, but we shall see after I roll up.

And finally, I have a sword with a name!  Telessa.  Alas Telessa may have a name but it appears to be a bog standard sword with no special abilities at all.  Which makes naming it a bit odd.

Skill - 11

Stamina - 21

Luck - 7

Power -  14

Pretty good rolls to be honest apart from luck.  I might take the potion of fortune but with no provisions I will stick with the potion of strength.  Lets see how we get on, probably average, just like I am.

Straight back into a dream...of erm I am not sure what.  But it does look wild, in a good way!

Back in the dream world, I am wandering through the forest, and it is very vibrant.  I see the energy of the world called Maella.  Now I just finished playing Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth so the Lifestream is what comes to mind with this.  

I do not recognise this part of the forest but we get a bit of history that it used to be part of a massive forest, called the one forest, when it was all the continents were one land mass.  Ah plate tectonics in Fighting Fantasy!

The trees are pushing me along a path until I come to a fork in the road.  I am aware that the path behind me represents my previous life and the split represents a choice.  Except I have no idea where to go.  

Because its a dream a statue appears in the middle of the crossing.  A human goddess (odd would have expected an elf) with her arms crossed over.  Slowly they start to unfold and a small black dog jumps out and runs back the way I came.  I decide to ignore it.  Ok.  Very random.  Just like a real dream I guess (last night I dreamt I had to clean mold from a room).  

The statue is now smiling and the paths are very different.  One is vibrant and light and fills me with good feelings.  The second is dark and twisted with a sense of foreboding.    The statue is now holding in both hands, replicas of my sword.  It smiles and vanishes and the swords thud into the ground.  Its time to pick.

Now in real life I am 100% going down the light path, 10 out of 10 times.  However I suspect I need to go down the bad path to understand what is wrong with the forest.  At least its only a dream I guess.

The trees are described quite foul, and they flick burning sap at me.  As I get closer to a pit though the smell gets worse and I feel very strongly this is wrong.  I feel myself tossing and turning in bed and get the option to wake up or keep going.  Lets press on.

Is my Power 14 or more?  Just!  

I press on, finding it hard to breathe.  As I enter the Pit everything goes dark and a voice starts laughing.   Punny Elf, you seek to test yourself against me, I look forward to our meeting if you get that far.  Then I am surrounded everywhere by thick bushes.  Do I want to cast a Fire spell?  Erm no, you specifically said magic is only for real world and I am still dreaming.  

Yeah so I just walk through the bushes, as its my dream and I am in control.  Time to wake up.

So my mission is to find the entrance to the pit and battle Ishtra.  I call the council of elders and they try and put me off as it is an impossible task.  Wood Elves rarely travel more than half a day from home.  But I insist because I dreamt it, and I am fed up of everyone comparing me to my parents.  Lake Nekros is to the East, so I have to go North, South, or West.  Hmm not much description of a choice there.  Everything else has been really descriptive so far.

South is such a rare choice in FF that I decide to give it a bash.  

South was a poor choice.

A Fog Demon rolls in, -2 to my skill and it is skill 8 so not a great start.  Only stamina 6 though and I manage to defeat it without getting hit.  I find that I do not seem to be getting any nearer to the Pit so do I want to continue or change direction to West or North West?  West is left so lets try that. 

The change of direction leads to a change in the forest.  Animals are acting odd, gathering food when its not the season.  Of course this makes me an even bigger fool for not taking any provisions.  So better start looking.

I have to roll to see if I bump into a creature and I get a Moose.  Yep I am in a fight with A moose.  Luckily he is only Skill 6 but he does have 12 stamina so I kill him very very slowly.  Roll two dice to see how many provisions you get.  Wow that could be anything between 2 and 12.  So 8 points to 48 points of stamina recovery.  That seems, unfair.  I roll an average 6.

Continuing on, I get told of an encounter that happened off screen.  Hornets attack me and I used a Fire Spell at the cost of 1 power to get rid of them.  I then walk straight into a trap.  A net falls down and I am trapped.  A Pixie runs out and throws some dust on me and I fall unconscious.  

Bloody Pixies, keep dunking me into a pool.

Apparently these guys work for the Riddling Reaver, who even though does not want the Demon Prince to win, does not want to make things easy for me either.  I have to find the number in the riddle.

There was a young Wood Elf from Khul,

Trussed up in the net like a fool.

    The wee Pixies ryhme

    Can save precious time...

Or else you'll be dunked in the pool!

Clue is there is a number in the words.  Maybe capitals, TWEKTTPCO, nope thought I had it there and was going to be twenty something.  Why are those two lines indented?  Not seeing anything there.  Reading through the words to see if there is any numbers hidden between words.  Oh god is this how my adventure ends.

Some time time goes by.....

Hmmm there is 32 words, does that work?  It won't be that.

It was that.

The net disintegrates and the Pixies begrudgingly congratulate me and offer me an item from the Reaver.  I get to choose one of - 

• A Pouch of Medicinal Herbs
• A Twelve Branched Stags Antler hollowed out and carved into a horn
• A Net like the one I was stuck in
• A Pair of Boars Tusks

The Horn is far too specific to leave behind so I go for one of them.

All that dunking in the pool has cost me one provision.  Bloody Pixies.

Finally leaving these guys behind and straight into another encounter.

Meet the Arctolyc, a half bear and half wolf.

These beasts have vicious jaws and highly prized fur.  Skill 9, Stamina 16, he is a tough dude.  However in a stunning roll of many dice, I do not take any damage at all!

Moving on and it is getting later in the day and I just so happen to find some caves, do I want to explore them.  Well with no damage so far, lets have a gander.

The first cave is empty but it also has bones, I decide to give it a try anyway.  I make a cover for the cave that should alert me of any nocturnal visitors.  My dream that night sees me in the centre of a ring formed by six bottomless pools.  Two pools are filled with liquid fire which change colour and shapes.  Two pools are filled with water, reflecting a dark star studded night sky.  The last two seem to be wind related, like the breath of the world.  Not sure what any of this means but I get an increase of 2 power.

In the light of the next day I find a small tunnel I could squeeze through at the back of the cave.  I would have to crawl through and I do not fancy that at all so head back outside.

At the top of the hill I see the forest spread out.  The rotting part is a lot bigger than first feared, kilometers wide.  Which is interesting that Wood Elves use the metric system.

Now I am no Forest Ranger but even I can tell the Forest might not be quite right.

My observations are interrupted by birds being disturbed, do I want to flee or see what large creature has disturbed them.  Lets hang around. 

