'Trial of Champions' – Ian Livingstone (Wizard Books)


Just a quick one today as everything has been competing for my time (you name it, it was competing...) and I'm not left with an awful lot of time left to call my own. It hasn't been a bad day at all, just... really busy... It's all good though, especially as I'm going to be talking about 'Fighting Fantasy' again; this time, it's 'Trial of Champions'...

If you read 'Fighting Fantasy' books, back in the day, then 'Deathtrap Dungeon' probably still has a place in your heart either as the first 'Fighting Fantasy' book that you read or the one that is still your favourite. I'm the odd one out here as 'Deathtrap Dungeon' ties with 'Forest of Doom' as all time favourite, but anyway... 'Deathtrap Dungeon' was a book that I went back to over and over again, when I was a kid, so you can imagine how excited I was when I found out that Baron Sukumvit's Dungeon was open for business again in a brand new book, 'Trial of Champions'. The answer, of course, is 'just as excited as my oldest daughter was when she found out' ;o) A quick trip to 'Amazon New and Used', and a few days waiting, and we were good to go...

Baron Sukumvit has redesigned his deadly labyrinth, now infested with new terrors, and upped the stakes to 20000 gold pieces. You are sold as a slave to the Baron's wicked brother, Lord Carnuss, whose gladiatorial games you must win before you can even enter Deathtrap Dungeon and compete for your freedom. Will YOU survive the trial?

'Trial of Champions' was another one of those books that I borrowed off a mate and only had a chance to read through maybe the once, and that was almost thirty five years ago (this blog seems to delight in making me feel old...) Coming back to 'Trial of Champions' then, almost felt like I was reading it for the first time. It's a game book of two parts, first you have to prove that you're worthy of entering the dungeon at all (gladiatorial games a plenty, to weed out the weak and the unlucky) followed by a trip into the dungeon itself. Linking these two pieces together is the fact that you are also out for revenge, not surprising seeing that the whole reason you're here at all is that you were sold into slavery and don't have a lot of choice in taking part in the Trial.

The first part is more or less a series of short trials that you have to fight your way through. As always, I played the part of 'Dungeon Master' with my young daughters (ten and six) being the adventurers so I gave them a little leeway here. Okay, a lot of leeway. I know I keep saying this but with these two, the story is the thing and I didn't want them to be discouraged before they'd had a chance to enjoy it. There's time enough for the dice and stuff another time.

Once that was done, it was onto and into the Dungeon itself. It's a strange experience coming back to Sukumvit's Dungeon which is familiar enough (as far as the setting goes) but also full of a lot of new stuff at the same time. Is it more difficult though? Maybe not in terms of creatures to fight but definitely as far as puzzles go and making it through the last few challenges. I won't give too much away but if you don't pay attention to the detail then you won't make it through, it's that simple. It does encourage you to go into all the rooms though and that makes for a far more immersive experience than just trying to get out as quickly as possible.

It was also good to see an edition of the book that used the original illustrations which are a lot more atmospheric than those that I've seen in the Scholastic Editions. I think I get why the illustrations have changed, in the later editions, but it's still nice to go properly old school. Even my kids agreed.

Talking of which, I think we may be about to lose an adventurer... My six year old is after new bedtime reading and that's fair enough. I've had a few books out of her and that was better than I expected to be honest. What's interesting though is that she's still keeping an ear open for where the story is going, even if she's doing something else. And if her sister makes a choice that she's not entirely happy with... We hear all about it ;o)

Her big sister though, she was as enthralled as ever and really got into it again. I can see myself ending up lending her the books for re-reads...She really wants 'Appointment with F.E.A.R' next, which I have, so don't be too surprised to see that feature here in the next few weeks.

'Trial of Champions' was another little trip down Memory Lane for me and a lot of fun for the three of us to tackle together. The adventuring might well have to slow down a little, what with everything else, but it's far from over... ;o)

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