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Post by johnbrawn1972 on Nov 19, 2020 18:42:57 GMT
I'm going to reserve further comment until the full list has been published, but I will admit to being the voter whose outlying low scores dragged Crystal of Storms and Return to Firetop Mountain down the rankings. Sorry, Rhianna and Ian. I think I scored Sorcery! more harshly than most as well. Taken as a whole the saga would certainly be a 9 or 10, but considering the entries individually for me causes them to lose a lot of their epic quality and completeness...in hindsight I think this reasoning caused me to be a little too mean though! I suddenly had visions of her singing Umbrella and then settling down to her writing obligations.
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Post by Wilf on Nov 19, 2020 18:46:35 GMT
Did anyone think Creature Of Havoc would run away with first place? I certainly did... until the votes started arriving.
10th: CREATURE OF HAVOC by STEVE JACKSON (UK). 80.67% I normally cite this, The Crimson Tide, and Siege Of Sardath as my all time top three. I thought this was the most boring and predictable pick in that group, but apparently not - Sardath has yet to appear... A low score of 3 counted heavily against this book, and a couple of 6s meant it was touch and go whether it would actually even make the Top Ten. Lots of 9/10s awarded, but only three 10/10s (including mine).
9th: VAULT OF THE VAMPIRE by KEITH MARTIN. 80.77% This book would be two places higher if it weren't for me. Sorry, guys and gals - are there actually any gals here? - but I am *really* not a fan of Vault. The prose style and the hub-based approach both turn me off, I'm afraid. The good news is that my 2/10 is another glaring example of an outlier - no-one else dislikes Vault, and it mostly scored 8s and 9s (with two 10s and a 7 in the mix). You're all wrong, of course, but I can't argue with the numbers.
The Top Eight books received no scores lower than a 6. These are the titles that nobody dislikes, and as Vagsancho correctly predicted earlier on, nobody doesn't like
8th: DEATHTRAP DUNGEON by IAN LIVINGSTONE. 81.25% The quintessential dungeon crawl, and everyone's must-have FF from my schooldays. The simplicity of the concept and the peerless quality of the artwork make this most iconic of gamebooks into Ian Livingstone's crowning glory. Could use a couple of easier ways round the mandatory Skill 11 and 12 monsters, but let's face it, a Skill 7 weakling has no place taking The Walk to begin with! Eight of the sixteen contestants who took this book on gave it a good solid 8/10; only three people went below that, and two gave it full marks.
7th: TALISMAN OF DEATH by MARK SMITH and JAMIE THOMSON. 84.67% For the duration of the first two rounds, this book was in a titanic battle with House Of Hell for first place, with the lead swapping time and time again. An eleventh hour score of 7 sealed its fate. That doesn't sound like a low number, but Talisman is one of just two books whose lowest score was a 7. Three people gave Talisman 10/10, and their names all start with the same letter.
So that means number six is Steve Jackson's highest rated book:
6th: HOUSE OF HELL by STEVE JACKSON (UK). 86.25% Only one person gave this a 6. No fewer than five people awarded it top marks. An envelope-pushing book with a difficult-to-find True Path, this title got replayed again and again and again because success eluded child-Wilf for so very long. And those pictures - Tim Sell's Zombie is, for my money, the single most terrifying FF illustration of all.
So what does that leave us with in the Top Five, then?
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Post by a moderator on Nov 19, 2020 18:56:19 GMT
Comparing the lower half of the top twenty to the previous poll...
Largest change is for Night of the Necromancer, rising 21 places. The Citadel of Chaos also improves its ranking significantly, by 16 places. But it's not all good news for UK Steve, as the other Sorcery! books plummet out of the top 3, The Crown of Kings falling that little bit harder than Kharé - Cityport of Traps. Spectral Stalkers also has quite a fall - 8 places. The only other fall is Peter Darvill-Evans' last remaining book, but Portal of Evil only slips down by 2. Dead of Night joins the 'only moved one space club'.
And the biggest change has yet to happen. Three books have moved from outside the top twenty to into the top ten, but only one of them didn't even make the top fifty last time...
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Post by a moderator on Nov 19, 2020 19:02:40 GMT
And the next five...
Only one significant variation, as Talisman of Death leaps 21 places. Still peanuts compared to one of the top five, though. Creature of Havoc falls hardest, dpw nofr pmofj vfet potfn. Deathtrap Dungeon and Vault of the Vampire both slide down just one place. And who'd have thought that House of Hell would have anything in common with Sky Lord and Star Strider? But like them, it hasn't moved.
