Well, this is the only Scholastic-only book I haven’t written a review for yet, so I guess it’s about time. As always it will be long, so if you're not interested, just skip it.
While I've tried to avoid revealing too much there are probably mild unmarked spoilers ahead, so beware:
Book and CoverUnlike some of the other books, the ‘standard’ edition of this book has only the ‘porthole’ style cover, though there is a full-page image alternative cover available (only) for the hardcover special edition – more about that one later.
Everything I’ve previously said about porthole covers applies here as well: the reflective gold foil that makes up most of these covers is ugly looking and prone to wear, and having only a small image showing in the middle is not very impactful. That said, I’d say the porthole image in this case is some of Robert Ball’s best cover artwork to date – it’s a dark robe-swathed assassin wielding a scimitar and about to slash at the reader. It’s more detailed, dark and less cartoony than most of his work, and the pose and the way it pops ‘out’ of the porthole looks quite dynamic and threatening. It clearly evokes the “Assassin” in the title of the book in visual form.
The hardback edition features a full-page painting by Karl Kopinski showing a similarly robe-swathed individual – though longtime Fighting Fantasy fans may recognize him as none other than Lord Azzur rather than just a mere assassin - directing two other less archetypical assassins (and a horde of fire-breathing bats) toward the reader. The art is done in what I’d consider ‘traditional’ fantasy art style and is quite detailed, though those details pertain mainly to the human figures, and does get a bit washed out elsewhere. The two assassins both look unique and the one at the forefront is in a dynamic attack pose – the other does look more surprised than threatening however. It’s not as dense and detailed as Iain McCaig’s “The Port of Peril” hardcover cover image but it’s good nonetheless and better than the porthole cover on the merit of actually showing a full-page picture. The wraparound cover again features a map of Allansia on the back, and this time ‘Salamonis’ is no longer misspelled. Perhaps Scholastic are making progress?
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 ArtThis was the first of the Scholastic-only books to no longer use Vlado Krizan as their internal illustrator, and instead all internal art is done by Robert Ball, who had been producing their covers. Unfortunately the outcome isn’t a huge improvement. The art looks a little more organic and less ‘stiff’ looking, but remains greyscale and suffers from some very thick linework, though the thick colours do help somewhat from keeping it looking muddy in the way that Vlado Krizan’s art tended to do. The aesthetic remains cartoony, and it is hard to reconcile the art we see here with the much more accomplished work he has done on the cover of the softcover book. He is clearly capable of better, but whether the style was directed by Scholastic or a result of being given insufficient time/money to do better is unclear. There aren’t really any illustrations that stand out, except maybe the Zengian Ultra or the angry orc – both are dynamic closeups of an enemy. A dishonourable mention goes to the two nasty dwarves picking their noses - I could do without such a gross-out closeup, even if being vile suits the characters well.
Interstatial images are sometimes thematic (a threatening jungle scene) but usually generic and not particularly memorable.
Again, I should note that a forign (in this case Hungarian) release of the book commissioned new internal art to replace that by Robert Ball. In this case it was by Krisztián Balla, and unlike new art that was produced by Roger Goulart for The Port of Peril, here the art is indeed a 1-to-1 replacement – the only difference is one new additional type of interstatial image. The art is still greyscale rather than black-and-white and has the feel of having been done on a computer, coming across at times as a little too clean or clinical. That said, it is a lot more detailed than Robert Ball’s art, and comes accross as both more detailed and accomplished (save for the amusing but very poorly photoshopped face of Ian Livinstone pasted onto the shopkeeper illustration). It is particularly interesting to note that despite being greyscale, this art does not look washed out, proving that greyscale art does not automatically mean washed out art – instead, it’s the fault of the illustrator, or the paper stock chosen, or both. It’s definitely worth comparing the
Scholastic and
Hungarian editions.
StoryAssassins of Allansia begins with our protagonist camping out on Snake Island, a place that reportedly nobody has ever returned from alive. We are told they have done this to win a bet that they could survive there for one month they would get 20 Gold Pieces, and apparently the protagonist was both so confident in their abilities and so hard up for cash that they accepted.
This provides some character building for our protagonist. On the one hand, they show themselves as a seasoned adventurer, confident in their abilities. On the other, it shows them as being something of an idiot, as clearly the Island must be very dangerous, and it seems more than a little bit insane to spend 30 days there for a mere 20 Gold Coins (which probably could be earned with far less effort simply getting some part-time work at the nearest docks). This underlying thread of idiocy unfortunately will remain something of a theme.
The true plot kicks off very early on however when an attempt is made on the protagonist’s life by an assassin wearing a distinctive scorpion pendant. At first it is unclear what this is about, and a day is spent foraging on and exploring the island, but after this an unexpected visitor arrives along with yet another assassin, and we soon learn that the protagonist has had a hefty 1000 Gold Piece price put on their head by none other than Lord Azzur. We are told that this is due to the protagonist having previously defeated Lord Azzur’s master, the Demon Prince Zanbar Bone. Rather interestingly, that very strongly indicates that the protagonist of this adventure and the one from The Port of Peril are one and the same... but more on this later.
After the sudden death of our helpful companion in true oldschool Livingstonian fashion, the adventure begins in earnest, with the protagonist leaving Snake Island to try and find Lord Azzur while a variety of different assassins await him in ambush along the way.
The path is relatively linear, with only a few ‘optional’ locations (and in truth they really aren’t, as explained later), but the journey includes an encounter with pirates, a brief visit to Port Blacksand (which comes across as more hostile than ever), then a trek overland that eventually ends in Fang. There they will encounter an unexpected saviour before confronting Lord Azzur (and Azzur’s pal Baron Sukumvit)... and depending on if they have killed all the assassins beforehand, they may either survive by being forced to enter Deathtrap Dungeon, or they are automatically killed by one of the remaining assassins.
The book’s central premise of being pursued by an unknown group of assassins with unknown tactics and abilities is conceptually good. It’s a nice source of paranoia and has the potential to inject a healthy dose of caution and suspicion into any dealings with others. There are indeed a couple of encounters where we are left guessing if someone is actually friendly or not, and where acting like a psychopath and drawing our sword against someone that seems unarmed might possibly be an understandable choice. Unfortunately however the book undermines the potential inherent in this premise in two distinct ways: firstly, the “gotta catch ‘em all” nature of the assassins actually reverses the entire hunter/hunted dynamic, making the player the one who is actively seeking out and killing assassins rather than the other way around, and secondly
it never actually puts the player in the position of killing an innocent person due to their paranoia. Killing innocents wouldn’t even be new territory for Fighting Fantasy – see the monster children in “Citadel of Chaos” or the poor Bonekeeper in “Crypt of the Sorcerer” – but you’d have a much more understandable motivation here. This would have been interesting to explore, but alas, the chance is squandered.
The fact that you have to find all the assassins also brings us back to the initial insinuation that the protagonist is, in fact, an idiot. In order to succeed in this book, you have to make a number stupid decisions, so that you can fall for every possible trap and ambush (and thus encounter all the assassins). Acting like a rational, cautious person will instead get you killed at the end. For the player, being forced to make stupid choices in order to win does not feel very empowering.
Although it covers a fairly large geographic area, this adventure doesn’t feel as rushed as “The Port of Peril” did, though admittedly it also feels a little less epic in scope as a result. Few locations are particularly memorable, but at least they also don’t feel shoehorned in purely for the nostalgia.
There are not all that many interesting characters in this adventure either, which is a real shame as the opportunity was certainly there, particularly with the number of assassins pursuing the hero. A number of them appear suddenly and are dispatched just as quickly, with little in the way of interesting characterisation. A few – particularly the more cunning ones – show a bit more characterization, but even they will perish after their first encounter. The reader doesn’t really get a chance to learn about them ahead of time, discover much about their background, or really interact with them short of a one-shot ‘encounter’. Lord Azzur, the ultimate goal of the adventure, gets perhaps the most significant spotlight: the final confrontation with him, even if successful, really underscores what an evil bastard he is, and his credibility as a villain gets a little redemption in the sense that he makes it clear that he doesn’t feel much in the way of real loyalty toward Zanbar Bone after all.
Unusually, the ending is something of a downer as well, as the protagonist does not actually defeat the ‘big bad’, and indeed, gets screwed over by him one last time, being forced to risk their life again only for their reward to go to the villain if they succeed.
Which brings me to the biggest elephant in the room when it comes to story: the references to other books. Unlike in “The Port of Peril”, where the references come and go with little consequence and feel like an obligatory checklist, “Assassins of Allansia” instead is more detailed with them, and actually links them into the story far more directly. Ian Livingstone’s tendency to reference previous books was integral in the formation of the Fighting Fantasy setting of Titan in its inception, welding together disparate stories into a cohesive whole. However, while this was a strength in its early days, here it becomes the biggest stumbling block, as the more in-depth references strongly start to suggest a lack of attention to detail which, for me at least, ruin the biggest reveal and cameo in the story.
At the end of “Assassins of Allansia” the protagonist is saved from one of the assassins by a eyepatch-wearing barbarian named Throm, who becomes our friend/companion for the rest of the adventure. At the very end of the adventure, the protagonist, along with Throm, enter Deathtrap Dungeon at the behest of Lord Azzur, being told they will have to give their winnings to Lord Azzur if they survive.
At first glance, this seems to link this book to “Deathtrap Dungeon”, ending where that one starts off, which the hero (and Throm) entering Deathtrap Dungeon and having a further adventure there.
However, this just does not hold up to scrutiny. For a start, “Deathtrap Dungeon” itself does not match what happens here. The hero of “Deathtrap Dungeon” explicitly decides to enter the dungeon of their own volition, and gets to keep the prize themselves if they win. There is no mention of having been forced to enter by Lord Azzur. Mechanically, they aren’t carrying any of the treasure they gathered during “Assassins of Allansia” in “Deathtrap Dungeon”, despite some of these being potentially very useful indeed. Not to mention that Throm and the protagonist of “Deathtrap Dungeon” don’t appear to have ever met each other prior to their encounter within the dungeon itself.
Secondly, there is the connection that this book has to “The Port of Peril”. We are explicitly told that the protagonist has slain Zanbar Bone, the Demon Prince, and Lord Azzur’s master. Although Zanbar Bone has been killed in two books (“City of Thieves” and “The Port of Peril”), he only explicitly ascends to being a Demon Prince in “The Port of Peril”, and it is only in that book that any relationship between him and Lord Azzur is cemented. As such, it’s safe to assume that the protagonist of “Assassins of Allansia” and “The Port of Peril” are one and the same...
...except that the introduction to “The Port of Peril”, in its haste to cram in as many references to other books as it could, states that the protagonist began that prior adventure after having unsuccessfully sought out the lost treasure of Throm, a barbarian that had previously perished in Deathtrap Dungeon.
An attempt to fix all this mess was made by a Fighting Fantasy audio drama released later in 2020 that states that there is a tribe of barbarians that all use the name Throm until they find their purpose, but this feels more like a desperate and wonky saving throw rather than an organic and pre-planned part of the setting.
The fact is that under close scrutiny, the ending is simply an own goal. Even ignoring “The Port of Peril’s” strong implication that the Throm from “Deathtrap Dungeon” is already dead by the start of “Assassins of Allansia”, either the ending of “Assassins of Allansia” was meant to lead directly into the events of “Deathtrap Dungeon”, in which case it fails as the two simply do not match, or it’s supposed to be a completely different instance of a Deathtrap Dungeon ‘walk’, which makes the appearance of an identically named and identically eyepatch-wearing barbarian as the one from “Deathtrap Dungeon” at the end of “Assassins of Allansia” into a very confusing coincidence.
Either way, it destroys the feeling of surprise and revelation that I feel was the intended goal of the conclusion and instead replaces it with the bitter feeling that Ian Livingstone doesn’t have a strong grasp of his own Fighting Fantasy canon.
Overall, “Assassins of Allansia” is better written and paced than “The Port of Peril”, but it has only some very memorable parts. Most of it is forgettable, and it gets dragged down by its idiot protagonist and, for me at least, by its slipshod attempt to turn “The Port of Peril”, “Assassins of Allansia” and “Deathtrap Dungeon” into a trilogy.
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. It shares “The Port of Peril’s” odd issue where this doesn’t gel very well with the plot, which instead sees the protagonist scavenging and foraging for food all the while their pack is laden down with provisions. Having the player start with provisions is not some sort of printing error in the rules either however, as there are a number of paragraphs that allow the player to lose/use provisions. Perhaps they are kept for emergencies only?
