as a Christmas present, and got around to reading it last week. Because this is a new self-published gamebook series, I feel it is worthwhile to write a brief review.
In short: it's good but not great. More floridly written than most Fighting Fantasy, with similar-but-refined mechanics, this is a solid adventure in a gloomy medieval world. Detracting from the prose are several editing errors, and the artwork is merely adequate.
First, I'm reviewing this as an almost-50 American who spent his childhood
devouring Fighting Fantasy, Lone Wolf, Grail Quest, Golden Dragon, etc, etc.
The Demon Sorcerer's overall style is similar to Fighting Fantasy, with the same school-aged target audience (or perhaps adults nostalgically remembering that era) and so I will briefly compare a few aspects to FF:
(Mechanics)
The gamebook mechanics are somewhat simplified. Striking Speed (= SKILL) is not randomly determined, but fixed at 10, and a single d6 is added during combat instead of 2d6. Life Force (= STAMINA) is randomly determined, but more narrowly bounded [16...21] than in FF [14...24]. These changes make the adventure's overall level of difficultly easier to manage than with FF's much wider range of initial scores. There is no LUCK attribute, but there are several randomized tests depending on the roll of the dice. Also absent is a counterpart to "Test Your Skill"; because Striking Speed is a known quantity, the prose will usually simply proceed to describe how your honed adventurer abilities allow you to succeed.
A complication is the addition of named Moves during combat. This is mechanically the same as AFF's rules for different weapons doing variable damage, but the specific naming of the moves for each enemy adds flavor to the otherwise repetitive sequence of dice rolls. This, together with the somewhat higher range of damage output, makes the combats shorter.
All together, these changes are welcome improvements compared to Fighting Fantasy. The system is still on the simple end of the gamebook spectrum, but addresses two problems prevalent in FF, by tuning the encounters to a narrower range of initial scores and making combat more interesting.
(Prose, plot, and interactive fiction)
The prose tends to be longer and more descriptive than the average FF, with many sections filling a page or more. Adjectives abound, and comma-separated clauses litter the page. Stringent editing could possibly have lent a tad more concision, or added hyphenation or deleted the odd comma, but generally the description is to good effect. The fantasy world feels suitably embellished and, increasingly, grim and foreboding.
Also of note are the enemy encounters. This book includes some generic fantasy staples (BANDITS, GIANT SPIDER, GOBLIN, WEREWOLF, etc), but many of the enemies are unique creations which, while not burdened with their own elaborate backstories, do add some complexity to this world.
The story's plot is the frequently-reused FF trope of "infiltrate the big-bad's fortress to single-handedly save the world." If the reader doesn't mind re-treading this crowded territory, they will find it is at least competently written; there are hero side-quests, a character double-cross, a labyrinth, and a "defend the house from the horde" scene to keep it entertaining. There are also a few deus ex machina appearances which I found less appealing; although none of the serendipitously delivered items are strictly required, the arbitrariness of missing those encounters is irksome.
Examining the branching narrative, this adventure is quite forgiving, with few essential items and few (but luridly described) instant deaths. The structure is between a linear Ian Livingstone slogfest and a criss-crossing Luke Sharp web, but closer to the former. Although each area has its set of branching choices, these quickly rejoin, and there are (as visible on the map from the start) really only three main paths through the story. This limits the replayability. I prefer the more complex "hub" design of Jonathan Green or Secrets of Salamonis, but as this is the first gamebook in a new series, the more approachable linear adventure design is understandable.
Another minor criticism is that the writing at times favors the Luke Sharp style of relating multiple events within one section, instead of breaking action followed by a dice roll followed by more action into multiple sections. This results in a fair amount of text duplicated across sections. While not exactly copy-pasted and there is some variation, a non-negligible chunk of the book's heft is due to this duplicated text. A new gamebook series has no limiting constraint on a magic total number of sections, and I would prefer to see less duplication and more individual shorter sections.
As a positive, the adventures connect across the series, allowing (some) items and abilities to carry forwards. I have not yet read the second book
Army of Bones, but this mechanic harkening back to Sorcery or Lone Wolf is greatly enticing. I am curious to see how the various accessories acquired in this book come into play later.
