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Item - Challenge of the Pegasus Grail

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(Dragontales edition)

Combined Summary

Series: Dragon Roads — no. 10
Dragontales — no. 3
Alternate Title: The Pegasus Quest (reissue)
Author: Vilott-Salsitz, Rhondi
Illustrators: Miller, Kirk (Dragon Roads edition)
Hallman, Tom (Dragontales edition - cover)
Tanz, Freya (Dragontales edition - interior)
Dates: August, 1984 (Dragontales edition)
January, 2012 (Dragon Roads edition)
ISBN: 0451130847 / 9780451130846 (Dragontales edition)
Length: 189 pages (introductory section plus 63 "Pathways")
Number of Endings: 29
User Summary: While hiding in the palace in an effort to acquire some of the prince's hair for a love charm, you overhear dire news from the king and determine to do what you can to save the kingdom from the evil Blackthorn.
Demian's Thoughts:

In many ways, I found this to be the best book so far in the series. As before, the setting is familiar enough to make it easy for any reader accustomed to fantasy tales to understand what's going on, and, as an added bonus, the writing is decent and the choices feel meaningful. What made the book stand out for me most, though, was its effective characterization -- I found the characters more likeable and believable than those in past adventures, and the romantic element of the story actually makes sense here. Unlike the "romance by default" found in all too many romantic stories, the relationship here is actually based on the characters' history together. It's amazing what a difference a believable context makes. My only major complaint is that the book is rather short. While some paths are longer than others, most are shorter than one would like them to be, and all too many end without resolving the whole story. I would probably have enjoyed myself more if there were fewer (but longer) pathways. A sequel wouldn't have hurt either, though considering the many possible endings here, there would be no easy way to follow this story up, which I suppose demonstrates an inherent problem (though not necessarily a flaw) in gamebooks that don't have a single, predetermined happy conclusion.

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Kveto's Thoughts:

A nice solid entry in the series. Like the other novels, it is a nice substitute for Endless Quest books, but the female protagonist versions seem more like HeartQuest novels.

In this one you play a young village girl, childhood playmate of the young prince of the kingdom. Both characters are likable, the prince suffering from a childhood injury which forces him to limp. You can help him on his quest, to help the dryads who guard your kingdom from Blackthorn and his evil kobolds. There are multiple paths, giving the book high replayability, and the choices were not always obvious, to me at least. Most of the endings are relatively happy. The romance angle is stronger than the last book but feels fairly realistic. It also has a wide range of monsters.

A good book overall.

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Errata:On page 114, a choice says to turn to Pathway 35 on page 107, but Pathway 35 actually begins on page 105.
Users Who Own This Item: Ardennes, auximenes, CSquared, EegahInc, Erikwinslow, exaquint, Ffghtermedic, Fireguard, horrorbusiness, jdreller, karalynn, katzcollection, kinderstef, knginatl, Kveto, marnaudo, mattender, mcd, mlvoss, NEMO, Nomad, ntar, Pseudo_Intellectual, RonaldFrobnitz, SherlockHolmes, spragmatic, Tremendez, ukyo-chan, Virtua Sinner, waktool (US 1st)
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Users with Extra Copies: exaquint

Known Editions

Dragontales edition
Dragon Roads edition

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