The book avoids the pitfalls of some of Ian Livingstone’s more unreasonable efforts by not being entirely reliant on lucky dice rolls to survive. While the book is absolutely rife with traps and hazards that potentially penalize Skill, they can be avoided by making the right choices and aren’t usually dictated by a dice roll. A mid-range of Skill 10 or even 9 would have a chance of getting through this adventure as long as they make all the right choices, which is pretty rare for a Livingstone book. Overall I would say the difficulty is actually pitched fairly well, and there aren’t that many super high-skill opponents that cannot be avoided in some way.
Combined with the Skill penalties come a lot of potential Skill bonuses, and just like almost all other Ian Livingstone books they rarely make much sense. They can help offset Skill losses made by poor decisions – and some of the Skill bonuses are unusually huge - but are totally useless otherwise. As always make little sense in context since there are a number of ‘Skill tests’, where an injury that would impact your ability to accurately fire a bow can be offset by wearing a suit of chainmail armour or similar such nonsense. Again, Attack Strength bonuses would have made a lot more sense for helpful combat equipment.
The appearance of useless junk items has also been dialled down from its apex in “The Port of Peril”, so it’s an improvement in this sense as well. And while there are some shops that appear, their inventories aren’t as crowded and aren’t used to play the tiresome game of “guess which 7 of these 15 items are necessary to win”.
While the book isn’t as riddled with errors as some of the other Scholastic releases, there is still some strangeness. It seems that the ‘true path’ through the book incurs an unavoidable and massive Stamina penalty at one point, but the intent may have been to allow the player to obtain an item that prevents this Stamina loss – except that that path actually renders the book unwinnable as it causes the player to lose all their items, including some ‘key items’ that are used to track that you have killed certain assassins. Another, similar path does not cause the player to use those key items, so it’s possible this section was simply mismanaged.
There are also opportunities to lose your sword but after that you never replace it, yet there is no penalty for this (Skill or otherwise) and the book continues to assume you have a Sword. Again, this is quite silly.
Lastly, there is a section with a very misleading section with a soothsayer who predicts where the ‘next’ assassin is – except if you take their advice at face value, you’ll actually be mislead, as the next assassin in someone else entirely, and is already easily missable, which makes it all the harder to find and kill them all. Perhaps the soothsayer was lying, but there’s no indication why they would do so, so more likely it’s simply a structural error with an additional assassin having been added in before the intended ‘next’ encounter and nobody going back and realizing that that made the soothsayer’s prediction wrong.
The gameplay errors do not render the book unwinnable or otherwise ruin the intended experience too badly, making this one of the less error-filled Scholastic originals.
Overall“Assassins of Allansia” has a more interesting plot than its predecessor, “The Port of Peril”, and the concept has a lot of potential. It is a shame that it squanders some of this potential by the nature of its design.
The encounters with the titular assassins are a mixed bag, but there are some memorable ones in there and the book does feel a bit more mature than some of the other Scholastic books, with a greater sense of threat and danger. It manages to do this without resorting to being completely unfair.
That said, the fact that the (successful) player is forced to take on the role of an idiot protagonist to succeed is irksome, and to me at least, the attempt to weld this book to “Deathtrap Dungeon” was a massive and disappointing misstep. What was intended to be revelatory instead simply left me confused and vaguely annoyed because of how little it paid attention to detail.
Personally I rate it as below average – a little better than “The Port of Peril” or “The Gates of Death” thanks to an improved tone, but still pulled down by general laziness in terms of bad art, lack of error checking and flying fast and loose with canon. If you’re not bothered by things like canon inconsistencies you might want to bump it up a bit to ‘average’.
Overall it feels like something of a missed opportunity that, if handled differently, might have been something great.
Final NotesI think Lord Azzur is most interesting when he appears less, as an ever-present but distant, vaguely threatening presence rather than a main villain. This book handled it about as well as it could have, since there’s no chance to actually fight Lord Azzur and he just comes after you via proxy, but I am a bit concerned that so many new books have featured him in some major way now that he’s in danger of losing his mystique.
Also what’s the deal with the Elven Boots in this book? It’s becoming a running gag for Ian Livingstone to include a pair of these in his books, but here you just randomly ask a shopkeeper without any prompting or having any reason to be looking for them, “hey, do you happen to have a pair of Elven Boots for sale?” What is even going on here? Why not ask him if he happens to have a Rod of Assassin Disintegration instead?