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Grail Quest #7
Tomb of Nightmares
The reader matches wits with the evil Wizard Ansalom in order to rescue Queen Guinevere from his clutches, in a fantasy gamebook set against the backdrop of Arthurian England
192 pages, Paperback
First published June 12, 1986
33 people want to read
About the author
J.H. Brennan
99 books47 followersJames Herbert "Herbie" Brennan is a lecturer and the author of over one hundred fiction and non-fiction books for adults, teens, and children.
His works have been translated into approximately fifty languages, he has also written books on the Occult and New Age. He initially trained in esoteric teachings and Qabalah with the Fraternity of the Inner Light, and later became associated with Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki and the Servants of the Light.
In 1995 he contributed two novels to the Horrorscopes series under the house pen name Maria Palmer.
In 2003, Brennan published the children's book The Book of Wizardry: The Apprentice's Guide to the Secrets of the Wizards' Guild under the pseudonym Cornelius Rumstuckle.
His works have been translated into approximately fifty languages, he has also written books on the Occult and New Age. He initially trained in esoteric teachings and Qabalah with the Fraternity of the Inner Light, and later became associated with Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki and the Servants of the Light.
In 1995 he contributed two novels to the Horrorscopes series under the house pen name Maria Palmer.
In 2003, Brennan published the children's book The Book of Wizardry: The Apprentice's Guide to the Secrets of the Wizards' Guild under the pseudonym Cornelius Rumstuckle.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 22, 2021
Pip the Debt Collector
21 December 2021 – Adelaide
Well, this one is particularly difficult, namely because you have to make your way through a ridiculously hard maze that repeatedly dumps you back right at the beginning. Fortunately I suspect that you don’t have to revisit the traps that you have sprung the second time around, but even then it is still quite deadly. Actually, as I have mentioned most of these books seem to become deadlie the further you go into the series, though this is the second to last one.
The story goes that Grot the Hoddle borrowed some money off of Merlin years ago, and didn’t pay him back, and when you take into account interest, Merlin has determined that Grot basically owes him, well, all of his accumulated treasure. So, you need to find Grot’s treasure horde, take all of his treasure, and bring it back to Merlin, and like most debt collectors, you basically get a cut of what you have received (which probably makes Pip even wealthier than he was prior to the adventure, which is pretty wealthy already considering that this is adventure number 7).
One thing I forgot to mention in the previous book is that in that one Merlin is living in a barrel, which is a reference to Diogenes, who also lived in a barrel, though I suspect that Diogenes’ barrel was nowhere near as exotic, and luxurious, as Merlin’s (which I suspect is part of the joke, though of course 16 year old me no doubt wouldn’t have got it). This time he is living in an egg, though it happens to be a roc egg, which means that it is pretty big, and knowing Merlin, probably a nice place to live in as well.
Unlike the other adventures, this one doesn’t have a map with numbers representing places, though it does have secret doors. The way he handles this is by having a list of all the paragraphs at the back, and if you want to search for a secret door you look up your paragraph (after rolling to see if you find one of course) and see if that room happens to have one.
You also meet the Poetic Fiend, but you pretty much meet him in all of your adventures, and while it seems to be a little worthless (you never seem to use the death poem that you compose), meeting him is always fun. Oh, and the number of ways that he is always referencing the dreaded paragraph 14.
Yeah, this is still pretty cool, even if it happens to be a little on the deadly side. Hey, at least you have a death-o-meter at the end where you can keep track of the number of times that you die, and you can then, at the end, see how good an adventurer you are. Mind you, I would be raising a number of questions if you managed to get through this book without dying, but that is probably because I would suspect that you were cheating.
21 December 2021 – Adelaide
Well, this one is particularly difficult, namely because you have to make your way through a ridiculously hard maze that repeatedly dumps you back right at the beginning. Fortunately I suspect that you don’t have to revisit the traps that you have sprung the second time around, but even then it is still quite deadly. Actually, as I have mentioned most of these books seem to become deadlie the further you go into the series, though this is the second to last one.
The story goes that Grot the Hoddle borrowed some money off of Merlin years ago, and didn’t pay him back, and when you take into account interest, Merlin has determined that Grot basically owes him, well, all of his accumulated treasure. So, you need to find Grot’s treasure horde, take all of his treasure, and bring it back to Merlin, and like most debt collectors, you basically get a cut of what you have received (which probably makes Pip even wealthier than he was prior to the adventure, which is pretty wealthy already considering that this is adventure number 7).
One thing I forgot to mention in the previous book is that in that one Merlin is living in a barrel, which is a reference to Diogenes, who also lived in a barrel, though I suspect that Diogenes’ barrel was nowhere near as exotic, and luxurious, as Merlin’s (which I suspect is part of the joke, though of course 16 year old me no doubt wouldn’t have got it). This time he is living in an egg, though it happens to be a roc egg, which means that it is pretty big, and knowing Merlin, probably a nice place to live in as well.
Unlike the other adventures, this one doesn’t have a map with numbers representing places, though it does have secret doors. The way he handles this is by having a list of all the paragraphs at the back, and if you want to search for a secret door you look up your paragraph (after rolling to see if you find one of course) and see if that room happens to have one.
You also meet the Poetic Fiend, but you pretty much meet him in all of your adventures, and while it seems to be a little worthless (you never seem to use the death poem that you compose), meeting him is always fun. Oh, and the number of ways that he is always referencing the dreaded paragraph 14.
Yeah, this is still pretty cool, even if it happens to be a little on the deadly side. Hey, at least you have a death-o-meter at the end where you can keep track of the number of times that you die, and you can then, at the end, see how good an adventurer you are. Mind you, I would be raising a number of questions if you managed to get through this book without dying, but that is probably because I would suspect that you were cheating.
March 7, 2023
Ho acquistato questo librogame circa 23 anni fa, al tempo avevo 16 anni. L'avrò rigiocato 4-5 volte, l'ultima una dozzina di anni or sono.
Oggi sono riuscito a finirlo per la prima volta, senza barare per raggiungere il boss finale. Questo perché... il volume non si può finire.
Ad un certo punto viene richiesto un oggetto che, forse per un errore di stampa o di traduzione, non si può ottenere, in quanto non esiste nell'intera opera.
Nonostante ciò, questo è senza dubbio il volume più bello dell'intera saga.
Oggi sono riuscito a finirlo per la prima volta, senza barare per raggiungere il boss finale. Questo perché... il volume non si può finire.
Ad un certo punto viene richiesto un oggetto che, forse per un errore di stampa o di traduzione, non si può ottenere, in quanto non esiste nell'intera opera.
Nonostante ciò, questo è senza dubbio il volume più bello dell'intera saga.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews