The Legacy of Vashna

Lone Wolf #16

by Joe Dever, Peter V. Jones (Illustrator)

You are Lone Wolf-Kai Grand Master of Sommerlund. The spirit of Vashna, greatest of all the Darklords, is imprisoned deep within the fathomless reaches of the Maakengorge. For centuries, servants of darkness have tried to summon him to do their bidding but always they have failed … until now!

In The Legacy of Vashna, you must locate and defeat the Darklord's minions before they can complete the resurrection of their master-the most powerful Lord of Evil your world has ever known. Will you succeed in your quest? Or will you and your fragile world perish in the wrath of Vashna?

Using high quality paper and hardbound for durability, this Collector's Edition of the latest Lone Wolf gamebook marks the return of the last Kai Lord.

Genres: Fantasy, Gamebooks, Fiction, Role Playing Games, Childrens, Gaming, Choose Your Own Adventure

350 pages, Paperback

First published January 11, 1

About the author

Joe Dever was an award-winning British fantasist and game designer. Originally a musician, Dever became the first British winner of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Championship of America in 1982.

He created the fictional world of Magnamund as a setting for his Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. In 1984 he released the first book of the Lone Wolf series of young-adult gamebooks, and the series has since sold over 10.2 million copies worldwide. He experienced difficulty with his publishers as the game books market began to contract in 1995, until publication ceased in 1998 before the final four books (numbers 29-32) were released. Since 2003, however, the series has enjoyed a strong revival of interest in France, Italy, and Spain following the re-release of the gamebook series in these countries.

From 1996 onwards, Dever was involved in the production of several successful computer and console games. He also contributed to a Dungeons & Dragons-style role playing game for Lone Wolf published by Mongoose Publishing (UK) in 2004. Currently he is Lead Designer of a Lone Wolf computer game, and he is writing the final books in the Lone Wolf series. No official publication schedule exists for these works.

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best of the Grand Master series so far. The plot and story of this one was very enjoyable and the style a particularly fun one. A bit of a mystery, some travel across the land including both urban and rural environments, infiltration and touch of extra-planar contact as well. The story touches on several of the previous books, from The Chasm of Doom to The Kingdoms of Terror to The Plague Lords of Ruel]. Nice balance of action, puzzle solving, and interaction.

[Agoaye Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Je me rappelle à présent pourquoi je trichais systématiquement en lisant ces livres lorsque j'étais jeune : au premier combat je me fais dégommer.
Dommage. L'univers fantaisy me plaisait pourtant mais je suis trop peu intéressée pour tout reprendre du début.

[Rachel Redhead · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a joy of a book to read :) The plot starts out simple enough, a warning of a possible scheme, which opens up into an enjoyable investigation and then a race to stop what could be a horrific event, there's even a group of ninjas at one point, and two fiendish logic puzzles to solve. The prose is once again on top form and there's a call back to a minor character from a previous book, while the menace from previous GM books finally unveils his big scheme of evil. Slipping into another dimension for part of the storyline really adds more depth to the story which has ballooned into a huge battle between good and evil. Then there's the appearance of a character who made her debut in the novelisations of the game books but proved successful enough to be added into the main lore.

[Dhana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joe Dever's Lone Wolf gamebooks were a consistent presence during my formative years and have had a big influence on my reading and gaming interests. I first started reading them in 1989 and continued to do so until 1999. With the resurgence of new Lone Wolf material in recent years, I've decided to revisit these nostalgic gems of my youth.

Book 16: The Legacy of Vashna
(published 1991, first read 1992)

Story: 4/5
Game: 3/5
Replayability: 3/5

[Etienne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Vraiment le moins bon de la série jusqu'à ce jour. Très peu de combat, histoire, intrigue et fin très ordinaire, peu de choix à faire. Décevant!! Espérons que la série repartira en force avec le prochain tome.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Haven't died this much in a long, long time. Feels good. A tough one with lots of tie-ins to previous books.

[Mathew Walls · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's probably largely nostalgia but I really like this one. If I'd read it for the first time as an adult I'd probably be pretty unimpressed with Alyss, but as I read it for the first time when I was about six I thought she was the coolest.

The story is fairly linear, which is disappointing, and the bit at the beginning with the assassin doesn't really feel connected to anything else in the book. Also, Lone Wolf basically spends the entire book reacting to stuff instead of proactively trying to achieve any particular goal. So it's not great from that perspective. But you do get to fight a recurring villain, and get introduced to a new one, so that's cool.

It's not one of the best in the series, but it's pretty decent - even accounting for Alyss.

[Cyril Corbaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I appreciate coming back to the Maakengorge, especially to face an old foe, the book does nothing special either... A rather weak Lone Wolf book to be honest, which still features the infuriating last-minute roll that can instantly kill you (we've been there before...), and an unsolvable riddle. Very forgettable.

[Roger]

this is interesting. a RPG style novella. part of the Lone Wolf series?

looks like Choose your Own Adventure combined with Dungeons and Dragons

checking Wikipedia, it looks like there's a whole series of gamebooks. cool.

[Batmanintraining · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love this series of choose your own adventure books.

Especially since you can now read all the books online for free.

http://www.projectaon.org/en/Main/Books