After the war of the Four Kingdoms, many believed the Inquisitor General, Karam Gruul to be dead. But as a bounty-hunter of great renown, the reader is telepathically summoned to the Badlands and the city of Blackhaven, to be told by Guard Marshal Bennet, that Gruul is again perpetrating evil acts.
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Learn more. |
Book Description
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By ldxar1
Format:Paperback
Unusually for Fighting Fantasy, this book is not only about finding your way through a dungeon or area, but involves solving the puzzle of how to find a missing villain. The theme is broadly drawn from the horror genre - expect a world filled with secret cabals, hordes of zombies, unkillable undead maniacs in Jason masks and one-eyed monstrosities that kill through terror. The atmosphere of the book is eerie and portentious.
There are several paths through the adventure and lots of possible sidetracks. Broadly it divides into three sections - the initial search, a second stage where you try to retrieve mystical items to use in the final battle, and the trek to find the villain - varying in length depending on the earlier sections. The device of giving the character skills (similar to the Lone Wolf series) ensures multidimensionality - some routes can only be accessed with certain skills.
I rate this as one of the better FF's, though I'd quibble that it's a little easy to complete, too many of the sidetracks are red herrings and the use of the magic items is too one-dimensional.
There are several paths through the adventure and lots of possible sidetracks. Broadly it divides into three sections - the initial search, a second stage where you try to retrieve mystical items to use in the final battle, and the trek to find the villain - varying in length depending on the earlier sections. The device of giving the character skills (similar to the Lone Wolf series) ensures multidimensionality - some routes can only be accessed with certain skills.
I rate this as one of the better FF's, though I'd quibble that it's a little easy to complete, too many of the sidetracks are red herrings and the use of the magic items is too one-dimensional.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Alaran
Format:Paperback
The city of Blackhaven, where the bulk of this adventure takes place, is beautifully and convincingly constructed by the author. It is one of the best and most believable cities created within the FF series. It also appears sufficiently different from any other upon Titan. It feels more like a hybrid of medieval and Victorian London rather than the usual fantasy/D+D style city. As such it feels like a genuine city with colossal and magnificent works of architecture rather than a town.
The adventure exhibits a wealth of influences ranging from classic works of literature to Gothic horror movies. There are elements of Fu Manchu, Phantom of the Opera and Friday 13th, but the biggest influence is the Doctor Who serial 'The Talons of Weng Chiang'. During this the Doctor discovers an escaped war criminal named Greel lurking in the bowels of Victorian London. In this adventure you search in a familiar city for a renegade war criminal named Gruul. Karam Gruul also looks remarkably like Li H'sen Chang from 'The Talons of Weng Chiang'. But using such a Doctor Who story as inspiration for an adventure is certainly not a bad thing.
The adventure keeps the reader entertained by almost being a series of mini quests you must complete to gain information and clues to track down your quarry. These pit you against vampires, grave robbers, insane killers, zombies, demons and a terrifying beast living in the sewers. These sequences are all well written and engrossing with some great characterisation.
It is a challenging gamebook but not overly difficult if you pay attention. There are different ways to track Gruul down so the adventure is quite replayable. The depth of detail, the well realised environments and the variety of intriguing foes means that this is an adventure you will want to revisit.
The adventure exhibits a wealth of influences ranging from classic works of literature to Gothic horror movies. There are elements of Fu Manchu, Phantom of the Opera and Friday 13th, but the biggest influence is the Doctor Who serial 'The Talons of Weng Chiang'. During this the Doctor discovers an escaped war criminal named Greel lurking in the bowels of Victorian London. In this adventure you search in a familiar city for a renegade war criminal named Gruul. Karam Gruul also looks remarkably like Li H'sen Chang from 'The Talons of Weng Chiang'. But using such a Doctor Who story as inspiration for an adventure is certainly not a bad thing.
The adventure keeps the reader entertained by almost being a series of mini quests you must complete to gain information and clues to track down your quarry. These pit you against vampires, grave robbers, insane killers, zombies, demons and a terrifying beast living in the sewers. These sequences are all well written and engrossing with some great characterisation.
It is a challenging gamebook but not overly difficult if you pay attention. There are different ways to track Gruul down so the adventure is quite replayable. The depth of detail, the well realised environments and the variety of intriguing foes means that this is an adventure you will want to revisit.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars
2 reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolute favorite edition of the Fighting Fantasy Universe
13 May 2003
By S. Rook
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
You play a bounty-hunter with a specific agenda, to bring to justice the worst offenders of war-crimes perpetuated by villains in the recent War of Four Nations. There is only one left, Karm Gruul, and recent evidence shows that he has finally come out of hiding. There can be no doubt that his reemergence speaks of some evil plot and you are the only one who can track him down and stop his schemes.
The descriptions, artwork, characters, and overall tone of this book place it as my unquestioned first choice among the Fighting Fantasy books. I've read perhaps 20 of them altogether and the only other one that comes close to being this good is Deathtrap Dungeon - but there has obviously been more work put into the setting for Moonrunner.
Although you play the hero, there is more to his past than usual and by the end you learn that his goals are much personal and the path he chose, that off the bounty hunter, was a means to an end.
As always, I love how there is a specific setting and timeline to where most of the fantasy versions of these books take place. It's not unusual for one to make reference to places or events that take place in other books - although this one seems to take place further in the future and doesn't have as much to relate to (although the intro on your charcter lists some nifty exploits).
Highly recommended to anyone that is interested in these sorts of books.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best of the Series
13 Sep 2011
By Schammie
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
The best of the Fighting Fantasy series. Eschewing the usual Dungeons & Dragons-derived settings, Hand sets this gamebook in a grim, grimy city environs modelled on pulp fiction and horror cinema. You, the hero, are a bounty hunter asked to track down a war criminal who masterminds a shadowy conspiracy. Magic and monsters abound, but they're pervaded with a sense of the weird and menacing and even the items which help you in your quest seem like dangerous relics rather than +5 swords of power. Lest this sound a bit too forboding, the whole affair is shot through with some wonderful gallows humor (wait until you start haggling with the local gravediggers!) Apart from the quality of the writing, this is also a very well-designed gamebook - it's tough but fair, and while you're unlikely to win your first time without cheating, multiple victory paths are accessible to characters with average stats. Highly recommended if you like this sort of thing.
›
Go to Amazon.com to see both reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
