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Lone Wolf #27
Vampirium
One of a series of game-books in which each episode can be played separately, or readers can combine them all to create a role-playing epic. Lone Wolf must venture into the hostile land of Bhanar, snatch the evil Claw of Naar from the vampire lord Sejanoz, and deliver it to the awaiting Elder Magi.
368 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
125 people want to read
About the author
Joe Dever
216 books170 followersJoe 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 30, 2021
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 27: Vampirium
(published 1998, first read 2014)
Story: 3/5
Game: 4/5
Replayability: 4/5
Book 27: Vampirium
(published 1998, first read 2014)
Story: 3/5
Game: 4/5
Replayability: 4/5
June 17, 2017
Always weird to see something set in kind-of-East-Asia-but-not-really :D .
January 9, 2020
A somewhat Heart of Darkness kind of book, in which I playing the role of the protagonist, must venture into a relatively unexplored region and steal a cursed something before it can be given to the big bad of the book. It's a relatively straight forward kind of adventure, part seek and part flee. There's a few vampiric motifs here and there but nothing especially drawn from the traditional lore. As an occasional author of vampire tales myself I was looking forward to a possible new take on the mythology, alas it's that old demonic pact trope with a lethal suit of armour involved. The prose is generally as good as ever but the storyline has something of a hesitancy to it, as if the author isn't quite committed to the book as usual. I could just be reading something that doesn't exist, it's just an opinion. This is my first time with this book after all, some of the previous books I've read a lot of times previously. Maybe A second read through will help make me more familiar with the book and its many twists and turns.
September 10, 2021
This is some lazy bullshit. The whole thing is just a long-winded setup for the next (and final) book that doesn't even manage to pique my interest in that book. On top of that, it barely even pretends to be a gamebook and there aren't any vampires in it. There's a sort-of vampire-like antagonist, but it's Sejanoz and his name being in the title of the next book should tell you how satisfying the confrontation with him in this book ends up being.
Basically, this book fails to live up to every one of its promises and really gives the impression of an author who just didn't want to be writing this series any more and was long out of fucks to give for his fans or the quality of his work. For all their faults, the earlier books at least give the impression that the author cared about them. This one does not. It feels like a contractual obligation. Maybe it was.
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The collector's edition bonus adventure is actually worse. Shadow Stalkers is an unmitigated disaster of a book. An insult to anyone who bought it or even read it. Apparently it was originally written in French so I don't know how much blame to lay at the feet of the author (Florent Haro) and how much to assign to the translators (Charlotte Sarrau, Naomi Taylor and Vincent Lazzari) but there's more than enough to go around - and the proofreaders (Naomi Taylor and Vincent Lazzari again, with Andreas Andreou and Paul Gresty) are due their share as well.
It's notable that, with eight people credited in its creation, not one of them is listed as an editor. And this book needed one. Badly. It's a fucking slog. And full of errors - both of the type the four proofreaders should have caught, and errors in the game logic. What little of that there is.
Which leads to my next point of contention, which is that there are barely any decisions to make in this entire book, and those that do exist are frequently meaningless. It's clear that Haro had no actual interest in writing a gamebook. He badly wanted to write a novel, and badly write a novel he did.
I cannot overstate it. This is a piece of absolute shit.
Basically, this book fails to live up to every one of its promises and really gives the impression of an author who just didn't want to be writing this series any more and was long out of fucks to give for his fans or the quality of his work. For all their faults, the earlier books at least give the impression that the author cared about them. This one does not. It feels like a contractual obligation. Maybe it was.
---
The collector's edition bonus adventure is actually worse. Shadow Stalkers is an unmitigated disaster of a book. An insult to anyone who bought it or even read it. Apparently it was originally written in French so I don't know how much blame to lay at the feet of the author (Florent Haro) and how much to assign to the translators (Charlotte Sarrau, Naomi Taylor and Vincent Lazzari) but there's more than enough to go around - and the proofreaders (Naomi Taylor and Vincent Lazzari again, with Andreas Andreou and Paul Gresty) are due their share as well.
It's notable that, with eight people credited in its creation, not one of them is listed as an editor. And this book needed one. Badly. It's a fucking slog. And full of errors - both of the type the four proofreaders should have caught, and errors in the game logic. What little of that there is.
Which leads to my next point of contention, which is that there are barely any decisions to make in this entire book, and those that do exist are frequently meaningless. It's clear that Haro had no actual interest in writing a gamebook. He badly wanted to write a novel, and badly write a novel he did.
I cannot overstate it. This is a piece of absolute shit.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews