R. A. Montgomery (1936–2014)

After the more reality grounded By Balloon to the Sahara, the fourth Choose Your Own Adventure book falls right back into the fantastical sci-fi settings with Space and Beyond. This time, the reader is tasked with piloting a ship to one of two chosen destinations, with plenty of obstacles and predicaments requiring the reader to make plenty of choices (of course).

After By Balloon to the Sahara, Space and Beyond turns out to be a bit of a letdown. Even without the slide back to sci-fi fantasy show more settings, the overall feel of this entry is, well, lazy. Take the opening: You're born on a spaceship traveling so fast that you turn 18 in three days (I'm pretty sure that's not how that works), and now must choose between the parental home planets of Phonon and Zermacroyd. A single page of backstory that sounds like a drunken Mad Lib, and suddenly you are flying alone in uncharted deep space. The setup is so inconsequential, the book could have easily started with, "You're flying alone in space. What do you do?"

The choices also feel less inspired than previous books. Some of the choices ask the reader what they think will be the outcome instead of what action they take, and all of the decision trees progress to the next available page instead of jumping back and forth in a random fashion. Following a majority of the story paths will have you reading the book front to back like a normal book, just skipping pages in the process. And way too many of the options include "Go back to page 2 and try the other one" instead of giving a legitimate ending.

And speaking of the endings... this is where Space and Beyond terribly disappoints. Many of the endings are so vague and uninspired that they sound like a weary parent giving up on a bedtime story halfway through. Take this one: "How do you try to convince people to stop polluting their planet when they have been doing it for so long? Maybe it's a hopeless task. The End." What the hell was that? Was the publisher deadline so close that they just wrote what the ending was supposed to convey? The "You are never heard from again" ending was more satisfying. Many of the endings aren't even really endings, just brief summaries amounting to 'things could have turned out different, but they didn't.' It just all feels lazy and half-hearted.

Perhaps I'm putting too much pressure on children's books I read forty years ago, but so far Space and Beyond is the weakest entry in the series. show less

This was more fun than the last of these I randomly picked up! Was it the two drinks? Or the fact that "and beyond" includes going back in time and journeying to the centre of the mind and other activities not strictly associated with space? I played three times: the first, I ended up joining a rebellion of the shadow people against the light people (who were trying to banish shadows fro their planet, which is a good heavy-handed metaphor for kids), but then got tired of killing and stole a show more starship and made off for parts unknown; the second, I ended up at the dawn of humanity just hanging out and waiting to see what would happen (probably they sacrificed me on their bone altar); and in the third we had a weird encounter with one freaky sentient force that sapped our energy, correctly took control of the situation and divined that they were not a threat and went to help them with their planet's generic challenges, and then encountered a second force that sapped our energy and left us spinning in th evoid. Now that I think about it I do suspect they were in cahoots. show less

The Choose Your Own Adventure series offered an option every few pages to choose how the story would continue. According to your preference, you would follow its instructions by turning to the appropriate page of the book as indicated by your choice. This was a popular and revolutionary idea when the series was first launched in the early 1980s, driving it to incredible sales levels for many years until it was overshadowed by variants on the idea that took the concept to more elaborate show more lengths (e.g. Fighting Fantasy) and especially by other interactive media.

The plot: you and your brother Ned have solved a few major mysteries. This time your task is discover why all of the world's oil is suddenly disappearing. To solve your cases, you rely on telepathic messages your brother receives in a bizarre language that only you know how to interpret, powers which neither of you can explain. Personally I think that's the first mystery you should have tried to solve.

Observations: the 'trouble' of the title is, in a sense, self-inflicted. The underlying theme here is that Earth is wasting its natural resources at the cost of the environment. show less

The Choose Your Own Adventure series offered an option every few pages to choose how the story would continue. According to your preference, you would follow its instructions by turning to the appropriate page of the book as indicated by your choice. This was a popular and revolutionary idea when the series was first launched in the early 1980s, driving it to incredible sales levels for many years until it was overshadowed by variants on the idea that took the concept to more elaborate show more lengths (e.g. Fighting Fantasy) and especially by other interactive media.

The plot: it's the first dystopian entry in the series, where you're a spy imprisoned on the wrong side of the authoritarian tracks. With three companions you're trying to find your way to safety.

Observations: one of your three companions is pretty consistently bad news, and you stop cutting that one any slack after a few reads. A direct sequel to this appears later in the series, Beyond Escape (#61), suggesting this was a popular entry. It's definitely better than its sequel.

Personal memories: a clear mission and interesting setting that I liked coming back to. show less