Lone Wolf 32: Light of the Kai: Volume One by Vincent Lazzari & Ben Dever
Holmgard Press, hardback, £30.00, May 2026, ISBN 9781915586759
The story of the completion of the Lone Wolf cycle of gamebooks, which began with the publication of Lone Wolf 1: Flight from the Dark in 1984, is almost as compelling and harrowing as the epic fantasy itself and included the death of its creator and author, Joe Dever, in 2016, shortly after publishing Lone Wolf 29: The Storms of Chai. I told the story of the story – or, in Lone Wolf terms, ‘The Story So Far…’ – from a very personal perspective in my reviews of Lone Wolf 21: Voyage of the Moonstone and The Storms of Chai. Dever’s goal was always to publish thirty-two adventures, the first twenty of which would tell the story of Kai warrior (a Ranger in AD&D terms) Kor-Skarn (Lone Wolf) defeating the demonic Darklords of Helgedad and restoring the Kai to their rightful place as defenders of the world of Magnamund from all enemies foreign and domestic. In the next twelve, the player would adopt the persona of a New Order Kai Grand Master and undertake missions for and occasionally with Lone Wolf, and the game mechanics are such that the more adventures you complete, the higher your Grand Master rank and abilities (resembling D&D and AD&D, of which Dever was a great fan and skilled player). You determine your persona by means of the Random Number Table (on which gameplay is based, though many will find a ten-sided die more convenient) and my New Order warrior ended up as True Friend. A bit of a wimpy name, but he can kill you with his bare hands, live off the land indefinitely, and move small objects by looking at them, so don’t make fun of him.
After Dever’s death, his son, Ben, and long-term collaborator, Vincent Lazzari, undertook to complete and publish the remaining three books in the cycle, based on their final conversations with him and the detailed notes he had left. Ben relaunched the now highly successful Holmgard Press for the purpose, publishing Lone Wolf 30: Dead in the Deep in 2019 and Lone Wolf 31: The Dusk of Eternal Night in 2020, and dividing the cycle as a whole into five series: Kai (books 1-5), Magnakai (books 6-12), and Grand Master (books 13-20), featuring Lone Wolf; and New Order (books 21-28) and End Game (books 29-32), featuring True Friend (or, generically, the ‘Lorn Commander’). As I’ve mentioned several times in my previous reviews of the New Order and End Game series, I have far too much invested in what is now the Lone Wolf ‘franchise’ (though I hate to use that term) to even pretend to voice an unbiased opinion. Not only am I in my fifth decade of playing the gamebooks, but they are one of my fondest childhood memories and one of the reasons I continued to read so much and try my hand at my own imaginative fictions. With that in mind, after The Storms of Chai, which was the highlight of the cycle to date, I was a little disappointed with Dead in the Deep because it didn’t quite live up to the expectation created by its predecessor, for an even greater epic struggle than Magnamund had ever seen. The Dusk of Eternal Night was, unfortunately, the first of all thirty-one gamebooks that I didn’t actually enjoy playing. My main criticisms were twofold and contradictory: that it is, first, too inventive and innovative and, second, derivative and even unoriginal.
The first referred to the new format, which retained the traditional three hundred and fifty gameplay sections, but replaced many of the player choices and actions with long descriptive sections to create a hybrid gamebook-novel. This experiment was just too different to what I’d enjoyed so much and had two consequences that didn’t work for me: the narrative was both much longer (as my photograph of Lone Wolf 31, 1, and 32 below shows) and more linear than the previous adventures. The second criticism was to the revelation of the primary antagonists of the End Game, which involves the reprisal of old enemies. While the latter had only a minor impact on my enjoyment, the former was much more serious and I was very concerned to read that Lone Wolf 32: Light of the Kai had been divided into two volumes, each of which includes four hundred gameplay sections. I wondered why. Dever wanted thirty-two adventures and each of the twenty-nine he authored had three hundred and fifty sections so it seemed unlikely that this was in honour of his memory. And, as the old adage goes, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ It definitely wasn’t broke, even if Dead in the Deep wasn’t one of the best. The only reason I could think of was that the extra volume and extra sections were to continue the hybridisation of the End Game series that appeared to have begun in The Dusk of Eternal Night. (As an aside, books 1 to 12 were fully novelised, in the The Legends of Lone Wolf series, which was published from 1989 to 1994 and only marginally successful). I mention all this to disclose that my expectations for Light of the Kai were not very high and that had I not been waiting for the end of the saga for so many decades, I probably wouldn’t have bought it.
Light of the Kai: Volume One was released at 17:00 BST on Tuesday 12 May (very much an ‘event’ for the fanbase) in three editions, Definitive (£30), Limited (£40), and Collector’s (£30). The reasons for these multiple editions are to do with Dever’s heroic attempts to keep Lone Wolf in print when interest in gamebooks tailed off at the turn of the century and I decided on the Definitive because I didn’t want to wait for the Collector’s (pre-order only, with delivery expected in July) and don’t have any great interest in signed copies (though it is nice to have Dever’s signature in my copy of The Storms of Chai as a keepsake). In addition to the fifty extra sections of gameplay, which – my reservations notwithstanding – will no doubt appeal to most buyers, the gamebook is also illustrated by the brilliant Gary Chalk (amongst others), the first to which he has contributed since Lone Wolf 8: The Jungle of Horrors (1987). The volume also includes thirty-two pages of supplementary material, ‘The Magnamund Archives’, which will also no doubt appeal to most buyers. (I did enjoy reading this, though I buy the books primarily for play.) I ordered promptly at 17:02 on 12 May, paying a very reasonable £4.99 for postage and packaging, and my purchase arrived exactly two weeks later. That’s quite a long time to wait, even by Royal Mail’s well-publicised declining standards, but the delay may well be shorter in future, now that the book is officially ‘in print’ (if that term is relevant anymore).
In consequence of the Lone Wolf cycle being distinguished from similar gamebooks (such as the Fighting Fantasy series, several of which I also enjoyed, especially The Warlock of Firetop Mountain) by using a serial player character who advances in rank and abilities, there is always a ‘The Story So Far…’ section between the rules and the first section of gameplay. One of the strengths of The Dusk of Eternal Night was that it seemed to pick up where The Storms of Chai left off, reestablishing the sense of looming cataclysm and climax by, amongst other things, gathering together companions and allies from the previous New Order books, The World of Lone Wolf miniseries, and the various Bonus Adventures published in some editions of the gamebooks. The final assault by the servants of the Dark God Naar to rule Magnamund began in the year MS 5101. Naar’s victory is dependent on his destruction of all three of the New Order of the Kai, the Brotherhood of the Crystal Star (a magic-user’s guild in D&D and AD&D terms), and the Elder Magi (also magic-users, as the name implies). Thanks to the efforts of True Friend, Lone Wolf, and the other Kai Grand Masters, Naar’s agent Zashnor was defeated in Chai (The Storms of Chai) and his Shadow Gate in Zekgazad destroyed (Dead in the Deep), preventing him from unleashing an army from the Realm of Paradox. Naar has, however, freed Demonlord Agarash from his pocket dimension prison and resurrected Archlord Vashna, with True Friend defeating an undead army of the former at the Battle of Lorn in MS 5103 (The Dusk of Eternal Night).
As True Friend has successfully completed eleven adventures, he has now mastered all sixteen of the Kai Grand Master Disciplines and reached the highest rank possible, Kai Supreme Master, in theory if not in practice Lone Wolf’s equal (more on this below). In the battle for Magnamund, he has been assigned command of Southern Magnamund, where he will continue the fight against Agarash while Lone Wolf does the same against Vashna on Northern Magnamund. I liked this premise as it expands True Friend’s exploration of the south, in contrast to Lone Wolf’s focus on the north, which means that players who complete all the series within the larger cycle experience the full range of settings across Magnamund. With all this personal history (like many, if not most, of the fanbase, I imagine) and nervous anticipation in mind, the first few pages of the volume exceeded my expectations: this is a game that promises to integrate the excitement of the first thirty episodes with the originality of the thirty-first. ‘The Story so Far…’ is succinct and gripping, a perfect introduction to the whole cycle and the cataclysmic end to which it is coming. Then comes the big reveal in ‘The Game Rules’, which answers all of the questions and concerns I posed above: in this game (and perhaps the next), I can choose to continue with True Friend as my persona or return to Lone Wolf. Not only can I either be one or the other, but I can mix and match within the game.
