Book of Books

Book of Books: Slot Overview

Hey up, players, if you've stood between two opposing mirrors and seen your reflection repeat into infinity, you'll have an idea of the thoughts generated in the review by the title: Book of Books. Book of Books of books of books… is an online slot from Armenian outfit Peter & Sons, and as the title makes abundantly clear, follows in the long tradition of 'book of' slots that started way back at the dawn of online gambling with Book of Ra. This means players get expanding pay-anywhere symbols in free spins, alongside a bunch of twists that Peter & Sons have worked in to give the game a very distinctive personality.

For one thing, Book of Books is not situated in or near the lands of Egypt where by tradition, though not necessity, these games often are. Instead of Pharaohs and Pyramids, players journey to a wooded mediaeval-looking land, where pointy trees sway and a trio of folk bang away on what appear to be homemade instruments. After reviewing a number of Peter & Sons games recently that didn't really look like Peter & Sons games, Book of Books, by contrast, is a textbook example of the studio's visual style. It brought to mind some of the studio's earlier work, such as Johnan Legendarian (itself a 'book of' type game) and Robin Sherwood Marauders.

As these slots often are, Book of Books is played on a 5-reel, 3-row game grid possessing 10 paylines for evaluating wins. However, in this game, the grid can actually expand to 5x4 with 20 paylines or even 5x5 with 40 paylines. Quite how this happens is detailed down below a bit. Book of Books can be played on any device and takes bets of 10 p/c to £/€50 per spin, or when activating the Golden Bet, stakes increase by 50%, thereby increasing the chance of triggering the bonus game.  Mathematically highly volatile, it appears that no matter how you play Book of Books, its highest RTP is 96.1%, though lower models are available too.

Winning combinations are formed of at least three low-pay symbols or two of the premiums. Low pays are a club, diamond, spade, heart, and axe worth 5 to 10 times the bet for 5 OAK, while five of the hammers, swords, or the three character symbols pay 20 to 150 times the bet. The wilds have the same value as the highest-value symbol and are also able to replace any regular non-expanded paying symbol.

Book of Books: Slot Features

Just to be clear, Book of Books has both a dedicated wild symbol and a dedicated book scatter symbol as well. In the base game, landing 2 scatter symbols awards a power up which is added to the free spins session. Power ups can be 1 or 2 extra free spins, an extra expanding symbol, or an x1 or x2 expanding multiplier, which multiplies winnings from expanded symbols. Collecting these expanding multipliers adds them together.

Free Spins

Landing 3 or more scatter symbols in the base game triggers the free spins session. Players are awarded like so:

• When 3 scatters trigger the feature, it is played on a 5x3 grid with 10 paylines.
• When 4 scatters trigger the feature, it is played on a 5x4 grid with 20 paylines.
• When 5 scatters trigger the feature, it is played on a 5x5 grid with 40 paylines.

The base number of awarded free spins is 7, though this may be higher due to power up collections. Free spins are played with all power ups activated, and power ups are reset when the round ends. In an unorthodox move, Book of Books does not pick a random expanding symbol at the start of the session. Instead, on each free spin, active expanding symbols are randomly chosen and are displayed on a meter next to the reels. If expanding symbols can form a win, they cover all positions on the respective reels and pay 10 lines (independent of grid size), even if they are non-adjacent. By landing at least 2 scatter symbols, the session is retriggered:

• 2 scatters award 1 extra free spin plus a random power up.
• 3 scatters award 3 extra free spins plus a random power up.
• 4 scatters award 5 extra free spins plus a random power up. The grid is resized to 5x4 if possible.
• 5 scatters award 7 extra free spins plus a random power up. The grid is resized to 5x5 if possible.

Buy Free Spins

Book of Books comes with three bonus buy options, all of which activate free spins. Paying 120x the bet gets you a 5x3 grid with 10 paylines, 250x the bet buys a 5x4 grid with 20 paylines, while 500x the bet buys a 5x5 grid with 40 paylines.

Book of Books: Slot Verdict

British band The Beatles made such a phenomenal impact on modern culture that their music is stored in a bomb-proof doomsday vault near the North Pole in order to keep it safe for future generations. Maybe, just maybe, one day, the 'book of' slot format will be kept safe in a similar way so that in a thousand years' time, future online gamblers (or however humanity may be wagering on games of chance by then, if at all) will still be able to get a kick out of its infamous expanding symbols action. In a scenario where humanity couldn't save all 'book of' related slots, which ones would make the cut? Book of Dead, Book of Ra perhaps… any others?

It's up for debate whether Book of Books would make it onto the list for preservation purposes, but it's an interesting example of this kind of online slot all the same. Not only does Book of Books use a non-Egyptian theme, but much else of what it does diverts from the usual way of doing things, as well. So much so that it warrants a more thorough paytable inspection than a regular 'book of' slot usually does. From the power up aspects, which makes triggering free spins early somewhat undesirable, to the random expanding symbols on each free spin, to the mind-bending 'what the?' reaction triggered by its separation of wild and scatter symbols. While some studios stick to the 'book of' template like glue, Peter & Sons has used it as more of a guide and given the design team freedom to let their minds wander.

Where those minds have ended up is something we haven't really seen before in this kind of slot. Diverting so far from the beaten path may alienate some 'book of' purists who might find Book of Books a little too diverse for their tastes, though the more experimentally minded may just fall for the particular charms to be found here.