Item - Terror in Australia

This is an archetypical entry in the series; it's got all the standard characteristics: an adventurous relative, archaeology, terrorists, aliens, tidbits of information about other cultures and a pacifist message. It is a little unusual in that it casts the reader as an Australian; a more typical thing to do would have been to make the reader's character an American on vacation. Also surprising was the grimness of some of the paths -- I remember finding the path involving a trip on a mail plane rather disturbing when I read this at the time of its original release. To her credit, the author does a fairly good job of balancing diversity of paths and outcomes with some degree of internal plot consistency, but this accomplishment and the book's few unusual characteristics don't quite manage to raise it above average level. It's a satisfying enough read, but not a very memorable one.

More reviews by Demian

A frustrating book, because the writing is generally pretty good. There are some fun ideas in here. But I have some suspicions that R. A. Montgomery had a bit of influence on the title.

There are a few things that drag the title down. There's a path that involves you getting kidnapped and forced to... negotiate for buying camels? Maybe I need to look at the book again, but I have no idea why this story exists, there's no explanation for what they want to do with the camels, and throughout the rest of the book, there's only one mention of camels -- just that there's a shortage of them.

The last ending I reached involved aliens, an ancient culture, and a heavy-handed message about nuclear power.

By this point in the series, Montgomery had backed off from doing these types of stories, but it reads exactly like his work. I strongly suspect that Shannon Gilligan took some advisement from him.

Regardless, there are some enjoyable sequences.

More reviews by Jordashebasics