At least three of the top five have gone up since the first poll, two of them quite some distance.
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Post by Wilf on Nov 19, 2020 19:02:55 GMT
5th: SIEGE OF SARDATH by KEITH P PHILLIPS. 86.67%
Very satisfying to see one of my favourite books do so well, even if it's only the third placed book in Round Five. I love this one because adult-Wilf had a heck of a time trying to find the True Path - it's so very well constructed, and I love that the final confrontation isn't a triumph of Skill, it's a triumph of Bullshitting! One person gave this a 6; everyone else rated it 8 or higher, and two voters joined me in awarding it with a well-deserved Perfect Ten. Can we have another one, please, Keith?
Did I see a few folks upthread predicting Howl Of The Werewolf would take the top spot? Sorry - not quite...
4th: HOWL OF THE WEREWOLF by JONATHAN GREEN. 88.13%
This is the other book that got nothing lower than a 7. And it only got one of those. The early votes were all 8s and 9s, but as Round Eight went on, the 10s started to come in, and suddenly Howl is in the Top Ten, and it just kept climbing. I was starting to think it might challenge the top spot, but as you'll see from the scores, it missed by the narrowest of margins. Five people gave this book 10/10.
Until I played Howl again, somewhere between the September tournament and starting this, I didn't actually think of it quite as highly as everyone else. But then revisiting it, I realised exactly how much I'd been underrating it. It's not just that it's so atmospheric, but the variety of different encounters to be had, and the possibility of defeating an entire cabal of evildoers and collecting all their silver daggers gives it replayability that's not immediately apparent after you've beaten it. I am a recent convert to Howl. You'd be barking not to like this one.
Supper time now, I think.
Then I'll tell you what the Top Three looks like.
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kieran
Baron
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Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Nov 19, 2020 19:04:15 GMT
And who'd have thought that House of Hell would have anything in common with Sky Lord. Other than Tim Sell of course!
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Post by a moderator on Nov 19, 2020 19:09:45 GMT
And the prize for most meteoric rise goes to Siege of Sardath, which somehow came 51st in the previous poll, but has gone up a whacking great 46 places to fifth.
How are the mighty fallen! Former top dog Howl of the Werewolf relegated from the top three.
So it's a hearty Masonic Handshake to the winners, in whatever order they may come. They've all improved on their earlier showing; the only question remaining is by how much.
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Post by The Count on Nov 19, 2020 19:15:12 GMT
15th: SORCERY!: THE CROWN OF KINGS by STEVE JACKSON (UK). 78.57% Tied with Khare for a few days, Crown only got one perfect 10, but nearly everybody else gave it an 8 or 9. Only one person scored it lower than 7, and considerably so - the 1/10 it received is probably the biggest example of an outlier score since Chasms got a 10. Same voter, too. I am shocked by this... Most of 11-20 are books that I find to be average at best. Delighted that two of my favourites so high: Siege of Sardath 5th and Slaves of the Abyss is Top 3.
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Post by tyrion on Nov 19, 2020 19:30:28 GMT
And the prize for most meteoric rise goes to Siege of Sardath, which somehow came 51st in the previous poll, but has gone up a whacking great 46 places to fifth. How are the mighty fallen! Former top dog Howl of the Werewolf relegated from the top three. So it's a hearty Masonic Handshake to the winners, in whatever order they may come. They've all improved on their earlier showing; the only question remaining is by how much. I'm a recent convert siege of sardath. Never used to like it, now it's one of my favourites. I wonder if other people feel the same? And if so, why?. Do the winners not also deserve a Williamsic handshake?
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Post by petch on Nov 19, 2020 19:38:02 GMT
Blood of the Zombies is looking like a pretty solid prediction for bottom spot. It wouldn't be in my bottom 10 incidentally...if it wasn't for the totally broken gameplay or the irritating requirement to count every undead git you have slaughtered it would be good brainless fun a la Freeway Fighter. In other words, I knew it was rubbish but I found it to be enjoyable rubbish. Not a clue what will be number 1. Would be good to see something unexpected out of leftfield...one of the Stephen Hand entries would be nice as he failed to get into the top 10 in the Best FF Ever poll recently. Or a Paul Mason one would be good if only to prove once and for all that the FF connoisseurs on this forum are partial to the taste of yeast extract. Kaboom! (ok I did hedge my bets quite a bit, but still!)
