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Dave Morris

Heart of Ice (Critical IF gamebooks) Paperback – Illustrated, September 2, 2013

by Dave Morris (Author), Jon Hodgson (Illustrator), Russ Nicholson (Illustrator)

79 ratings

The end of the 23rd century. Earth lies in the grip of a new Ice Age. Famine, cold and fanatic cults threaten what is left of civilization. Humanity is on the brink of extinction.

Nine of the strongest heroes of the age come seeking the ultimate prize: the Heart of Volent, an object with the power to reshape reality. All are ruthless, powerful, determined. To succeed they must work together. But only one can have the Heart.

Choose your alliances with care. Weigh up who to trust. Be ready for betrayal. When the moment comes, the future of mankind will rest on your judgement.

* * *

Critical IF books are interactive adventures with a difference. You can be a mutant with the power to warp reality. A soldier whose combat skills are a match for any foe. A stealthy assassin leaping between rooftops. An explorer who can survive in the harshest conditions. Be anyone you can imagine. Choose from almost five hundred different character types, each with their own unique skills.

Strong stories, vivid settings and compelling characters make Critical IF the game-changers of the interactive fiction genre. Put yourself in the heart of the story.

Print length

252 pages
Language

English
Publication date

September 2, 2013
Dimensions

5 x 0.57 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

1909905003
ISBN-13

978-1909905009
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dave Morris is a writer and games developer whose works have been published in more than a dozen languages. He is a physicist who has also spent a year as the UK’s bestselling fiction writer, and a videogame designer whose literary work has been awarded a Kirkus star. He was a mentor in the American Film Institute’s Digital Content Lab, reflecting his interest in the boundary between storytelling and games, an interest that led him to the “EQ interactivity” of his reworking of Frankenstein and that now has him working on a follow-up that will peel a raw patch off readers’ perceptions of their own moral code. His other interactive works include the Critical IF adventure gamebooks, and he is the co-creator and author of the graphic novel epic Mirabilis: Year of Wonders.

Product details

Publisher : Fabled Lands Publishing; 2nd edition (September 2, 2013)
Language : English
Paperback : 252 pages
ISBN-10 : 1909905003
ISBN-13 : 978-1909905009
Item Weight : 9 ounces
Dimensions : 5 x 0.57 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #954,498 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,639 in Fantasy Gaming
- #4,471 in Genetic Engineering Science Fiction (Books)
- #10,054 in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
79 ratings

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DMC

Dungeons & Dragons meets Choose Your Own Adventure!

Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2017

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As a fan of the old Choose Your Own Adventure books, I picked this up because it sounded intriguing. 200 years in the future, the Earth is experiencing a second ice age due to a Terminator-esque computer takeover of some weather satellites by an A.I. known as Gaia.

I have to say, it was pretty solid. The recording of inventory, weapons, and even hit points on a character sheet brought me straight back to my Dungeons & Dragons days, but the story still kept to the simplicity of what it actually is: a CYOA book. Having written a series of CYOA books myself, called Ultimate Ending, I was glad to see other authors working just as hard to keep this genre alive!

I liked the setting, the story, and the gameplay. The book flowed well, and the characters were interesting. I even feel like there was an "ultimate" winning ending mixed in there somewhere, although I think I just missed it. I went back quite a few times to try and find out what I was missing, but the best ending I could come up with was bittersweet at best. And that's totally okay. The story is set in a pretty grim and gristly world to begin with.

Anyway, this was a lot of fun and it took me back to some really great nostalgia. The artwork was very detailed and reminded me of the stuff you'd see Omni magazine. Overall fantastic job. Are there any more of these? 5-stars!

10 people found this helpful

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Kapete

Cool idea, but the writing could be improved

Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2019

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The idea is awesome, but the writing could be improved. I love interactive fiction and these kinds of books. I was initially drawn in because this book gameifies the choose your own adventure style of book. Very cool. But the writing is a little too dramatic, masculine, and there’s not enough heart. I would have been able to connect better with the story and characters if they had written the characters with more humanity. It’s the same feeling I had reading Brave New World - the characters just feel a little... dead inside. Overall, cool idea, but the writing could be improved.

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Challenging but rewarding

Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2013

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I bought this well over a year ago and would pick it up every month or two to try a read through until I finally managed to get to one of the ends. I suppose if you're viewing this product, you understand what a game book is. But, just in case, allow me to summarize: Much like the Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) books of your childhood, this book is told in the second person and allows you to make choices along the way as to how your character will act. Unlike the CYOA books of your childhood, Heart of Ice requires you to maintain a character sheet, where you record items you have collected and the health and status of your character, as well as the occasional code word, which allows more interesting plot variations.

