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.

I have a natural fear of dark water. I also have a pretty solid terror of the sea and lake monsters. Probably from reading lots of books like Monster Hunting Today (1983) as a kid. I never actually encountered Monster Hunting Today as a kid, though. Honestly, I am not sure I would have been able to handle the cover back then. I have a little trouble now, honestly!

But as much as it gives me a chill, how fantastic is this cover? The color scheme! The design choice of that green and red waterline! The font! And, of course, that rendering of the lake monster, the baleful stare, the hellish red light coming from below. Oh man. I hate this. I love this.

I thought I would never find a copy, honestly. I first saw it earlier this year when I dipped back into Daniel Cohen's body of work, but the only sales listings for it A. didn't have photos and B. strongly implied the dust jacket was missing or that the book had a library binding (which, not always a deal breaker, but in this case, no good). I finally took a chance on an $8 listing from Better World Books and got this copy. It's ex-library, but in gorgeous shape, really (though the fact that I have perfected the art of removing library stickers from dust jackets helps a lot).