51) Island of the Undead

[schlendrian]

I remember in some games and merchandise in the LotR franchise the translators didn't seem to get that and translated the "fell beast" of the witch king of Angmar as "Fellbestie" meaning fur beast - mildly irritating, as it doesn't have hair at all.

[Blackheart]

If a text is not in your native tongue the mind wanders off easily...

...which is the zest of reading a foreign language - for me that is! Sometimes you stumble upon new words or word combinations which do not make a lot of sense. Then eventually - they do!

[Peter]

Once again I'm late to the party, but I have just started playing this book and I really like it. It has a really great atmosphere, really immersive. It has elements of the earlier books but it is refreshingly different as well.

It is one that you learn bit by bit, until eventually you find the right way. My first time through I was constantly asked for things I didn't have, until finally my deficiencies proved fatal.

I give this book a ranking of: one of the better ones.

[sylas]

I do like this one but for a couple of annoyances namely, the too hard too early Greater Ghoul fight and the ambiguous picture puzzles.

[terrysalt]

I have zero recollection of this book but I do notice that I stopped writing my guides at book 50, so I assume I didn't like this one too much. I'll have to reread it.

[terrysalt]

It started fairly weak but got better. I liked the feud with the masters of air and earth and the final battle was quite interesting. It's VERY Keith Martin, for better or worse, and the correct path is way too long (which is probably why I abandoned my effort to write a guide for it ). All in all, a decent effort but far from his best.

[CharlesX]

Island Of The Undead is a good FF imo. The two chief weaknesses are the over-powerful ghoul, which happens early on anyway so sorts the wheat from the chaff, and the great length, with technical errors and Keith Martin's writing style more down to personal preference. I like a long FF and this one is well-written with its sense of mystery and challenge as well as all sorts of action throughout. It might not be the most intellectual FF in terms of world-building or originality or variation, but its one of Keith Martin's better ones together with Vault Of The Vampire, Stealer Of Souls and Master Of Chaos.

[linflas]

Started it recently (very badly translated to french, so re-reading it in english). Firstly, I'm very surprised by how our hero is not affected by the shipwreck. I mean he lost all his companions, probably friends... but Martin did not mention anything about that. Secondly, our hero is just a simple fisherman, not an seasoned adventurer, but who cares : min SKILL 11, min STAMINA 20, or you cannot win against such tough enemies, with... a knife!

[alziel]

Did anybody here struggle with the correct spelling of the Master of Earth's name? I couldn't work it out at all - I used various combinations based on Russ Nicholson's (may he rest in peace) illustration of the torn letter, but in the end, I got so frustrated that I had to give up and find the solution here. Maybe there's an alternative way to get his name, other than using the illustration?

On a similar note, I didn't have the same issue with the magic symbol on the cabin door - I quickly worked out the code, realised the typo after I had, and then I was able to conclude the rather ambiguous mathematical solution on my first go (but then again, I have a weird, autistic brain, so maybe that was an advantage here!  ).

Overall though, I thoroughly enjoyed this book for it's atmosphere, excellent illustrations and storytelling, even if the length and the ridiculous amount of note-taking got a bit tedious after a while (not to mention the 'unfair' gate-keeping Greater Ghoul, of course...). Definite thumbs-up from me.