Ah, Lone Wolf. This series is my personal favorite among all of the gamebooks that I have read. Not every Lone Wolf book is an amazing piece of writing, but as a whole this series defeats all others. There are two reasons for this. First, in the series you keep the same character from book to book. This aids greatly in your enjoyment of the series, as you get to see Lone Wolf grow in experience and knowledge. Second, the author, Joe Dever, has developed a wonderful fantasy world for Lone Wolf to have his adventures in, the World of Magnamund. This world is very detailed, and Joe Dever keeps his work consistent through all of the books that I have read.
Your character is represented by two attributes: COMBAT SKILL, which represents your melee combat ability; and ENDURANCE, which represents your character's toughness. When you run out of ENDURANCE, you're dead. Lone Wolf uses its own unique combat system that relies on a differential in COMBAT SKILL between opponents. Once this is determined, you randomize a number between 0 and 9 and refer to table in the back of the book. This gives you the number of ENDURANCE points lost by both Lone Wolf and his opponent. I like this because it seems more "realistic" to me than some other systems. It allows both opponents to take damage in a combat round, showing a more fluid side of combat.
Along with your attributes, Lone Wolf has a number of special skills available to him known as Kai Disciplines. The player selects a certain number of these before play, and judicious selection can make a great difference during the adventure. Some Disciplines are real life savers, and in some books it is difficult indeed to succeed without the proper Discipline, though not impossible. The Disciplines add a second layer of depth to your character that is lacking from other series, like Fighting Fantasy, where you are just a guy with a sword.
Lone Wolf 1, 1984, Joe Dever
This book starts Lone Wolf on his life of danger and adventure. Lone Wolf, your character throughout the series, is a student in the ways of the Kai Lords, the warrior lords of Sommerlund. Sommerlund's ancient enemies are the Darklords, and this book starts with a surprise attack by the Darklords against the Kingdom of Sommerlund. The first attack is against the Kai monestary, where all of the Kai Warriors (except you, becuase you were sent off to collect firewood as punishment) are gathered for a feast. Caught off-guard, all the Kai except you are slain. Realizing that Sommerlund's ancient defenders are now slain, you decide to journey to the capitol of Holmgard to warn the King.
This book is one of the weaker offerings in the series. This can be forgiven, though, as it is the first one. The author, at this stage, is trying to figure out the format, and it shows. The prose is overall pretty good, but there are some patchy spots. The sections are a little short, too. Actually, the whole thing somewhat resembles a traditional Fighting Fantasy book, but there are some exceptions to that. The main exception is the fact that you are given a number of paths to reach the capitol city. Not all of them will succeed, but more than one will get you there. I like the variety that this represents, though it does make the adventures a little shorter as a result.
As far as the difficulty of the book goes, it is of average difficulty. It isn't too hard to complete, but there are some tough combats, and if you make some poor choices in paths you could get killed rather easily. All considered, this book is fairly average. The really good thing about it is that it starts you along the Lone Wolf path, and there are some wonderful things ahead of you on this path.
Lone Wolf 1, 2007, Joe Dever
If you like Lone Wolf, then Mongoose Publishing is your best friend in the whole world. Back in 2003 they used the Open Gaming License to create the officially-licensed Lone Wolf Roleplaying Game, based on the 3rd edition D&D rules. They also published some expansions that focused on the Darklands and Magnamund's various magical traditions. The success of this game turned them on to re-publishing the original solo gamebooks, and in the autumn of 2007 they got around to it, starting with a revised version of the first book in the series, rewritten by Joe Dever to land at 550 sections, making it the largest Lone Wolf gamebook ever. The main change involves how it all starts. Rather than being outside the Kai monastery when it is attacked, you are now inside it, and the first third of the book consists of you fighting hordes of giaks and drakkarim warriors to get the word of the attack out to the capital.
I found that the revised book fixed some of the problems I had with the original version. Specifically, it is simply more challenging to actually complete it, and the writing has been tightened up in many places, which makes it a more enjoyable read. Thus, this version gets an extra star, and if anybody is looking for the book at this point you should totally get the new edition, as it is noticeably better (though noticeably more expensive) than the original.
Lone Wolf 2, 1984, Joe Dever
This book continues right where book 1 left off. The King of Sommerlund sends you to Durenor to retrieve the Sommerswerd, an ancient sword that has the power to kill the Darklords. On your journey you have to endure many trials, from shipwrecks to attempted murder, to face-to-face battles with the Darklord's evil minions.
I thought that this book was very good, though not perfect. There is a lot of action, and a wide variety of troubles for you to survive to complete your quest. This book seems considerably longer than the first Lone Wolf book, and also has a more linear story line. You can't "stray from the path" in this book as much as you could in Flight From the Dark. I don't have a problem with this, as you are on a very specific quest and shouldn't be wandering all over the map, anyway. I also feel that the writing improved somewhat in this book over the first one, though many of the supporting characters still seem too flat. The individual sections seem to be less terse, which is good. All told, there are only two things that I don't like about this book.
First, it is freaking HARD if you don't make specific choices or take specific actions beforehand. There is one choke-point in the book that you have to pass through to succeed, and there are only two possible ways to do it. The first involves the use of a specific Kai Discipline (no, I won't tell you which one) a little ways before you reach the choke-point. The second involves making some (IMHO) illogical decisions that net you a certain item which can be used to get past the choke-point. I remember when I first read this book, it took me a LONG time to figure out how to get past this point in the book. That shouldn't be.
Second, the whole "who is your enemy?" thing in the coach is somewhat silly, and comes to a very forced conclusion, with no real difference in whether or not you pick the right person. That is annoying.
Overall, this is a good book., and I recommend it. Just keep in mind that it may take you a few tries before you figure out its tricks.
Lone Wolf 17, 1992, Joe Dever
(This review was kindly sent to me by Carl Murphy.)
In the Deathlord of Ixia, you discover that the DEATHSTAFF, an artefact of great power is in possession of Ixiataaga (how you pronounce it is beyond me), the Deathlord. The Deathlord "lives" in Ixia, a desolate, frozen wasteland where he commands an army of undead souls doomed to serve him forever. Fearing that the Deathlord may use the Deathstaff against the free nations of Magnamund, you - Lone Wolf, are sent to destroy him. This is easier said than done.
This book is really, really good. The encounters with enemies are minimal, hard and interesting. Instead of just taking out a sword and beating the opponent to death, your Kai Disciplines play a big part in how successful you are. The book starts off great, with a big battle with undead warriors, and then you enter the Deathlord's city. What I also liked about this book was the shadowgate - a "gateway to another plane of exsitence." Another thing I found good was reintroducing Tagazin - The Demonlord. He's a kind of evil dog with big teeth. He is also featured in Lone Wolf 12. This sort of flared up an old rivavlry, and made the combat more interesting. The only problem with this book is the author says you can play it as a stand alone adventure, but that way it really doesn't work. You don't know half the characters, and you don't have some important items that are almost crucial to completion. Also, the combats near the end of the book get to hard. For example: To determine your ENDURANCE, you pick a random number from 0 - 9, then add thirty. Thus, the highest you can have is 39 (without all the special equipment blah, blah, blah) and some of the enemies have ENDURANCE like 60. Be fair. COMBAT SKILL is also like this.
Over all, I'd give this book 4 out of 5. It is a brilliant piece of writting, but some of the combats are just too hard.