This is ideal because Lone Wolf and True Friend are the same rank (‘level’ in D&D and AD&D terms), both have demigod-like powers, and are each in command of half of the forces of good…so why not play either/or or both/and? The instructions are that one can begin with either character and then choose to either stay with that character throughout the adventure or switch between the two when the characters meet (and given the option in the text). Of course, what this also means is that there are actually two distinct adventures in Volume One: Lone Wolf’s (the first two hundred sections) and True Friend’s (the second two hundred sections). This, in turn, explains why the final adventure has been divided into two. Lazzari and Ben have remained true to Joe’s initial conception of thirty-two adventures, but offered us the opportunity to play it twice. Brilliant. The experiment with the gamebook form is also reminiscent of another of Joe’s short series, Combat Heroes, (two pairs of books, one pair published in 1986 and the other in 1987) where players could either play a short solo adventure or play against another player, who would be using the other gamebook. The options for playing Volume One are not, however, merely twofold because one can begin as either Lone Wolf or True Friend and then switch (or not) at two different points in the game, providing eight permutations in total. That must have involved some very clever and creative planning and writing by Lazarri and Ben and I found the switches between personas perfectly seamless.
I decided to start as True Friend to retain continuity with the New Order and End Game series, which I’ve been replaying and reviewing for the last decade. My initial plan was then to switch at each point I was given the opportunity. I’m not sure why, but I thought there would only be one chance to change so I envisaged beginning the game as True Friend and finishing it as Lone Wolf (which was in fact what happened, but for a different reason). One thing I realised as I recovered my notes on True Friend from The Dusk of Eternal Night and used the information in the rules to arm and equip Lone Wolf as best as I could remember – from when I played Lone Wolf 20: The Curse of Naar (1993), which was probably twenty years ago – was that the game has become pretty complicated by this stage. Not only have both Supreme Masters acquired multiple sets of disciplines, abilities, and powers over the years (conveniently summarised in the last few pages of Volume One), there are also a new set of abilities called Supreme Master Gifts. But don’t get too excited …what Lazarri and Ben give with one hand they take away with another because Lone Wolf and True Friend are also cursed, by Vashna and Agarash respectively, meaning that one must balance all of the previous abilities with the gifts and the curses in order to determine Combat Skill and Endurance (the two core game mechanics) in different situations. This is not a criticism, merely an observation that Light of the Kai is not an entry level game. The Storms of Chai would be a better place to begin and Voyage of the Moonstone even better (though the best place of all to begin is with Flight from the Dark).
True Friend’s adventure starts when he is summoned to a war council with Lone Wolf and their allies in Toran, in Sommerlund, and Northern Magnamund is the setting of Volume One (I am hoping Volume Two will shift to Southern Magnamund, for the reasons mentioned above). I liked the ecological theme that is raised very early, of Magnamund’s inhabitants being destroyed by the declining capacity of the planet to support existing species rather than being annihilated by Naar’s various minions (later referred to as its inability to sustain its ‘World-power’). I think this will resonate very well with younger players in particular. True Friend finds himself and Lady Assiliah, who is a student of the Shianti and a guardian of the Isle of Lorn, in the Ironwoods, in the Durncrag Mountains, the range that separates Sommerlund from the Darklands. The opening reminded me of playing Flight from the Dark all those years ago and at this early juncture I was really looking forward to whatever came next. In the first part (of four), True Friend and Assiliah must find Tower Ironar, an abandoned Sommlending settlement, infiltrate it, explore the dungeons beneath, and enter the Crystal Forge. The second part begins when they return to Sommerlund to find that an enormous cyclone is engulfing Toran while a comet descends on Northern Magnamund from above. True Friend must then defeat the Demon-king Suula, who has taken Kai Grand Master Swift Sword as his host, in a sequence that is surprisingly short and frustratingly deadly. Once Suula is defeated, there is an opportunity to switch characters and I began the next part as Lone Wolf, in search of the Rings of Judgement (the book uses US spelling, which I’ve replaced here) in the Danarg, a jungle to the southwest of Sommerlund that was the setting for The Jungle of Horrors. Lone Wolf must explore some or all of the four ruined towers of the Elder Magi to recover the rings and defeat, amongst many other denizens, a hive of Krywiz, powerful zombies that can infect all they wound, even Supreme Masters with their demigod-like resistances. The final part starts with Lone Wolf’s skyship receiving an unexpected visitor and a second opportunity to switch characters. I decided to remain with Lone Wolf this time and continue my search for a cure for the failing World-power. This takes Lone Wolf to the city of Ankor, in the Hardlands, in search of the Death Shard, and a climactic battle in his skyship with The Shog’aash, the last of the Sea Dragons of Naar. As such, the narrative that underpins the game, the ‘book’ in gamebook, is entertaining, engrossing, and exciting, unquestionably the best End Game instalment since The Storms of Chai. There are several sections that have long descriptions or more than two pages of text and occasionally there are two of these in a row, but the balance is much better than in The Dusk of Eternal Night and this is a very good game indeed.