Its a sorcerous wind of course.  I pass a luck test and apparently I was breathing out when the wind hits me.  How very lucky.

Coming down from the hill I find a nice glade with a brook in it.  The last bastion holding back the evil.  Do I want to drink from the pool, bathe in it or avoid it.  Well I am full stamina so I decide it is not worth the risk.  Instead I carry on but the trees keep pulling their fruit out of reach so I can not replenish my provisions.  How very rude of them, trying to save there bloody forest here!

I make the big step into the corrupted forest, and I am immediately told that my magic will not work here.  Only Ishtra's magic works.  Hmm I have cast a grand total of zero spells.  The corruption was circular so I need to make my way inwards.  First choice is trees or clearing.  Well the trees are bad here so lets try the clearing.

Turns out the clearing is home to a Slime Monster.  Skill 7 though so not that worried.  Dispatched with no issue.

Further in I find a trail, no doubt from a horrible monster.  Do you follow the trail or continue through the trackless trees.  Hmm that is a tough choice, lets follow the track.  It leads to a fenced off garden of holly bushes.  I doubt this is good in this place so avoiding.  

I find some boulder to kip down for the night.  I do like how I check none are boulder beasts, great nod back to previous book deaths.  Alas my sleeping place is also the home of a Komodo Lizard.  Skill 6 so I do not fancy its chances.  Still not been even hit yet, this is a new record.

Off to Dreamland again we go.  The forest is being constricted by a giant snake.  Its mouth appears to be the entrance to Ishtra's Pit.  I get the option to allow myself to be swallowed into the Pit or not.  I feel like I need to find out more about this place so lets go in and see.

I speed through into the pit and come to a grotesque creature which sounds a bit like our cover star.  It is Morpheus, Ishtra's lieutenant and source of all bad dreams.  Do I want to attack him?  Well it is tempting but taking on someone who is king of the nightmares on his own turf is probably a terrible idea.  

Turns out that is the right theory and I get 1 point of power for it before waking up.  We get some really good description of how bad the forest is getting as I get closer to the Pit, or Ishtra's mouth as my character has dubbed it.

In the middle of all this grossness there is a lone deer, a breath of fresh air. Do I want to go and say hi?  No, No I do not.  Reeks of a trap.

As I rest next to a rotten tree I reflect on how bad things are.  The two headed weasel, the heaving ground, all paint a very bleak picture.  The tree unsurprisingly tries to eat me so its time to go.  However I hear raven calls, which are people signaling to each other.  I have been surrounded but do not know by who.  Do I have a companion?  God dammit I missed a companion!

Its Dark Elves, 6 of them.  Now I have not lost any stamina but 6 sounds a lot for one person so I make a break for it.  I now have to fight them but only one at a time.  If the combat lasts 4 rounds though another one shows up and gets free hits on me.   They are relatively weak though so this is very doable.  

Then the very first one rolls double 6 and hits me haha.  All in all I get hit quite a few times but only once by the free hit rule.  I decide to eat a provision to get the stamina back up to 18.  2 luck points are my reward.  But in good news, I get a Dark Elf disguise.

I finally arrive at the entrance to Ishtra's lair.  Its actually flanked by ivory pillars and lit by torches.  Sounds quite nice and my character realises the dreams were not literal.  I disturb some bats and head in.

Now things get a bit complicated.  Here the real world and dream world overlap so I can pick which world to move in.  If I am in the dreamworld my physical body moves with me through that world.  Although it is invisible, not immaterial.  You can not pick items up in the dream world and you can get disorientated moving between worlds.

If a real world paragraph is marked by * I can subtract 20 from the paragraph number to flip to the dream world.  Dream worlds with a # can add 50 to go back to the real world. Lets have some fun.

A Crio-Sphinx.  Known for his goaty head and cryptic lies.

Sphinxy says the left route goes further and the right leads to sudden death.  But he is a Sphinx, so there is something to it.  Need to think about this.  

Hmm wait, will it be the Sphinx's right, not my right?  So I should go my right?  Well only one way to find out.  It seems to be the correct choice.  I am in a cave watching patrols of Orcs.  There are some large bones in the middle.  Do I wait longer or investigate.  Lets have a look, if I wait about too long I might get spotted by a patrol.

Turns out they are bones from the heroes of Great War of Khul, I get 1 luck point which I do not need.  

Next I get the option to take the North Tunnel or the West Tunnel.  Ah lets have some fun and jump into the dream world to see how that goes.  Well everything turns into a countryside and the tunnels are replaced by a river.  And as well as West and North I can now go East and North East.  So lets take one of the new opened up options.  East it is.

And my dream world already comes to a crashing halt as my body walks into some pygmy orcs.  Breaking one guys nose in the process....

I fail to beat him in three rounds so the other guy recovers and I have to fight him as well.  Once dispatched I hear the noise of a patrol coming down the tunnel.  And now I am back to the bone cave with my original choices so I head West.

I find an underground river, it seems noxious and there is rope I can use to climb across.  Or I can wait for a bit.  Or how about jumping back to the dream world?  Ill try the rope.  

I have to roll a dice and I roll a 1.  That can't be good.  I lose 1 stamina with my hand going into the water.  Now its a skill role which I pass.  

So, it turns out the rope is used by a ferry to pull along and cross the water.  In good news when it appears it just a single ferryman.  Bad news, he is an Ogre and instantly can tell I am up to no good with the whole climbing on the ferry rope thing and attacks.

Honestly Sir I was in a rush and could not wait.

If he rolls a double 6 I get knocked into the water automatically.  But that does not happen.  Considering I have an advantage of 3 on skill we have a lot of draws.  I defeat him though and take the boat to the opposite side.

In a dank tunnel I can go North or West, but lets try the dream world.  This does not seem to be the best choice as I feel overwhelming dread.  I am advised I will need high power.  Well its currently at 16 so lets try.

Turns out it is a mirror image of myself.  I have to fight it.  But in the dream world its reducing power instead.  We have identical power scores.  I must roll 2 dice.  2-7 and it reduces my power by 2.  Roll 8-12 and I reduce its power by 2.  Oh my, that gives the advantage to the mirror image.

And as you would expect with the odds weighted against me I do not get close (it still has 6 power left) and the text tells me I have killed myself.

Notable Encounters - 

I love an early encounter where your poor (some may say arrogant) assumption you will be able to forage food leads you to having a fight with a bunch of squirrels as you try and steal their food stores.  What a terrible Wood Elf you are. 

The Stags are great as long as you do not desecrate the bones, like a good Wood Elf.

A companion!  Guess what, he dies.  I know what a shock.

The imaginatively named Eric Rune Axe, is actually not a well man.  Most of the options revolve around killing him.  But if you really persevere he will join you for a few pages before his inevitable death.  I do like how his decent to madness is explained by what's happening to the forest.  But my favorite bit, and the reason to keep him alive, he is an ex adventurer who got lost in the Maze of Zargor so quit.  Yes Eric my good man, we have all been there!  I feel your pain.

A scene from many School Dinners.

I love the cook encounter.  Mainly because she is raging the Dark Elf raiding party have not shown up with her meat.  A nice little nod to the previous events of the boot.  And her assistant made a mistake and is now in the pot. 

These are all real world encounters of course.  If I look at the dreams, wow where do I start?

Some of the dreams you have - 

• Yaztromo in Allansia tells you how important your quest is, and that you are going in the wrong direction.
• You see the start of the Trial of Champions book.
• There is a dream of what I think is our planet with cities and cars, described as metal beasts with captured humans.

The dream world in

 the dungeon though is off the wall crazy.  Just like real dreams the transitions make no sense.  Ride Giant sandworms, get swept up in tidal waves, Fly on a dragon, Cowboys and Indians and of course this -

The Trial of Ghosts....

This is the single most insane puzzle ever in FF.  First roll a dice and the number is your starting point. From there you have to use five squares to get to the middle.  You can go horizontal, vertical and diagonal.  Then add up the total of all the squares and go to that page.  If it makes no sense you die.  The chances of randomly picking the correct path must be so remote!  Absolutely no clues whatsoever either.  Madness. 

Artwork - 

Here we have Ian Miller, who has done covers before but his first internal art.  And wow, I absolutely love it.  It gives me a real early Warhammer chaos feeling.   This is right up my street, possibly the best I have seen since Deathtrap and Iain McCaig.  I have never before spoken about the little separator art but even that is really good.

All the art from my playthrough was great.  A lot of these scans are not great either, they look so much better in my book.

The Tree Devil is one of my favorites, look how chaotic he looks.

Riding on the back of a dream dragon while everything below is burning.

The crowd in your dream turn into the Trial of Ghosts.

These are how all Orcs should look.

But my favorite is the Chaotic Orc, absolutely amazing! 

I have to really dig in here to find one I do not really like.

This is an odd very specific puzzle, but the cave part looks very odd.

Big Bad - 

Ishtra, half Crocodile, half Goat, all Demon.

A Demon Prince that does what all good Demon Princes do, threaten all existence.  Ishtra's influence is felt heavily throughout the book as it is at pains to tell you the effect it is having on the forest as it degrades.  Even when dreaming it likes to remind you that closer to his lair the more disturbing effects it has on you.

In game the final confrontation has a little bit of preamble and words but nothing more than haha punny elf taste my fireball.  Good luck taking him on in the physical world,  he can not be fought traditionally.  You have to collect all 6 random numbered artifacts and laid them out in the correct way.  Putting them in the right place is not too bad if you pay attention to one particular dream.  Finding the artifacts though would be very tough.  Including needing to role double 3s when another double leads to instant death.

Dream land Ishtra is a bit more reasonable.  While most dream fights are weighed against you, this one is a straight up skill fight to see who hits and power replaces stamina.  Although you do have to dream fight a host of creatures first, good luck getting through them with enough power left with the randomness and weighting in their favour.  But it is cool that there are two completely different ways to beat him.

Just not sure about the Crocodile and Goat combination, I am sure it sounded great while designing. 

Menagerie -      

Lots of the usual here, various types of Orcs, Goblins, Giant Scorpions, Ogres, Trolls.  Standard fantasy line up.  But this book does a good job of introducing some new creatures that fit really well in the setting.  They fit well because Robin Waterfield does a really good job of telling us a bit about them, almost like a mini out of the pit entry.

From my playthrough I found the Arctolyc fascinating for example but others include - 

The Angaroc is a snake type creature with spiders legs and hunts you in your dreams.

Prowlers are some cross between wolves and wasps.  There young are hatched as larvae. 

That nice deer I came across in the forest turns out to be a Shapeshifter.  And controversially I think the best looking Shapeshifter so far. 

The Weevil Man looks amazing!  They are rare and have been forced back to the darkest parts of the forest.

The Quartz Golem, seen here after pretending to be a door.

Also we get some more standard guys like the Dark Elves I met - 

If you have Eric you get treated to an illustration.

The mutant Ogre jailer Shikara.  Who I must admit I initially read as Shakira, her hips don't lie.

Entertaining Deaths - 

Getting dripped on by a death dripper, and having to hack off your own arm.

Walking straight into a bog and sinking.

Living your days out tending a faire garden

Falling into the river, they cant tell you if you drown or eaten by fish as it is irrelevant to the future of Titan.

Your stolen axe clatters off the side of the tunnel alerting a patrol to your presence.  Orcs and Goblins trap you and shoot crossbow bolts up and down in an amusing game.

A dream parasite lodges itself in your stomach and drains your power.

My favorite though is - Staring into a crystal ball which shows you your death at the hands of an orc while you stare at a crystal ball, which then immediately happens. 

Pete's Corner - 

How do we know the whole thing is not a dream?  

Final Thoughts - 

Overall I really enjoyed this book.  There are a lot of positives to take form it.   Being a Wood Elf, even with a name, Eldenurin, was a departure from the norm.  I do prefer it being you the hero but I am happy to try something else and I think in this setting it worked.

The big challenge was the dream switching, and I am very impressed with how Robin Waterfield manages it.  Writing a gamebook must be a hell of a technical challenge at the best of times, never mind adding the complexity of flipping between the real world and the dream world almost at whim at some stages.  It is an excellent example of planning and mapping out.  Honestly I can't really convey how impressive it is to me, a mere mortal.

The writing is also fantastic.  Too many FF's have been bland but you can not level that criticism here.  The paragraphs are chunky and filled with lore and information, especially about new creatures you come across.  It really helps paint that picture in your head, which is especially needed in the dream sequences.  This is how it should be.

And the uniqueness of some of the creatures as well.  It must have been hard to come up with original fantasy ideas, especially for a forest environment which has been done in this series already!  But Mr Waterfield does it very well.  What might just be random creatures being thrown together to make fancy hybrids actually work as he gives them a story.

Another reason it works is the amazing art to back it up.  This really is up there with the best I have seen.  It might not be everyone's taste but I grew up playing Warhammer and this is a great example of that Chaos feel.  I looked up to see if Ian Miller did any more interior work but it looks like the answer is no.  Which is devastating.  But the combination of the art and the descriptive text really brings this book alive for me, you feel immersed.  My only complaint is minor and it is that maybe we could have had more dream sequence art rather than real world.

I also enjoyed the story, it made sense and the pacing felt good as I was not coming up against blistering difficult opponents early on.  Ishtra is an ok bad guy, I would say average.  In fact if anything Ishtra for me is upstaged by Morphius (good luck not picturing Lawrence Fishburne) and his nightmares.  You can never kill him as you are fighting him in a nightmare and would kill yourself, its very clever. 

So this books great then, what more could you want?  Well it does get let down in some areas.

Magic spells are a great addition but they feel like a wasted opportunity here. You hardly get to use them and then you get locked out of them completely in the second half.  I would imagine because it was already technically difficult moving between worlds without the added complication of spells.  In my opinion should have been dropped completely.   

Random dice rolls, urgh, I hate them.  At one point you get to some doors and instead of just picking you have to roll a double and then go into that door.  So choice is taken away for no good reason at all.  What compounds it is that one door is instant death and another has a crucial item for beating Ishtra in the physical realm.

And that trial of ghosts, I am only not lambasting it as you can avoid it but my word, it makes no sense whatsover.  Just kill me rather than the 1/1000 or whatever the odds are chance I have of randomly picking the right path.  Waste of a good puzzle idea.

The biggest problem is dream fighting though.  It just does not work mechanically.  Every combat is weighted in favour of the opponent.  All this servers to do is make you avoid the dream world, which is a shame as the whole point of the book is to traverse both realms.  Its a cheap way of artificially raising the difficulty.  This needs fixed above else, even if its another stat to replace skill in dreams and to fight normally or something along those lines.

This is a real shame as with that and a few niggles ironed out, this would be a great book.  It is still good though and well worth a go, especially to see the art (not the cover)!

Score 7 out of 10.

Star Strider

Background - 

The Puffin executives are assembled.  They are all in suits apart from a few who appear to be wearing high ranking military uniforms.  They stand in an operations centre behind some thick glass shielding, looking down at the room below.

The room is filled with scientists scurrying about making last minute adjustments at computer terminals and various parts of the large mechanism that dominates the room.  It is a portal type structure very much looking like a stargate, except the film has not been made yet so they don't know its a stargate so can not be done for copywrite.  The device splutters with sparks and blue lightning.

Ian and Philippa are in the corridor outside, away to enter the room but Ian is clearly agitated. 

Ian "You know it's not ready!  If this goes wrong it could destroy reality as we know it!  The risk is too high!"

Philippa "We need more books Ian!  This project is the next closest to completion so we are going for it!  We have invested a huge amount into this.  The generals will want to see results!"

Ian "We do not need any more books, nobody is completing Crypt of the Sorcerer, its impossible!"

Philippa "That will just delay them.  They will just give up and throw it away.  No we need fresh content or kids pocket money will go to the next big thing.  We can not give them a moment to think!"

Ian "But even at the risk of the very fabric of reality itself?"

Philippa looking bemused as if Ian had said something stupid "Yes, of course."

With that she swipes her card on the security door and enters the room overlooking the stargate.  

Philippa "Gentleman (its the mid 80s so it's all old men), welcome to the launch of the Star Strider project.  From here we will traverse the expanse of space and pull back what our calculations show is that galaxies greatest gamebook writer."

Suit 1 "Very ambitious Philippa.  We have a lot invested this."

Philippa "And you will see that investment rewarded."

Philippa makes a signal for the lead scientist to begin.  Ian slowly backs out of the room, intent on getting as far away as quickly as possible.

The stargate whirs into life, loud noises and blue electricity dominate the room.  Then a humanoid figure pushes through the liquid centre of the stargate.  Everyone stares in awe.

Suit 2 "Are you sure that's someone from another galaxy, he looks just like us?"

Scientists hold up beeping equipment to the bemused looking man.  Lots of beeping ensures.

Lead Scientist "Yep these readings confirm, this being is from Messier 83 galaxy.  Hello, can you understand us?"

Mystery Being "Yes."

Suit 2 "And he speaks English, of course."

Mystery Being "Where am I?"

Lead Scientist "A planet called Earth in what we call the Milky Way galaxy."

Mystery Being "Why?"

Philippa bursts into the room "To write a great gamebook."

Mystery Being "Really?  Well I guess I could do that.  Can I go home afterwards?"

Philippa "Sure you can, let me take you to our writing studio.  What is your name?"

Mystery Being "Alkis Alkiviades"

Philippa "Yeah, that wont work here, you need a new alias."

She looks him up and down, marveling at the nice looking alien clothes.

Philippa "Looking Sharp there, wait that's it, Luke Sharp.  Welcome to Earth."

With that everyone trundles out of the lab congratulating each other.  The janitor who is cleaning up some of the mess grumbles.

Janitor "Ok he might be the best gamebook writer of that galaxy, but what happens if everyone else there was rubbish?"

Star Strider was released in May 1987 and is one I have never played before.  The Sci-Fi ones never appealed to me but as I have played through these books they were nowhere near as bad as I thought.  It's another new author.  But when I had a look in You are the Hero, Luke Sharp is actually a gentleman named Alkis Alkiviades.  The name was changed as back in the 80s they thought someone with a name like that could not possibly write a gamebook in English.  Now I love the 80s but I am very glad thinking like that is more a thing of the past.  I always look forward to a new author though and Sci-Fi books normally have interesting extra mechanics.

Covers - 

Well if I asked MidJourney to produce an image based on the prompt of a green alien with a glowing electricity sword and a gun, while surfing down a futuristic tunnel, I would not have got anything this good.

It is actually quite an underrated cover when I think about it as it is not one I would normally pick up, but looking at it now it really is quite something.  Although I still do not really have any clue to what's going on here.  Impressive balance though.  I would fall off and impale myself on the laser sword.

Only thing though is that he does look a bit like the Grinch.

I let Midjourney have a go and it was not half bad.  The AI revolution is getting closer!  But don't worry it can't handle the surf board aspect yet, we are still safe....for now. 

Premise - 

First up we get a definition of a Rouge Tracer - A hunter of fugitives, criminals and wanted beings who have a price on their heads.  Formally known as bounty hunters.  Licensed by the Tracebeam Organisation.  Elite Rouge Tracers are known as Star Striders.  From the Encyclopedia Galactica.

Ah so what you are saying is I am Boba Fett?  Ok this sounds cool so far.

The background section in this book is replaced with a much more thematic mission.  It is like you are sitting at a mid 80s computer terminal.

President Xerin of the Galaxy One Federation has been kidnapped by the Gromulans.  Wow not just any president but the one from Galaxy One!  Not Galaxy 327.  He has been taken to Earth in order for him to be brain scanned.  The Zand Corporation assures us that his cephaloprotector will hold out for 48 hours.  After then the computer defence codes will be compromised and the pesky Gromulans will pass the data onto the Empire of the Purple Flag!  

I am the best Rogue Tracer is Sector 6 and currently sit 97th on the galactic money-making table.  If I accept I will get my standard rate.  I like how they talk about money before the mission.  

Anyway the mission if you choose to accept it is to locate the President and get him out.  Spacefleet 7 will be hanging about Earth orbit for my signal.  Please note that the successful completion of you mission will make you very rich but if you do not accept Tracebeam will stop sending you more work.  

Please indicate you acceptance of the mission, and then a Y/N DOS prompt appears.

N

Score 1 out of 10.

Only joking of course we press Y (this is still the mission background so I did not have a choice).  

Because we have accepted we get a little more data.  The Gromulans are humanoid, hyper-intelligent people of unknown origin that only usually dabble in the much smaller scale, world terrorism.  They are Android building experts and masters of illusion.  They built the Illus-o-vision 70 (wow that name), for the Galaxy Ents Corporation but they swindled the Gromulans on the copywrite so they have now invented the Illus-o-scope.

The Gromulans will be expecting a rescue attempt so be careful but there are some Androids that are undercover and will help you.  But maybe not as the Gromulans are really good at turning Androids to their cause.

Earth is now a small insignificant planet that was once heavily populated but now most of humanity have migrated to Alphacent.  Its only source of credits are servicing freight cruisers and mining salt.  The Gromulans have been using it as a base since the last centaury.  

Alas your Phozon crystal does not work in this solar system so can't pinpoint locations.  You will have to signal the fleet once the president is found.  The remoteness of Earth and lack of sensors has meant there are a lot of fugitives there, so might be able to do a bit of bounty hunting on the way.

So a little bit of a break here from me just to say what the hell is going on?  Some information is repeated, others make no sense as there is not any context and my god, those device names.  Makes me feel like this is like one of those terrible early 70s Doctor Who episodes.  

Wait, is this actually a comedy?

Next we get a likely enemies section - 

Gromulans - 

Gromulans would rather surrender than get in a fight.  They specialise in deception and can talk the three hind legs of a Wooki.  Wait a what?

They have now settled earth despite being nomadic and are developing there Ilussion-o and Android tech.  They have an addiction to chess and small earth snails.  

Gromulan Androids - 

The power base of the Groms.  Ok if the book is calling them Groms so am I.  Basically stay away from Excel Class, they are very dangerous.  All others will be fine (Word, Outlook, PowerPoint etc),  but if its Excel class find a weak point.  The Groms are very paranoid so have built in weak points  just in case.  Oh and all Androids can self destruct.  Wonderful.

Fugitives and Criminals - 

You may meet anyone from a tax dodging Ferian to a Pirate Prince.  If they suspect you of being a Rogue Tracer they will run or attack.  But you operate within galactic law so can not kill any humans (what about other races?) and if I do I will be a fugitive and hunted down.  

Houlgans - 

Ok tongue in now firmly in cheek if it was not already.  Local feuding gangs who base their fanaticism on a long forgotten religion which revolved around colours of clothes and scarves.  They move about in hordes.  Do not wear a coloured scarf or they will take offence.  Notorious ones include are R'al (Real Madrid, L'Pool (Liverpool) and G'ners (Arsenal who are the Gunners).  Juve also get a mention who are pretty much already called that and Stienn, not sure who they are meant to be.  Probably a German team.

Illusory monsters and demons - 

Groms love this sort of thing.  Always remember that an illus-o-scope will be nearby.  You WILL be frightened, Grom illusions have been known to make a Brontian take fright and can also be very large scale.

Weapons - 

Rogue Tracers do not carry personal arms.  No of course they do not, what self respecting galactic bounty hunter would want weapons.....  Instead they use the Catchman which was designed by Ulidor Zonie.  It shoots out a fine plastic which pretty much makes a net to immobilise your target.  Slight problem, the Catchman is very unreliable with a 33% failure rate which seems ridiculously high for a weapon of choice for a Bounty Hunter that is carrying no other weapons!  It says we are trained in the use of all weapons, which just makes it even more dumb that I am not using any.  97th on the galactic money maker table, out of how many?  98?

Oh boy, not sure about this one.  It seems laced with comedy and satire which I do not mind normally but not sure I want that in a Fighting Fantasy book.

Playthrough - 

Ok time to pay attention as when reading through your usual skill, stamina, luck section, at no point does it not say you can not go above your initial scores.  Absolutely about time! 

No fancy combat mechanics other than if you roll a double 6 against an android you find its weak point and deactivate it.  Sounds fun but I can tell you the chances of a double 6 for me in combat are so remote.  

We also get a Fear score, works the same as luck and determines how scared you are of the Groms illusions.  It does say that the fear score stays the same throughout the mission so it does not reduce each time you test like in other books.

Time is also introduced for the first time since I think Seas of Blood?  We start with 48 time units and if it hits zeros you automatically lose as the Groms have extracted what they need from the Presidents brain.  Oh my god is this going to be like 24?

I have decided we are trying to save President Palmer.

Also the adventure sheet is quite futuristic looking with the time counter to be marked down.  However there is also an oxygen counter which is a bit worrying.  Absolutely no kit or provisions or anything like that.  Do I even have the Catchman weapon?  Who knows.

Instead there is a box for Clues and another box for Calculations (joy).

Skill - 10

Stamina - 19

Luck - 11

Fear - 12

Well that is pretty average Skill and Stamina, probably what you would expect for the 97th best bounty hunter.  I am quite lucky though which is probably why I got this gig.  One thing though is that I am not scared of anything!  Bring on your crappy illusions Groms for I have balls of steel!

Right lets get going, better not wear my Ab'deen scarf though just in case.

That dude on the left better reign in his look before we have a problem!

