Item - Last of the Dinosaurs

This book really didn't need to be written. It covers a lot of the same territory as the other dinosaur-related book in the series; I suspect it was only written because dinosaurs sell and by this time the series was most likely waning in popularity. Among other problems, there are a lot of seemingly arbitrary decisions and a couple of largely pointless and uninteresting trips to the 20th century. The ultimate solution to the mystery is believable and realistic, however, and makes up for a number of the book's flaws.

One peculiar thing -- this is one of the earliest gamebooks I owned, and I remember reading it seemingly forever as a child and never finishing it. I would pick it up, read for a while, put it down for a few weeks, then pick it back up again and still never finish. I assumed until recently that this was simply due to a lot of backward loops in the book, but now that I've seen Julien Peter Benney's map, it is apparent that the book has a strong forward momentum with only one backward loop. I must have either picked up reading from the wrong page every time I returned to the book in my childhood, or I was a slower reader than I thought! In any case, I take back my prior complaint about the book sending the reader in loops forever.

More reviews by Demian

[Rating: 1/10]
[Recommended? NO]

While the promising potential of the premise in the Time Machine adventure "Last of the Dinosaurs" is at least partially well-handled, there were particularly few redeeming components to save the quest from its prominent, pitiful weaknesses. It's unfortunate how the dangers are kept at arm's length even though the era's appealing visual-oriented choice-based design system fares well as far as reader immersiveness goes. The writing drifts from uninspired and clunky to very much aware of the narrative's potential, but - as with the majority of the books in the series - I think the adventure would've been more enjoyable had it avoided limiting itself to a single correct path; the inventory selection at the start is a bit arbitrary, I might add, and less seamlessly woven into the story compared to the databank, use of setting and handling of "characters". While the year it take place in may be 150000000 BC, you won't find too many pointers suggesting a whole lot of imagination was put into the writing of this quest apart from what had commonly been covered in existing documents/research books or documentaries at the time this was written; though the research isn't exactly dated, per se, retrospectively there are parts scattered about here and there which feel a bit incomplete.

These books, which in all truth are merely self-indulgent and hard-to-find excursions into a different point in time, appear hyper-focused on their short-lived novelty value - a real shame, since the design and the execution of the linear quest itself isn't all that great to begin with. With the exception of collectors of the series or the most ardent of pseudo-history buffs, I'm afraid I can't recommend this title or any of its time-traveling trepidations. ^^

(Mysteriously disappears into the shadows.)

More reviews by Shadeheart