Item - Skystalker

I remember reading Skystalker and feeling foreboding. It was rather thin, with little text in the endings and narrative. And the plot is, well, it veers from save the universe, to having to being prey for some villain who could and should have killed you right away and, let's face it, is a bit overdone. This contrasts with the relatively spare illustrations and text--we don't get a lot of clever wit or cool exotic aliens. Even your outfit seems a bit baggy, like you're a Play-Doh monster or something. And one sample ending: "You pushed the wrong shape! It's the last shape you'll ever push."

As for Skystalker? He has a cigarette holder in his tentacles and a monocle, and it's a bit overdone, and it might really work with a stronger plot. But he's a bit silly: he is trying to open up a sphere which contains negatrol. The thing about negatrol, though, is that it destroys everything that touches, except for qualium, which the sphere is thankfully made of. (We're not sure HOW it was made.) So you have to prevent Skystalker not only from killing you, but from opening the sphere. You are dumped without help on a moon that is slowly being pulled towards a sun.

There are some good puzzles in all this -- a small 4-piece jigsaw is satisfying, and in another, you chase a small alien to a pair of closets. You need to examine the footprints to see which they went in. The other is a trap. You wind up making friends with them--they're a sort of discount Daffy/Donald Duck, and they have a friend called Zillio who's some sort of weird borg who wants to kill Skystalker and probably take the sphere.

The maze puzzles are kind of fun and fit in well with the hunt, but it all doesn't fit in well with the BaIS formula of finding cool stuff out. There are also more "go left or right" style puzzles, which don't give random deaths, but the tangents and side areas they show are not as satisfying as they could be. The illustrations focus on predatory droids: a round search and destroy droid, a thirty-foot megadroid scanning a maze.

At the book's end my own spy-sense sussed something might be off. It felt like shaking the last few drops of orange juice from the carton. It's hardly a terrible book, and for me it felt better than the average Choose Your Own Adventure, but it does leave the series to end on a down note.

More reviews by andrewschultz

A fairly good end to the series, with a villain who is thankfully a bit of a change from the maniac-of-the-week flavour of some of the previous books. Having said that, the motivations of a number of the characters are unclear, and the puzzles are a mixed batch.

More reviews by Aussiesmurf

This isn't a bad end to the series, though it lacks finality. The book makes such a big deal out of the fact that it is your first level three mission that you can't help but think that there were further level three missions planned. The book's story and characters are typically minimalistic (especially the subplot involving Zillio, which is ridiculously underdeveloped), but its puzzles are often quite interesting and the artwork is amusing, especially the illustrations of Daxon. There are a couple of sloppy points in the book. First of all, on page 29, the stray sentence "When it sees you, it jumps up and runs away." doesn't seem to fit in where it shows up. Secondly, the puzzle on page 101 seems like it could have been presented in a slightly more readable fashion. Flaws aside, though, I enjoyed the book and wish that more had been written....

More reviews by Demian

I really enjoyed this book, but there's one thing that bugs me a bit: "Skystalker" himself. He loves stalking so much that he decides to disarm you and then give you time to run so that he can "stalk" you. Through the course of the rest of the adventure you come across two others who he is or has been stalking... but hasn't yet caught. You keep him from successfully stalking the guy who sold him an object of interest, then find him some minutes later in his laboratory, examining that object. At that point he's left at least 3 individuals in his compound whom he still hasn't successfully stalked. Some "stalker." He also looks a bit corny, with a long black cigarette holder. All he needs is a monocle and a top hat!

More reviews by Dtar

Unlike some of the series I've reviewed lately, BaIPS manages to end with its most entertaining entry. While the puzzles are pretty typical mazes and suchlike the setting, villain and supporting characters are quite interesting. Skystalker is one of the coolest bad guys I've seen in a gamebook and certainly is a worthy opponent to finish off the series against. If you read BaIPS manages, make sure to finish it.

More reviews by Fireguard