I park my shuttle in the bay and head over to a dirty looking ticket office.  Nobody is around so I have to bang on the glass.  An out of date Android eventually appears and has trouble understanding me.  Eventually it gives me a ticket for the shuttle after I give out my credit card.  It says that will do nicely.  

I get on the shuttle and there are only five other people on board this twenty seater.  I get directed to my seat and given then safety brief.  The book tells me I sit on something sticky.  Everything sounds very run down and shabby.  The steward offers me a cocktail or some food.  Can I not have both?  Well better not drink on the job so I ask for some food.  It is offered as a cube, and gives me 1 stamina and wow we are over the initial stamina!

The shuttle eventually lands in a desolate area of sector 3.  The station is very empty, a left over from the days of bigger shuttles.  I can head over to the abandoned looking ZipCar stand, follow the rest of the passengers out to the Silverhound public transport.  Or go and speak to the android Sweepertron cleaning the place.  Well that sounds oddly specific so I go for it.

It just drops its vacuum and walks out a side door and I follow.  It hits the code match and I find out he is an informant android.  It tells me that the Groms are based in four cities and the Silverhound bus is the only mode of transport to all cities.  The ZipCar company (Rocket-a-Hire) has withdrawn services due to a lack of demand.  All high level Groms are linked to all the bases using ComTerms, try and get access to one of the terminals.  Then he just blows himself up!

Woah there dude!  What are you doing?  Just keep working undercover!  No need to immolate yourself!

Bit wild that.  Time to get on the bus.

Greyhound busses have come a long way.

All the passengers from the shuttle are on board.  Listening in to their conversation they are sales reps for salt mining equipment.  I fall asleep watching Galactic Ent adverts.  At this point I wonder if they are Ents like Treebeard in Lord of the Rings but futuristic.  Really need an illustration of these guys!  My power nap cost me 2 time units.  I wake up as the bus is pulled over by the local GromPol androids.  When they check my ID and that I am a Rouge Tracer they escort me of the bus.  I can make a run for it or follow them.  Well I have done nothing wrong so I go with them.

They take me into their craft and the Grom commander asks who am I tracing.  Do I remain silent or give him a name.  Erm I do not have a name so I remain silent.  In good news apparently this is ok as Rogue Tracers never give out names.  Well being the 97th best Rogue Tracer you would think I would already know that, or I don't know, have it mentioned in the background.

The commander reacts as you would expect.

Erm wait a minute.  This is an illusion yeah, yeah?

Its clearly an illusion and it does not scare me so I get back on the bus.  How very odd.  Another two time units are used as I watch someone else watching a Galactic Ents Soap.  Which honestly sounds more fun at this stage.

The bus stops at a diner called Julio's for a spot of breakfast.  When looking at the various food cubes I lock eyes with Kinta Lopsti, an escaped prisoner who I originally put behind bars.  He immediately makes a run for it.  Do I stay or give chase.  Well I am not going to move up the list from 97th best bounty hunter by letting scum like Kinta Lopsti get away!

I fire my Catchman but of course it misfires as its useless.  You had to roll 5+ on 1d6.  Its a fist fight instead but he is only skill 6 so I take him down with ease.  I store his unconscious body in a nearby cellar and mark him for collection later.

When I get back to Julio's everyone is watching me as they know what I am.  That's right, the 97th best bounty hunter in the sector.   Julio himself asks if I got him and I can reply or just eat away.  I am nice enough though and reply.  He is pleasant enough and is glad to have a Rogue Tracer around as he only sees Groms and criminals these days.  Apparently the remaining humans are treated as second class citizens.  He then tells me about his son who is a Houlgan based in Madrid.  But he is a good lad really.  Jose 90 is his name.  With that I gain a luck point and head back to the bus.   Back on board I see a Gromulan getting served an omelette and realise I never actually ate so lose 1 stamina point.

Before we get to Madrid I listen in to the reps dirty stories of the pleasure planet of Luxurus.  We arrive in Madrid and I get off the bus.  I see a sign for services and head towards that.

  

A map!  With very straight lines....

Most services have been cancelled due to lack of interest so it looks like all we have is a straight line from Madrid, to Rome, to Paris to London.  And then back again.  Seems quite sparse, almost like a limitation of being in a gamebook.  Two more time units used up.  As I am checking this out an Android comes over and signals the CodeMatch pulse!  Remember though some Androids are turned.  The other Android did not approach me, I had to go to him so I am very suss.  Lets follow him first.

Right enough the Android goes over to some Groms, lucky they have no idea what I look like.  The Android moves on and I can follow him or go up to some Houlgans.  Now if this was real life I would be giving the Houlgans a massive wide berth.  Even large groups of them normally struggle to have a single brain cell between them.  But this is a gamebook and I have the name of a Houlgan that happens to contain a number between 1-400 so I know what I am going to do.

They surround me and ask for credits but the leader has 90 on his neck so we know who he is.  If we know his name multiply letters in his name by the tattoo number.  I make that 360.  

Jose is shocked I know his name.  I explain how I am mates with his dad from the diner so they take me out for a meal.  Its a lovely sea food option which gives me 3 stamina points back.  

They also hate Grom's so they want to help.  I let them know I need to get access to one of the terminals and they have two ideas.  The Plaza de Toros which is open only for Androids or the Hacienda which is less heavily guarded.  Hmm lets go for the option that is easier and not named after a bull.

Ah very pretty.

Another two time units and we are at the hacienda.  It is however covered with laser beams.  Ah so a Skill test I would assume.  Nope, roll a dice.  Then if you roll another dice and the number is the same you hit the beam.  Its not just one test either, you have to do this three times.  

I fail with the very first test rolling 2 twice.  Once I hit the beam everything goes fluid and I am on a giant chessboard.  I am being chased by a black knight.  He is right behind me and a pawn in front of me.  I can either move to the left or stay still.  Well a pawn cant take me unless its diagonal and the knight has to go left or right so I stay still.

This is correct and the Knight goes off to the side which lets me jump off the chessboard.  Things then go back to normal and I hide from some Grompol patrols.  Do I then get to look back at the hacienda with maybe some time penalty?  Nope the bus is due to leave so I head back to the station.

Alas when I get back to the station the bus is full.  I show my Rogue Tracer ID and an Android decides to kick an elderly lady off so I can get on.  Wow what a dick I am haha.  I have to sit next to an Excel but unfortunately the locals are very rowdy and drunk so I do not get any rest.  Another two time units down.  Now at 38 left for those counting.

We arrive in Roma and its an absolute dump.  The only option is to go to a fast food and sleep unit.  Going in causes the robot voice of that will do nicely again.  I have some horrible duck mush while a women stares at me.

