Lone Wolf 28: The Hunger of Sejanoz, by Joe Dever | review by Rafe McGregor

Lone Wolf 28:The Hunger of Sejanoz (Collector’s Edition) by Joe Dever

HolmgardPress, hardback, £19.99, November 2022, ISBN 9781915586056

I’vebeen delaying my review of the most recently published collector’s editionbecause I was hoping to be able to report that Holmgard Press had achieved atleast one of its goals: that either the whole cycle of thirty-two Lone Wolf gamebookshad been published or that a large proportion of the cycle was back in print. Unfortunately,both goals remain in development at the time of writing. Regardingavailability, there are now three editions circulating: original (paperback andsecondhand only), collector’s (hardback and secondhand only), and definitive (whichcan be purchased from Holmgard Press, Amazon, and no doubt other onlinebookstores). The only definitive editions in print at the time of writing arebooks 1 to 12, 1 to 5 (the Kai series) in hardback and paperback and 6 to 12(the Magnakai series) in hardback. Books 13 to 20 (the Grand Master series) arerelatively easy to find on the secondhand market (and usually not extortionate,for the original editions anyway), but books 21 to 31 (the New Order series) less so. People seem to be hanging on to the Holmgard Press Collector’sEditions pretty tightly and I’ve not seen any copies of books 28 to 31available for a while now. The original edition of Lone Wolf 28: The Hungerof Sejanoz (which was published by Red Fox in 1998) reached a peak price of£1894 on the secondhand market in February 2022, but both original and collector’s editions are now completely unavailable fourteen months after the publication of thelatter. Regarding the completion of the series, Lone Wolf 32: Light of theKai is going to be released in two parts, which Holmgard aims to publish inOctober 2024 and October 2025 respectively. I have to ask why. Two parts mean thatJoe Dever’s original conception of a thirty-book cycle has been changed to thirty-three,but the press’ stated intention is the posthumous realisation of his vision (Dever sadly passedaway in 2016). I am also concerned that the perceived need to publish the finalbook in two parts is evidence of an exacerbation of the source of my criticismof Lone Wolf 31: The Dusk of Eternal Night, which I reviewed in TQF69.Finally, 2024 is the fortieth anniversary of the publication of Lone Wolf 1:Flight from the Dark (yes, that does make me feel old) and it wouldhave been great to have the cycle completed in such an auspicious year.

As regular readers of TQF will know, Ihave reviewed all of the New Order books so far, but I’ll provide a briefrecap here for newcomers. The four series into which the Lone Wolf cycle isdivided have taken three different forms: a single campaign across both the Kaiand Magnakai series, followed by a series of standalone adventures in the GrandMaster series, all with the same player character, Lone Wolf; and theintroduction of a new player character in the New Order series, who is the secondmost powerful Kai Grand Master (mine has the randomly generated and ratherwimpy name of ‘True Friend’), whose adventures alternate between campaigns andstandalones. Lone Wolf 21: Voyage of the Moonstone and Lone Wolf 22: The Buccaneers of Shadaki are a two-part campaign, the aim ofwhich is to return the Moonstone to the Isle of Lorn in southern Magnamund. Thenext four books are all standalone adventures: defeating the robber-knightBaron Sadanzo in Lone Wolf 23: Mydnight’s Hero and the warmongering wizard Lord Vandyan in LoneWolf 24: Rune War; rescuingLone Wolf himself in Lone Wolf 25: Trail of the Wolf; andassisting the Dwarves of Bor in the defence of their Throne Chamber in LoneWolf 26: The Fall of BloodMountain. Lone Wolf 27: Vampirium initiates anew campaign that will be completed in The Hunger of Sejanoz, revisitedin Lone Wolf 29: The Storms of Chai, and possibly continuethrough to the end of the cycle (the nature of its narrative closure is notquite clear to me and that may well be Holmgard Press’ intention). True Friend’smission in Vampirium was to prevent the Autarch Sejanoz of Bhanar fromacquiring the Claw of Naar from the ruin of Naaros. True Friend was, of course,successful but Sejanoz went ahead with the invasion of Chai sans Clawand True Friend’s next mission is to escort Khea-khan Xo-lin and his entourage,which includes Princess Mitzu and her son, Prince Kamada, from the imperialseat of Pensei, across the Great Lissan Plain, to the safety of the city of Tazhan.The caravan is under the charge of Guard Captain Chan, who has a troop of eliteImperial Cavalry to protect the imperial family from bandits, Agarashi, tombrobbers, nahba worms (one of which is featured on the cover), and the Bhanarianarmy.