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Post by Wilf on Nov 19, 2020 19:45:14 GMT
I was meaning to ask if you'd hacked my PC.
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Post by a moderator on Nov 19, 2020 19:50:57 GMT
Authors in the top twenty:
Ian Livingstone sees movement in both directions. City of Thieves, like The Forest of Doom lower down, went up four places. Deathtrap Dungeon only dropped the one, but he's still been outranked by two authorial duos he beat last time.
Keith Martin only has a one-place slip to add to the changes already listed.
A bit of a mix for Jonathan Green. The twenty-one-place rise of Night of the Necromancer is a definite boost, but I'm not sure that Stormslayer's three-place increase compensates for the similar drop by Howl of the Werewolf.
British Steve Jackson, as I already observed, saw his first solo effort get a big boost, but the (comparative) decline and fall of the Sorcery! saga and a lurch in the wrong direction from Creature of Havoc must weaken his overall standing a little.
Jamie Thomson and Mark Smith as a team did well, Sword of the Samurai gaining three places, while Talisman of Death parallels Night of the Necromancer's leap of twenty-one.
Most of Paul Mason's output has clearly been through a desalination plant, with The Crimson Tide and Magehunter both rising up the chart, by four and fourteen places respectively. I'll get on to the others in a bit, but Peter Darvill-Evans has come in between Paul and his sometime co-author.
And despite apparently being the third-highest rated author in this poll, Peter has only gone beneath his former rankings. Portal of Evil is down two, Beneath Nightmare Castle six, and Spectral Stalkers eight.
Steven Williams' collaborations with Paul Mason have gone in very different directions. Black Vein Prophecy has dropped nine places (that was unlucky - or maybe Lucky at an inconvenient moment), while Slaves of the Abyss has gone up at least twenty.
And however the top three looks, Stephen Hand has only improved his standing this time round. Dead of Night only went up by one place, and it's possible that the same has happened to Legend of the Shadow Warriors, since that was fourth and could be third, but Moonrunner's rise from joint eighth is pretty good wherever it ends.
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Post by Wilf on Nov 19, 2020 20:07:16 GMT
Here's why I predicted nobody would guess what came third:
Nothing came third!
2nd: LEGEND OF THE SHADOW WARRIORS by STEPHEN HAND. 88.57% 2nd: MOONRUNNER by STEPHEN HAND. 88.57%
Moonrunner never appeared to be in contention for first place, but Legend had it for a couple of moments until its one and only 6 dragged it clear of the winning book. Both books ultimately netted *exactly* the same scores - four 10s, seven 9s, an 8, a 7, and a 6. How weird that that should happen a) at all, and b) to two books with the same author and artist. Only six people scored the books equally, though, and one person who voted for Legend didn't vote for Moonrunner, and vice versa.
Which means the number one book is...
...no, I didn't believe it either...
...but I'm very glad to announce it...
1st: SLAVES OF THE ABYSS by PAUL MASON and STEVEN WILLIAMS. 89.17%
Well, fairly obviously, as this book received no zeroes, Sleepyscholar wasn't among the voters. Which is just as well - I'd have hated seeing a tie at 1st place! Slaves was the last book I bought in my childhood, and despite its linearity, it's a very firm favourite. I had no idea it was this well loved, though. The bizarre front cover, the superb art by Bob Harvey... oh, and some of the words are quite acceptable, too. Slaves contains two of my favourite failure paragraphs in all FF - the one with the time jump, and the one that leaves the sentence hanging. These little touches just add to the unsettling atmosphere of the book. Big fan, and I'm not alone: four people gave this 10/10, everyone else gave it an 8 or a 9, apart from one person who gave it a 6. Didn't quite crack the 90% mark, but an extremely impressive average nonetheless.
How weird that the next book in the sequence should be right at the opposite end of the spectrum. It's like watching Season 21 of Doctor Who.
Okay, that's it, I'm done with polls now. ***THANK YOU*** to everyone who cast any votes for any books - I've really enjoyed seeing this develop, and I couldn't have done it without people to play along with.
So who's going to set up some sort of tie-breaker for the jointly-ranked titles, then?
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Post by The Count on Nov 19, 2020 20:26:02 GMT
Great result for the Top 2 with Slaves of the Abyss and Legend of the Shadow Warriors!
