Might as well continue my longform review of the Scholastic Fighting Fantasy range. Maybe I'll get through them all! As always it will be long, so if you're not interested, just skip it.
Also as before, while I've tried to avoid revealing too much there are probably mild unmarked spoilers ahead, so beware:
Book and CoverThe original Robert Ball cover for The Port of Peril is a purple-y, cartoony-looking orc or ogre or something, with a vague red suggestion of a city and a ship behind it. It's big and angry and has a chunky axe but it's not exactly filled with character and doesn't give the reader much of an idea of what the book is actually about. It is in fact probably one of the most generic-looking covers in the entire series - at least a truly awful cover would have been more memorable. The title, Port of Peril (and the fact that it was written by Ian Livingstone) however does suggest that Port Blacksand will play a part, and ties it thematically to the other book that is primarily about Port Blacksand: City of Thieves.
However, later releases instead featured a gold foil cover and a 'window' with only a small amount of the image showing (the growly orc's head), which is worse, as the foil is poor quality and flakes off easily, making be book uglier and your own hands a bit more golden. I believe the spine in both editions comes with this same gold foil, and it sucks.
There is of course also a hardback edition with an alternative cover by the brilliant Iain McCaig. This one features a highly detailed barroom scene. While the scene is 'generic', the detail is great and every figure - almost all of them looking straight at the reader as if they'd just marched into the bar - seems to have their own story to tell. While this cover again doesn't tell us much about the contents of the book, it looks great. It also doesn't have any gold foil on the spine, and the back cover features a full-colour map of a big chunk of Allansia... though it is perhaps a telling hint that 'Salamonis' is misspelled here.
As with all the Scholastic Fighting Fantasy books, the quality of the paper is poor in the paperback version. I can't speak for the hardcover version, as I don't own it.
Internal ArtAt the time this book was printed, it seems that Scholastic had settled on having Vlado Krizan illustrate their books. As with his other books, the quality of the art is not great. It tends to be angular, lacking in detail, and due the greyscaling (and poor paper), looks muddy. The best pieces are usually the less conventional ones - the silhouette of a female adventurer against a cave mouth is well done, as is the play of light on a cave entrance shaped like a monster's head. However, more conventional monster/humanoid fare tends to be cartoonish. Perhaps the worst offender is the illustration of the villain of the piece, which looks rather amateurish and not at all threatening and really mutes the impression that his first physical appearance is meant to make on the reader.
The interstatial images seem very low-effort and are very generic, except for one of a box bearing a beetle motif, which actually is a reference to the plot.
I should note that a Brazilian release of the book supplied entirely new internal art for this adventure by Roger Goulart. It isn't a 1-to-1 replacement: the Brazilian version has more illustrations overall, with some paragraps that didn't have illustrations gaining them, and some losing theirs. Those illustrations are in bold black-and-white, pen-and-ink style. They have the look of a modern black and white graphic novel or comic book, and hews much closer to the old Puffin style illustrations. The difference in the big baddie illustration between the
Brazilian and
Scholastic editions is particularly interesting to make. If you haven't seen it, check it out.
StoryUnlike some Fighting Fantasy adventures, The Port of Peril doesn't have a clear goal to begin with, though it does eventually become a 'kill the evil overlord' affair. The protagonist is apparently a down-on-their luck adventurer (who, ironically, starts the adventure equipped exactly the same as most other early Fighting Fantasy adventurers do, including a full pack of 10 provisions) who has no money and has been sleeping rough and digging around in trash cans for food. As luck would have it, they come into posessions of a treasure map.
The adventure moves through a number of different stages. There is a short initial stint in the town of Chalice, where you try to make some cash, some purchases, and gain some information, followed by a short(?) trek to the Moonstone Hills. Once there, there is a very brief and mostly uneventful dungeon crawl, and then they meet up with a companion, a tracker/ninja named Hakasan. You aimlessly travel with her very briefly, at which point the actual story kicks off - you discover a plot to bring back Zanbar Bone (the big bad from the book "City of Thieves", which this book is a sequel to) by Lord Azzur (the ruler of Port Blacksand, and apparently Zanbar Bone's lackey) - a plot that involves utilizing the tower of the good wizard, Yaztromo. You then travel to Darkwood forest to try and warn Yaztromo, but may end up being sidetracked by a chance encounter that suggests you might want to go find Nicodemus (another good wizard) in Port Blacksand, forcing you to choose which wizard to go to first. Regardless of what you do, you will end up meeting Yaztromo, who assists you and provides some exposition, and travelling to Port Blacksand to rescue Nicodemus from Lord Azzur's dungeons in quite an enjoyable sequence. It ends in a climatic battle against Zanbar Bone outside Yaztromo's tower, with several allies fighting by your side.
