Product Description

Lupravia is a cursed land; a chill place of snow-capped mountains, brooding forests and mist-shrouded moors, haunted by the spirits of the restless dead. Peasants struggle daily with survival, living in constant fear of attacks from ravenous wild beasts. Only the foolhardy or insane would willingly pass beyond its borders and enter that benighted realm of predators. But enter you must, after a vicious wolf attack sets you on the path to murder and madness. Steadily succumbing to the call of the wild and the beast within, YOU must seek out a cure to your condition before the next full moon. But how long can you survive in a land where the powers of darkness hold sway and all live in fear of the Howl of the Werewolf?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43810 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

About the Author
Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone are the creators of the Fighting Fantasy series which has sold many millions of books throughout the world. They also founded the Games Workshop chain and have since risen to prominent positions in the British computer games industry, at Lionhead and Eidos respectively. Ian Livingstone was recently made an OBE.

Customer Reviews

One of the best ever
This is one of the best Fighting Fantasy books I have read (and I have read all of the `new' ones and nearly all of the `old' ones). Why?

The story and plot are good - always a good sign, but some Fighting Fantasy books have barely any plot at all (not necessarily a criticism) - and it is well written. Jon Green (the author; this wasn't written by Jackson and Livingstone) does a good job, as always, of evoking the atmosphere of the gothic fantasy world in which this is set.

The combat is fair - you won't face a load of puny goblins to start off with and then have to face a completely unbeatable boss at the end. Although each combat itself can be dangerous, they are all well matched to your abilities.

There are many different ways through the book, increasing the re-playability (is that a word?). There are many different side-quests that you can do as you progress through the adventure. Also, the book doesn't rely on you having found a lot of items in order to finish. Certainly, there are some helpful items to be found, but they are not essential. To accommodate the wider scope the book is a lot bigger than most other Fighting Fantasy titles - 515 rather than 400 (this probably explains the higher cost).

Overall, I would rate this as good as Legend of Zagor and Deathtrap Dungeon.

A howling good time!
This is by far one of the best fighting fantasy books I have read/played in a long time.You play the role of a famous adventurer who has been bitten by a werewolf and must seek a cure before the next full moon.There are plenty of forests, moors, castles, towns and caves for you to explore and a huge variety of supernatural monsters for you to slay on your perilous journey to rid yourself of lycanthropy.What makes this fighting fantasy book better than most is that it is also a race against time as the longer you take to complete your quest the more wolf like you become. The combat in this book is also a lot fairer than in most other fighting fantasy books so you don't need a ridiculously high skill level in order to complete it. It is also slightly longer than most other fighting fantasy books with 515 paragraphs instead of the standard 400.It's a brilliant gothic horror adventure and a must have for all fighting fantasy fans.

A wonderful mix of originality and deja vu
When I was younger I loved the Fighting Fantasy books, so it was a shame that they were out of print for most of the Noughties. Now reprints of the originals are available along with some new tomes, this one among them. And what a thrill it was that the central theme was werewolves, creatures that have always scared me even though I love them to bits.

In this book a lot of the normal FF rules apply; you use skill, stamina and luck scores to determine how you fare in various situations and in combat with other people or various creatures. Other factors determine how you fare too, and not just possessions you pick up. You can also pick up certain codewords through being in specific situations or gaining facets of knowledge. This can affect what route you take further on through the book. There is also the fact you are carrying the eponymous curse and your Change score determines how lycanthropic you are. How this affects things is quite complex, but pick up the book and you'll see!

Most of the action takes place in a land called Lupravia, which is much like the Transylvannia of Universal and Hammer horror movies, with a fantastical spin on it. There are other werewolves there, along with other were-creatures, vampires, ghosts, mutated versions of various animals and magical creatures. You will certainly have some fun spotting nods to various other stories; The Wolfman, Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and The Hound of the Baskervilles. Take particular routes and there are even times you might be tempted to think of Van Helsing, or Metz's Judderman commercial!

Punctuating the text are brilliant illustrations, as always. Some of them are bound to bring shudders - the illustration for paragraph 172 is positively stomach-churning. Going back to references, the illustration for paragraph 442 will give Dr Who fans a laugh.

What's best about this book is that you can complete your quest successfully (as I have) and then play the quest all over again and find a whole new route to take. A must for any gaming or horror nuts.