Item - Crash Landing!

At first this book seems like a typical Choose Your Own Adventure book, but then it starts getting weird. It has some really horribly named characters, a few bizarre endings and lots of choices based on things the reader has seen or done. The overall result is very strange, and not necessarily in a good way.

More reviews by Demian

[Rating: 0/10]
[Recommended? NO]

Occasionally, with regards to what a gamebook might have in store, it is difficult to predict what can be expected in terms of experience; this is generally the case with all sorts of the path-choosing interactive adventures that this book very clearly tries to emulate. Having known next-to-nothing about the mixed-to-poorly-received "Twistaplot" series heading into this title (apart from the fact that it was regarded as a short-lengthed cash-in on the generally exceptionally awful "Choose Your Own Adventure" books), my admittedly low expectations were, to my surprise, unable to keep me from ending up thoroughly disappointed with "Crash Landing!". Even from afar the threadbare story clearly pays no attention to worldbuilding, character exploration, logistic structure or stylistic undertones in the slightest.

Evidently slapped together as a second-rate copycat suspense story, the titular jet crashing is abysmally laid out on the surface (as with introductions) and - for all I'd hoped - unable to figure out WHY the story goes the way it does AT ALL. The author, who thankfully only wrote interactive fiction for this sole occasion, doesn't have the slightest idea as to how his narrative requires immersiveness, emotional impact, relevant settings or even a reader who is meant to follow the text along; the writing is dry, sparing and definitely meant to accomplish little apart from outlining the most minuscule parts of what makes a scene (and this doesn't even begin to enter the territories shared with interactivity!). I won't begin to dissect how the poorly-integrated choice system is hardly a selling point, just as I'll avoid breaking down why the ridiculously short length of this read makes this story a complete waste of time; I'll at least applaud the ever-absent-of-logic book in the sense that it doesn't stoop so low as the awful-beyond-belief writer R. A. Montgomery always did. (Without any set-up or reasoning as to why these decisions are being offered, though, with a few more pages this would've probably been right at home in the dreadful CYOA arsenal, I believe.)

As it lacks personality and cannot point out or admit what it sets out to do in the first place, I simply cannot recommend this gamebook in the slightest; the laughable length, low literary quality and failure to resonate on any level whatsoever makes this forgettable title worth avoiding at all costs... it's a true disaster, after all, and is a gamebook you should have no regrets passing on. ^^

(Mysteriously disappears into the shadows.)

More reviews by Shadeheart