(Errors)
Overall, the gameplay appears balanced and well play-tested. I did not see any mechanical or logical errors in the structure. I did however notice several editing errors in the (Second Edition, printed 09 December 2022) prose, which I will record here in the spirit of constructive criticism. Perhaps the print-on-demand nature of self-publishing makes these easy to address?
(28), (146) and (421) say "on the reigns" instead of "reins".
(135) says "born aloft on the swift moving current" instead of "borne".
(264) and (317) use the word "hyperthermia" referring to what is definitely "hypothermia".
(275) says "he snarls through barred fangs" instead of "bared".
(319) says "an age of terror will be ushered in," with a comma instead of a period.
(404) displays an egregious ordering of commas and parentheses.
(412) says "for the effects to fully ware off" instead of "wear".
(420) says "Its skin is taught over its face" instead of "taut".
There were also a couple of immersion-breaking sections:
(142) says you wedge the door shut behind you... but how exactly? Do the bedroom doors in this establishment open outwards into the hallway? This caused me to stop reading and begin researching blueprints of Old English inns, because the concept is completely alien in modern America.
(308) says "prize open". As an American fan of gamebooks, I am accustomed to mentally translating British spellings (armour, spectre, defence, jeweller, etc) but this stuck out. American English would use "pry", and in British English I expect "prise". The Internet informs me that "prize" is also acceptable... but given the other homophone errors, I am not sure this was intended.
(Artwork)
The cover and interior artwork are produced by the author, and are rendered in a grayscale scratchboard style which favors wide background areas of soft fuzzy definition, with a few sharp focal point details. The images primarily depict combat encounters, and a few locales and NPCs. The moody gray artwork complements the grim worldbuilding, but to be blunt, is a far cry from the likes of Russ Nicholson, Iain McCaig, Martin McKenna or Tazio Bettin. Beauty is of course in the eye of the beholder, but while I find the prose quality to be above average, the artwork is merely adequate. Much of the dynamism and detail visible in FF black and white line art is lacking here.
That said, there are a couple of images worth calling out. (350) deserves kudos for cleverly depicting the INVISIBLE BEAST. (303) is probably my favorite: the captain of the guard (in fact, lordomnibok's avatar on this forum), where the detail really does convey "His eyes study you untrustingly."
(Layout and print-on-demand)
The layout (that is, the precise arrangement of words and images on the page) closely mimics a FF book. However there are small changes which are not for the better.
The most troublesome difference is that there are no section ranges at the top of each page. Granted, the longer descriptions mean that many pages have only one or two sections, but I really did spend more time flipping through pages to find the right sections. This is somewhat alleviated by areas tending to use section numbers clustered together, but I miss having the numbers at the top.
I also miss randomized dice rolls printed at the bottom of each page, Ã la Sorcery or modern Wizard or Scholastic FF. This seems like an obvious feature to include in a new gamebook printed today.
The 21 full-page illustrations are all on the left-hand page, and are called out with "Illustration Opposite" in the corresponding section. However, there are two occurrences of "Illustration Overleaf" at (242) and (303) which I find jarring. I feel either the sections should be renumbered to always follow the illustrations, or just simply remove all of the callouts-- it is obvious which section an illustration pertains to. Alternatively, caption the illustrations as in The Warlock of Firetop Mountain or Lone Wolf.
The sections themselves are separated by a single line, which lends the pages a slightly more cramped feeling than FF. The book is typeset in Times New Roman, which is more condensed than the Palatino font used by classic FF, and further adds (if only subconsciously) to the cramped feeling.
Minor layout issues aside, the quality of the print-on-demand book is surprisingly high. The paper is bright white and heavier stock than FF books printed by Scholastic. The grayscale illustrations, while in a soft and indistinct style, are printed on the page without dark muddiness as with Vlado Krizan's Scholastic work. Best of all, there is no terrible gold foil on the cover which immediately rubs off onto your hands. It is a real book! Not a book-shaped glitter bomb!
In summary: despite some minor flaws, this is easy to recommend to gamebook fans. The adventure is enjoyable and the tweaked mechanics and more descriptive prose are refreshing. Buy a copy and support the author!
but the sheer amount of work is frightening. 