Heart of Ice is regarded by many as the pinnacle of the genre. The plot, setting, characters, and the prose itself are all a cut above the usual fare, and it is both quick and engaging to read. What makes it really special, though, is that it stands on its own as good science fiction. Rather than simply being a series of puzzles, it presents philosophically and morally challenging decisions to make.

Since, unlike most other game books, dice are not required, it is good for reading/playing on the go, not requiring a surface to roll on. I do not consider it to be an overly challenging game book. Simply choosing a character and playing to the character's strengths should get you somewhere interesting, if not always to the end of the plot.

If you enjoy HoI, or want to try your hand at a different game book, Morris co-wrote a series called "Fabled Lands" that is like an open world, sandbox video game in book form (See Fabled Lands 1: The War-Torn Kingdom ). Also, for a well written, enjoyable, and more recent take on the genre, you can try The Legion of Shadow (DestinyQuest) .

Happy reading/playing.

17 people found this helpful

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Shelby Michlin

A great romp, very evocative!

Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2020

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This is a great story that you can interact with, affecting the events that transpire. And then you can read it again, making different choices, for a different story! The style is reminiscent of Jack Vance, and that's a compliment. Great work, and a great return on your purchase price. Enjoy!

One person found this helpful

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Jane N.

Thoroughly Enjoyable

Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2020

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I had hours of fun with this and i haven't even gone through all the conclusions. Perfect if you love RPGs, pen and paper stats and have no friends nearby to play with uwu

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gabot

Cool story. I've read a few of his older ...

Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2015

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Cool story. I've read a few of his older books, and this one is definitely more in depth than what I am used to. Haven't completed it yet, as I can't figure out how to get past a few parts.

4 people found this helpful

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Jason B.

Interesting concept

Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2018

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I highly recommend this to any fan of the genre. One of my new favorite games.

2 people found this helpful

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Kristopher M. Schnee

Entertaining Interactive Fiction

Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2016

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I'm surprised and pleased to see that choose-your-own-adventure books have survived to the present day. This one's got interesting simple rules that avoid dice by having you just pick skills and applying "do you have X skill" at various points to let you do things. The story is a race for a dangerous treasure, with the path branching at several points and leading toward a final showdown. It's worth playing through more than once; I've done it twice and think I've missed a substantial story branch.

Particularly for the 99-cent current price, it's well worth trying if you have any interest in this sort of game-book. The e-book is thoughtfully designed so that the links can be clicked on, and you don't have to manually "go to page 524".

6 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

High Quality Intelligent Gamebook

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 14, 2013

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Echoing remarks made by earlier reviewers: as gamebooks go, this is pretty much the pinnacle of quality narrative in the genre. Originally published as part of the Virtual Reality series in the early nineties, it showed how the author had optimised the concept through his earlier works (Golden Dragon, Dragon Warriors & Blood Sword to name a few), both in creating clear, evocative descriptions of people, places and situations through minimal, concise explanation and dialogue, but also refining the gameplay system - where decision making rather than attributes and dice rolling affect the player's chance of success.

The Good: The premise of the gamebook is so straightforward but attention grabbing, as we can relate it to the world we live in today. Set about 300 years in the future, a supercomputer designed by mankind to control the Earth's weather systems has been sabotaged, causing mass destruction and changing the face of the planet, apparently irrevocably, and threatening the survival of the race. But as the story starts, in a place we might vaguely recognise as the Apennine Mountains, the protagonist receives a dubious message, apparently from the computer, that may lead to the planet's recovery, or ultimate power, or perhaps something far deeper.

Dave Morris's narrative in the gamebook, which almost reads as a novel, is the real strength here. Characters are rendered sensitively and their motives (or their attempts to hide them) are well presented to the perceptive reader. As it is the year 2300, you might expect advanced technology to be the norm, and indeed while there is a lot of interesting gadgetry and transportation to consider, the need to avoid the supercomputer's tainted network system is clear, leading to less reliance on computers and associated hardware. This creates an interesting, decrepit, 'steampunk' feel in the description of towns, cities and the people of this 'Dark Future' existence which is truly fascinating. The occult is also cleverly presented through pseudo scientific explanation. While this is very much an original novel, influences appear to include Dr. Strangelove, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Mad Max, 2001, Bladerunner and the Thing (at least in my opinion).

