Poll: Best Peter Darvill-Evans gamebook

[petch]

Similarly to Robin Waterfield in the last poll, Darvill-Evans' books are all pretty close together in the rankings thread's final table, so the potential is there for another hotly contested poll here. They all ranked in the upper reaches of the table too, so three quality books, then - but which is the best?

Poll closes at 10pm Tuesday 18th.

[sylas]

PDE was for me the next most complete FF author after Stephen Hand. His trilogy of gamebooks are wholly different and quite original and the gameplay is excellent with multiple ways to success. Sorely underrated by a mile.

[The Count]

Spectral Stalkers is leaps and bounds ahead of the others for me even though it is lacking in the fighting part on the true path

[terrysalt]

I never liked Spectral Stalkers all that much but both the others are excellent. In the end Portal of Evil was more memorable for me than Beneath Nightmare Castle so it got my vote.

[kieran]

Probably my favourite FF author. You can't really go wrong with any of them but Portal of Evil is my favourite. The story and atmosphere are excellent, it's fair and there's lots of fun Easter eggs to uncover. The only minor criticism is it leads you by the hand a bit too much at the start. But you can reject this and do your own thing and still beat the book, uncovering some interesting stuff in the process.

BNC is pretty creepy and again has lots to see and do. I don't think the Willpower stat is well used and it feels a tad on the short side but still a good book.

Stalkers is probably the most imaginative book in the series. If only it didn't have that awful maze and the world hopping felt like it had more of a point to it, it would perhaps be my favourite FF.

[CharlesX]

Beneath Nightmare Castle's fail endings are really good, especially for a pro Goth like me. They make the endings in Creature Of Havoc look like child's play.
   I'm still voting for Portal Of Evil. It was one of my first FF books, which I naturally enjoyed more then as a kid. Something about the world-building, with its combination of fantasy and dinosaurs, definitely stands out.

[vastariner]

They got better as time went on. BNC was a bit first effort, it was almost too nightmarish. Portal of Evil was fascinating and intriguing. Spectral Stalkers a masterpiece though. Great writing as well.

[bloodbeasthandler]

PDE's books remind me of good Dr Who. It's not always clear what or who the enemy is from the start. The mystery has to be unravelled during the book and then dealt with. He is one of FF's best writers.

[sleepyscholar]

Jan 16, 2022 13:22:05 GMT bloodbeasthandler said:

PDE's books remind me of good Dr Who. It's not always clear what or who the enemy is from the start. The mystery has to be unravelled during the book and then dealt with. He is one of FF's best writers.

No coincidence, then, that these books were written while Peter was editing Virgin Books' Doctor Who range... And co-writing the Doctor Who roleplaying game Time Lord, albeit in a minor capacity.

[petch]

These polls are certainly throwing up some tight contests! Once again, only one vote in it. Spectral Stalkers ran it close, but Portal of Evil goes through to the final.

[sylas]

I love that both Portal and Spectral try to teach the readers some important lessons. It's kind of subtle and might not even get noticed until after a few reads. Both are excellently told stories that have far more impact than the usual: you win, you're rich, and everyone's happy.

[natwa]

I voted for Spectral Stalkers, but both that and Portal of Evil are in my top 10 of best FF books, so this is the only poll so far(out of the individual authors polls) where I'm not that disappointed with the final winner. To me Spectral Stalkers wins out because of its sense of wonder and its charming quirkiness and because it is often also quite funny. Still, Portal of Evil, is also a great book and definitely also worthy of being in the big final.

Darvill-Evans is probably my favourite FF author. His books have more layers, more interesting and often also more multidimensional characters than most other FF books and he is also a FF author who tried something new with every book instead of sticking with a formula or a particular genre. It would have been interesting if someone created a post about characteristics of the books of Darvill-Evans, since he seems to be the writer who's style and focus is the hardest to pin down. He does not seem to have signature gameplay style, unlike Luke Sharp with hi insistence on random rolls that are addition to or instead of ability checks and such or Ian Livingston with his linear very one true path-stories where finding the right items is an essential part of the path to victory. And unlike, say, Stephen Hand with his mixture of Fantasy and Horror, he doesn't specialise  in a particular genre either. One thing I have noticed, though, is that all of his books seem to involve travelling to other dimensions. In Spectral Stalkers the main part of the book involves dimension travelling, but even in his other two books, you have to travel to another dimension in order to win. And like Bloodbeasthandler said, it's not clear who or what the enemy is at the start of the book and there is a mystery to unravel. While most other books makes it clear who the enemy is and what your goal is in the introduction, it seems all of the Darvill-Evans starts with an introduction that is more there to create an atmosphere and where the beginning of the book has more of an In medias res feeling, where you're put in the middle of the action without any real preparation and without really knowing what's going on and having to figure that out as well as finding out how to defeat the enemies and plots that you've eventually discovered and uncovered.

[bloodbeasthandler]

Jan 20, 2022 14:17:55 GMT natwa said:

It would have been interesting if someone created a post about characteristics of the books of Darvill-Evans, since he seems to be the writer who's style and focus is the hardest to pin down.

By all means start the thread, natwa.

I did some threads called 'Traits of [insert author name]'s gamebooks', but we never got round to Peter D-E.