I'll just take a guess that the "dank" on page 216 is supposed to be "dark" ;)
It was a good read, not too long, not too short.
SPOILER
I found it a bit harder to immerse myself into the second part (for obvious reasons), but it was an interesting twist.
END SPOILER
Not entirely sure how I feel about the ending. Still undecided on whether it's supposed to be a happy ending or not. But I guess.. Yes? There are still quite the amount of options I didn't explore, so I might give it another read, just for exploration purposes.
All in all, I'd say this is a solid 8.5/10, mainly because of the original twist.
Yaztromo Tue May 24 21:20:43 2016
I always end up serving faithfully the Master of Wolves until my departure... :-/
Winiestflea Thu Jun 9 02:04:18 2016
First one I have evered play, it was pretty cool.
Jonathan Sun Jul 31 22:12:23 2016
Good adventure.
Wolf Tue Sep 6 20:14:48 2016
Great game
hi Sat Dec 10 12:08:17 2016
Was there any aim for me after I got turned into a wolf?
hi Sat Dec 10 13:44:40 2016
Good game
adum bernie Thu Dec 22 12:50:35 2016
I thought it was really, really bad you turn into a' wolf
Tammy Thu Dec 22 23:30:47 2016
Then I assume you won't like Rise of the Night Creatures either, which is featured here on ffp. :)
Rai Thu Jan 26 12:10:00 2017
I really enjoyed how the story's setting always kept changing, and found the
SPOILER
arena fight with the orc
END SPOILER
and the
SPOILER
defense of the castle
END SPOILER
particularly interesting.
That being said, I will complete the game once more, because I suspect that the ending I got isn't the only one, and would like to see how things turn out if I do things somewhat differently.
JSin333 Sat Apr 8 13:22:24 2017
An interesting and unique story.
bluejuice915 Sun Jun 18 00:35:00 2017
That was great. The extensive choices made for great gameplay, not to mention an ingenious plot. I am curious as to the final piece of information you can provide to the Council and the 5th wizard in Swamp as I seem to have missed them. The battles were perfect for any skill. There were perhaps excessive luck checks, but maybe that was just the path I took. Great job with the smattering of insta-losses near the end. Overall, great and worth recommending. Grade: 99
RogueOne Tue Oct 17 02:34:24 2017
Done!
Karl Gorman Sun Feb 11 19:35:39 2018
Oh, you have taken me back to my boyhood.
A very substantial piece of work, with a good twist that I didn't see coming!
Thank you.
Fra Fri Apr 6 22:42:08 2018
Dead
ur mom Tue Jul 31 17:47:42 2018
that rhino was STRONG
Ben Thu Sep 27 09:44:57 2018
I got killed by some fat troll because I didn't want to place a bet
paul Tue Mar 12 21:00:38 2019
after all that, death by crab grass. i enjoyed this gamebook.
David Thu May 9 20:17:03 2019
4th time. finally completed it. loved this adventure
Robert Douglas Fri May 10 00:55:45 2019
Hi David, are you sure you completed it? There should be a star instead of the dread skull'n'cross bones!
Rick Thu Jun 20 14:22:54 2019
Is there no way to escape becoming a wolf?
Zorg Mon Jul 15 10:33:43 2019
Didn't really know what I was doing, but it appears I got somewhere, I guess. Good game tho
Etienne Tue Jan 7 00:48:27 2020
Really good book. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I often wonder if an actual barbarian would refer to himself as a 'barbarian' though.
This was one the good ones to be honest. It never got frustrating, the difficulty felt just right.
Jerry Wed Jul 8 11:54:22 2020
I thought I won, but...
SPOILER
the Master of Wolves turned out tobe EVIL! And instead I became his slave!
END SPOILER
914002 Sat Dec 26 17:41:53 2020
@mazing I lovei the stoory
Jay Mon Jan 18 23:29:22 2021
Ended up with the dryads. A happy ending indeed.
Jay Tue Jan 19 15:17:46 2021
Completed it, but would prefer to meet the dryads again.
Yaztromo Sat Mar 6 14:17:06 2021
This time the giant bested me in combat...
JDRAFO Sat Aug 21 22:34:24 2021
Pretty cool game. Just wish Luck was useable in combat.
Mage Tue Oct 19 02:08:22 2021
Nice prequel for Scorpion Swamp.
YARD Fri Aug 25 16:10:15 2023
My mini-quest of playing through all of Kieran's works is now complete! With that, I might as well give a personal ranking for all of them.
* A Princess Of Zamarra
* The Word Fell Silent
* A Strange Week For King Melchion The Despicable
* Hunger Of The Wolf
* A Knight's Trial
* Waiting For The Light
* A Midwinter Carol
You can tell that this story is Kieran's first work as the writing style is notably less sharp, the characters less memorable and, of course, the story much more linear than in the works I rated above it, not to mention more altogether conventional than pretty much anything he wrote since. There are also some contrived moments the later works tend to be much better at avoiding.
SPOILER
If the Fangthane sword was wielded by the head of the poor family who died trying to protect them from the soldiers, then why doesn't it get looted by said soldiers? It's also not clear why your character has to blurt it out to wizard's face that his rival doesn't want us to trust him, rather than having the choice to conceal that. It's even less clear why we can't just kill Caius on the spot. Or indeed, why we can't try and persuade Bartolo to follow us at least to Caius' house, if not closer to Zimorax. And it's a little too convenient for the narrative that apparently the one dead body which can talk in that world happened to be that Minstrel, for reasons unclear.
END SPOILER
At the same time, it is still a perfectly good high fantasy adventure, with a fairly diverse range of creatures and encounters involved throughout. I particularly liked the Firefox and manticore fights mechanically (and a felinaur one stylistically), but there were enough other neat encounters as well, all reasonably balanced.
Now, proofreading:
119
"and a woman and her two daughter are sheltering"
172
"to see a red and blue parrot perched on a nearby branch . 'Follow me,' " (extra space) + perhaps "trying to decide what route" (not which?)
271
"Eventually you emerge on to the balcony"
296
"A group or orcs that had been"
399
"done you,' you ask." (should be a ? instead of a ,)?
349 - might misspell the name of a Council's member.
There are also quite a few moments which seem to be missing dashes where they would have come in handy: i.e. "a rather repulsive looking" at 116.
Kieran Fri Sep 8 23:11:10 2023
Not technically my first work as I'd submitted a number of 50 section gamebooks for various competitions prior to this, but definitely an earlyish work - a lot of the content was reused in my later Revenant Rising - for better or worse.