ROLL FOR DANGER

In this series opener, the last surviving apprentice of a powerful wizard embarks on a perilous errand to find a rare reagent, but readers’ choices and rolls of the dice will determine his fate.

Sethoreths, the Snake-Blooded Sorcerer, awakens before dawn to the shouts of Bristleboor, his irritable and eccentric wizard mentor. Bristleboor may have once been a great adventurer, but he’s a terrible teacher. Apart from Seth, all of his other apprentices have died. At Bristleboor’s command, Seth has a new task ahead of him: traversing a tunnel from their tower’s basement to the forbidden catacombs beneath the cemetery to collect gravebloom. In order to find the flower, he needs the help of an imp, a devious fifth-dimensional creature that Bristleboor has bound inside a glass orb. Before the story begins, readers set the strength of Seth’s three skills—Constitution, Cleverness, and Charisma—which in turn determine his Health Points, Mana Points, and Luck Points. The story’s progression makes consistent and satisfying use of the game mechanics. Unfortunately, while this element shines, every girl or woman character mentioned in the book is already dead or defeated, including aspiring paladin Roe, whom the illustrations depict as a dark-skinned girl with Afro-textured hair, and a sobbing nameless elven ghost, who appears to have been a white woman. Seth and Bristleboor both present white.

A promising and engaging core concept weakened by uneven representation.