The Hunger of Sejanoz was originallypublished in 1998, when the gamebook phenomenon was in decline and Red Fox hadlost confidence in the series, in consequence of which Dever was forced toreduce the gameplay sections from the standard 350 to 300, cutting theadventure short. As further evidence of Red Fox’s lack of interest, the wrongmap was published, a duplicate of the map of Vampirium. (I feel for Dever– the only thing worse than a lacklustre publisher is one that fails to correcterrors and Red Fox were guilty of both flaws.) The collector’s edition includes 50new sections written by Vincent Lazarri and Ben Devere, extending the adventureto its intended length, and an original map drawn by Francesco Mattioli.Although I did own an original edition briefly, I never played the game so Ican’t comment on the difference made by the additional sections, aside from themobviously being very welcome. I have no recollection of the artwork in theoriginal edition either, although I should have because BrianWilliams really outdid himself in his final outing for the cycle (the illustrationsinside the collector’s edition are all identical and the cover is by Albertodal Lago, a striking reimagining of the original). Very roughly, the game isdivided into four parts, measured by the caravan’s progress to first Javai,then Rakholi, then Zanaza, and finally Fort Vlau, which is where the Autarchcatches up with the Khea-khan. Compared to the other adventures in the NewOrder series I would class this as intermediate in difficulty, neither overlyeasy nor impossible to complete. In addition to the standard perils and thrillsof what is basically a wilderness adventure in Advanced Dungeons &Dragons terminology, it soon emerges that there is a traitor in the imperialentourage and the element of mystery racks up the suspense a few notches, whichis a satisfying touch. The Grand Master discipline of Kai-alchemy isparticularly useful, with Kai-surge, Astrology, and Assimilance also assisting play.My only criticism of the game is that if one has acquired the Arrow ofAtonement, then the final confrontation with the Autarch is a little anticlimactic.I could perhaps extend that comment to the game as a whole in that I didn’tenjoy it quite as much as Vampirium. Given the complexity and carnage ofThe Storms of Chai to come, however, The Hunger of Sejanoz fitsvery neatly into the late cycle trilogy, a relative calm before the storm, andthe trilogy as a whole is one of the most enjoyable parts of the entire cycle.(The only other part that can compare for me is the first three adventures inthe Magnakai series.) Overall, this is an excellent gamebook, even if you haven’tplayed Lone Wolf before (though I would recommend playing this after Vampirium,whether or not you start there, at the beginning of the New Order, or at thebeginning of the whole cycle).

In keeping with previousCollector’s Editions, The Hunger of Sejanoz includes a bonus adventure. ‘TheEdge of Night’ is written by August Hahn, illustrated by Koa, and has 150sections of gameplay. “You are Altan, an unwilling member of the Vampirium anda blood-slave of Autarch Sejanoz, the tyrant of Bhanar” and your mission is to useyour newfound freedom to give your enslaved son a second chance at life. The adventure meets both of my criteria for a bonusgame: the plot dovetails neatly with the main adventure (beginning with thedeath of Sejanoz) and provides a contrast of player character – the vampiricAltan reminded me of a monk whereas True Friend is clearly a ranger (to revertto Advanced Dungeons & Dragons terminology). Like most of the bonus adventures, ‘TheEdge of Night’ is original, interesting, and well worth playing. In closing,I must admit some disappointment at not popping up on Holmgard Press’ radar bynow. Courtesy of Stephen Theaker’s forbearance this is my thirteenth review ofa Lone Wolf gamebook (the New Order series plus two of Martin Charbonneau’s discontinuedAutumn Snow series, a total of approximately 17,000 words), with each averaginga thousand reads on the TQF blog. My hope is that they have introduced at least a few new players to Dever's wonderful world of Magnamund. Never mind...all being well, my nextreview will be published this Christmas or early in 2025. Rafe McGregor