I was torn with my vote for Moonrunner and gave it an extra point based purely on it following up on threads from Shadow Warriors so I consider it 3rd
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Post by tyrion on Nov 19, 2020 20:27:00 GMT
Thanks for doing this wilf, it has been highly entertaining. I honestly thought moonrunner would win - it is near perfect, with a range of challenges for any character of any stats. It's a good job Stephen Hand didn't write return to the island of mandrake mountain or whatever it was going to be called, otherwise you'd have a three way tie for second.
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Post by a moderator on Nov 19, 2020 20:27:28 GMT
Moonrunner never appeared to be in contention for first place, but Legend had it for a couple of moments until its one and only 6 dragged it clear of the winning book. Both books ultimately netted *exactly* the same scores - four 10s, seven 9s, an 8, a 7, and a 6. How weird that that should happen a) at all, and b) to two books with the same author and artist. Only six people scored the books equally, though, and one person who voted for Legend didn't vote for Moonrunner, and vice versa. If I hadn't had to round off the fractions, I would have scored Moonrunner slightly above Legend because of that wretched maze. You and your whole number agenda...
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vagsancho
Knight
Posts: 809
Favourite Gamebook Series: CRYPT OF THE SORCERER
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Post by vagsancho on Nov 19, 2020 21:10:12 GMT
In my heart I do not identify myself with this ranking. I am much more old school.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,465
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Nov 19, 2020 21:16:22 GMT
Thanks for doing these Wilf - a lot of fun!
Some more books where I go against the consensus:
- Portal of Evil: One of the five books I gave 10 to. Great story, tons of atmosphere, quirky characters and a few different viable paths for some replayability. Excellent book.
- The Crown of Kings: My personal favourite FF book. It's just so unsettling and tense the whole way through and a suitable end to an epic quest. And the twist at the end is just perfect.
- Night of the Necromancer: I gave it a 5. I admire this book more than I like it. Great concept, brilliant writing and illustrations and lots of clever design features. But it's just so... tedious. It goes on forever and you see so much of it in one playthrough that it kills any replayability. As I said in my Crystal of Storms review, it also seems to have started a trend of similarly designed books (although Stormslayer had a few warning signs of this).
- Slaves of the Abyss: Well, after spending a huge chunk of Tyrion's contest trying to vote this out, it's probably fairly needless to say that I was the person who voted 6 for this. It's a good concept and very well written and it's pretty fair when it comes to dice rolls, but it's extremely linear (probably the most linear book of the Puffin series) and has too many instant deaths - suffer one of them and you have to go through all the same scenes again. Ah well, to each their own I guess (though personally I feel there may have been some suspicious postal votes at work here!)
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Post by a moderator on Nov 19, 2020 21:22:00 GMT
Biggest changes in ranking
Feeling Gravity's Pull 7) Knights of Doom (-15) Was: 31st Is: relative 46th 7) Spellbreaker (-15) Was: 30th Is: relative 45th 7) Night Dragon (-15) Was: 18th Is: relative 33rd 7) The Shamutanti Hills (-15) Was: 10th Is: 25th 6) Trial of Champions (-18) Was: 20th Is: relative 38th 5) Midnight Rogue (-25) Was: 19th Is: relative 44th 3) Armies of Death (-27) Was: 39th Is: relative 66th 3) The Keep of the Lich-Lord (-27) Was: 22nd Is: relative 49th 2) Revenge of the Vampire (-29) Was: 26th Is: relative 55th 1) Legend of Zagor (-33) Was: 29th Is: relative 62nd
The Only Way Is Up 10) Robot Commando (+14) Was: 61st Is: relative 47th 10) Magehunter (+14) Was: 43rd Is: relative 29th 9) The Citadel of Chaos (+16) Was: 33rd Is: 17th 7) Night of the Necromancer (+21) Was: 32nd Is: 11th 7) Talisman of Death (+21) Was: 28th Is: 7th 5) Phantoms of Fear (+22) Was: 45th Is: 23rd 5) Slaves of the Abyss (+22) Was: 23rd Is: 1st 3) Scorpion Swamp (+25) Was: 59th Is: relative 34th 3) Demons of the Deep (+25) Was: 49th Is: 24th 2) Masks of Mayhem (+26) Was: 57th Is: relative 31st 1) Siege of Sardath (+46) Was: 51st Is: 5th
In all, 33 titles went down, 34 went up, and 3 stayed put.
