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Fighting Fantasy #44
Legend of the Shadow Warriors
A legend has come to life!
A strange madness is abroad in Gallantaria. Villagers are being put to the sword by five ghostly figures. The Shadow Warriors are mysterious beings from an ancient legend who have somehow returned to life. But are they all that they seem?
YOU are the battle-scarred veteran hired to solve the mystery. But even YOU have never faced a challenge like the Shadow Warriors, for the whole of the Old World is threatened by their terrible secret!
Part story, part game, this is a book in which YOU become the hero! Two dice, a pencil and an eraser are all you need. YOU decide which routes to take, which dangers to risk and which foes to fight.
A strange madness is abroad in Gallantaria. Villagers are being put to the sword by five ghostly figures. The Shadow Warriors are mysterious beings from an ancient legend who have somehow returned to life. But are they all that they seem?
YOU are the battle-scarred veteran hired to solve the mystery. But even YOU have never faced a challenge like the Shadow Warriors, for the whole of the Old World is threatened by their terrible secret!
Part story, part game, this is a book in which YOU become the hero! Two dice, a pencil and an eraser are all you need. YOU decide which routes to take, which dangers to risk and which foes to fight.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 2, 2015
This book thrilled me. It is one of the best Fighting Fantasy I've read so far, and ranks at least as high as Creature of Havoc, House of Hell and Bloodbones in my personal ranking.
It is a true path, but not a harsh one, and there is plenty of alternate routes one can take, thus promoting replayability. Each and every route is characterized by unique and quite interesting encounters, including a nightmare circus, a female Frankenstein-like doctor and her monster, animated scarecrows, a powerful vampire, the Earth Goddess and the Horned God, druids, and the five deadly Shadow Warriors.
There is a little of the Lord of the Rings (but with a glorious twist in the end), a lot of halloween, a nice touch of celtic myth, all amalgamated in a brilliant blend with a very well built structure of play.
Recommended!
It is a true path, but not a harsh one, and there is plenty of alternate routes one can take, thus promoting replayability. Each and every route is characterized by unique and quite interesting encounters, including a nightmare circus, a female Frankenstein-like doctor and her monster, animated scarecrows, a powerful vampire, the Earth Goddess and the Horned God, druids, and the five deadly Shadow Warriors.
There is a little of the Lord of the Rings (but with a glorious twist in the end), a lot of halloween, a nice touch of celtic myth, all amalgamated in a brilliant blend with a very well built structure of play.
Recommended!
March 10, 2026
Best ending.
July 18, 2015
This was just plain silly
19 October 2013
This gamebook didn't really do it for me, but that is probably because a lot of them are starting to sound the same. Basically you are a mercenary who fought in the wars, but after the war was over you didn't want to settle down (which is not surprising since soldiers generally do not integrate back into civilian life all that well) so you decided to continue travelling the land selling your sword for money (which seems to be what is happening today, but then soldiers, and mercenaries, generally do not have a very long shelf life, or even a life for that matter). Anyway, you find yourself back in the major city and are approached by some peasants who tell you that their village is being tormented by the Shadow Warriors. After holding back your laughter, you decide to help them, but before you can meet up with them you run into the local tax collector who informs you that you not only have to pay your back taxes, but all the interest that has accrued with it.
After kicking him where it hurts (in the knee) you then run off, escape the city (though I got a pardon because I uncovered a conspiracy to overthrow he king) you set off on the journey to the village only to discover that not only are the Shadow Warriors are real, but they have killed off all of your travelling companions as well (after they stab you in the leg just to make sure you are dead – which is pretty silly since most people, to make sure you are dead, generally stab you in a much more vital part of your body).
As you can tell I thought this book was a little silly. Hey, even the monster names were becoming quite silly, such as the Whampyre, which was somebody that is supposed to be a vampire, but the author didn't want to use the name vampire, so decided to come up with something that was like a thousand times cornier. There is also a travelling circus that kidnaps people and replaces them with duplicates who, from what I gathered, were made out of vegetables.
I managed to get through this one the second time and yes I did cheat a bit (actually a lot because I didn't use dice and just assumed that I made all of my tests and won all of my combats). There is a part where you have to work out a code, but that was the reason I couldn't complete it the first time because I wanted to find out where the code key was located rather than just simply turning to the paragraph that I knew contained the code key. Anyway, if you want a gamebook with humour don't try this one because if it is supposed to be funny, it failed abysmally. I would probably recommend Grailquest which, I hope, I can actually get to sooner rather than later (I still have to finish all of these books first, plus the new ones that have been released since).
