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Tolkein Quest/Middle Earth Quest #5
A Spy in Isengard
A Spy in Isengard (Middle-Earth Quest) (Paperback) - A Gamebook by Terry Amthor (Author). Publisher, Berkley Pub Group 1988. Paperback book in good condition, cover has light overall wear, corner and edge wear nothhing major. Comes from a Nonsmoking home. Enter J.R.R. Tolkien's World. The plot is that you are an apprentice of Saruman the white, as he falls under the influence of Sauron. You decide to help the fight against Sauron by spying on Saruman. You also decide to tell the white council by sending message to Galadrial, the Lady of Lorien, to meet a representative in a location you get to pick. Your task in the book is to find clues to Saruman's betrayal by searching the tower Orthanc. Then leave the tower and meet the reprisentative. The story can be as long or short as your decisions make it.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 2, 2021
Pensaba que era un libro-juego al estilo tradicional (sencillo): se te presentan bifurcaciones y tienes que elegir una u otra sin mayores complejidades. Pero no, es un juego de rol en solitario con las reglas del Middle Earth Role Playing simplificadas, su ficha de personaje con multitud de parámetros y modificadores a las tiradas de dados, y su mapa. Esto, que en el rol moderno se denomina oráculo, en esta época debió resultar una genialidad porque lo es, aunque no sé si la complejidad tiraría para atrás a más de una persona.
Pero, genialidades aparte, hay que reconocer que el texto es, al menos en el camino por el que me llevaron las decisiones, terriblemente blanco y dirigido a todo tipo de audiencias, carente de las complejidades que puedan tener las obras de J.R.R. Tolkien. Yo, que estoy de vuelta de todo, hubiera preferido más oscuridad y mala baba, aunque admito que fue una lectura-partida muy agradable.
Pero, genialidades aparte, hay que reconocer que el texto es, al menos en el camino por el que me llevaron las decisiones, terriblemente blanco y dirigido a todo tipo de audiencias, carente de las complejidades que puedan tener las obras de J.R.R. Tolkien. Yo, que estoy de vuelta de todo, hubiera preferido más oscuridad y mala baba, aunque admito que fue una lectura-partida muy agradable.
December 26, 2022
A very nicely done game book. In this story you play an apprentice to Saruman the White, whom you suspect may be turning from the White Council. The setting is the tower of Orthanc and the surrounding Wizard’s Vale.
The narrative stays very close to Tolkien’s lore which I very much appreciated. I expect that when this was written in 1988 some of the small details would have been tantalizing for young people who may not have read the expanded material - only six of the twelve volume History of Middle Earth had been published at that time. I really enjoyed exploring what the interior of Orthanc may have been like.
In terms of handbook mechanics, the book is divided into map location descriptions and action narratives. There are two maps for this book - an interior map of Orthanc and an exterior map of the region of Wizard’s Vale. You essentially move to an adjacent space and read the map location narrative. If there is an encounter, you are guided to that paragraph number.
This arrangement gives you a greater sense of freedom. You can even choose which of the three finishing points you want to get to. It is an interesting solution to the usual game book problem of the if-then-if-then chain that can make you feel railroaded into disaster or victory.
There are advanced rules and tie in to the Middle Earth Role Playing Game (MERP) system published by ICE back in the 1980s. It is really a shame this series is out of print and very expensive to acquire in the used market - each book runs $40-50 on average.
If you like game books or Tolkien’s Middle Earth I highly recommend this series!
The narrative stays very close to Tolkien’s lore which I very much appreciated. I expect that when this was written in 1988 some of the small details would have been tantalizing for young people who may not have read the expanded material - only six of the twelve volume History of Middle Earth had been published at that time. I really enjoyed exploring what the interior of Orthanc may have been like.
In terms of handbook mechanics, the book is divided into map location descriptions and action narratives. There are two maps for this book - an interior map of Orthanc and an exterior map of the region of Wizard’s Vale. You essentially move to an adjacent space and read the map location narrative. If there is an encounter, you are guided to that paragraph number.
This arrangement gives you a greater sense of freedom. You can even choose which of the three finishing points you want to get to. It is an interesting solution to the usual game book problem of the if-then-if-then chain that can make you feel railroaded into disaster or victory.
There are advanced rules and tie in to the Middle Earth Role Playing Game (MERP) system published by ICE back in the 1980s. It is really a shame this series is out of print and very expensive to acquire in the used market - each book runs $40-50 on average.
If you like game books or Tolkien’s Middle Earth I highly recommend this series!
December 27, 2022
I came across this paperback at an antiquarian book fair and apparently lucked out given the prices I’ve found for it on-line, which were 4 to 10+ times what I paid. I thought this was a Choose Your Own Adventure style book, and it is, but much more sophisticated, blending in elements of role playing games. There are 9 pages of instructions at the start, and character forms where you keep track of stats, items, and clues you collect along the way. You can use the provided character, or create your own, similar to Dungeons & Dragons, with Strength, Agility and Intelligence, as well as skills: Melee, Missile, DB, Running, General, Trickery, Perception, and Magical. (Yes, “General” is a skill.)
The premise is that you are an apprentice of Saruman the White, living in Isengard. He was once a kind teacher, but lately he’s changed. Concerned about what he may be doing, you decide to alert Galadriel, the Elven Queen. You send a message asking her to have a messenger meet you in person in several days at a location you choose.
I didn’t bother writing things down, and I read the instructions pretty quickly, but it was easy enough to figure out. What is impressive is that rather than just the usual “If you choose X turn to page 74, if you choose Y turn to page 127” format typical of these books, there are multiple maps that allow you to move freely within the tower Orthanc as well as around a map of Isengard that has hexagons 1A to 12H. So you can wander about using the maps and explore. There is also a time element, with the amount of time each choice takes. You have to get to the meeting on time. (I didn’t bother tracking this, I was reading for the story.)
Occasionally, you’ll be asked to choose a number between 1-12. You can do this by rolling dice, or selecting a random page in the book—each has a tiny number in that range in the inner bottom corner for this purpose. (I just mentally picked a number.) If your number is 1-6, you go to one page, if 7-12 another. I had the unfortunate luck of running in to Saruman in the library, and then immediately after in the laboratory where he used me as a guinea pig for a ring he was making.
In some ways, it reminded me of the adventure PC games of the 1980s and 1990s like Myst, where you would explore in pursuit of a quest. I even recall some very early computer games that were entirely text based (I think that may be how Myst started). It’s sad to me that we seem to have shifted from the innovative complex and imaginative games of the late 20th century to the easy money-grab app games where you just mindlessly tap and swipe, or derivative and usually watered down versions of longtime franchises.
All of which leads to the point that this is really an exceptional book, and relatively quick read. I really wanted to keep it because of its uniqueness, but my brother is a huge Tolkien fan, and I knew he’d appreciate it even more. So I gave it to him for Christmas.
I did a little digging, and though numbered 1, it turns out this is actually books 5 in the series. There were legal issue between Iron Crown Enterprises (distributed by Berkley), and the Tolkien Estate which had granted game but not book rights. The result was that the first three books were recalled and destroyed, making the few out there quite rare (though based on prices I’ve seen on-line, not as rare as this one). These four books were numbered #1-4 as if the other books never existed, and The last, Murder at Minas Tirith, was advertised but never published.
There were also two other series noted in the back ads like this: Narnia Solo Games based on the books by C.S. Lewis, and Sherlock Holmes Solo Mysteries. The latter series can be found used for a quite reasonable price on-line.
The premise is that you are an apprentice of Saruman the White, living in Isengard. He was once a kind teacher, but lately he’s changed. Concerned about what he may be doing, you decide to alert Galadriel, the Elven Queen. You send a message asking her to have a messenger meet you in person in several days at a location you choose.
I didn’t bother writing things down, and I read the instructions pretty quickly, but it was easy enough to figure out. What is impressive is that rather than just the usual “If you choose X turn to page 74, if you choose Y turn to page 127” format typical of these books, there are multiple maps that allow you to move freely within the tower Orthanc as well as around a map of Isengard that has hexagons 1A to 12H. So you can wander about using the maps and explore. There is also a time element, with the amount of time each choice takes. You have to get to the meeting on time. (I didn’t bother tracking this, I was reading for the story.)
Occasionally, you’ll be asked to choose a number between 1-12. You can do this by rolling dice, or selecting a random page in the book—each has a tiny number in that range in the inner bottom corner for this purpose. (I just mentally picked a number.) If your number is 1-6, you go to one page, if 7-12 another. I had the unfortunate luck of running in to Saruman in the library, and then immediately after in the laboratory where he used me as a guinea pig for a ring he was making.
In some ways, it reminded me of the adventure PC games of the 1980s and 1990s like Myst, where you would explore in pursuit of a quest. I even recall some very early computer games that were entirely text based (I think that may be how Myst started). It’s sad to me that we seem to have shifted from the innovative complex and imaginative games of the late 20th century to the easy money-grab app games where you just mindlessly tap and swipe, or derivative and usually watered down versions of longtime franchises.
All of which leads to the point that this is really an exceptional book, and relatively quick read. I really wanted to keep it because of its uniqueness, but my brother is a huge Tolkien fan, and I knew he’d appreciate it even more. So I gave it to him for Christmas.
I did a little digging, and though numbered 1, it turns out this is actually books 5 in the series. There were legal issue between Iron Crown Enterprises (distributed by Berkley), and the Tolkien Estate which had granted game but not book rights. The result was that the first three books were recalled and destroyed, making the few out there quite rare (though based on prices I’ve seen on-line, not as rare as this one). These four books were numbered #1-4 as if the other books never existed, and The last, Murder at Minas Tirith, was advertised but never published.
There were also two other series noted in the back ads like this: Narnia Solo Games based on the books by C.S. Lewis, and Sherlock Holmes Solo Mysteries. The latter series can be found used for a quite reasonable price on-line.
February 22, 2019
I've enjoyed Middle-Earth Quest and Tolkien Quest books, and this one is pretty much on par with the others. It was, though, extremely easy - I fought two battles and (I think) got the best ending. It is hard to say, as while flipping through to new pages I noticed a few (rather exciting) storylines that I didn't see at all. Whatever the case, it was a fun book.
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September 23, 2023A caval donato non si guarda in bocca. Altrimenti troveresti la carie.
March 17, 2025
📊7/10
Dopo 25 anni torno a prendere in mano un librogame.
Ottima l'ambientazione e lo sviluppo della storia.
Un po' meno la gestione dei combattimenti (per fortuna pochi😅).
Da giocare per ogni amante della terra di mezzo.
Dopo 25 anni torno a prendere in mano un librogame.
Ottima l'ambientazione e lo sviluppo della storia.
Un po' meno la gestione dei combattimenti (per fortuna pochi😅).
Da giocare per ogni amante della terra di mezzo.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews