Written by: R.A Montgomery. Illustrated by: Frank Bolle
Wow! The very first choose your own adventure style book as written by EP, and appearing for the first time in the series in a 'brand-new special edition.'
You find yourself abandoned on some mysterious island, and come across all sorts of thinmgs you wouldn't expect to find: Superstitious natives, and pirates and treasure... yeah, there's not much going on here that'll surprise you, but it's a decent enough read.
I can forgive the more unimaginative ideas, since it's his first attempt on paper.
Sugarcane has little to do with anything however, but at least it provides a decent title for the story, and not one of those one-worders ending in an exclamation mark.
Secret Room is full of the purely fantastical stuff that's hardly alien to this series, but what makes it special is the way it's countred by very realistic and down to earth choices you have to make, that a child in that actual situation would have to think about. For example, you don't get many CYOA books that give you the option of buying either hamburger mince or dog food while you're at the store.
Fun is aplenty here, mainly involving trying to cope with having very strange creatures around, from a Griffin, to some warrior from the middle ages whose way of life clashes with our modern one to often amusing effect (remind you of a certain movie starring Jean Reno?), and it's well worth a read.
Written by: Meryl Siegman. Illustrated by: Ted Enik
Written by: Louise Munro Foley. Illustrated by: Ron Wing
Written by: Jay Leibold. Illustrated by: S. Freymann
Written by: Ann Hodgman. Illustrated by: Ted Enik
I'm guessing this is written by Mr. Packard's darling daughter, who was lucky enough to hear all of Big Ed's thrilling tales well before they were in print.
However. unlike her father, she can't come up with decent choices to make, as most of them in Secret of the Sun God are either generic or slightly dumb.
I'm lookijng forward to reading a CYOA adventure where it's a good idea to stick around and steal some treasure.
The bas guys are hulluva boring and typical too, nut Andrea knows her stuff regarding the Olmetica tribe, and anything to do with them is always enjoyable.
Written by: Jim Wallace. Illustrated by: Ted Enik
Written by: Richard Brightfield. Illustrated by: Leslie Morrill
After such a great appearence in Vampire Express, I wasn't expecting this second vamp story, in the unlikely setting of Space, to live up to it, but golly it comes pretty damn close.
Cliched but fun sci-fi elements are combined wonderfully with many varied battles with our fanged friend, and things turn really interesting when Eddie P explores the Vampire's culture and thinking a bit more; he gives them a lot of depth. They're not just big, pale dudes that go around attacking people; he portrays them as being basically like you and me, except with one big personality flaw- they just have to have blood, and that massive lust for the red stuff over-rides anything else. Pity the illustrator portrays them as caricatures, which would be ok if they weren't so silly looking. This detracts from the book slightly, but not enough for this to be anything but a great addition to your collection. By the way, the cover promises 'more challenging choices' and it certainly delivers!
Written by: R.A Montgomery. Illustrated by: Leslie Morrill
Written by: Jay Leibold. Illustrated by: Yee Chea Lin
Written by: Marc Newman. Illustrated by: Frank Bolle
Written by: Richard Brightfield. Illustrated by Judith Mitchell
Written by: Ramsey Montgomery. Illustrated by: Gonzalez Vicente
Written by: Ben M. Baglio. Illustrated by: Leslie Morrill
Written by: R.A Montgomery. Illustrated by: George Tsui
I like the set-up and relaxed pace of this book, but unfortunatly there's not a great story to reveal.
It's nice to "be" a girl again though, haven't had that happen for a while.
Written by: Edward Packard. Illustrated by: Leslie Morrill