Book Info
Book Title: Dungeons & Dragon Endless Quest Book 2: Mountain of Mirrors
Publisher: TSR Hobbies Inc.
Writer: Rose Estes
Artist: Jim Holoway
Release Date: June 1982
I choose not dying at the hands of this thing
The village of Aralia has been cut off from the Land Beyond the Mountains. Now, a young elf named Landon has accepted mission to cross Shanafria, the Mountain of Mirrors, to bring help to the city before winter arrives. Armed with the Sword of Magus, Landon is about to discover the danger which lurks within the Mountain of Mirrors and free his people…if he can survive the darkness within.
Written by Rose Estes, Dungeons & Dragons Endless Quest Book 2: Mountain of Mirrors was part of Dungeons & Dragon’s answer to the popular Choose Your Own Adventure series of books. Following Dungeons & Dragons Endless Quest Book 1: Dungeon of Dread, the series was often collected at the time of its publication in sets.
With video games at their fledgling state and Dungeons & Dragons at its popularity peak, the Endless Quest books were a bit of a combination of RPG games, fantasy, and reading. An RPG game didn’t exist at this point so “reading” one was about as good as it could get. If a kid was challenged to read, the choose your own adventure style of writing was great to encourage reading.
Kind of like Alice in Wonderland…with a lynx
This volume (like most volumes) starts out with a general description of your character. The story is a bit harder to “get right” than the first volume of the series and there seems to be two distinct paths to take. One path leads to the destruction of the mountain (which seems to be the correct path) and the other path has you killing a leader called Tsimmis to escape. Part of the fun of the books however is “choosing wrong” and leading your character to a grisly death.
What I enjoyed about this series more so than some of the Choose Your Own Adventure series was the illustrations. With a fun cover by Larry Elmore and interior illustrations by Jim Holloway, the book always had you looking through the illustrations even if you didn’t do the “quest”…you wanted to read the book to see how the illustrations tied into the story.
Dungeons & Dragons Endless Quest Book 2: Mountain of Mirrors is by no means a great work of science-fiction or fantasy, but it is a good starter for young fantasy readers or kids who need extra motivation to read. The format of the books might not be as popular as they were when they were invented with computers, games, and real roleplaying games, but they still can entertain a young reader by providing some mild scares and thrills. Dungeons & Dragons: Endless Quest Book 2: Mountain of Mirrors was followed by Dungeons & Dragons Endless Quest Book 3: Pillars of Pentegarn.
Related Links:
Dungeons & Dragons Endless Quest Book 1: Dungeon of Dread
Dungeons & Dragons Endless Quest Book 3: Pillars of Pentegarn
Dungeons & Dragons Endless Quest Book 4: Return to Brookmere
Dungeons & Dragons Endless Quest Book 5: Revolt of the Dwarves
there are good points in ambiance with the elves slaughtered in the beginning, the frost giant’s jolly hostility… but the construction is pathetic ( and the blink lynx is annoying, too )