Erm hello?

And then she shuts the door to her sleep unit and I do the same.  Gain 6 stamina points.  I am now sitting at a record 28 stamina points.  In the morning I can follow her or hurry on for my search.  Not really much info of what hurry on a search means so I decide to be a creepy stalker.

She knows I am following but Roma is busy and I get stopped by a Grompol to check my ID.  But I pass my luck test and I catch up with her.  And I know her!  A Rogue Tracer by the name of Arana.  No word if she is higher or lower than 97th.  She has been hired by the Groms to go after Orvium Egburg who has stolen some firmware.  He is in Roma and she suspects there is vital information on the chips so I decide to tag along.

However we immediately split up!  Do I want to go to the Roxyrama or Gino's Club?  Always got to head to the club.  I stop for an ice cream and run foul of some more police.  Again I feel I have done nothing wrong so I see what they have to say.  A Grom uses an illusion to make himself good looking, ok I guess.  Turns out they are also after Orvium so happy to help me.  I get to the other side of the road block.

Turns out Gino's is in a really bad part of town.

These Android gangs are notorious, early experiments of Grom personality experiments now on the prowl for spare parts.  I do not even get an option to talk or fight, its just which way do you run, left or right.  Always left.

They catch me and rob me.  But its not as bad as it sounds.  They find my ID and take me back to the main gang.  I explain my reason for being here and turns out they really hate the Groms so want to help.  They saw the presidents craft near the salt mines.  They can help me get there.  Or do I keep looking for Orvium and my fellow rouge tracer.  Nah, the mission is to get the president and this is the best lead so far so I agree to their help.

By help, they mean take me to a used car salesmen.

Honest Luig Six tells me he cant sell me any of these cars as its banned by Grom law.  My Android mates take him aside and "persuade" him.  So I get my Zip Car and speed away above the city heading North.

As I get to the Salt Flats, an old Grom ship hails me and tells me to stop.  Normally I would but now I have done something wrong by being in the car.  Its also described as an old model with stuff stuck on it, which does not sound legit.  So time to fight.

Turns out they are Bandits.  The Zip Car fight works like a normal fight but I do not actually lose stamina.  It is only Skill 7 and is easily dispatched.  

I land at the salt mines and find the remains of the presidential droid.  I plug the recall chips into my chronograph and see the last moments from the androids viewpoint.  A clue with the Grom pilot, Q867 RT88 20KK 169A.  Apparently these are London area codes (and probably page references).

And then look up to see a real craft shooting to kill.

Do I want to dive into a salt trench or run for the car?  Well I imagine if I go for the car its going to be blown up and I think I need it so I go into the Salt trench.  Turns out the walls are not solid and I kick one down and find a conveyer belt full of salt heading back to Roma, so I sit down and go back to the city via the conveyer belt.  Not what I expected.   Add to stamina for good measure, now up to a ludicrous 30.

I get back to the city after using up 2 more time units.  The androids at the factory do not care as they are dedicated to their jobs.  Which ladder do you want to climb up, left or right?  

You know I went left.  I pop out in the middle of a street and just avoid a zip car.  The chronometer beeps as the bus is due to leave for Paris.  Do I go back or continue my investigation.  Well I need to get to London so I guess Paris is on the route.

No need to kick out any old people this time as only 2 other passengers head to Paris, both Androids.  Another 2 time units spent but 3 stamina added.  Apparently the Groms think the founding of Roma is related to their race.  Not sure what is meant by that bit of flavor.

The bus then gets attacked!

Not sure what I am paying Silver Hound for but the driver asks us for help so me and the androids head to the weapons.  I have two to shoot down in a special encounter.  I shoot them down and when I turn around I see all the androids self destructing, including the pilot.  I run in and switch auto pilot on but alas its broken and wont stay on.  Through no choice of my own, my character decides to give it a kick, which means take a luck test.

My kick is successful and the auto pilot works.  I gain 6 more stamina and lose 2 more time units as we role into Paris.

Paris is overgrown and as I fly over I see an old highway jam packed with retro cars.  Apparently it was the scene of the worlds biggest traffic jam.  As someone that went to Paris this year (to watch Scotland in the rugby world cup, we got mauled by Ireland) the traffic is beyond mental.  It makes no sense!  So Luke must have also been there at some point!

Alas when I land in Paris I am arrested for unauthorized flying.  Yeah no more playing nice, I decide to attack rather than suffer such a grave injustice.  The first android goes down before I have to properly fight the other skill 8 Grompol Android.

I only get hit once but I have soooo much stamina by now it makes no difference to me.  As I flee the scene I can either hide in a warehouse or go down a manhole cover.  I have no interest in going down a sewer dungeon so into the warehouse I pop.

Its an android factory, but only thing moving is a forklifttron, sigh.  Which door do you want to go through, left or right.  Yet again no indication or any clues.  I stick to left and I am in a laser room.  I have to get past 6 rooms of lasers.  To do this role a dice for each room.  If I role the same number back to back, its death.

First dice I roll is 2, and the very next throw is also a 2.... I am hit by a laser and its game over.  Thank God its over.

Notable Encounters - 

I am going to have to stretch my definition of notable here.  Ok you can come across a robot that needs some help from some Houlgans.

He is just trying to move some boxes!

His name is Wil-1, so we name him Willi.  He is really bad at moving boxes and keeps dropping them and all around seems a bit useless.  Except he is a monster in combat, taking down Excels and everything with no worries.  He gets you into his masters house no problem and lights tunnels with his eyes.  All the time while slowly breaking down.  If you stay loyal to him though he eventually shuts down and you are lost in the dark so you have to do the dick move of leaving him before then.

Cowboy Beebop!

This Excel is holding a town hostage in fear as he thinks he is in a western.  You can get into a old school gun fight with him, and shoot him in the back and the entire town helps take him down, with the aid of a car gun.

At one point you can end up in a Groms house, and its really odd.  You can go in multiple directions and they all end in a crazy encounter involving an illusion such as a spiked ball smashing into a water tank.  Its all pretty strange and you end up having to play chess.

Androids in Madrid love a bull fight.

Yep you can end up being a matador (inadvertently).  Once you escape you can end up in a flight with oxygen running out through some random coloured rooms...yeah.

The final act is the London Underground.

So the big finale is a riding a hoverboard through the ruins of the London underground.   Just as well you have the coordinates (hopefully) as wrong turn will probably lead to your death.  It sounds cool but its a bit frustrating.  And then...

