"Dungeons of Dread" is a compilation of the four S (Special) series adventures from the late 1970s and early 1980s, when Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was in its heyday. The individual adventures are considered to be classics, and I've reviewed each individually in the past; I'll provide links to those more detailed reviews below.
All four adventures were placed in the World of Greyhawk, TSR's house world at the time, and the personal campaign of Gary Gygax, who wrote three of the four adventures. The other adventure was written by Lawrence Schick. All the adventures are for higher-level characters.
It should be noted that this hardback collection is not the same as the 1987 collection of "Realms of Horror" which collected the same four adventures together in a softcover book: that product altered the originals, cutting two of the modules drastically. This product reprints as much as possible the original adventures.
The actual book is of the same high quality of Wizards' previous AD&D reprints, the core rulebooks and Unearthed Arcana. It clocks in at 192 pages and has a RRP of $39.95; this is somewhat expensive, but is by no means unreasonable, especially considering that it is a set of adventures for a system that is no longer actively produced, and many of the potential buyers would already have copies of the original adventures.
The most noticeable problem with this product with certain pieces of art where the original shading has not been able to be reproduced accurately. Unfortunately, the most prominent example of this is the frontispiece for "Tomb of Horrors", which leads off the book. In fact, the rest of the art looks pretty good with only a few pieces suffering from the reproduction process. The text is clear and readable, but I don't know if any errors have been introduced as I've not closely compared it with the originals. There are no gross errors as far as I can see.
So, what are the adventures included in this tome?
S1: Tomb of Horrors (original review) – levels 10-14
Tomb of Horrors provides the "ultimate" adventure within the D&D world: if a lich could populate their final resting place with deathtraps, you'd get this. It's not meant to be survivable: it's meant to keep the lich safe. The rewards for successfully completing the adventure are great, but the likelihood of that occurring is small. It's there for the bravest and most skilled players. However, the Tomb exists in a design space that is outside of the regular play of D&D. It enriches the D&D game by existing, but most groups will have no need to adventure within it. It's a great design, which will kill most characters that venture within.
S2: White Plume Mountain (original review) – levels 5-10
White Plume Mountain is one of my favourite adventures of the era. Gygax often designed AD&D and its modules to present a "realistic" world, such as in The Village of Hommlet. When you get to White Plume Mountain, with its collection of turnstiles, inverted ziggurats, cursed wishing rings and ogre magi, the world doesn't look that realistic. However, it's a lot of fun. Astonishingly, despite the deathtraps and difficult encounters, the adventure feels light-hearted.
S3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks (original review) – levels 8-12
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks shows us what happens when Gygax puts science fiction, in the form of a crash alien spacecraft, into AD&D. It's extremely challenging, and provides a wealth of different challenges for the party. The players need to deal with a wealth of new monsters, including robots, navigate the strange security-codes of the ship and deal with a lot of strange technology. All-in-all, it is an exceptional adventure.
S4: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (original review) – levels 6-10
The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth offers up a lot of Greyhawk lore, and a lot of new monsters to fight, but doesn't have as many the interesting situations as the other adventures in this collection have. The reprint includes a 30-page booklet of new monsters, magic items and spells that eventually were reprinted in Monster Manual II and Unearthed Arcana. At the time the new material made the adventure a lot more appealing, but it feels lacking compared to the other adventures.
The collection is opened by a foreword by Lawrence Schick where he reveals that his White Plume Mountain was what got him hired by TSR, and wasn't intended for publication, rather just showing what he could do!
If there's one caveat I would add about this product, its this: as the maps are printed in the book at the end of each adventure, there'll be quite a bit of page-flipping required. Likewise, the picture booklets of S1 and S3 are reproduced in the book, and not separately as in the original products.
Ultimately, if you are interested in the classic adventures of D&D, this is a product you should pick up. The few production flaws are minor compared to the quality of the overall product, and its one I'm happy to have on my shelf.