This is the Temple of Flame, the second Golden Dragon gamebooks and the first collaboration between Dave Morris and Oliver Johnson, who would later go on to create Blood Sword and the Dragon Warriors RPG. Leo Hartas is once again on art duty, delivering work I think is superior to the previous book.

As you can guess from the cover, Temple of Flame takes many of its cues from Indiana Jones. You are a knight exploring a Meso-American-style pyramid and there is a lot to love here. The various paths, traps and enemies are always interesting, even when they kill the crap out of you. Again, atmosphere does a lot to make this book memorable and I think it does a nice job of blending the historical trappings of the temple with those of fantasy. The atmosphere and fairly short paths to the final confrontation also do a lot to mitigate frustration at how unforgiving many of the encounters are (actually, big secret: the point of the Golden Dragon books is not to finish the story, but to find the easiest path to the end).

What sets this book apart from many others is that you have a well-defined rival as the villain, your former adventuring partner, Damontir the Mad. The way the rivalry is defined, fleshed out and resolved throughout the story is unique among the adventure gamebooks I’ve read and definitely a strong selling point. One of my favorites in the series.