Books Reviews

Night of the Necromancer (Fighting Fantasy) – Book Review

By Angela Youngman Jul 15, 2010, 15:06 GMT

Death is not the end...You are a knightly warrior, returning to your ancestral castle having been away for a number of years fighting a crusade against the forces of darkness in the Mauristatian principality of Bathoria. You are just within sight of home when you are struck down by a band of murderers. Driven by the need to know why you have been killed, and on whose orders, you rise ...more

Game players will rejoice to see this new volume in the Fighting Fantasy series.  The fertile imaginations of Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone have come up with yet another complex and demanding game book idea involving a visit to the Lands of the Dead. 

The choices you make on each page determine how the story progresses - and whether you live or die.  The story begins as you are returning to your castle.  Cut down in the final stages of the journey, your ghostly form is caught between the world of the living and the Lands of the Dead. 

It soon becomes clear that you have to battle hard to uncover the malignant evil that has taken root in Valsinore.  In the space of just one night you have to get your revenge or face a dreadful fate. 

The story grips you, making it hard sometimes to decide which way to go.  It becomes compelling - you just have to keep going in order to find what will happen, even if it is not the ending for which you were hoping. 

What makes it even more fun, is the fact that the book can be read again and again - and each time the story is different.  It is easy to see why these books are so popular.  Wizard books have just started reissuing old volumes which have been unavailable for some time.

Recent reissues include Jackson & Livingston's Bloodbones, Steve Jackson's House of Hell and Ian Livingstone's Eye of the Dragon all at the same price of £5.99.  Covers and illustrations have been updated, giving the books a classy eye catching appeal as the monster soars out of a shield.