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Post by a moderator on Nov 19, 2020 21:29:47 GMT
In my heart I do not identify myself with this ranking. I am much more old school. What do you even mean by 'old school'? You think House of Hell should come top. In the old poll it was 6th. You venerate Crypt of the Sorcerer. In the old poll it came 61st. You hate Appointment with F.E.A.R. so much, you seem to think it features the hero of Sky Lord. In the old poll, it was 27th. Your preferences correspond to the earlier rankings like Trump's pronouncements do to reality.
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Post by johnbrawn1972 on Nov 19, 2020 21:45:20 GMT
I love that three of the classic books dominate and I only own one of them!
As much as I love the Jonathan Greene books it still feels so right.
I now own Slaves of the Abyss and want to become familiar with it. The others I want to become familiar with are Spectral Stalkers and Black Vein Prophecy.
I will defend Night of the Necromancer because the structure is so complex. I would suggest trying to complete it with different dice rolls as no two games are ever the same. This is precisely the reverse of Trial of Champions, Crypt of the Sorcerer or Spellbreaker so I would suggest the replayability is one of the best in the series. If all goes wrong try spooking Falstaff.
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vagsancho
Knight
Posts: 809
Favourite Gamebook Series: CRYPT OF THE SORCERER
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Post by vagsancho on Nov 19, 2020 22:11:42 GMT
I am a huge fan of Slaves of the Abyss, but comparing with Crypt of the Sorcerer, the advantage comes to Crypt. Both very good quest, with a little advantage to Crypt. Bythos is medium, Razaak is hugely better.
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Post by a moderator on Nov 19, 2020 22:19:28 GMT
I now own Slaves of the Abyss and want to become familiar with it. Slaves rewards attentive reading. The authors credited their readers with being able to put clues together to figure out what is going on, and didn't spell everything out for the benefit of the easily distracted. That's part of why it's among my favourite FF books - and also why some of the more inattentive fans gave it the thumbs down. (I'm not saying that that's the only reason some fans don't rate it highly, but I have seen reviewers complain that it doesn't make sense when the actual issue was clearly their failure to put two and two together.)
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vagsancho
Knight
Posts: 809
Favourite Gamebook Series: CRYPT OF THE SORCERER
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Post by vagsancho on Nov 19, 2020 22:33:17 GMT
There were 3 big moments in the order of publication in Portugal. 5&6 city of thieves & deathtrap dungeon 10&11 House of Hell & Talisman of Death 21&22 Nightmares Castle & Crypt of the Sorcerer
... And that makes my top 6. (with the new school Howl somewhere between them)
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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 Nov 19, 2020 23:51:39 GMT
Just want to say a huge thank you to Wilf for taking the time to do this. And a new worthy winner in the end. Not one of my top ten but no denying how well written and designed it is. Think I scored it an 8 as the felt the Abyss part was slightly whackier, but the rest of it is top-notch.
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Post by a moderator on Nov 20, 2020 0:14:46 GMT
In my heart I do not identify myself with this ranking. I am much more old school. Coming back to this cryptic assertion, if you mean you prefer the books published in the 20th century (apart from Appointment), that doesn't make you an exception. The trend is strongly in favour of the older titles. Half of the modern FF books are in the bottom ten, and only one in the top ten. The Scholastic exclusives didn't touch the top sixty.
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Post by petch on Nov 20, 2020 1:28:11 GMT
Would just like to echo those who have thanked Wilf for putting this together, and for his hugely entertaining observations that kept me guessing throughout. And Slaves absolutely feels like a worthy winner (even though I missed my chance to upvote it as I joined in a round too late!).
I'd be interested to hear how everyone determined their scoring as I suspect we all had different methods. For me personally, I listed all of the books from worst to best IMO (and obsessed over it perhaps a little too much, rewriting it several times until I was happy). I gave my top 5 10s (Creature of Havoc, Moonrunner, House of Hell, Deathtrap Dungeon & Howl of the Werewolf) and my bottom 5 ducks (Starship Traveller, Eye of the Dragon, Star Strider, Chasms of Malice & Deathmoor), and then evenly distributed 1-9s throughout the rest. Looking at what other posters are saying about their scores, I'm thinking this method may have led me to dish out meaner scores for some books than perhaps they deserved. I agree with something Kieran said earlier in the thread, I've a genuine affection for nearly all of the books in the series and unless I had a system I'd have been dishing out 7 or above for everything and there would be little to differentiate my scores. As a result I've given out 1s & 2s to books I genuinely like. Hey ho.