19 October 2013
This gamebook didn't really do it for me, but that is probably because a lot of them are starting to sound the same. Basically you are a mercenary who fought in the wars, but after the war was over you didn't want to settle down (which is not surprising since soldiers generally do not integrate back into civilian life all that well) so you decided to continue travelling the land selling your sword for money (which seems to be what is happening today, but then soldiers, and mercenaries, generally do not have a very long shelf life, or even a life for that matter). Anyway, you find yourself back in the major city and are approached by some peasants who tell you that their village is being tormented by the Shadow Warriors. After holding back your laughter, you decide to help them, but before you can meet up with them you run into the local tax collector who informs you that you not only have to pay your back taxes, but all the interest that has accrued with it.
After kicking him where it hurts (in the knee) you then run off, escape the city (though I got a pardon because I uncovered a conspiracy to overthrow he king) you set off on the journey to the village only to discover that not only are the Shadow Warriors are real, but they have killed off all of your travelling companions as well (after they stab you in the leg just to make sure you are dead – which is pretty silly since most people, to make sure you are dead, generally stab you in a much more vital part of your body).
As you can tell I thought this book was a little silly. Hey, even the monster names were becoming quite silly, such as the Whampyre, which was somebody that is supposed to be a vampire, but the author didn't want to use the name vampire, so decided to come up with something that was like a thousand times cornier. There is also a travelling circus that kidnaps people and replaces them with duplicates who, from what I gathered, were made out of vegetables.
I managed to get through this one the second time and yes I did cheat a bit (actually a lot because I didn't use dice and just assumed that I made all of my tests and won all of my combats). There is a part where you have to work out a code, but that was the reason I couldn't complete it the first time because I wanted to find out where the code key was located rather than just simply turning to the paragraph that I knew contained the code key. Anyway, if you want a gamebook with humour don't try this one because if it is supposed to be funny, it failed abysmally. I would probably recommend Grailquest which, I hope, I can actually get to sooner rather than later (I still have to finish all of these books first, plus the new ones that have been released since).
October 27, 2020
#44 is a good FF for Halloween. It’s very atmospheric. I love the pumpkin-headed ghouls that rise from the marshes and are so beautifully illustrated on the cover by Terry Oakes. The internal artwork, too, by Martin McKenna, is superb.
This is the first entry I’ve read by Stephen Hand. I don’t know if it’s just this book or whether he always writes like this but the prose style here might make this one less suitable for younger readers. The more complex sentence structure and lower-frequency vocabulary had me paraphrasing many of the sentences for my 8-year-old.
Also, it’s the only FF I’ve read where you get in trouble for not paying your taxes!
We got really far but failed because we hadn’t picked up the clues we needed to interpret a map. Definitely one to try again. Maybe next Halloween - if we still exist as a species in a year’s time.
This is the first entry I’ve read by Stephen Hand. I don’t know if it’s just this book or whether he always writes like this but the prose style here might make this one less suitable for younger readers. The more complex sentence structure and lower-frequency vocabulary had me paraphrasing many of the sentences for my 8-year-old.
Also, it’s the only FF I’ve read where you get in trouble for not paying your taxes!
We got really far but failed because we hadn’t picked up the clues we needed to interpret a map. Definitely one to try again. Maybe next Halloween - if we still exist as a species in a year’s time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 6, 2023
Beautifully written by Stephen Hand and fantastic illustrations by Martin Mc Kenna this is one of the best later books in the 40 to 49 bracket. It oozes atmosphere in a doomed village where you must banish all the Shadow Warriors and VOIVOD himself! SPOILERS You need Spear of Doom and a good charge rolling a 6 or a 5 on it! Otherwise you will need a skill of at least 10 to complete it! Be careful at the start as you will need to buy your items carefully and some are essential! A brilliant book to play around Halloween or on a Cold Winters Night or a Summer Evening during a lightening storm! Highly recommended.😊
March 1, 2024
A very solid entry in the series. Great premise, excellent illustration, a nice map to explore with plenty of routes to choose from. I'm a big fan of Tests of Skill and the additional armour rule was fun and interesting. Plus lots of shopping and a tax man to dodge--what isn't to like? The book did feel a bit long, and the "correct" route involves a cardinal point maze, which I hate, so it loses one star for slogginess, but it's otherwise a really great gamebook.
August 18, 2023
Does an excellent job of balancing a grim, horror-tinged atmosphere with extremely fair gameplay. Full review: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...
July 2, 2018
Review in progress...
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews