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Post by thealmightymudworm on Oct 31, 2013 18:43:16 GMT
From TUFFF... Sigh...
You know that review you just don't want to write? That would be this one. But I kinda swore I would give each book one, so there goes... Sky Lord is bad. No doubt about it. But I told myself I don't want to write a review that's only about bitching. I mean, everybody who read the book knows this, right? Plus there's plenty of reviews out there, all doing it better than me, and if not better, then just plenty is enough already. Plus!! If I HAD to bitch, HAD to, then I'd still be writing this review come this time next week. Best to just take some baby steps and try to sum it up outside of: one hell of a loony adventure. ...but beware, there just might be some bitchin' thrown into the mix from time to time. First, this is a new book for me. One that I might have seen on the shelves in it's french edition but frankly don't remember. I was (recently, mind) very intrigued by it, having heard of it's bad rep and all. I couldn't help but look forward to this masterpiece of flawed craziness. Of course, having heard about this phenomenon, I went in it with more than a little bias, I'll admit it. I tried to empty myself of opinions going in, but I fear I did not succeed very well.
Does it matter in the end? Not so sure. I think I would have thought Martin Allen on drugs even if I had gone into Sky Lord with zero expectations. The ugly cover: yes it's ugly, but not badly done by any means. The choice of yellow is provocative and the alien is quite well done. Just not very appealing. And the scene depicted? Irrelevant. But most of the book consist of a mish-mash of strange ideas and stories that seems to have no common traits, so why not? Inside illos are a mixed bunch: clearly, most of the time the artist was as stupefied as us reading the book (if he did read it) not sure how to tackle and represent the strange descriptions or lack thereof. There's a lot of stuff in the illos that don't make sense, but it's in tune with the rest of the story, so I don't think I can blame the artist for that one. As for the story itself? Oh boy, I knew I was in for a wild ride just by reading the background section. Such a spectacular cluster of nonsense ideas, it really felt like Mr. Allen had either bad hallucinations or no imagination at all: like somebody trying hard sitting at his table, wondering what he could do to the queen to make her worst, then seeing a pineapple in a fruit bowl nearby and thinking: that's it! That's what I'll do!
That's not imagination, that's called not knowing what to do next. There where lots of stuff that bug me in that introduction: Cybernetics and genetics can be a hobby? Is that so? Well if that's the case, I'm thinking of picking this up too and go do some in my basement. I'll be quiting my day job soon.
How many planets are there? And there's kings on all of them? There's barely any kings left today on earth, but here we have some over simplification of life under it's many forms... the answer is king. We've got kings to rule us.
Salary's been frozen for 200 years, yet the king's own majordomo doesn't know this? Hey buddy! Watch the news from time to time. Stop splicing up stuff to make monkeys with three asses.
And somebody needs to tell King Vaax that he married a really stupid woman (but maybe he likes them that way). When your wife is stupid enough to accept the offer of an unknown stranger offering to chop up her face for free, there's something ultimately more wrong with her than her face before or after the operation. But the worst part is that you play Sky Lord Homer Simpson all along. Easily distracted while running for my life from a very dangerous Blob, I decide I'm going to stop and play a few games just to test myself...
That's just at the beginning. Most of the stuff Sky Lord HS does along the way are clumsy bumbling mistakes and some bad guesses at what lever should I pull to stop the nuclear reactor from total meltdown. Never do we feel in control of the character, never do we feel proud of what we accomplished and we are basically never rewarded for any good actions, more like the more we do, the more we get punished. Oh well, I'll stop here. I think I said enough right? There were some fun parts or situations in the book, but overall... ugh. Speak in extremes, it will save you time. |
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Oct 31, 2013 18:43:48 GMT
From TUFFF... Hee hee - Sky Lord Homer Simpson. Too true. Actually I quite like the sheer randomness of Sky Lord. What I don't like is the frequency Martin Allen kills you off for not knowing what the hell he's talking about. I quite like the rules for space combat though a lot of your enemies are a tad too tough. If it was a bit fairer it would be an interesting oddity, but ultimately it's a bit of a failure. Don't think it deserves it's reputation as worst FF though - give me this over dreck like Chasms of Malice any day. |
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Oct 31, 2013 18:45:31 GMT
From TUFFF... Yes I agree Chasms of Malice is another beast altogether.
And I kind of also agree that it's not so much the sheer crazyness and randomness of the story that's aggravating as much as the feeling that not only you've got no control and no knowledge of what you are doing, but that it's the same for the author too. You never feel like he's in control, more like he's making you flip a coin every time because he couldn't be bothered to put some logical thoughts inside his creations. You never use your brain to move along, you only try to guess which one of the absurd name is the right one to keep on living.
Like I said some situations are funny and entertaining. Take the whole Blob sequence, for example, I like the concept. If only it had not turn into a stupid "grab the most junk and stuff it in your pocket contest", it might have been good. I mean, seriously? I'm fleeing from dangerous blobs here, should I really stop to pick up some dumbbells? Speak in extremes, it will save you time. |
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Oct 31, 2013 18:46:11 GMT
From TUFFF... Yes the blob sequence is a good idea but it would have been better if Allen had explained why you need all these seemingly pointless items and how exactly they affect the blob. I assume all you do is feed them to it until it can ingest no more yet the text says something like "after a mighty struggle you vanquish the blob" so there's clearly more going on than that. |
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Oct 31, 2013 18:46:57 GMT
From TUFFF... It's basically unexplained, right.
All I could picture somehow was myself fleeing away from blobs with a grocery cart.
I thought the idea was to poison the blob, but stuff that are toxic (to us anyway) are not worth that many points... who knows? Speak in extremes, it will save you time. |
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Oct 31, 2013 18:47:38 GMT
From TUFFF... ***SPOILERS INCOMING - Duck, or at least arm yourselves with a cinnamon stick or two*** I hate the way that the word "random" is misused at the moment. I don't think that I've ever seen it abused on this forum, but almost everywhere else I look it has to go down as the most tragic trouncing of creativity of all time. This is because the word is flung out every time a film, book, painting, or any art form which is strange in nature is presented to the unimaginative. They dismiss the creative heart that has gone into it by damning it with the word "random". Usually, this can be read as "I don't immediately understand what the creators are trying to achieve, so I'll just dismiss it as a jumble of concepts which have been thrown together with little or no thought. I was almost foaming at the mouth with rage when a friend of mine dismissed my favourite French film, City of Lost Children as "random" just because it was extremely weird. I could have accepted that it was too unsettling for them, hard to follow or even going too far down the surreal route to hold its narrative... But to damn it with "random" dismisses the artistic efforts of those involved as, "Well, they just selected some ideas at random and threw them together to form a narrative". In other words, the work has zero value because random elements require no effort to fit together. Sure, there are many artistic works where "randomness" comes into play, such as the bulk of William Burroughs's novels, but even then there is a great deal of effort that goes into selecting the components which are put into play. In short, the literal meaning of the word "random" has become fractured. [Oakdweller now breathes deeply and calms down]. So, what has this rant on randomness got to do with the much derided thirty-third entry into the FF collective? Well, a great deal. This is because there are times when the term "random" is unfortunately justified and Sky Lord is guilty of slotting in numerous ideas which are blatantly (and literally) random. And even if we're going to be generous, these ideas are vomited into the same sick bowl with little thought as to their direction. I try to steer clear of received wisdom. In my admiration for the likes of Doctor Who, Blake's 7, etc. it was all too easy to dismiss certain stories as crap simply because fandom had reach a consensus that they were crap. The situation is mirrored with those stories which are considered brilliant of course. As I aged I realised that it is best to set aside the received wisdom of what is gold and what is dross and to make up my own mind. (Which is how I now regard The Horns of Nimon fondly and scowl at Terror of the Autons - to take examples from the Who universe). I tried to blank my mind of the damnation that I've read concerning Sky Lord from my mind. As with all other FF books in my reviews, I also tried to temper my childhood views of it. With my mind as open as it possibly could be, I strapped myself into the pilot's seat of the Starspray and prepared to be amazed by a neglected gem of an adventure. Hey, I even put some oddball albums on in the background for all four of my playthroughs in the hope that it would put me in the right frame of mind. (Millions Now Living Will Never Die by Tortoise, Rubycon by Tangerine Dream, Silverwater by The Necks and Iradelphic by Clark, if you want to know). It didn't help. The book is as crappy now as it was when I first played it back in 1988. I slammed Crypt of the Sorcerer for its lack of imagination and for Livingstone's "That'll do" approach to writing. Martin Allen must come in for the same criticism here - his route to car crash prose may be very different, but the resulting carnage is pretty much the same. From the outset, his cavalier use of exclamation marks is the first of many signs that he began this project with an attitude of, "Umm, this is for kids. Just tell them that something exciting is going on and they'll follow along." In a move that is unique in FF, he actually talks down to his readers, slotting in juvenile encounters such as the gobblepotomus, the cosmic jellyfish and the opening reference's banal countdown. They're all beyond lazy - they're