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.

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