If I concluded my review here it would be exclusively positive. I’d be very happy with that and many players may not agree with what I have to say next, but I've reviewed all of these gamebooks honestly and have no intention of changing my approach at the eleventh hour. Simply put, True Friend is, as his wimpy name might have suggested, not tough enough for this adventure. Almost all combats were very hard, against adversaries of a similar strength (which stretched credibility at times), and the addition of the curse made many very hard combats fatal or even impossible. I’d already been killed twice (once in combat and once by a poor decision) by the time I met Teakkro, last seen in Dead in the Deep, at the end of the first part. She would have been enough of a challenge on her own, but she had brought some friends along to make killing me much quicker and by this point I was the proud bearer of the Red Plague in addition to the Darkness Curse. For the first time in thirty-two games, I had to ‘cheat’, meaning that I had to pretend I’d won an impossible combat rather than simply replay the combat until I won or reboot my game at an earlier section to increase my odds of success. I didn’t feel great about this, but I did feel great about scurrying back to Lone Wolf to let him to take over and decided that I would finish the rest of the game as Lone Wolf whatever the options were. Unfortunately, before I could pass the baton – or, more accurately, beg for big brother’s help – I had to fight the Demon-king Suula, which was another impossible combat (even if I hadn’t been so battered and bruised) and ended up cheating for the second time. Once I was Lone Wolf, I was hoping I’d fare better. I did, at first, but almost immediately added a Krywiz plague to my Blood Curse, which proved fatal later on and caused me to cheat for the third time. I was killed twice before I reached the relative safety of the skyship at the end of the third part of the narrative and dare not revert to True Friend when offered the option because by this time he was basically what the military call ‘combat ineffective’. The final fight against The Shog’aash was probably not impossible, though I would have had to go back to my start as Lone Wolf and have a lot more luck with everything in order to be in significantly better shape when the time came. Without giving away any spoilers, the end of Volume One suggests that the fate of Magnamund is now entirely in the hands of True Friend…if so, then I recommend that all the good folk either immediately convert to the worship of Naar or find a convenient Krywiz to infect them.
With respect to the gameplay, I think the full combination of adversaries that are so tough, the curses, and the various other opportunities to have permanent or long-term reductions to Combat Skill, Endurance, or both are – literally – overkill. I could have done without the curses or the reductions, or perhaps even both, and still been killed a few times and had a fun-filled and nail-biting experience. Alternatively, maybe I’m not as good a player as I was when I played The Storms of Chai, but that wasn’t very long ago and although True Friend was killed at least once then and perhaps more than once, none of the adversaries were impossible to defeat. I just needed better luck with the Random Number Table or better decisions before the combat began. Or maybe I need to take my own advice, go back to Voyage of the Moonstone, play the New Order series with a little more skill, and make sure that True Friend is more robust by the time he sets foot in the Ironwoods. The fault may well be mine, but I didn’t like having to cheat and have never needed to before. My verdict is that while Volume One didn’t quite match its very promising beginning, it is an excellent gamebook and is bringing the cycle to a captivating and convincing conclusion. I’ve not seen any reliable information on when Volume Two will be released yet. Wikipedia states 2030, which seems too long. My sense from the inspired and ingenious crafting of Volume One, with its eight permutations (seven of which I still have left to play), is that the whole of Light of the Kai has already been planned in detail, if not drafted. My guess is that it’s almost finished or finished and awaiting playtesting. If there are another four years to wait, I hope I’m in better shape than True Friend when it’s released…
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