What one might notice from this summary is that quite a lot happens in this adventure. There are multiple locations, a number of significant characters, and more than one relevant plot thread. Howevever, this is still just a standard 400 paragraph adventure. In order to fit all this into the book, the story moves briskly from place to place. On the positive side, this means that nothing hangs around long enough to get tedious on its own and the plot, we get a lot of different settings in one adventure, and the plot isn't totally predictable. However, the brisk pace also makes a lot of encounters seem rather 'small', with only a few options or choices in each. Port Blacksand, after which this book is named, is traversed rather uneventfully, with none of the bizarre character and labyrinthine streets that characterized it in "City of Thieves". Darkwood forest, once the subject of an entire book in "Forest of Doom" is visited only very briefly. Overland travel from one place to the next usually only takes a day or less on foot. It makes everything seem very small and close together, like a theme-park version of Allansia. It also feels like Ian Livingstone wrote this with a checklist of locations and names from his earlier books next to him, to ensure he included them: Darkwood Forest/Yaztromo's tower/Stonebridge/Bigleg from "Forest of Doom"? Check. Port Blacksand/Nicodemus/Lord Azzur from "City of Thieves"? Check. A reference to Fang/Baron Sukumvit/Deathtrap Dungeon/Throm from "Deathtrap Dungeon" and "Trial of Champions"? Check. A mention of Firetop Mountain from "The Warlock of Firetop Mountain"? Check. It feels rather forced at times. There is a clever, more subtle nod to "City of Thieves" in that all the items that one was asked to collect to defeat Zanbar Bone in that book make a reappearance in this one (though in this case, they are totally useless). But this subtle nods seems superfluous and at odds with the in-your-face referencing of other books that happens throughout.
However, the presence of Hakasan, the ninja tracker, is a nice inclusion. Ian Livingstone often writes adventures where the hero is accompanied by a companion for some part of the adventure, but they can be hit-or-miss. Luckily Hakasan is quite enjoyable to have around - she comes across as an accomplished adventurer herself, a voice of reason, and her skills come in handy on more than one occasion. At the same time she also isn't perfect and makes mistakes too and forces an interesting dilemma on you at one point. Critically she never becomes annoying and contributes positively to your quest. One particularly entertaining feature of having her around is that the book, in typically Livingstonian fashion, sometimes lets you do some pretty illogical things, and Hakasan will call you out on those if you do them (though surprisingly she doesn't leave or attack you if she sees you act like an evil/crazy maniac).
Other major characters fare less well. Yaztromo seems like a bit of an ineffectual idiot, unable to figure out that the big bad is corrupting his tower until you wander up to his tower and tell him (and he is perfectly happy to continue living it in even as it's turning mysteriously black) and though he does materially assist the hero, it feels like such a supposedly powerful wizard should be able to handle these things himself. Nicodemus' plight feels a little more understandable as he's characterized in "City of Thieves" as retired and starting to become less effective in his old age, although we do still have to question how he got captured so easily. He does at least partake in a more action-packed escape from the dungeons. Gurnard Jaggle, a character whose story forms a side-plot that ends up tying into the main one, isn't particularly interesting, but at least shows some character development.
The antagonists however get short thrift. Identifying Lord Azzur as Zanbar Bone's crony downplays his own credibility - he rules over the largest hive of scum and villany in all of Allansia through his cunning and the fear his reputation instills, and has held that position throughout the entirety of Fighting Fantasy history (throughout which he is never confronted or defeated directly) yet he's subordinate to a villain from one (well, now two) books? There's no clue that this would be case in the original "City of Thieves" - we might get the impression that Lord Azzur doesn't CARE that Zanbar Bone has set up shop nearby, but we never see him in any way outright helping Zanbar Bone either, and he certainly didn't offer him a cozy residence in Port Blacksand itself.
