Item - Earthquake!

You go to visit your friend in San Francisco, and research predictions of earthquakes in two different ways.

I was fairly bored by this one. The primary split is between choosing to talk with someone who is focused on analyzing animal behavior to predict earthquakes, or someone who is working on measuring radon spikes to predict earthquakes. In either case, shortly after you start talking with them, an earthquake hits. You try to help out with whatever crisis results.

Somehow, there's a lack of urgency in the text. While it's supposed to feel like there isn't enough time to do one thing or the other, that feeling just doesn't happen.

More reviews by Jordashebasics

Second of two Choose Your Own Adventures by Alison Gilligan in the original series, Earthquake! takes you through a violent act of nature to see if you have the mettle to survive. You and Max McCurt were best friends growing up in Vermont, but last year he moved to California. Max is a research intern at the San Francisco Zoo, and has invited you to visit. On the airplane ride there you meet Professor Lynn Bailey of the Stiles Seismology Lab. She and Dr. Fairnsworth Orion, who happens to conduct his own earthquake research with Max at the zoo, are competing for the prestigious Whitbread Prize. They're pursuing very different approaches to the same end: devising a better early warning system for earthquakes. Professor Bailey invites you and Max to see her work at the lab the next morning, but that evening Max's dog, Ollie, is behaving strangely. Dr. Orion believes nervous animal behavior can indicate a coming earthquake, but should you cancel your meeting with Professor Bailey to consult Orion instead, or visit her as planned?

You, Max, and Ollie aren't at the Stiles Seismology Lab long before a serious earthquake hits. Professor Bailey is immobilized by injury, but should you do as she asks and check the data collection center before getting her to safety? She believes her graph data from this earthquake could pinpoint the location of the Big One she fears is imminent. Bailey is right: the data indicates a massive quake in San Rafael, California is set to occur. You and Max dash out to get to San Rafael and sound a warning, but roads are blocked and the police aren't receptive to your claims. You could steal a police motorcycle and take off for the city, but the roads are treacherous. Even when Bailey's research associate, C.W., catches up to you on her own pilfered motorbike, can you pick your way through the clogged streets in time to save San Rafael? You could hotwire a boat instead, but the quake has the Bay Bridge on the verge of collapse, and you'll be crushed if it falls. One way or another, you have to get word to San Rafael so they can brace for the Big One.

If you take Ollie to Dr. Orion rather than keep your appointment with Professor Bailey, you learn a lot about animals alongside Max. The earthquake hits when the two of you are in town and causes major damage, including a heavy grocery store sign falling on an old man. Orion was at the zoo working with a deadly Bengal tiger named Sitruc; what if the quake made the tiger go haywire and attack? Stopping to save the old man pinned by the sign has its own reward, but run out after Orion immediately and you'll see the zoo was hit hard by the quake. Animals have escaped their cages and a puff adder stalks a pair of lemurs, a species close to extinction. You can embrace the drama of saving the lemurs, or duck into the Lion House after Orion, whose arm is skewered to the wall by sharp debris. Orion begs you to help Zooey, a Bengal tigress about to birth cubs. Can you save Orion and his animals from the aftermath of this quake that has turned San Francisco upside down?

Earthquake! feels strangely distant, considering its intense premise, but what docks it the most points is its many premature endings. Too often you're drawn into a side adventure, and once it gets resolved the story peters out with a thought such as "You wonder if you'll be able to warn the people of San Rafael in time." But that's the real adventure, the one we came to this book for! "The End" is jarring and frustrating when you've hardly scratched the surface of the earthquake scenario. Hal Frenck's illustrations are nice, if a little soft and subdued for the story it accompanies. Earthquake! is by no means a bad read, but there are many Choose Your Own Adventures you are better off investing time in.

More reviews by KenJenningsJeopardy74