Tower of Doom -- First 1st Printing

Ravenloft #11

by Mark Anthony

In the bell tower of Nartok Keep there lives a monster. At least so it is whispered in the village below. But Wort is no monster. He is merely a man—gentle and lonely, his form hideously twisted by fate. When a good deed earns Wort only the revilement of Nartok's folk, he makes a dark decision. If they think him a monster, then that is exactly what he will be….

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Fiction, Dungeons and Dragons

Paperback

First published November 1, 1994

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Mark Anthony learned to love both books and mountains during childhood summers spent in a Colorado ghost town.

Later he was trained as a paleoanthropologist but along the way grew interested in a different sort of human evolution—the symbolic progress reflected in myth and the literature of the fantastic. He undertook Beyond the Pale to explore the idea that reason and wonder need not exist in conflict.

Mark Anthony lives and writes in Colorado, where he is currently at work on his next writing project.

Also writes under Galen Beckett.

Reviews

[NightAuditMan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a basic retelling of the Hunchback of Notre Dame with a typical Ravenloft twist, including a horde of zombies and a bizarre incident with people turned into half animals (which is mentioned once and never again). Just another notch on my Ravenloft collection belt.

[PRJ Greenwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Hunchback of Notre Dame given the Ravenloft treatment. Evil sorcery and nefarious villains abound and this is an eminently serviceable book even if it doesn't do anything particularly outstanding. Definitely not the worst D&D book I've read, and it was a quick and painless read.

[Am. J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book really perfectly captured the feeling of questionable fanfiction writing from my teenage years.

[Raechel · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I know that reading book number 11 in a 1990s series about a spooky D&D setting has the unspoken agreement that I'm not getting high literature... I expected more.

Tower of Doom is the eleventh book in the Ravenloft series, taking place in Darkon (the lich kind Azalin's domain). The book follows the deformed hunchback Wort, who lives in the tower and the cruel baron Caiden--there's a secret that connects the two and ifyou have two brain cells you can figure it out before it's finally revealed. Wort gets an evil bell that kills on when you ring it and, bitter at the world, he decides to use it. There's also a subplot about Azalin's spy that goes no where and a woman who might be an angel that goes no where.

I picked this one up specifically to read more about the Darkon setting and also I found Azalin to be an interesting villain. At least in the other Ravenloft books I've read. In this one, not so much. Very early in the book, Azalin's spy, the beautiful werepanther Jadis, is so in love with Azalin that even after he reveals he is a lich--as in, an animated, rotting corpse--she willingly sleeps with him. And he apparently also is into it even though he's literally undead and doesn't feel those kinds of things. But whatever.

This book suffers from very weird pacing. There can only be one or two plot lines happening. And when it's time for a new one it is hastily introduced, or something happens just in time to trigger the next part of the plot. Things that could have easily been introduced slowly and revealed throughout the 300-page novel only show up with they're resolved within the same or next chapter. This includes things like a character's sickness, a character seeing two other characters together, etc. It's like the author added these things as he thought of them when he needed to think up something for the plot.

Throughout the book the baron has a super secret plan to defeat king Azalin--who everyone just thinks is a powerful wizard king. No one but the reader and the spy know he's an undead lich. So even though the baron's plot isn't revealed until literally the last chapter in the book the entire time I didn't think he had the slightest chance of defeating Azalin. Not that I'm even cheering for either of them!

Which is another problem this book suffers from. Yes, I know Ravenloft is a gothic grimdark horror setting... but why is everyone in this story either parody-level evil or Too Pure For This World? The baron is laughably evil with an evil little perverted gnome henchman. Wort the hunchback is corrupted by how he's treated and the allure of the bell. The spy lady is cool but her story goes no where and also she works for Azalin the lich. Azalin is AN EVIL UNDEAD LICH. And the doctor, who is, The Purest of Pure Cinnamon Rolls. Who am I supposed to really care about?

Magical items/people/secrets are introduced as they're needed to push the plot along and dropped just as quickly. There's an entire race of people living under the castle that we meet and then just forget about. There's some old evil mage who used to rule (the Nightmage, cool name) and he's apparently responsible for making an easter egg hunt of powerful evil items that the characters find/have as is convenient? Okay?

Again, I understand I shouldn't be expecting Dracula or Frankenstein from this book, but I really think more effort should have been put into it. If you're determined to read all the Ravenloft books it's bearable, but otherwise there's really nothing to get out of this one.

[Mikaël · Rating 2 out of 5]

A blatant Hunchback of Notre Dame ripoff, it manages to stay interesting and engaging for a fair bit, but then goes bad and boy, does it go bad. All character development gets thrown out of the window, everybody gets replaced by flat stereotypes, and the story just copies Hunchback down to the letter; it's like the writer just gave up any pretenses of even trying to write a book

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reminded me of the hunchback of Notre dame....