Five more Endless Quest gamebooks this week! Let’s see how they hold up. First is Linda Lowery’s Spell of the Winter Wizard (1983), the eleventh in the series. Larry Elmore delivers a solid cover while Jeffrey R. Busch is on the interiors. His work is a bit unusual for TSR and feels more of a piece with fantasy books for younger readers. Vibes of Narnia and Oz abound. That’s not a bad thing, really.

The story centers on Omina (a girl!) who is trying to rescue her stepfather from the titular wizard. There are talking animals abound and plenty of Moral Lessons to be Learned. This one feels distinctly un-D&D-ish, so perhaps because of that the clear lesson-giving and the cute animals and such chaff less. Not a very thrilling read, though. The most memorable bit is with a collector of butterflies, which is a rather unexpected random encounter.