Wolf's Bane

Lone Wolf #19

by Joe Dever

Encountering an ultimate enemy in your own evil twin, you learn of the Dark God Naar's plot to defeat you with a being in your own likeness who has effectively turned all of your misunderstanding allies against you. Original.

Genres: Fantasy, Gamebooks, Fiction, Role Playing Games, Childrens, Gaming, Choose Your Own Adventure

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Joe Dever was an award-winning British fantasist and game designer. Originally a musician, Dever became the first British winner of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Championship of America in 1982.

He created the fictional world of Magnamund as a setting for his Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. In 1984 he released the first book of the Lone Wolf series of young-adult gamebooks, and the series has since sold over 10.2 million copies worldwide. He experienced difficulty with his publishers as the game books market began to contract in 1995, until publication ceased in 1998 before the final four books (numbers 29-32) were released. Since 2003, however, the series has enjoyed a strong revival of interest in France, Italy, and Spain following the re-release of the gamebook series in these countries.

From 1996 onwards, Dever was involved in the production of several successful computer and console games. He also contributed to a Dungeons & Dragons-style role playing game for Lone Wolf published by Mongoose Publishing (UK) in 2004. Currently he is Lead Designer of a Lone Wolf computer game, and he is writing the final books in the Lone Wolf series. No official publication schedule exists for these works.

Reviews

[Etienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Commence en force avec un ennemi digne de nous et qui semble offrir une réelle menace. Malheureusement la majorité du livre se passe à la poursuite de cet adversaire. Il se sauve, on le suit, il nous tend une ambuscade, on évite, il se sauve, on le suit, etc. Ce qui devient rapidement lassant. Ensuite, lorsqu'on l'affronte finalement, le combat est très intéressant. On termine le tout avec une fin fort décevante pour moi, car elle nous force en prendre une décision que je choisissais d'éviter depuis quelques paragraphes et qui me semble tout à fait inutile et indique du loup solitaire. Bref, un livre avec de grandes forces, mais aussi de grandes faiblesses. Je donne tout de même un 4 étoiles.

[John Somers]

Read most of this series years ago and want to get the set and re-read them to see if they're as good as I remember. (Childhood nostalgia).

[Rachel Redhead · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the storyline very stop-start, the evil twin trope is an old favourite in any genre and it's almost a shock that it's taken 19 books before we get there with the titular Wolf's Bane who was up to all kinds of naughty things while Lone Wolf was on his way home int he last book. Now our protagonist has to hunt him down for a terminal spanking. The hopping to alternate realities is at last explained by a convenient plot mcguffin and after two extended chase scenes between disjointed set pieces there's revelations and exposition galore and then the book ends. It wasn't as satisfying as Dragons and given that this is the first time I've ever read this book in the series and so I don't have a basic familiarity with it as I have all the previous ones, it still had a familiar feel to it. The prose was on top form of course, perhaps saving this tome from indifference.

[Dhana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joe Dever's Lone Wolf gamebooks were a consistent presence during my formative years and have had a big influence on my reading and gaming interests. I first started reading them in 1989 and continued to do so until 1999. With the resurgence of new Lone Wolf material in recent years, I've decided to revisit these nostalgic gems of my youth.

Book 19: Wolf's Bane
(published 1993, first read 1993)

Story: 5/5
Game: 3/5
Replayability: 4/5

[Cyril Corbaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent premise, but the result felt somehow lacking. While I enjoyed chasing after Lone Wolf's nemesis, it quickly felt very repetitive. The sci-fi elements didn't make much sense in the story, or didn't add much. Finally, I felt something was amiss in the last scene too. It could have been a great opportunity to learn more about Lone Wolf's unexpected ally. Missed opportunity, or will we learn more in #20? I can only hope for the latter.

[Mathew Walls · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a lot you could criticise about this book (the evil twin cliche, the author's pet character Alyss, the linearity) but I don't care, I love it. I was young enough when I first read it that none of that bothered me and I still think there's a lot of cool stuff in there - particularly the sci-fi world where you fight a robot dog and laser-wielding guys in power armour.