Chasms of Malice (1988) is a weird one. It breaks from a lot of the established Fighting Fantasy formulas and introduces some new rules (like first strike combat, which lasts just one round and sees the loser falling to their death) and a companion character, a cat god.

Normally, I like a shift in formula, but this one was hard to get through. Maybe it was the fantasy names, which are weirdly different from other FF books. The world is interesting – the book takes place in a horrible underworld of sorts and the atmosphere is solid throughout. Thanks to the never-ending string of fantasy names, I don’t have a good handle on the plot, but you are basically hunting down Nazgul in order to weaken and eventually confront their master. There’s some ancestral destiny at play in that too. I dunno. I found the whole thing rather bewildering.

Russ Nicholson’s art is primo though. I feel like that baddie on the stairs surrounded by goblins is a classic.