As for Zanbar Bone himself, he has basically no character at all in this book. In the original City of Thieves, he felt like a real and malicious presence, with his own sinister lair and perfectly capable of doing you in with ease (how much of this was due to Iain McCaig's brilliant artwork in that book will have to remain up for debate). In this book, despite coming back 'more powerful than ever' he seems like less of a threat. His resurrection is entirely Lord Azzur's doing, and when he does show up, he just sits on his throne cackling evilly. Despite having great powers, he only uses a spell or two and never confronts the heroes directly - he just has skeletons (traditionally rather weak Fighting Fantasy monsters) simply try and overwhelm the heroes.
The climax of this book is both its strongest point and its biggest letdown:
Bringing together Hakasan, Yaztromo and Nicodemus and fighting against Zanbar Bone and his army of skeletons makes for a great set-up. The wizards sling spells left and right and you fight your way to Zanbar Bone. But then we get to how we actually defeat him: according to the story, Zanbar Bone cannot be beaten twice by the same method. Furthermore, in the original City of Thieves, the one and only way to defeat him was very convoluted: the hero had to have a tattoo of a unicorn and a golden sun on their forehead, they had to shoot him with a silver arrow in the 'heart', and then had to rub a paste made from two rare ingredients onto his eyes. Based on what we know from the story, now that Zanbar Bone was resurrected and more powerful than ever, this method would no longer work, and he would have a different 'one weakness'. But the plot then never really addresses this, and there is no quest to find out his weakness or gather the materials to exploit it. Instead, his 'weakness' in this book is apparently getting shot in the head with a flintlock pistol (or if that fails, maybe with a throwing dagger if you get lucky) and exploding his skull into itty pieces. While the imagery is satisfying, "getting shot in the head" isn't really an esoteric magical weakness unique to Zanbar Bone.
It means that either the 'new, more powerful' Zanbar Bone isn't nearly as invulnerable as he used to be, or our hero somehow stumbled across his one (rather lame) weakness completely by accident. Neither makes for a very satisfying conclusion.
Overall the story is merely 'ok' - it's got variety, a couple of somewhat interesting settings and set pieces, and one of the best companions out of Ian Livingstone's books (I think I did enjoy the companion in Shadow of the Giants a little better though). But on the other hand it all feels a little linear, a little rushed and a little shallow. It doesn't leave itself enough time to really build atmosphere or suspense, as it is too busy trying to push you to the next location/plot point, and the prose remains rather basic. It might actually have worked better as a two or even three book epic, where we get more time to immerse ourselves in the journey and locations, rather than briskly charge through them.
Gameplay/Structure/ErrorsThe Port of Peril uses the traditional, old-school rules and formula of the Fighting Fantasy books, including starting with 10 Provisions and a magical potion of Skill/Strength/Fortune. As alluded to earlier, this does stand slightly at-odds with the background suggesting the protagonist scraping for food.
As with many Ian Livinstone books, this book is loaded with 'useless' items that the player can collect - even the first paragraph loads the player down with a whole bunch of junk, only as few of which have any real use. While the occasional red herring might be interesting if one is offered the chance to (ineffectively) use it later (like the Y-shaped sticks from The Warlock of Firetop Mountain), this doesn't happen in this book, which makes their addition frustrating and just creates a lot of bookkeeping busywork.
Ian Livingstone often also extensively features gold management and extensive shopping trips in his books, but The Port of Peril doesn't lean on this very much. Getting some gold (and copper pieces, for once!) in your pocket is important, especially early one where you are penniless and there are several opportunities to spend gold too, but there aren't any cases where there is an inventory-laden shop where you have to randomly guess which of its 12 items are actually useful... except for one such inclusion at the 11th hour of the story, but at least there are only 3 choices there. It is hard to tell if its appearance at this late point is some sort of in-joke because it feels like it was shoehorned in just so tick that particular box.
Despite Ian Livingstone's reputation for writing books that are mathematically improbable or even impossible to beat (Crypt of the Sorcerer, Blood of the Zombies, Eye of the Dragon), The Port of Peril is not one of them. There are very few unavoidable double-figure skill opponents, and a potent Skill boost available in the latter half of the book makes most of these fights managable. There is the occasional tough enemy that would make it challenging for characters with less than 10 Skill but overall it really isn't very bad. Penalties for bad choices aren't always fatal, and it is possible to survive the adventure if you get lucky enough in a sub-optimal way. Most tellingly, there is a required 'random dice roll' that doesn't depend on your stats that you have to beat to maximize your chances of completing the game, which harkens back to some horrible 50/50 (or less) rolls in past books that you had to make to succeed... but in The Port of Peril you've made the right choices earlier, this random dice roll is very heavily slanted in your favour. It's a massive relief to see this included.
