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The World of Lone Wolf #3
Beyond the Nightmare Gate
Grey Star is in another plane, the Daziarn. A realm of nightmares and ghosts await our hero, who must battle the fiendish enchantments of the Black Crystal Tower, the Chaos Lord, the ancient god of discord, the Neverness, holes that lead to the past and future that never was and never will be, a mountain that moans, and other twisted foes before the final to dive into a shimmering lake - to another dimension, and fight his shadow twin in a duel for the Moonstone and human's salvation. From the magnificent flying Ethetron to a terrible lizard that turns those who look at it into stone to the mysterious Room of the Mirrors. A fine feast of action sci-fi.
Paperback
First published May 1, 1986
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 21, 2025
I really loved this series as a quick enjoyable read when they came out. Recommended
September 9, 2022
Once Again the Outer Realms
29 August 2022 – Indonesia
Well, it turns out that the flight back into Australia happens to be on a budget airline, which wouldn’t have been a problem if it wasn’t for the fact that as far as I’m aware I paid for a premium airline. Mind you, it isn’t as if I can really do anything about it because I know how corporations work (namely because I worked in one for way too long in a customer service role) and they always point at the fine print. Mind you, it isn’t as if they really are budget airlines because the model is designed to squeeze as much money out of you during the journey as possible and I’ve heard stories of people ending up having to pay much more than what they expected. I tend to try to avoid them like the plague, especially if there are other options available. The problem is that I’m stuck in this flying coffin for something like seven hours.
So, let’s move on from my whinging (because isn’t that what Facebook and Twitter are for – I might check out what other people’s opinion of the airline is once I get back onto the ground) and have a look at this game book. As I suspected, like pretty much all of the other gamebooks in this world, it is pretty simple. Actually, I ended up discovering that I had only one combat in the entire book. Sure, if you make some decisions you might end up having more, but the decisions I made resulted in only one. However, there are some interesting puzzles in this book as well, though unfortunately only really at the beginning.
Like the other game books, this one begins pretty much straight after you finish the previous one. You have found the gate, and also released Tanith, an ally you met in the first book. The allies that you had in the previous book are gone so it is now just you and Tanith. In this book you travel across various planes in an attempt to locate the Moonstone, which happens to be a Shianti artifact that you need to be able to kill the big bad guy. Mind you, everytime I read Moonstone, I could help but think of the Wilkie Collins murder mystery of the same name, but that is just a side note.
The thing that I liked about this book were the puzzles that you had to solve, and also the lack of combat can be pretty cool as well. Sure, this is a ‘Fighting Fantasy’ style book, but the thing is that there is much more to roleplaying than simply going around killing things, though I have to admit that a lot of games that I’ve played have simply involved people going around killing things and stealing their treasure. Yeah, that sounds pretty dodgy when you come to think about it. If you did that in the modern world you would no doubt land up in gaol or something. Honestly, why is looting a corpse not an issue in a fantasy roleplaying game?
Look, it wasn’t bad. I liked it, and it was certainly better than some of the other books that I’ve read. Mind you, it’s pretty easy to read through as well, unlike a lot of the other Fighting Fantasy books that I’ve read. Sure, it works for me who doesn’t want to spend too much time on it, but it does make replayability somewhat difficult, and it also feels that because it is so easy to get through, it doesn’t seem to provide all that much value for money. Still, I didn’t mind it.
29 August 2022 – Indonesia
Well, it turns out that the flight back into Australia happens to be on a budget airline, which wouldn’t have been a problem if it wasn’t for the fact that as far as I’m aware I paid for a premium airline. Mind you, it isn’t as if I can really do anything about it because I know how corporations work (namely because I worked in one for way too long in a customer service role) and they always point at the fine print. Mind you, it isn’t as if they really are budget airlines because the model is designed to squeeze as much money out of you during the journey as possible and I’ve heard stories of people ending up having to pay much more than what they expected. I tend to try to avoid them like the plague, especially if there are other options available. The problem is that I’m stuck in this flying coffin for something like seven hours.
So, let’s move on from my whinging (because isn’t that what Facebook and Twitter are for – I might check out what other people’s opinion of the airline is once I get back onto the ground) and have a look at this game book. As I suspected, like pretty much all of the other gamebooks in this world, it is pretty simple. Actually, I ended up discovering that I had only one combat in the entire book. Sure, if you make some decisions you might end up having more, but the decisions I made resulted in only one. However, there are some interesting puzzles in this book as well, though unfortunately only really at the beginning.
Like the other game books, this one begins pretty much straight after you finish the previous one. You have found the gate, and also released Tanith, an ally you met in the first book. The allies that you had in the previous book are gone so it is now just you and Tanith. In this book you travel across various planes in an attempt to locate the Moonstone, which happens to be a Shianti artifact that you need to be able to kill the big bad guy. Mind you, everytime I read Moonstone, I could help but think of the Wilkie Collins murder mystery of the same name, but that is just a side note.
The thing that I liked about this book were the puzzles that you had to solve, and also the lack of combat can be pretty cool as well. Sure, this is a ‘Fighting Fantasy’ style book, but the thing is that there is much more to roleplaying than simply going around killing things, though I have to admit that a lot of games that I’ve played have simply involved people going around killing things and stealing their treasure. Yeah, that sounds pretty dodgy when you come to think about it. If you did that in the modern world you would no doubt land up in gaol or something. Honestly, why is looting a corpse not an issue in a fantasy roleplaying game?
Look, it wasn’t bad. I liked it, and it was certainly better than some of the other books that I’ve read. Mind you, it’s pretty easy to read through as well, unlike a lot of the other Fighting Fantasy books that I’ve read. Sure, it works for me who doesn’t want to spend too much time on it, but it does make replayability somewhat difficult, and it also feels that because it is so easy to get through, it doesn’t seem to provide all that much value for money. Still, I didn’t mind it.
December 8, 2023
Завръщаме се за пореден път в света на Самотния вълк, но този път вместо да се превъплътим в едноименния герой на Джо Дивър, поемаме ролята на магьосника Сива звезда, създаден от Иън Пейдж. Фен-изданието „Отвъд Кошмарната порта“ е трети том от тази страхотна spin-off серия фентъзи книги-игри, в която един младеж, отгледан от митична раса поема на мисия, от чийто успех зависи съдбата на света. Търсенето на легендарния Лунен камък, събрал мъдростта на древните Шианти продължава. С всяка следваща стъпка Сива звезда се приближава ввсе повече и повече до заветната цел, но… силите на злото не спят! Прочетете ревюто на „Книжни Криле“: https://knijnikrile.wordpress.com/202...
June 21, 2019
No challenge, no plot, no reason to bother. The Daziarn is a terrible setting because there's no consistency or internal logic to it, it's just an excuse for the author to throw random shit at you, and the closest this book has to an antagonist doesn't even seem to care about stopping you. Just felt like killing time before the finale.
January 22, 2017
Things always get more interesting when characters go into bizarre worlds. Has a Moorcock vibe to this, and some fascinating encounters.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews