I always kinda saw this as a cheap imitation of the first book [b:The Warlock of Firetop Mountain|429142|The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (Fighting Fantasy Reissues 1, #1)|Steve Jackson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1174675335s/429142.jpg|1725977], but it is actually a bit different. You get to play around with spells and it has an absurd almost Labyrinth like aesthetic.
I felt like this one gave me a lot of second chances too which was appreciated. ( )

Ok, after 3months of banging my head against a metaphysical wall, I gave in and googled and USED the walk through.
Not a bad story, and I probably could have done it on my own, if I'd taken the time to pay attention to what I was actually doing instead of just wandering around and crashing through whatever door took my fancy.

The main reason I read/played this was because way back in '91, I played [b:The Warlock of Firetop Mountain|429142|The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (Fighting Fantasy, #1)|Steve Jackson|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1174675335s/429142.jpg|1725977]. I LOVED it. Of course, I was a just minted teen, so what did I know? So I wanted to see if this would hold up, or even closely approximate the feeling I got from that first play.

Sadly, but practically known ahead of time, it didn't give me that euphoric high. While filling a backpack with spells and choosing your stats might be exciting, for the first time, I have since grown up. Computer games like Heretic and Hexxen took me to the next level and I never moved past them to full on RPG'ing.

So this was nostalgic. And we all know what happens with things that are nostalgic. Thankfully, this hasn't ruined my fond memories of yesteryear, it just means I won't be playing these books any more. Leave the past to enjoy itself. ( )