Item - Find the Kirillian!

Find the Kirillian! is the first in what is my favorite gamebook series, Be an Interplanetary Spy. It's a nice introduction, with all kinds of minorly terrifying and whimsical pictures, and with its not-too-hard logic puzzles that never feel dry. There are mazes, including one where you make the wrong choice but don't die until the next no-win choice. There's exotic stuff like fabulous sci-fi beasts like an evil giant kid who plays tennis with rocket ships, or robot dogs, or even a huge ice hill monster. The baddies make it rather fun to die, actually, though there are also neat ones due to your navigating poorly, like when you're sucked into a vaporization or air filtration plant.

The plot is appealing, too, tracking down a giant thief, Phatax the Kirillian, who has kidnapped the normal-sized Prince Quizon (BaIS doesn't explain why monarchies exist amongst this flashy technology, but it didn't concern me much then or now. You have to suspend disbelief a bit.) To get your ship started you need to solve some low-grade logic puzzles and travel to the giant city of Barenga. There's one branch where you can actually disguise yourself as the wrong sort of merchant. Your punishment for this infraction is to be laughed at by a two-foot-high nose with a sub-nose, glasses and feet. I treasure this detour immensely. Others like it are peppered throughout the series, with various degrees of heckling. They're a nice change of pace from the exotic deaths.

But FtK still feels like it's finding its feet a bit. Its puzzles are on the easy side. There's one page where an enemy spy traps you in a house of mirrors. Instead of a puzzle for you to guess which is the real spy, the book just says "figure it out and turn the page." Some of the bad page-ends can be accessed from several puzzles and seem rather generic. One actually loops you to the beginning, which is a bit vexing since you're close to the end. A few port you to where one of Phatax's spies pops up randomly and kidnaps you, which doesn't flow. And I wound up recognizing "hey, page X is the one that would've gotten me killed before."

But there's a neat twist as one such page X is the final page -- the same one you get when you win, where the "you have another mission now" text reads a bit differently once you've actually succeeded. And the final chase with Phatax missed a chance for more puzzles. However, the plot is lively and so are the pictures. I always enjoy going back to it. FtK wasn't the first BaIS book I read, but it has that "welcome to a new series" feel.

With the caveat that I enjoyed all the BaIS books, I'd put Find the Kirillian! in the middle.

More reviews by andrewschultz

This is the first of the Interplanetary Spy series, and it is fairly obvious that they are still working out some of the kinks.

This book has few of the wonderfully idiosyncratic touches of the later books, with a bland character and an underdeveloped villain.

The puzzles are eminently solvable, but not a patch on some of the later ones.

More reviews by Aussiesmurf

Be An Interplanetary Spy is an illustrated gamebook series geared toward younger readers. It features visual puzzles such as mazes and pattern matching. There is very little branching, as most of the choices are pass/fail, and this produces very linear plots.

Readers are encouraged to interact with the book in imaginative ways. Press your thumb print on a scanner drawn on the page to activate a machine. Create a code name and enter it into a computer along with your height and weight. Enter the book's ISBN number as a secret code. My younger self gladly complied with these instructions. My older self cringes at the thought of marking up a book so glibly.

Find the Kirillian! isn’t great compared to later books in the series. There are a lot of generic bad endings that keep getting recycled throughout. At times it feels like the creators aren’t even trying: "solve this maze and turn to page x." The illustrations are good and the concept is solid, but this outing doesn’t live up to its potential. The premier mission of the Interplanetary Spy gets 2 out of 5 stars.

More reviews by auximenes

This isn't a bad start to the series... Some of the puzzles are fairly interesting, though the vast majority are exceedingly simple, pointless, or entirely based on random luck. This book was later released with a different cover, probably because the Space Invaders look of the first cover illustration was a bit dated by the mid-eighties.

More reviews by Demian

A fairly interesting and easy story written with lots of exclamation points. There are several puzzles that do not require solving; the reader is just asked to find their way through a maze or something and then turn to another page. A lot of time is spent flying around in your way cool spaceship, which is derivative of Luke's landspeeder in Star Wars. One thing this story does that really upsets me is asking the reader to choose one of two similar pieces of equipment to bring on the mission, and that choice determines success or failure.

More reviews by Dtar

(Review based on the Spanish translation.)

This first entry is a strong start to a classic series. As is usual in the series, it consists of a long, epic space opera story, where a single wrong choice will result in failure. The format works quite well in this case, and the illustrations do an excellent job of making the experience feel similar to a film or video game. As Demian mentioned, the visual puzzles are extremely easy (which I suppose is not inappropriate given that this first book is supposed to ease readers into the series). The adventure is nonetheless fun to read and the protracted battle against the final foe is climactic and involving. I definitely recommend starting the series with this book.

More reviews by Guillermo

To say the most, I enjoyed this book but would have loved for it to be a little more difficult. I finished it in 30-45 minutes on my first time through. Some of the puzzles in the book are entertaining but could have been way more complex to add to the fun factor. Illustrations in the book are good. The plot to me appears very cliched.

All together, an enjoyable but easy adventure which I recommend to a young audience.

More reviews by Jonman99