Number 3 in the Fighting Fantasy series: Ian Livingstone’s The Forest of Doom. While Livingstone’s later entries in the series would be notorious for their difficulty, this one is an easier affair – largely as the book is structured to let you have multiple attempts at finding the missing hammer somewhere in the forest. Thing is, though, this can lead to bizarre situations wherein you find yourself in the same location which has inexplicably reset itself.
Ian McCaig’s cover illustration of the Shape Shifter is magnificent, but the interior art by Malcolm Barter has had its share of criticism. I think it generally captures the mediaeval fantasy setting quite nicely, but in many of the illustrations, there is a sense of rushed incompleteness – check out the backgrounds, or lack thereof, for example.
