Demian's Gamebook Web Page

Item - Star Trek: Voyage to Adventure

Please log in to manage your collection or post a review.

Item-Level Details

User Summary: You are an ensign assigned to the starship Enterprise. You are given the choice to work in engineering, on the bridge, or in the science laboratory.
auximenes's Thoughts:

An excellent depiction of the fast-paced, thought-provoking, sometimes cheesy adventures of Star Trek: The Original Series. As a new graduate of Starfleet Academy, you are an ensign assigned to duty on the Starship Enterprise. You have the option of choosing your first duty: Engineering with Mr. Scott, the Bridge under the command of Captain Kirk, or the Science Lab supervised by Mr. Spock. Depending on your choices, each of these 3 assignments leads to 2 adventures, for a total of 6 possible storylines. You may face off against Klingon spies or rebellious computers, pilot the Enterprise through space battles, confront alien beings on a mysterious planet, or engage in cerebral time-travel and mirror-universe encounters. The characters match well with their television counterparts, earning this book 4 out of 5 stars.

More reviews by auximenes

Demian's Thoughts:

There's nothing too special about this as a gamebook, but it is probably of interest to Star Trek collectors and fans. Probably because of the Star Trek license, the book was successful enough to get reprinted several times, ultimately showing up with the revised look of the last few books in the series.

More reviews by Demian

drereichdude's Thoughts:

There are actually two Star Trek-related books in the Which Way series. Take my advice: Always read this one, and completely avoid the other one. I'm not going to go into just how bad Phaser Fight is, I'm here to review this one, Voyage To Adventure.

This book takes place in the Star Trek Universe, specifically the 23rd Century, and even more specifically, I'd say the 2260's. You are an Ensign in Starfleet, having just graduated from the Academy, and you have been assigned to the U.S.S. Enterprise. So far, so good. Your first choices are where you would like to be stationed: in Engineering with Mr. Scott, on the Bridge with Captain Kirk, or in a science lab with Mr. Spock. Not bad for your first space assignment!

I think that for the most part, this book is well-written, and that the B&W illustrations are basically well-done. All the characters in them look, facially, how they did in the series. (Except in a few pictures, Kirk and McCoy seem to be wearing the dress versions of their uniform tops on an away mission.) I also like that the author made Scotty speak and act like he would have on the show, and the same goes for Kirk. Dr. McCoy was in the book a little bit, but did not have much dialogue. As for the three minor characters of the main cast in the series, Lt. Uhura, Lt. Sulu, and Ensign Chekov, they each had only one line to say in this whole book. I suppose this is a reflection on the fact that these three were the least featured and developed in the series from the '60's, but they would get some good scenes and dialogue in the '80's movies.

Ahh, Mr. Spock, can't leave him out. If you choose to work in the science lab, you and Spock have a few interesting adventures, either traveling back in time, or even sideways in time, to a hostile "mirror universe" that was actually done in the series in the second season. The one major thing that the author got wrong that does not make Trek-sense is that, in some good endings, Spock smiles. Now, he almost never did that on the show, at least not under normal circumstances!

But other than that, this is a pretty good representation of Original Series Trek. Also, if you follow a certain path, you get to fight those nasty ol' Klingons! Throw in a storyline involving a crazed sentient food-machinery computer (the absolute wackiest one in the book) and you have a really great read.

In short, I recommend this book to the TrekFans out there that also happen to like gamebooks! Pick this one up today!

More reviews by drereichdude

Guillermo's Thoughts:

This book contains five separate adventures, with you playing a generic persona instead of a known Star Trek character. Unfortunately, most of the stories are so bland and generic that they wouldn't be enough to fill out even a mediocre Star Trek episode. One of them, however, deals with the paradoxes of time travel. This subplot in particular takes good advantage of the capabilities of the interactive medium. Moreover, despite predating most Star Trek films as well as Star Trek: The Next Generation, it involves time travel to an older version of Starship Enterprise, a concept which would only be developed in later films and series. For this reason alone I think fans of the franchise should find this book an interesting read. Add in that for the most part the choices have pretty logical consequences, and the book ends up being quite a solid entry in the series.

More reviews by Guillermo

Special Thanks:Thanks to Ken G. for the British cover scans.
Users Who Own This Item: AlHazred (WWB), andrewholt, Andys80s, Ardennes (Original & reissue), Arkadia, auximenes, bmcwebdesign, Braldt, Crazyscotsman, CSquared, Darth Rabbitt, dave2002a, Demian (2nd printing), drereichdude (reissue), Ed, edwebb, Erikwinslow, exaquint (1.95, reissue), firefoxpdm, Garrick Muttley, gildedlionbooks (US, 2nd Printing), Gurvo (Original Cover), horrorbusiness, jdreller, Johnny Jones (Original Edition), katzcollection, kevmp, kinderstef, kleme (original), knginatl (orig., US reissue, UK reissue), Lambchop, marnaudo, mlvoss, nelsondesign, Nomad, ntar, Pseudo_Intellectual, Randomdays, Ryuran333, SherlockHolmes (Reissue), spragmatic (Original/Reissue), strawberry_brite, ThaRid (2 copies), ThisIslandEarth, Virtua Sinner, waktool (Fourth printing; British edition, First printing), Yalius, yunakitty
Users Who Want This Item: bonhomme, breity, Cyan, Ffghtermedic, Gartax, kleme (reissue), NEMO, Von Scotty, wonderfly
Users with Extra Copies: Blame it on Rio - original cover
CSquared
dave2002a
exaquint - (x7)
Fireguard
Lambchop - Good shape, tight binding, no wear. Pics on request
thug131 - Early Printing

First printing

Series: Which Way Books no. 15
Item: Star Trek: Voyage to Adventure
Author: Dodge, Michael J. (pseudonym used by Ford, John M.)
Illustrator: Tomei, Gordon
Date: June, 1984
Length: 118 pages
Number of Endings: 46

Second printing





Series: Which Way Books no. 15
Item: Star Trek: Voyage to Adventure
Author: Dodge, Michael J. (pseudonym used by Ford, John M.)
Illustrator: Tomei, Gordon
ISBN: 0671509896 / 9780671509897
Length: 118 pages
Number of Endings: 46

Fourth printing





Series: Which Way Books no. 15
Item: Star Trek: Voyage to Adventure
Author: Dodge, Michael J. (pseudonym used by Ford, John M.)
Illustrator: Tomei, Gordon
ISBN: 067162492X / 9780671624927
Length: 118 pages
Number of Endings: 46

British edition



Series: Which Way Books no. 15
Item: Star Trek: Voyage to Adventure
Author: Dodge, Michael J. (pseudonym used by Ford, John M.)
Illustrator: Tomei, Gordon
Date: 1985
ISBN: 0552522716 / 9780552522717
Length: 118 pages
Number of Endings: 46

Please log in to manage your collection or post a review.