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Fighting Fantasy #46
Tower of Destruction
The hero is faced with the destruction of his home by a black sphere which appears in the sky. He has to follow the trail of destruction to locate the sphere and learn its secret. The sphere has been drawn to Titan by a wizard hoping to open the great necromatic highway to the realm of demon lords.
224 pages, Paperback
First published October 31, 1991
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 5, 2016
At least the flying tower was cool
23 December 2013
Hot on the tail of the awesomeness that was Spectral Stalkers comes a gamebook that begins with a bit of promise but ends up degenerating into what one generally expects of most of the Fighting Fantasy books around this end of the series. Okay, granted, the series has been going on for quite a while and has spawned a number of copies, mpst of which have end up focusing on a specific genre. I guess the reason that at this end of the series they have all been based around a fantasy genre is because we had Freeway Warrior, which appears to be a post-apocalyptic series in the vein of Freeway Fighter, and we also have Falcon, which is a science-fiction series. Along with that we also have Grailquest (which is actually quite humorous) and the Lone Wolf series by Joe Denver.
In Tower of Destruction you are on your way home in the frozen north after flogging off a bunch of furs in a nearby city when you witness a huge sphere fly over you and start pelting your home village with fireballs (as per the cover). After helping out the wounded (if that is actually what you do, because you do have the option to say 'stuff them' and go on your merry way) you head off after this sphere, which then leads you to an ancient elvish ice citadel.
As I said, it started out with potential, but immediately started falling down when you confront, yes, you guessed it, undead and demons (which is what you seem to encounter in all of the other ones) and yes, there is a powerful mage who is beholden to a demon, and you must defeat both of them to win the game. One thing that I have noticed is that a lot of the cool creatures seemed to have become less frequent, and all we seem to have are undead and demons. Also, this book seemed to be a little long, had too many powerful combats (which makes me wonder how deadly it really is), and you seem to churn through heaps of food (namely you have two meals a day as opposed to the normal one, though there does not seem to be any consequences for actually not eating anything).
They have brought back honour, though if you lose all of your honour nothing bad happens, per se, though it does become incredibly important at the end of the adventure. Also they have a time limit on this one as well, though that is relevant only in the first part of the book, and it really only determines whether you meet more, or less, monsters. What was irritating was that there were a couple of puzzles in this one, which were incredibly hard. One of them was a 'guess the next number in the sequence' and the other was a 'guess the next clock position in the sequence'. Since it was very difficult to read the clocks made this puzzle particularly annoying.
The other gripe that I had with this book was when you were in the ice citadel, you are given a list of locations that you can visit, however you have to visit them in a specific order otherwise you are not able to complete the game. However, I guess you are not meant to play through these games in one sitting, but rather go back and try them again once you have failed (though I suspect nobody actually reads through the entire book again if they fail at one particular spot – or at least I don't).
23 December 2013
Hot on the tail of the awesomeness that was Spectral Stalkers comes a gamebook that begins with a bit of promise but ends up degenerating into what one generally expects of most of the Fighting Fantasy books around this end of the series. Okay, granted, the series has been going on for quite a while and has spawned a number of copies, mpst of which have end up focusing on a specific genre. I guess the reason that at this end of the series they have all been based around a fantasy genre is because we had Freeway Warrior, which appears to be a post-apocalyptic series in the vein of Freeway Fighter, and we also have Falcon, which is a science-fiction series. Along with that we also have Grailquest (which is actually quite humorous) and the Lone Wolf series by Joe Denver.
In Tower of Destruction you are on your way home in the frozen north after flogging off a bunch of furs in a nearby city when you witness a huge sphere fly over you and start pelting your home village with fireballs (as per the cover). After helping out the wounded (if that is actually what you do, because you do have the option to say 'stuff them' and go on your merry way) you head off after this sphere, which then leads you to an ancient elvish ice citadel.
As I said, it started out with potential, but immediately started falling down when you confront, yes, you guessed it, undead and demons (which is what you seem to encounter in all of the other ones) and yes, there is a powerful mage who is beholden to a demon, and you must defeat both of them to win the game. One thing that I have noticed is that a lot of the cool creatures seemed to have become less frequent, and all we seem to have are undead and demons. Also, this book seemed to be a little long, had too many powerful combats (which makes me wonder how deadly it really is), and you seem to churn through heaps of food (namely you have two meals a day as opposed to the normal one, though there does not seem to be any consequences for actually not eating anything).
They have brought back honour, though if you lose all of your honour nothing bad happens, per se, though it does become incredibly important at the end of the adventure. Also they have a time limit on this one as well, though that is relevant only in the first part of the book, and it really only determines whether you meet more, or less, monsters. What was irritating was that there were a couple of puzzles in this one, which were incredibly hard. One of them was a 'guess the next number in the sequence' and the other was a 'guess the next clock position in the sequence'. Since it was very difficult to read the clocks made this puzzle particularly annoying.
The other gripe that I had with this book was when you were in the ice citadel, you are given a list of locations that you can visit, however you have to visit them in a specific order otherwise you are not able to complete the game. However, I guess you are not meant to play through these games in one sitting, but rather go back and try them again once you have failed (though I suspect nobody actually reads through the entire book again if they fail at one particular spot – or at least I don't).
January 19, 2023
Although I failed on my first attempt, I enjoyed the book and it is another Keith Martin book, but it is a Country mile from his best ever work which is Vault of the Vampire and I am told has some errors!🙄🙄I will continue to plug away at it and hopefully complete the adventure!
November 2, 2025
I decided to read Tower of Destruction (1991) in honour of Pete Knifton, the man responsible for its excellent internal artwork, who sadly passed away earlier this week.
This is the fourth of eight Fighting Fantasy titles by Cambridge parapsychologist Keith Martin (aka Carl Sargent), best known for writing one of the finest entries in the series, Vault of the Vampire (1989).
I liked this book a lot. The story is a little convoluted, but the writing and imagery are excellent—no surprise, given it’s Martin’s work—and the ice palace serves as a very effective central hub for the adventure. The icy setting, however, feels somewhat decorative rather than visceral or integral to the story, unlike the more immersive cold of Caverns of the Snow Witch (1984). This is a minor quibble, though.
I completed it on my first attempt, though only because I skipped the combat (there are so many powerful enemies that survival seems like it might be impossible) and cheated on the fiendishly difficult musical and mathematical puzzles. One puzzle, for instance, requires identifying and calculating the squares of odd prime numbers. In a few cases, the puzzle instructions were inaccurate or unclear too.
Tower of Destruction features some great writing and it feels grand and epic in scope. I’m honestly not sure, though, if it could be completed without cheating!
This is the fourth of eight Fighting Fantasy titles by Cambridge parapsychologist Keith Martin (aka Carl Sargent), best known for writing one of the finest entries in the series, Vault of the Vampire (1989).
I liked this book a lot. The story is a little convoluted, but the writing and imagery are excellent—no surprise, given it’s Martin’s work—and the ice palace serves as a very effective central hub for the adventure. The icy setting, however, feels somewhat decorative rather than visceral or integral to the story, unlike the more immersive cold of Caverns of the Snow Witch (1984). This is a minor quibble, though.
I completed it on my first attempt, though only because I skipped the combat (there are so many powerful enemies that survival seems like it might be impossible) and cheated on the fiendishly difficult musical and mathematical puzzles. One puzzle, for instance, requires identifying and calculating the squares of odd prime numbers. In a few cases, the puzzle instructions were inaccurate or unclear too.
Tower of Destruction features some great writing and it feels grand and epic in scope. I’m honestly not sure, though, if it could be completed without cheating!
March 9, 2024
Oof, this was such a slog that I stopped playing. The many special rules, very difficult encounters, maze-like entries, and extremely difficult puzzles made it no fun. After checking a walkthrough hoping to see that I was almost done, I saw that I wasn't even halfway. I don't even want to finish it with the walkthrough to find out what happens.
December 23, 2023
Alright but not exceptional Fighting Fantasy adventure. Full review: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews