The Hammer of the Sun

VulcanVerse #1

by Dave Morris, Mattia Simone (illustrator)

In the desert’s fiery heart, secrets and wonders await you that even the gods have forgotten. Brooding sphinxes, whose centuries of stony sleep only the most resourceful hero dare disturb. The skeletal Spartoi, consumed with cold hate, waging perpetual war against all living things. Proud Amazons, who may make you their monarch or their sworn foe. And seers and demigods who will guide you through the hidden reaches of this fabled realm – at a price. Defy the ravages of time to restore the ancient city of Iskandria to its former grandeur. Hunt monsters among the stars. Uncover the mysteries of sand-covered ruins. Range out into the wilderness to face primordial dangers and strange creatures out of deepest dream. Venture into lost tombs and haunted temples to uncover the truth about what threatens the Vulcanverse – a danger from the dawn of time that now stirs and plots in the darkness. As you explore you will forge friendships, meet companions, make enemies – all of whom have long memories and will help or hinder you throughout your adventures. In this vast open world you will find hundreds of amazing quests, make choices with lasting consequences, win glory, cheat death, and face challenges at every turn. Every decision is in your hands. Start in any book, be whoever you choose, go anywhere you please, and do anything you want. The only limit is your imagination.

Genres: Gamebooks

238 pages, Hardcover

Published September 3, 2021

Reviews

[Scott Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Vulcanverse series, which this book forms part of, is an open-world adventure set in a fantasy land that is heavily inspired by ancient Greek and Roman mythology. There are relatively few overt game mechanics. In fact, there are just a couple of pages of rules to be read before you begin. Your initial choices will determine your starting levels in four skills and provide some possessions. There are no rules for combat. Instead, any fights are handled with skill tests, possibly resulting in your character becoming wounded – neither are there hit points or anything equivalent. However, there is a lot going on ‘beneath the hood’. Your characters interactions with these unseen mechanisms are handled through possessions, code words and tick boxes. The result of this is not simply a case of having different encounters at individual locations when visiting them a second time. Whole sections of a book can change over time, in response to your character fulfilling a ‘major plot quest’. Each of these quests may mainly take place in one volume, but will also require you to visit areas in another volume to acquire possessions or gain code words.

I started the series with The Hammer of the Sun, partly because it is the largest with just over 1,700 sections. This portion of the Vulcanverse is mainly a desert land. The setting is rich, with some obvious classical inspirations, both historical and mythological – such as pyramids, sphinxes, and amazons – and others that are more obscure. The high paragraph count is partly to enable the rather complex way that you interact with the land. If anything, there are a few too many tickboxes, which can almost take away from the immersion in the setting. However, the result is worth it. There are a couple of companions that provide a lot of insights, a fairly complex side quest to become an initiate of some mysteries, and a major plot quest in which you restore life to a city – after achieving the latter, you unlock many new encounters and a further side quest.

This volume of the Vulcanverse series, in particular, provides rich rewards for anyone willing to spend several hours immersed in the book, slowly exploring the land, gathering hints and clues, and eventually embarking on the quests.

[Andy Fletcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four years have passed since the last gamebook by Jamie Thomson and Dave Morris, the largely overlooked but excellent, prescient and still pertinent, Can You Brexit? The best authors from the golden age of gamebooks return in more familiar territory, with Vulcanverse. A series of gamebooks supplementing the on-line open world role playing game of the same name.

Living life on the edge, I’ve read the second book in the series, first. Coming in at a whopping 1700 paragraphs, The Hammer of the Sun is steeped in Greek lore and mythology. The writing is top notch and stylistically parts are unique comparative to other gamebooks I’ve read, such as the way character attributes are attained. I purchased the hardback version, which is good quality and has some quite nice artwork within. My only reservation would be that it may not withstand repeated plays, so those intending to explore every nook and cranny may be best inclined to buy the paperbacks for the week and keep the hardbacks for Sunday best.

Although I own The Fabled Lands (having purchased them 25 years ago, flogged them, then purchased them again), I must admit I’ve still not got around to reading them, so can’t say how they compare to Vulcanverse. I also have to fess up I haven’t explored The Hammer of the Sun in the same depth as other reviewers. And therein lies the crux, time. You’ll have to invest a fair bit of it to fully appreciate the game mechanics and open world nature of the series.

I hope the book finds an audience given the quality of the writing and the care that has clearly gone into it. An issue might be that fans of Fabled Lands just want more Fabled Lands, fans of traditional style gamebooks may baulk at the size of the book and/or the non-linear pathways, and the younger demographic may find it too old-school comparative to content available on-line. As for myself, I’ve now got the other books in the series but it may not be until retirement I get around to doing them justice. If they’re as good as The Hammer of the Sun, I highly recommend.

[Ignacio Blasco · Rating 5 out of 5]

About the collection
Vulcanverse is an ambitious collection of Open World Gamebooks by the authors of Fable Lands. You can start in any Vulcanverse book and travel between books having adventures. Even if each one can be read individually, this collection is more enjoyable when read as a whole. Each book has plenty of references to the others and is full of plots that are intertwined between each of its installments
About this book
This book is a hidden treasure and a masterful lesson on how to write a gamebook. You will enter in a desert land whose river have been dried. You will start lost, but while you explore the land you will uncover its secrets. As you go, an epic plot will unravel and the landscape will be changing as if the book is alive. The book is full of references and hints for the reader, but you need to pay attention since some of them are very subtle.
The feature that makes this book fascinating can be also seen as its flaw. It is easy to get lost and get the sensation of wandering around without purpose.
Also, to complete the main plot you will need to visit its companion book, the Pillars of the Sky, which enhances the experience but only if you read all the collection as a whole.
This book is the one that explores the most the new mechanic of having companions. Being with them can make some locations feel different. Also you can see how the companions evolve as you continue through your adventures.
This book is also full of humor and has some of the most original and imaginative plots found in a gamebook
With no doubt the best of the collection.