The player protagonist has a range of skills to choose from before starting the game which will help to dictate his choices throughout the game, and they need to be chosen carefully - if they choose the Streetwise skill they might want to travel by cities for instance, while Survival serves the player better in the wilderness (it's cold out there!). There are no 'perfect' choice combinations, but intelligent decisions combined with sensible choices while travelling will improve chances. Players of FF Gamebooks like Citadel of Chaos, Sword of the Samurai, or the Lone Wolf books will already have seen this sort of approach, although here dice rolling and 'randomness' are eliminated and the variation comes only in the skills choice instead. This makes it very convenient to read in Kindle! Some skills have associated equipment without which they can't work, so inventory management is important, as you'd probably expect in a gamebook, but it doesn't intrude excessively.

I won't give too much away, but as the reader progresses through to the finale (this may take several tries - it's not a pushover) they will hopefully have an idea of the motives of the main recurring characters, and of the main storyline which becomes apparent through the use of the protagonist's skills. This is the real winning factor - because the book steathily presents a key philosophical premise to the reader - what kind of person is prepared to take power? What would you do when confronted with this? What are the alternatives, and do you have the means, morals or inclination to pursue them? Deep, fundamental stuff, and I applaud Dave for bringing these concepts into the genre in this well constructed way. If the rest of the re-relased Virtual Reality books (now re-packaged as Critical IF) are as good as this, well, good.

The not so good: There isn't really much to improve on. If I had to criticise, I felt I noticed an occasional minor , almost negligible, logic issue but this is more or less to be expected in gamebooks, and fundamentally the structure holds up very well. One problem with the Kindle version is that Russ Nicholson's illustrations are far too small to resolve properly and this is a pity - as good as any gamebook text is (and this is probably the best) illustrations are always crucial as they act as seeds for the imagination, or at the very least interesting bookmarks - please take note for future releases ;) Plus, Mr. Nicholson's art is amongst the best out there for gamebooks, so I'd like to be able to see it better.

Summary: The quality of this work is of such high quality I'd recommend this for anyone, even if they've never tried or don't approve of gamebooks. The evolving storyline is enthralling and provokes interesting questions about the struggle for power, both amongst organisations, and individuals - so basically it does what all good SF SHOULD do, rather than presenting a bunch of nice but meaningless magic items, monsters and whatnot. The rules system is so simple but it applies really well here and helps to provide a good balance. I thought I'd read all the good gamebooks from 'Warlock' onwards, but was wrong, because this one passed me by until now. Ten stars (but only 5 will show up of course).

16 people found this helpful

IanR

Good book.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 11, 2018

Verified Purchase

Good book. I have enjoyed this. A bit of a blast from the past but so nice to get away from apps and what not.
No dice required for this which is handy.
The story is decent and pretty engaging and so far I have not won after a good few plays so a good difficulty level.
If you are pondering this already I would suggest you go for it. Try to get your kids to play. If you have any. Dont just have a child to play this.... expensive.

One person found this helpful

Mr. A. Fletcher

Superbly Downbeat Sci-Fi

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 10, 2016

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I did once own the Virtual Reality series that these books originally belonged to in the 90s, as the authors were two of my favourites of the era. However, I culled my gamebook collection some years back and this book and series was a casualty. Not a very wise move in retrospect given the price that some of these gamebooks now demand. I remember being put off a little bit by the somewhat gimmicky series name and think I only brought them out of loyalty to the authors. They were also written at the back end of the era and I'd possibly lost a bit of interest by then. I only therefore ever skim read the books and didn't give them the respect they probably warranted.

Having recently revisited the gamebook genre, I discovered this book is considered by many gamebook enthusiasts to be one of, if not the best, gamebooks ever written. High praise indeed. Having read some of the author's non gamebook work, which was very good, I recently purchased all of the Virtual Reality books that have been re-released over the last few years, now under the new series name of Critical IF.

So, does Heart Of Ice live up to it's high profile billing? In a word, yes. In more than a word, it is intelligently written and not too linear. It avoids for the most part, the, do you want to turn left or right boring decision making that plagues some series. The rules are very simple which I like, as for the most part I always used to treat gamebooks more as books than games, so didn't pay any attention to the rules anyway. The books also have multiple endings, all of which are short and relatively downbeat. This is very refreshing and they don't make any attempt to give cosy and unlikely closure. One of the endings also gives a nice little nod to another classic piece of Sci-Fi.

Is it the best gamebook ever? I will always have too much of a soft spot for the likes of The Way Of The Tiger, Falcon and the author's own Golden Dragon series to make a fair critical assessment. I've also only re read a few gamebooks since the last time I read most of them circa 30 years ago. However, if and when I get around to reassessing them all, I'd be very surprised if Heart Of Ice isn't in the highest echelon.