But my list has allowed me to see how my own rankings compare with the aggregated averages! The top 5 books I ranked higher were:
- Freeway Fighter at 21st on my list (+36 places). Yes, I know it's derivative and kind of stupid, but it's also relentlessly exciting, fast paced and offers something genuinely different. My highest ranked of all of the sci-fi books. - Night Dragon in 7th (+27). Greenspine observed earlier in the thread that this one divides opinion between those who feel it's a spectacular epic and those who find it a slog...as it's in my top 10 I'm clearly in the former camp! - Crypt of the Sorceror in 38th (+26). For all of its many faults, you can tell that Livingstone went all out with this one to make it a sweeping, globetrotting epic. Great storytelling. I'm a fellow fan, Vagsancho. - Daggers of Darkness in 29th (+25). Sharp's finest moment. Hugely replayable with multiple routes to victory and interesting encounters on every route. Plus, it has the best Adventure Sheet of all of the books. I love colouring in that little guy. - Seas of Blood in 25th (+24). The chance to play as the bad guy was a refreshing change of pace, and despite his often clipped prose Chapman knows how to design a good set piece. I liked the Cyclops fight and the games at Calah especially. I ranked The Rings of Kether quite highly as well...I think I'm more of a fan of Chapman than most!
The top 5 books I seemingly rate lower than most are:
- Temple of Terror in 68th (-33). I seem to have this & Livingstone's other work Freeway Fighter at opposite ends of the table to popular opinion! While there were bits in this I liked (the use of magic, the Messenger of Death), on the whole I found it a bit generic and dull. - Khare Cityport of Traps in 46th (-32). I said earlier I thought I perhaps marked the Sorcery! books a little harshly, but this is easily my least favourite of the 4. The prescriptive route needed to complete it jarred a bit after the much kinder Shamutanti Hills. Plus I can't help compare it unfavourably to City of Thieves...Blacksand has so much more personality for me. - Masks of Mayhem in 63rd (-31). Again, this felt a bit too generic to really excite me...Waterfield's very spare use of prose in this one (as in Deathmoor too) didn't help, especially as he showed elsewhere he was capable of beautiful writing, such as the opening to Phantoms of Fear. - Beneath Nightmare Castle in 41st (-19). I did enjoy this one a great deal, though obviously not as much as most! The slaughtering of street children bit made me a bit uncomfortable though (although to be fair that was probably Darvill-Evans' intention). I preferred Darvill-Evans' other 2 books to this one, but to its credit this one did have perhaps my favourite death paragraph in the whole series (the Stone-drop game), and I liked the Toyah Wilcox in bondage gear front cover. - I had 3 books at -18, Dead of Night in 30th, Black Vein Prophecy in 39th and The Shamutanti Hills in 43rd. Dead of Night is good, it just doesn't come close to Hand's 2 stellar follow-ups IMO. I profoundly disagree with the prominent online reviewer who described BVP as 'archly pretentious', but it is my least favourite of Mason's books...it's a little glacial and wilfully obtuse at times. That said, the flashback sequence at the end is clever, beautiful and surprising in equal measure. And I don't have any particular issues with The Shamutanti Hills per se, it's another one that just doesn't stick in my mind as much as the books I have ranked above it.
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vagsancho
Knight
Posts: 809
Favourite Gamebook Series: CRYPT OF THE SORCERER
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Post by vagsancho on Nov 20, 2020 9:09:42 GMT
Jean Lafayette... My god even the name is horrible.
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Post by vastariner on Nov 20, 2020 9:18:43 GMT
Jean Lafayette... My god even the name is horrible. But asexual. Can't remember whether the Silver Crusader is ever "he" or "him" though.
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Post by vastariner on Nov 20, 2020 9:20:58 GMT
Incidentally, a post of mine from the old TUFFF and ported over here in 2013... OK, after deep thought I think this one has to come out on top of the FF world. There's so much that is good; the feeling that events are totally out of control, fitting with Bythos' army heading towards Kallamehr; spooky instant deaths; and your hero blundering to potential success. After all, surely it's more logical to wander up a dead end and not bother with solving a mission than luckily hitting the right path and going to the finish. Only fair that the Reaver comes in to redress the balance. Literally.
And so many untold stories that fall outside the book. What IS the deal with that fist amulet? Who is Bythos and whence does he come? Who is Aletheia? What do you do next with your superpowers? And the whole thing twists and turns like a twisty turny thing. Lots of subplot and interest...
vastariner: ahead of the game
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