Snook takes the reader into a sword-and-sorcery labyrinth in this dice-rolling interactive fantasy novel.

You, Stultus Insanis Rusticus, better known as Stulty, serve as a jester for the royal family of the Kingdom of Opulentos. Up until now, your main job has just been making people laugh, but after offending the court, you’re forced to atone for your sins by going on a dangerous mission. You must brave the dangerous Labyrinth of the Minotaur and retrieve the legendary Ruby of Power that supposedly waits at the end of it: “You will need to be well equipped if you are to survive your journey and bring back the fabled Ruby of Power,” the Merlin-like court wizard tells you. “I have enchanted these sacks and filled them each with items that can assist you on your quest. You may choose only one for your journey, so choose wisely.” With your items in hand, you go off to do battle against a menagerie of centaurs, zombies, faeries, and lizardmen, with little more than your jester wit to keep you alive. Can you find the Ruby of Power and bring it back to King and Queen Opulentos? Only if you choose the right path. In classic choose-your-own-adventure fashion, readers shape Stulty’s journey based on their own whims and dispositions; the first fork in the road, for example, forces the reader to respond either politely or rudely to a lady of the court. Once in the labyrinth, Stulty’s fate is also determined in part by chance, as the reader must win Dungeons & Dragons–style dice matches against the many monsters that populate the book’s pages. Befitting the protagonist’s profession, Snook’s writing is comical and sometimes raunchy, as in a sophomoric aside regarding Stulty’s distaste for wizards: “Wizards doth sucketh the heftiest of donkey parts.” Fowler’s black-and-white line drawings of various characters and objects are evocative, and the book’s assimilation of dice (which readers must provide) into the familiar format adds an extra layer of complexity to the reading experience. It’s a book that should provide some fantasy fans with an afternoon’s entertainment.

A well-crafted game book of battles and misadventures.