insulting. Cosmic jellyfish?! So, they don't just look like jellyfish, but they actually are jellyfish? Surely, something that resembles jellyfish would've been more convincing. I dug my nails into my palms when the walrus-faced Krill announced his plan to fish your ship out from a lake: "That is easy! A backwards time-loop, with half a twist, should do the trick! You shall soon get your own spaceship back!" Even the worst Doctor Who stories manage to do better than that. (All three sentences end with superfluous exclamation marks you'll note). Now for the roll that randomness has to play here. I quickly got the impression that Allen was sat at his BBC Micro, staring out of the window and using anything for inspiration, however ridiculous it might be. The jumping pole, angry candle and pineapple graft all smack of a writer who is just cobbling together any items without any thought and hoping that they'll be seen as 'quirky'. Sorry, but I can see the difference between intelligent juxtapositions and an approach which amounts to nothing more than hurling everyday objects into a space setting. The description of a river as "purple-and-orange" (307) is an example of careless scene setting that stuck in my mind. This is typical of the approach that the book has to most of its moments: we're going to put a river here. Erm, we're in outerspace, right? So, let's make it gaudily coloured and that'll do. I've nothing against purple and orange rivers in themselves, but give us a bit more depth. We could even be told why the river is this way, or if a feeling of alienation needs to be sustained, give us more interesting detail than just throwing bright colours at us - because we're not in Tellytubby land y'know. A well and truly random moment is presented when your character engages the Deik in its final challenge. Presented with an array of bizarre controls in an alien craft, you need to decide which to manipulate to win through. (Bearing in mind that the Deik is undoubtedly familiar with these craft). The unconventional controls do admittedly have a creative flare to their conception: spongy nodules, silver bells, iron rings, green jellies and red tubes that you can blow into all seem appealingly surreal at first, but with nothing to base your control choices on this novelty falls horribly flat. Even worse is the ship-to-ship combat which tries too hard to be clever by asking the player to decide what the Starspray's speed, roll, pitch and yaw should be. Now, I know what all of these things are, but the choices that the book asks me to make mean very little. I suspect that they don't actually mean anything in terms of flight paths, but even if they do, how many readers would actually have the necessary skills to make use of it? (If there are any pilots on the forum do let us know whether this encounter is gibberish or whether there is some sort of understandable logic to it). Realistic flight experience or not, the result is the same as it is in the odd craft that the Deik uses: select something at random and hope for the best. As for the throw anything you've got at the orange blob fiasco... Aaargh! I forgave Rebel Planet for its shameless stealing of the lightsaber concept because there were so many other ideas packed in which were very much its own. Sky Lord also steals the best loved weapon from the movies too, but it also uses other elements from the Star Wars universe to bouy its scant ideas along too. The most notable is the Deik's inn, which despite the inclusion of several unusual artifacts, is an obvious steal from the Mos Eisley cantina. Such steals are often forgivable if there are other ideas around which make themselves felt, but when Sky Lord was already floundering in the ideas arena it is just one other reason to despair. Is there anything positive to say about the Sky Lord experience? Well, yes, there are a few moments here and there. The encounter with the sinister gangster Fog Farkin is memorable for the right reasons as is the eventual and unexpected fate of L'Bastin. By far the best idea amidst this dross though is what the duplicitous Zud does to you. The idea of a creature within that titanium cylinder being placed inside your abdomen is a horrific idea that manages to echo Alien without spoiling it. As with the Sige's pomander from the previous book, this is an item which is not always what it appears to be and the payoff is splendid. What a pity that the rest of the book wasn't as inventive as this idea. I loved Tim Sell's artwork for House of Hell, where his style added to the devilish theme of the book so perfectly. He was not the best choice for Sky Lord though. (Who would have been?) Many illustrations seem to buckle under his attempts to fathom what it is that Martin Allen is trying to convey. The brutes (127), the astonishingly naff bubble craft (140) and - unfortunately - Zud (238) all fail to bring the adventure to life. The design of the Starspray is appealing though and the Glip on his grasshopper steed is actually really impressive (100). |
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Oct 31, 2013 18:48:05 GMT
From TUFFF... Only ever played this once or twice when it came out, so I have enjoyed the reviews of it over the years, this one included. |
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Oct 31, 2013 18:49:18 GMT
From TUFFF... I took this book with me on vacation and read it for the first time since purchasing it years ago. yes, it sat on the shelf for ages. after hearing how many ppl hated it i dreaded reading it then grew balls and decided I'll read the bloody thing. Well, I kinda liked it to be honest. Now, after reading it all I remember is getting my arm torn off by a robot and having a tentacle glued on in place of it, then a door bit my finger off and I found myself shackled in some mad man's abode. Deciphering runes were to follow and I just stop playing the book. It was a wild adventure and that long list of items that you find along the way in that one place was a pain. Other than that will I read this book again?
No. The more beautiful and pure FF is – the more satisfying it is to corrupt it. |
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Oct 31, 2013 18:49:42 GMT
From TUFFF... But... but... you have balls now! Speak in extremes, it will save you time. |
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Oct 31, 2013 18:50:24 GMT
From TUFFF... Scared? The more beautiful and pure FF is – the more satisfying it is to corrupt it. |
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Oct 31, 2013 18:50:54 GMT
From TUFFF... Surprised a little. Speak in extremes, it will save you time. |
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Oct 31, 2013 18:52:37 GMT
From TUFFF... I like this book. It has the lowest score of all my forty-two books I've read, that is true.. but for me, in a scale of 0 to 20, all books above 10 are really good reading to me, and this book to me is a 10,5. There is a small point in the book that is absolutely awful (the way to getting to the paragraph number two and the paragraph 2 as well), but all the story, before and after aarok is ok, and the final part with l'bastin is quite good. Razaak's apprentice |
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Oct 31, 2013 18:53:58 GMT
From TUFFF... I strapped myself into the pilot's seat of the Starspray and prepared to be amazed by a neglected gem of an adventure. This is next up in my Play the Books in Order Challenge. I was hoping for the above too.  ~ Vae Victis! ~ |
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Oct 31, 2013 18:55:02 GMT
From TUFFF... Often, the answer to the question, "Can this really be as awful as everybody makes out?" turns out to be, "No - it has its problems, but it doesn't deserve the hate."
But not always. |
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Oct 31, 2013 18:55:43 GMT
From TUFFF... It's been so long since I've read this book, I've forgotten why I hated it. Is it worth me reliving the 'horror' just to find out? Two Words |
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Oct 31, 2013 18:56:11 GMT
From TUFFF... It could be worth it for a laugh, if you can write something slightly humorous about it. Speak in extremes, it will save you time. |
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Oct 31, 2013 18:56:38 GMT
From TUFFF... I don't think it's as horrible as all that to be honest. There's some genuinely good stuff in there and it's definitely memorable. |
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Oct 31, 2013 18:57:28 GMT
From TUFFF... If these books didn't have illustrations at all, which would be the worst: Sky Lord, Eye of the Dragon, or other? Two Words |
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Oct 31, 2013 18:57:59 GMT
From TUFFF... Thinking quickly: for me it would be Eye of the Dragon, cause I don't remember being particularly impressed by Sky Lord's illos. Speak in extremes, it will save you time. |
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Oct 31, 2013 18:58:50 GMT
From TUFFF... Answering sylas: in my opinion, the illustrations is without any doubt, a very good thing, make us feel a bit more what is happening in that "other world", but it doesn't changes anything in my order of fantastic, good, and not so good books: with or without illustrations, the best would still be the best, and the less good (even so, good) would still be the less good. Razaak's apprentice |
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Post by a moderator on Nov 24, 2013 15:59:43 GMT
Salvaged from the 'Books in Order' thread:
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Post by Charles X. on Jul 16, 2021 21:21:48 GMT
Sky Lord is a candidate for one of the worst gamebooks published. Everything about it, the logic which is beyond inane, the sub-hack writing, the unfair difficulty level, the wanting magination, the boring tone, and the artwork. It's like going on an acid trip gone wrong.
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Post by pip on Jul 18, 2021 21:03:17 GMT
I'd need to play it again to have a fresh opinion, but reading this book as a kid, I rather liked it. It certainly was memorable, and I liked it more than some other FF books which didn't really have anything wrong about them, but were just run-of-the-mill and forgettable.
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Post by Charles X. on Jul 24, 2021 7:21:32 GMT
Disagree with pip. Why was this book chosen to be published, when I imagine they had other gamebook scripts on their tables? What were they thinking when they read Sky Lord and reckoned that was their best bet?
What a monkey would write on a typewriter in 5 days wouldn't be run-of-the-mill and forgettable, either.
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Post by The Count on Jul 24, 2021 18:52:22 GMT
I'd need to play it again to have a fresh opinion, but reading this book as a kid, I rather liked it. It certainly was memorable, and I liked it more than some other FF books which didn't really have anything wrong about them, but were just run-of-the-mill and forgettable. I enjoy it much more now than I did when I was younger. |
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IoannesKantakouzenos
Traveller
Being slowly eaten alive by a Ghoul
Posts: 105
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy (Aventuras Fantásticas)
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Post by IoannesKantakouzenos on Jun 9, 2022 14:24:02 GMT
The #27 in the Portuguese edition reached me as a birthday gift and was the third book of the series I got (after TWoFM and DoTD) and, during some time, I loved it, so much that adopted Jang Mistral as my online moniker and used "Starspray" ever since I had to name a spaceship in a game. Then I got older and my view about SL changed... It's a mess. A pure mess. I think Martin Allen's idea was to not going into details since "we" were used to this Universe (not sure if I am making sense here), but anyway it end up being a ludicrous mess. Up to this day I still have no idea why I need to make the choices I have to to beat the Valioog ship and the Grand Archipellago (and what's the point of losing shield points permanently, anyway?), I dislike Marsatu's character (what's there to like, anyway?)... With a (tremendously big) effort, maybe this book could be redone in a way that would make sense. Maybe.
(yes, I copied my post from another topic and pasted it here. Just don't want to waste more time thinking about this one)
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Post by Peter on Jun 10, 2022 7:27:05 GMT
Just don't want to waste more time thinking about this one
Ha ha. Good call. |
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Post by dragonwarrior8 on Aug 10, 2022 13:54:14 GMT
We talk a lot about the difficulty of Crypt of the Sorcerer (and rightfully so), but was anyone able to beat Sky Lord by the rules? I assume someone has done it, I was just curious how long it took. I had to finally throw in the towel after over 80(!) attempts. I feel like you would eventually get lucky enough with the rolls, but I just could not get through all the vehicle combats in one go, and at some point you have to start questioning your life choices. Heck, in well more than half those attempts I didn't even make it past the first half dozen sections of the book! This is the second most difficult entry in the series I've played up to this point.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,458
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Aug 10, 2022 14:09:23 GMT
We talk a lot about the difficulty of Crypt of the Sorcerer (and rightfully so), but was anyone able to beat Sky Lord by the rules? I assume someone has done it, I was just curious how long it took. I had to finally throw in the towel after over 80(!) attempts. I feel like you would eventually get lucky enough with the rolls, but I just could not get through all the vehicle combats in one go, and at some point you have to start questioning your life choices. Heck, in well more than half those attempts I didn't even make it past the first half dozen sections of the book! This is the second most difficult entry in the series I've played up to this point. With optimal stats on the optimal route, you have about 9.5% chance of success making it the 4th most unfair book in the series (Crypt is a distant 3rd at 0.5% though). Even aside from that, there's a lot more arbitrary instant deaths than most books. I've certainly never managed to beat it. |
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Post by CharlesX on Aug 10, 2022 14:11:22 GMT
We talk a lot about the difficulty of Crypt of the Sorcerer (and rightfully so), but was anyone able to beat Sky Lord by the rules? I assume someone has done it, I was just curious how long it took. I had to finally throw in the towel after over 80(!) attempts. I feel like you would eventually get lucky enough with the rolls, but I just could not get through all the vehicle combats in one go, and at some point you have to start questioning your life choices. Heck, in well more than half those attempts I didn't even make it past the first half dozen sections of the book! This is the second most difficult entry in the series I've played up to this point. First off, I agree Sky Lord is very hard, and the fact the writing is rubbish makes it heavy-going, as well. In my experience the main difficulty with Sky Lord is only partially the oft-cited space combats (combined with the average or better-than-average Skill, Stamina and Luck that is also necessary), but also the fact the whole gamebook reads like a bad LSD trip - the choices are the height of illogicality, and compare poorly with, say, R. A. Montgomery's CYOA efforts, just as an example. I eventually recorded what I thought was the true path, which I'd find boring even if I won as the writing is dire and the artwork is just as bad (the cover alone!). It is very difficult and beating Seas Of Blood and Trial Of Champions in the higher difficulty stakes isn't covering itself in glory. I don't blame you for giving up at all - most FF readers play it through once or twice before deciding its naff and abandoning it, let alone mapping it and (yuck) trying to win.
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