Archway Paperback, $2.25, ISBN 0-671-55488-3
Fantasy, 1985

The Green Hydra, the second gamebook in the Sagard the Barbarian series, is pretty much similar in terms of gameplay design, difficulty level, tone, and atmosphere to the previous gamebook The Ice Dragon. This one has a slightly more interesting plot though.

As a young barbarian named Sagard in the land of men with big swords and damsels with very little clothing on, you recently accompanied a party of your tribesmen in a trading expedition to the city of Suthorp. While crossing the Hukka Marsh, however, your tribe mates are wiped out in an ambush by some Hukka tribe warriors. You alone finally make your way to Suthorp, where you then find yourself embroiled in a mission involving snake men, creepy dungeons, and a scantily-clad priestess who will play your love interest. Don’t get too excited, because this is a clean and wholesome campaign and therefore Sagard isn’t going to get that lucky.

The Green Hydra is a pretty simple gamebook as it’s actually pretty hard for the opponents to kill you unless you get really unlucky in consecutive rolls, and really, the chances of that happening are pretty slim. Therefore, you will most likely end up feeling that you are playing a Choose Your Own Adventure gamebook, only with Introductory Die-Rolling 101 in the battle scenes.

A three-oogie score is for merely adequate gamebooks, and that score fits this gamebook to a tee.