2 people found this helpful

Stuart lloyd

One of the best gamebooks out there if not the best

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 10, 2013

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I read the original version a few years ago. Back then, I thought it was one of the best gamebooks ever, if not the best. And now, Dave Morris has made it even better.

It's a big statement, but now I'm going to back it up.

So what's going on? In the far future, the Earth's climate has been destroyed by a computer program known as Gaia, which has been infected with a virus that has driven it haywire. Most of the planet is covered in arctic waste, apart from the bits that are covered in hostile jungle. Humanity will probably be extinct in a century's time, so the rich live lives of hedonism and decadence while the rest of humanity struggle to survive.

One day, you hear Gaia talk to you through a TV screen where she tells you of the Heart of the Volent, which will grant ultimate power to whoever takes it, and so starts your quest to find it.

The writing does an excellent job of communicating the bleakness and hopelessness of the world you live in and you can get to see lots of it. Dave Morris describes everything vividly from arctic wasteland to hot jungle to crazed mutants. You really get the feel that you are in a hostile world.

On the game side, there is no randomness, and so no frustrating deaths from die rolls. There is also plenty of variety as you can take several routes to reach your goal and also choose 4 skills from a list of 10 which will depend on which situations you should deal with.

The structure of the adventure is one of the things that makes it so special. Your journey allows you to really explore the world you live in. As you do, you find other people after the Heart of the Volent and get to either interact with them or learn about them. The characters in this story are all interconnected and they all have their own special MO which makes them all formidable characters in their own right. Meeting with them allows you to learn about them or make some friends or enemies which may become important later.

You may also get to talk to Gaia more or learn more about the Heart of the Volent. It turns out that this powerful artefact is not all that it seems to be and Gaia has a reason for sending you to look for it.

Eventually, you will fin the temple where the heart is located and find many other people there looking for it, some of whom you may have met on your way here. This is where things really start to hot up - you can form alliances with certain characters when you go to explore the dangerous temple, but these alliances might break as soon as your perceived use may be over. You don't know who to trust in this game, but you will still need the help of others to reach the Heart of the Volent.

Eventually, you might find it and this leads to one of the other wonderful things about this gamebook - it
presents a situation where you really have to decide what you think is best. There are several endings and different people will have different opinions on what they will think the best ending is. None of the endings involve you saving the world and giving humanity a lasting peace and happiness, but it is up to you to choose what you think is the best ending. In a format where your choice for endings rests between 'you win' and 'you die', this gives the book a sense of gravitas that most gamebooks do not have.

The writing does an excellent job of communicating the bleakness and hopelessness of the world you live in and you can get to see lots of it.

On the game side, there is no randomness, and so no frustrating deaths from die rolls. There is also plenty of variety as you can take several routes to reach your goal and also choose 4 skills from a list of 10 which will depend on which situations you should deal with.

So Heart of Ice is a fantastic gamebook - one of the best, if not the best gamebook out there. It has a real sense of story with deep, well thought out characters, an immersive setting and several great endings, where you decide which one is the best. Buy it immediately!

3 people found this helpful

JSmith

Imaginative and chilling gamebook

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 29, 2016

Verified Purchase

It is the year 3033: the Earth is frozen due to a climate computer malfunctioning and somewhere in the desert lies an object of great power which could save or destroy the world.

The setup to this game book is one of the most imaginative I have come across. Originally written in the mid-Nineties, the theme of a climate out of control is even more relevant now than at the time, while the story itself touches on even more interesting questions such as what kind of person would trigger the end of world or would stop it being destroyed at any cost. As with the other books in this series (including Down among the Dead Men and Necklace of Skulls), this is a choose your own adventure style game where you just need a pencil and a notepad. You select a character who has various skills and set out into the frozen wastelands armed with very little. There are two main routes to choose from which can merge and diverge depending on your actions until you eventually reach the ruined city where you race against a group of other adventurers to find the powerful Heart of Volent. If that's not enough choice, then there are four endings (at least) which you can aim for depending on your character's personality.

It must be said that the book is fairly bleak and I found it hard to motivate repeat attempts after reaching one of the endings-there's no glorious happy victories here. However, when I did return to it, I found exploring the world to be very enjoyable and rewarding. Indeed, this world is so rich in background and characters that it is a great shame no more game books were ever set in it. It is a classic of the genre, and it is still as good as it was twenty years ago.

One person found this helpful

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