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Item - Voyage with Columbus

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(Original edition)
(Troll edition, second printing)
(Troll edition, second printing)
(Troll edition, second printing)
(Troll edition, second printing)

Combined Summary

Series: Time Traveler — no. 1
Translated Into: El enigma de la Santa María (Spanish)
Author: Reit, Seymour V.
Illustrators: Fastner, Steve (cover)
Navaroo, José Gonzalez (interior)
Date: October, 1986 (Original edition)
ISBNs: 0553154311 / 9780553154313
059016676X / 9780590166768 (Troll edition, second printing)
Length: 80 pages (plus instructions and data)
Number of Endings: 1
User Summary: You travel back to Columbus' famous voyage in order to discover the ultimate fate of his flagship, the Santa María.
Demian's Thoughts:

This is a fairly well-written book, but it bothers me on two levels. First of all, it's not very interesting in terms of gameplay; there aren't many choices, and those that there are fail to be very thought-provoking and sometimes lack options that the reader would probably like to try. More seriously, I'm bothered by the book's portrayal of history. At this point, I believe that most historians would agree that Columbus wasn't much of a hero, especially in light of his foreign policy ("give me gold and I won't chop off important bits of your face"). In this book, though, he practically glows with shiny goodness, and the only violence in the story is committed by the sailors (common criminals) and the natives (ignorant savages). Perhaps 1986 was a little early for publishers to consider exposing young children to revisionist history, but they could have done a little better than this -- it makes me a bit ill. "You've had a chance to visit the past, to be part of one of the greatest events in history," indeed.

More reviews by Demian

Users Who Own This Item: Arkadia, auximenes, Cyan, Erikwinslow (Original), exaquint (troll), Ffghtermedic, jdreller, katzcollection, kinderstef, knginatl (Bantam), mir1812, momaw27, ntar, rtaylor352, spragmatic, waktool (Troll, 2nd printing)
Users Who Want This Item: exaquint (bantam), NEMO (bantam&troll), Nomad, Pseudo_Intellectual, ThisIslandEarth
Users with Extra Copies: ntar - troll

Known Editions

Troll edition, second printing
Original edition

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Time Traveler ad
This advertisement was printed in the back of the first printing of the Bantam Skylark edition of The Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop, published September, 1986.