However, Ian Livingstone's propensity for running fast and loose with the Skill score is very much at play here. There are quite a few opportunities to lose Skill from curses or injuries, while Skill bonuses from equipment are plentiful. But as the traditional rules state that Skill cannot exceed its initial level, the bonuses are of no use unless Skill has been lost earlier. Particularly rigid interpretations of this rule render a major Skill bonus near the end of the story most likely completely useless (when it is very much needed for the toughest combat in the game). The nature of many of these Skill bonuses is also problematic because the book makes use of non-combat related 'Skill tests' on several occasions - it's hard to explain why the injuries to someone's arm and leg would be offset by wearing a helmet and carrying a shield, and how these ensure that one is better at aiming a ranged weapon, but that's how it kind of works out. Attack Strength bonuses would have been a better alternative for a lot of the combat-related equipment, but alas, none of them provide any.
Combat where one has to fight against (or with) multiple opponents are also poorly handled. The rules at the back of the book offer no guidance, while the text itself refers to one side or the other being able to 'attack twice in a round'. Anyone who hasn't played other Fighting Fantasy books that explain how to possibly manage this will likely have no idea how to approach this, and even those who have won't know which version of the rules to use here. There are also some opportunities to escape from combat (written in italics, which in Fighting Fantasy traditionally denoted an automatic loss of 2 Stamina points when selected) - except the rules at the back of the book never mention escaping or any penalty for it, so it's unclear if one is supposed to lose Stamina here or not.
The story is quite linear, though it does offer some choice of where to go and what to do on occasion. That said, it doesn't have all that many instant-death dead ends (and most of them can be avoided relatively easily) and as mentioned earlier, while there is an optimal route, it is possible to win through even if you make some wrong choices here and there, you'll just need to be luckier to do it.
Unfortuanately, like many Scholastic Fighting Fantasy releases, this book has a lot of errors. There are potential continuity errors in the plot, with the plot assuming certain knowledge from the protagonist/player when, depending on their choices, may not have this knowledge at all. There are issues/omissions with the rules (see above). There are spelling errors, including in the colour map on the back of the hardcover edition, which I feel is pretty dire since I'm sure that was supposed to be a selling point. The Adventure Sheet is a lazy, horrid mess with misaligned boxes and a two mislabelled sections ("Magic" and, redundantly, "Magic Spells", neither of which ever get used). Most of these errors aren't critical, but there is at least one major error in the book, although for once it makes things easier rather than harder:
The best chance the player has to defeat Zanbar Bone is to own a flintlock pistol and fire it as his head. The book has an optional section where you can get the pistol serviced, where it is revealed the pistol is in no state to fire until after the servicing is done. Yet on meeting Zanbar Bone, the pistol can be fired regardless of if it has been serviced or not. This is almost certainly not the intended behaviour and eliminates one of the key steps needed to defeat the big bad.
OverallIn terms of the plot and the adventure, The Port of Peril is average, and perhaps worst of all, rather unmemorable.
It benefits from featuring a variety of locales and characters and a plot that, while simple, does develop over time. It has one of the strongest and most capable companion characters Ian Livingstone has written. It also isn't unreasonably difficult or punishing - if anything, it's on the easier side.
However, the sheer scope of the adventure is too large for its 400 paragraphs, and as a result it ends up being a rushed, rather shallow affair. It fails to build up much in the way of tension, atmosphere or suspense. The way it also diminishes its villains, Zanbar Bone and Lord Azzur in particular, is an own-goal to the franchise. The poor quality of the physical book and internal art further make it seem like a cheap effort. Lastly, the numerous errors, while not rendering the book unplayable, reek of a lack of care and quality control.
As the first 'new' title in the Scholastic range, it certainly didn't make a positive impression of the publisher.
Final NotesThe book's title really is misleading. There's really not much Port Blacksand in the adventure overall, and I can't figure out what other port it could be referring to.
I would absolutely love to know whether Ian Livingstone is actually aware that awarding a 'Skill bonus' does nothing in most situations in his books. Does he know? Does he care? Why does this keep me up into the wee hours of the night, staring at my darkened ceiling? Mysteries for the ages...