Item - Last Run

This book is R. A. Montgomery's comeback from his previous entry - Project UFO, a book so spectacularly bad it is almost like the Showgirls or Battlefield Earth of the CYOA series. Last Run is a definite improvement to say the least. R. A. has definately made up for his past screw-up here.

Last Run combines two of my favourite things - skiing and espionage fiction. While this book does suffer from the typical gamebook problem of your character's uncle or aunt either being a mad scientist, adventurer, or somehow involved in shady activities, at least this time he was dead to begin with. You are an international ski racer, and you must find out who murdered him.

This is probably one of the few CYOA books where you can read a fictional autopsy report along with the rest of the regular prose - a welcome touch of authenticity to be sure. Indeed, you actually get to savour a whole dossier of other documents as well. Two of these are printed in the book but not used in the actual story, orphaned as it were - a cardinal sin in gamebook writing.

I never thought that R. A. Montgomery could come up with a plot this, well, coherent. Normally what he writes is just a little bit too far off the wrong side of the deep end. So this was a pleasant change. As you go through the story, your character acknowleges he might be too young and actually makes amateur's mistakes when solving the mystery - a level of realism not found in many other CYOA books.

Sadly, though, this book was let down by the changes made at the latter end of the series: a lack of choices and endings. There are only seven in the book and not one of them is good. Seven! Moreover, despite his clear efforts to stifle it, Montgomery's oddball style still comes through every now and again. No one but R. A. could come up a group of conspirators like this: a down-on-his-dimes country-western music star, a Chinese drug lord and a young French debutante. You also won't find teenagers who read the Herald Tribune anywhere else, either.

The best part of all was that, in the end, everything actually made sense, even if it was just another cliche conspiracy story. The solution to the mystery is pretty obvious; the book is more about getting through alive than figuring out whodunit. Last Run actually had good internal consistency, mainly due to its simple game design. Of course it's not perfect by any means but it's definitely better than usual.

Some flaws that hurt Last Run are that there's no explanation for why a motley group of people such as the ones in this book could come together from vastly different walks of life to start an international conspiracy, that the most important paths leave most of the crucial details out, and that two or three characters really have no purpose at all. One isn't ever given a name or has his presence explained; he is simply referred to obliquely as "White Hair." But this is typical R. A. Montgomery - nothing new by any means.

This is certainly not the best book in the CYOA series - far from it, in fact - but it is one heck of a lot better than many of Mr. Montgomery's previous works. I did have fun reading it at any rate, and that's probably what counts the most.

More reviews by Stockton

I have to preface what I am about to write by saying that I, unlike many reviewers in our community, much rather prefer gamebooks with fewer endings because the payoff is immediate and obvious; it allows for superior plot consistency, the pacing between choices is superb, and the branching stories are fully developed and lead to much more satisfying conclusions. In this vein, Last Run has a singular major narrative and all offshooting arcs keep the reader firmly grounded within the same universe. In my opinion, Last Run is not only the best Choose Your Own Adventure book written by R. A. Montgomery, it is easily one of the best books in the entire series. The book has an intriguing premise, it does not meander, and both Franke Bolle and R. A. Montgomery bring their A games to paint pictures (the latter, albeit, with his words) throughout this modern noir.

Something I noticed early on in my reading was how surprisingly self-aware this book’s second person narrative was. Your character’s psychology and inner dialogue is explored quite sophisticatedly for a work of juvenile fiction. For example, on pg. 52 the book explores feelings of paranoia and how one is likely to have their imagination run wild in a real-life situation as precarious as the fictional one in which your character finds himself. Pg. 36 has your character ponder his predicament and use abductive reasoning techniques useful for conducting an investigation. On pg. 87 your character engages in questioning that leads him to the haunting inference that his aunt has imperiled his life. These are just the instances of the exploration of your character’s inner mind that I was able to conveniently point out, flipping through the book, while writing this review.

I also very much enjoyed the book’s effort to introduce instances of realism in unique ways into an otherwise unlikely, perhaps even fantastical, adventure. For example, you read six reports (in at least a semi-professional format, on company letterhead and all) on the suspected perpetrators prepared by a London-based private detective agency, the Soboldt Agency (see pg. 18). You also read a Power of Attorney legal document (pg. 110) and a newspaper article (pg. 50). You don’t read an autopsy report anywhere in this book as the one and only other reviewer is mentioning but there is mention of you having read it (pg. 95). In any event, there’s a conspicuous shift in the tone of the writing upon veering into these primary documents cited in the book; it very noticeably goes out of/into an informal, storytelling tone and into/out of an objective, professional one. I’ve read plenty of gamebooks and have never seen the integration of such literary devices in order to craft a compelling story. The seamless integration of such formal documentation into the broader book alone makes Last Run a Choose Your Own Adventure experience like no other.

The action sequences in the book, quite gritty at times, are very well-written. In these moments, R. A. Montgomery thrives in having the reader mentally embody—and feel the excitement, rush, and terror felt by—his or her character. Consider the following two examples:

1. “Three sharp explosions reverberate through the narrow street. You know they are shots, and you envisage the crumpled body of Siegfried leaking blood onto the cold cobblestones of the street. The thought enters your brain that the next shots will be aimed at you!

You summon all the energy and willpower needed to make this the fastest sprint of your life. Your lungs supply oxygen to the blood, your muscles respond with amazing dedication, and you seem to have almost a heightened sense of time and space and vision.” (Pg. 78)

2. “Dominique appears out of the snow and fires two more shots at the supine Gerard. The bullets find their home. You stare at him, and then at her with horror… As you stand there in the arena of death, the snow lessens, the wind drops, and the clouds scatter. There is silence as the earth returns to the calmness of the morning. The smell of cordite fills the air and is the only reminder that the body lying on the snow is a real corpse and not a pretend dead man.” (Pgs. 101-29)

Lastly, because my opinion of this book is so high, and quite different from that of the other reviewer, I can’t help but offer the following counterclaims:

1. The band of criminals in this book is certainly motley and unlikely. However, I do not find this a sufficient reason to allow it to detract from one’s enjoyment of the book. A relatively small degree of suspension of disbelief can overcome this inconsequential shortcoming. Heck, the colorful gang of criminals is oodles more believable than almost all routine gamebook fodder (e.g., time travel, extraterrestrial being contact, space exploration, unicorns, apparitions etc.).

2. Your character is not a teenager purposefully reading the Overseas Herald Tribune. Rather, he is holding it up to his face to hide himself while being pursued by killers. In the act of doing so, his eyes fall on a story that is relevant to what he is investigating. This mischaracterization should be pointed out. Again, it does not seem reasonable to me to allow this to detract from one’s enjoyment of the book.

3. The ultimate solution is not obvious in the vein that I think that the other reviewer mentions and my suspicion is that he/she has misunderstood. Your character’s uncle is eventually revealed to be an undercover agent who was found out and killed.

4. I didn’t find the main subject to be a clichéd conspiracy theory. I’ve not seen a similar conspiracy, the core of which involves international finance, shell business entities, bribery, and corruption, in any other gamebook.

I could be wrong and perhaps too caught up in my own high opinion of this book but I sense that anyone with a less than stellar view of this book would upon a second, more careful reading gain a greater understanding of, and appreciation for, this book. My opinions are my own, according to which I can personally only give this book the highest of marks.

Rating: 10.0/10.0

More reviews by tonylachief