There is a Jungle in the underground.

Alas this is the correct way to go and you have three choices, with no clues.  So its 33.33% chance of going the right way.

Artwork - 

The go to man for Sci-Fi, Gary Mayes is back for his third outing.  Interestingly they have all been Sci-Fi books so far.  In those two outings I said it was a mixed bag, and you know what, it is the same here.  But I do think this is the weakest outing of the three as well.

From my playthrough nothing has really stood out.  I think the Android informant self destructing is my favorite.

The galactic rescue fleet is probably my favorite.  But you only see this in an instant death scene which is a waste.

A vital scrap of paper on this cool dead Android.

A dragon going after a flying space transport.  Pretty Cool.

But a lot of meh as well.

In the warehouse of meh.

Fake clues.

Nothing terrible mind you, I just don't think they do sci-fi illustrations very well.

Big Bad - 

There was no big bad.  Unless its this guy getting the presidents memories.

Unnamed Grom technician, the big bad of Star Strider. 

He faints as soon as you appear so yeah, that's it.

Menagerie - 

For a Sci-Fi novel it is quite limiting.  Most encounters are Androids of some description or bandits.  Sometimes the occasional Grom, its a very sparse variety.  

There are some cat people from Wiskas-4....

Grompol..... Freeze Punk!

The Lurgan is lurking around the highways.  I mean he could have been anything but he just looks like a bog standard human.

You can briefly fall into star wars to fight this dude.  Guess what his fancy sci-fi name is.  Yeah he is just called a warrior.

You don't fight many Groms, they just try and scare you with terrible illusions.

Entertaining Deaths - 

Now there is a lot of deaths, but entertaining they are not.  One liners like if you lose you have no excuse do not wash well with me.

Your stolen Grompol car needing fuel, and the ejection seat fails as you crash.

Or the ejector seat does work but you break both legs on the landing and get picked up by the GromPol.

Getting into a cowboy western type face off with a cowboy android where you ask him where his horse is.

Stealing a rocket bike which blows up as it has an anti theft device.

Thinking a dragon is just an illusion, it is, but its really a missile that blows up the rescue craft.

But my favorite way of dying in Star Strider is of course..... Missing the Bus.

Pete's Corner - 

I don't like Chess.

Final Thoughts - 

So I always thought I did not like the Sci-Fi entries when I rake my memories.  But as I have played through them I have not felt they were that bad.  Star Strider has put me back into that mind set.  I really, really struggled with this one.  At first it was a bit funny but my word this got turgid.  Where to even start?  I always like to have something positive to go with and for this book I will call out the maths puzzles which were fun (cant believe I found maths fun) but they were well constructed.

And that is it for the positives.  So I actually got so bored during my playthrough I stopped for quite some time to play Balder's Gate and then forced myself to go back to it.  I mean everything was just so bland.  From the premise, to the writing, to the adventure itself.  So many decisions that you had to make based on bugger all information.  Will you climb the left or the right ladder?  Will you go through the left door or the right.  I know this is not a new problem in Fighting Fantasy but it seems more pronounced here.  I can forgive it a bit if the story is good, but it wasn't.

The story is the hook, the reason for playing.  You are a bounty hunter and need to save the galactic president.  Cool so far, but the execution is horribly lacking.  Lets begin with the setting.  It is the galactic president so you have the whole galaxy to play with.  Yet its set on Earth, and a really boring version of Earth at that.  I mean it felt like you spent most of the adventure worrying about public transport.  Bus simulator would have been a more apt title.  

It did not get any better when I mapped it out.  The four locations of Madrid, Rome, Paris and London are not unique enough to be able to tell you are anywhere different.  Probably as you spend a lot of the time underground!  Madrid is by far the best and they get progressively worse as you go on.  

Also sometimes it does not matter if you go North or South, you end up in the same place anyway.  And frustratingly the better encounters are if you make daft decisions.  You can only end up with the Cowboy Android if you steal a car or get taken by Loptis gang which both make me think you have taken a questionable decision.  And even the Bull Fight which is kind of cool is ruined by a terrible maze type escape where you get no information other than colours of rooms.  I hate a maze. I mean its easy to get out before the oxygen runs out but its boring.

And finally you get to Ginos, a futuristic bar.  This will be great, with loads of aliens and situations to play out with a varied bunch of characters right?  Nope, we get minimal description and you end up playing russian roulette and falling into a sewer for yet another underground sequence.  

Lets talk mechanics.  Time is an interesting concept, but you are never going to have that much of a worry.  What is more likely is that you will make a dumb choice and the book will say you are stranded, lose all time units.  I also found fear a waste of time.  I mean you know they are illusions so what is the point?  A lot of the tests (like the one that killed me) are pure luck.  I realise they have been added for a bit of variety, but you have skill and luck for a reason.  There are a lot of them in this book.  The ones that make you roll dice and see if its more than stamina for example though do make sense and I like those.

I have already bemoaned the lack of variety in the menagerie section, it is sparse for a sci-fi book where the only limit is your imagination.  The only really unique thing here are the Gromulans.  I get its meant to be a camp sci-fi but the whole illusion thing just did not fit for me.  It is relied on far too heavily to try and make interactions more interesting.  But it does not work because we the player AND our character know they are illusions already.  Remember the Star Wars trilogy has been out for quite some time by now and Star Trek has existed for ages.  Instead they look humanoid and love chess and snails.

The lack of a big bad does hamper the book, so the ending sequence in the London Underground is much more important to make up for that.  Flying through the tunnels on a hoverboard should have been awesome.  A thrill ride full of edge of your seat encounters.  Nope, it is an orienteering exercise.

And your reward for getting past it all?  One measly paragraph where the President gives you a credit card and you can retire from being a Rogue Tracer.  Terrible writing.

Great artwork always appeals to me and would possible salvage some pride, but again its bland and I think the poorest of Gary Mayes efforts.  But I can't blame him if he had the same bland source writing to work with that we had to read.

Difficulty wise, I do not think this would take many playthroughs to beat.  The opponents are not tough so it is very fair in that regard and it does have many paths to victory which is a positive.  But you won't want to go back and try them.  

Even if I take this as more of a comedy adventure, its not that funny, its just cringy.  I mean it might have been funnier back in 1987, but I suspect it would not have been.  

Was I even playing a human?  Doubt it as did not even seem to care about Earth being where your race was from.

The best thing about Star Strider?  The Cover.  By miles.

Score - 2 out of 10.