Item - U.N. Adventure

Last of four entries by Ramsey Montgomery in the original Choose Your Own Adventure series, U.N. Adventure leads us around the world in search of political action and intrigue. You have an opportunity afforded few people in history: to take part in a youth envoy to the United Nations at a big meeting in New York City. The event is as prestigious as you envisioned, but your participation soon becomes more practical than ceremonial. You and other young people will embark on an actual U.N. mission with high stakes and possible danger, and you may choose which part of the organization you'll work within. Do you want to collaborate with the Security Council regarding problems in the nations of Molawa and Arkistan, or help the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) with its research missions at the South Pole or Indonesia?

Volunteering for ECOSOC is less dramatic, but has threats of its own. If you opt for the rescue effort at the South Pole, you board a plane to the geographic low point of the planet, where a U.N. research team has gone missing. The weather is so extreme that going after the lost team could cost your life, but once you spot the missing members at their makeshift camp, will you be able to retrieve them without any casualties? Maybe you're better off joining your young friend Achmed from the United Arab Emirates on a U.N. mission to Indonesia, where Professor Lin Koa recently discovered a primitive tribe no one knew existed. The modern world is filled with risks to the "Hidden Ones" tribe, but you might dispel some of them. Can you help facilitate a cure when a deadly disease spreads among the Hidden Ones, or thwart a team of industrial loggers whose operation could eliminate the Hidden Ones' habitat? If you save the tribe from the outside world's encroachment, you may forge a relationship like no one ever has with the Hidden Ones.

The Security Council, however, is the heart of this book's premise. If you confront the problem in Molawa, you're accompanied by your new Model U.N. friend Benati from Myanmar. Political upheaval in Molawa has led to violence and a steady stream of refugees, and your task is to parse for the U.N. what is really happening inside this African nation. Marauders swarm the war-torn roads, but if you exercise caution you'll find yourselves meeting with M.M. Kalarch, a rumored war lord with outsized influence. He seems reasonable, but are his intentions beneficent, or does he intend further mayhem? Mind your step, or you'll wind up at the wrong end of a machine gun. If you chose instead to investigate the crisis in Arkistan, a former Soviet Union country suspected to be illegally stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, you're quickly plunged into a spy thriller. Will you trust Igor, a boy your age who claims to be a member of the resistance? You may go on to a mission gathering evidence that Arkistani leader Nikolai Bolav is hiding nuclear weapons. You could be paired with a covert operative named Bjorn to infiltrate a major compound and take photos of Bolav's nuclear missiles, but don't forget you're in the enemy's lair. Being arrested as a spy in Arkistan has sobering consequences, but keep a smart head and you may finish your mission a worldwide hero.

Whatever your opinion of the U.N., this book isn't bad. I didn't always agree with the thrust of your missions, but the narrative steers clear of too much politics, and the adventure in Arkistan is better than I expected. The rhythm of Ramsey Montgomery's words, at its best, is artsy and sophisticated. U.N. Adventure isn't marvelous literature, but offers a variety of settings, goals, and a taste of life beyond the borders of one's home country. It leaves me almost wishing Ramsey Montgomery had contributed again to this or another gamebook series.

More reviews by KenJenningsJeopardy74

This is a really great book. Each story in it is completely different from the others. I really suggest that every gamebook fan should read this book. It's a really good read.

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