kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,462
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Nov 28, 2021 20:41:34 GMT
My point is, lots of books touch people's heartstrings, books like Twilight, Fifty Shades Of Grey, Battlefield Earth. Atlas Shrugged has probably had a phenomenal influence on middle-class capitalists. But from what I read (I had to give up after just a hundred pages), truthfully, it's really bad. And that's it, truth.. I guess I have to give these 'awful' works credit for challenging my very thoughts and my notions of what makes a good story. I still think they're rubbish. I read Battlefield Earth out of curiosity. It's incredibly bad sci-fi, it's repetetive and despite its incredible length, it's very simplistic. And yet it's kinda fun in a trashy way. Twilight though I think is genuinely decent. Good writing and a detailed and well thought out lore. I'm probably not the target audience, and I can understand some of the concerns about promoting unhealthy relationships, but I feel a lot of the criticism of it is unfair. Haven't read the other two. No interest in 50 Shades and I feel I would hate every sentence of Atlas Shrugged.
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Post by natwa on Dec 3, 2021 18:40:09 GMT
I think that Sky Lord at least has a quite good intro(although even that is no without its problems). Also even if it fails( and I do agree that it's among the worst FF books), it does so in an original way and not through trying to write as close to the formula with zero inspiration. It is, whatever its other faults(and there are plenty) original, at least in a FF sense.
I haven't read any of the other books considered to be among the five worst. I think this is mainly due to me not keeping in touch with recent FF developments until I (re)discovered places like this about a year ago, which meant I didn't buy or try to buy these books when they were published and also focusing more on finding ways to read books from the original series than reading new ones. I did know about Eye of Dragon before that "hiatus", but even then I focused more on older books. But I'd say that I do think it's good that new FF books are being published, at least for the fact that it gives the members of this forum more books to talk about it, even if those books are as sub-par as most(or maybe even all?) members seem to think.
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sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,679
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
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Post by sylas on Dec 29, 2021 23:47:06 GMT
Port Of Peril - gameplay is a lot more balanced for a Livingstone adventure. Despite a rather bland premise, I kind of enjoyed it at the time.
Eye Of The Dragon - some unique monsters are good and well illustrated.
Sky Lord - it's definitely different and some people like it. Not unreadably terrible but it's just not my taste.
Gates Of Death - the premise is actually decent.
Blood Of The Zombies - if you ignore the Introduction and the End section, the story is quite good and well structured. Quite a change for Livingstone. Shame about the gameplay.
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Post by linflas on Dec 31, 2021 9:13:12 GMT
Wondering why Port of Peril is so low ranked. I admit it's a fan service book but it's really better than Daggers of Darkness or Deathmoor for example.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,462
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Dec 31, 2021 13:18:28 GMT
Wondering why Port of Peril is so low ranked. I admit it's a fan service book but it's really better than Daggers of Darkness or Deathmoor for example. Suppose it depends on what you value in a gamebook. Daggers has so much variety to it while Port is extremely linear. Deathmoor does a few clever things like the design of Baron Den Snau's mansion which is a great little mini dungeon. Port of Peril's mini dungeon is just dull by comparison since you're told beforehand what route to take.
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sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,679
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
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Post by sylas on Dec 31, 2021 17:26:50 GMT
I think one of the main issues with Port of Peril is that it is aimed for a much younger audience so the prose and presentation comes across as rather basic. It's not bad but it does feel a bit unoriginal, and the beginning part with all the item swapping and collecting is terrible (one or two sections as a list of items would suffice instead of using about a dozen sections to do exactly the same).
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