Item - Underground Kingdom

This sequel to Survival at Sea (again, only a sequel because of the presence of Dr. Vivaldi) is fairly weak. The book can be fun, but there are some continuity problems which make it feel as if it wasn't as well-planned as some of the earlier books in the series.

More reviews by Demian

Easy to get to the kingdom, but have no idea where to start. The first few reads were fun, but the plot is just--hmm--bad.
Underground adventures should have been like the last book in the series.
3/10

More reviews by Good

Several early Edward Packard Choose Your Own Adventures are grouped together as especially innovative: The Third Planet from Altair, Inside UFO 54-40, The Forbidden Castle, and Underground Kingdom are often among the included titles. As this book begins, you are at the Toan Glacier in frigid Greenland with scientists from the National Research Institute. Theory has it that planet Earth may be hollow, containing a black hole that entered its interior long ago. If true, the black hole may act as a reverse sun, drawing to itself the unbearable heat of the planet's magma and allowing an Underground Kingdom of sentient beings to thrive. You are preparing to enter via an opening called the Bottomless Crevasse when an unseen force yanks you inside, tumbling headlong. You could aim to land on a ledge, but the impact might be fatal; are you better off avoiding it?

Hit the ledge and you find it's padded with snow. You need to climb out of the Bottomless Crevasse and hike toward rescue. Make it to safety and you'll be glad to put your explorer days behind you...until you hear Professor Bruckner’s theory about the Underground Kingdom. Join him on a return trip and you'll discover the Toan Glacier rapidly closing over the Bottomless Crevasse; you must enter now or dismiss the notion forever. It's a huge risk, but if all goes well, you enter the colorful, exotic Underground Kingdom and learn the Black Sun theory is true. Blue-furred creatures called Raka capture you; resist and you'll end up running for your life, to creatures called the Archpods. Here you may reunite with Dr. Nera Vivaldi and learn she survived her own disappearance into the Bottomless Crevasse. The Archpods’ Grand Akpar demands you assist him in going to war with the Raka; refusal takes courage, but serves up an opportunity to broker peace.

You and Vivaldi have a chance to explore the Underground Kingdom before going home, but the Bottomless Crevasse will close soon; what region should you prioritize? The Weightless Peaks take you uncomfortably close to the Black Sun; can you endure its gravitational suck? At the Hills of Diamonds you traipse through loose diamonds as numerous as grains of sand on a beach, but surviving to take any home is tricky. Go to the Shining Mountains instead and you encounter the Flying Clera, majestic birds more advanced than humans. You’re not ready to learn their secrets, but a brief interaction is inspiration to last a lifetime.

Other story possibilities branch off earlier. Stay with the Raka, and their leader attempts to draw you into war with the Archpods. You could try to escape, but staying alive with no support network is a tenuous proposition. Perhaps you entered the Underground Kingdom a different way from the start, never landing on that snowy ledge in the Bottomless Crevasse. The kingdom is a place of vibrant color and varied terrain, and you come upon a single hatchling of a wondrous species you term the angel bird. One way or another, your goals are to explore the Underground Kingdom and learn if Vivaldi is alive so you can mount a rescue mission. Comport yourself shrewdly and you might succeed in both endeavors.

Underground Kingdom offers some exciting narrative, but lacks the thematic depth to be great. The world-building is good, given the book's length, and I like the central idea that when you venture into unfamiliar realms you must be ready for everything to be upside down from what you're comfortable with. Adapting is the only way you'll survive. If Underground Kingdom had a few more surprises or stronger emotion I'd hail it as a classic. It isn't equal to Edward Packard's finest work, but the separation is a matter of a few degrees.

More reviews by KenJenningsJeopardy74

The only Choose Your Own Adventure book to have a special warning, and certainly one that merits it, considering how difficult it is to actually reach the Underground Kingdom, let alone return. The book kicks off with an interesting theory that revolves around the kingdom, and it was also a lot of fun exploring the kingdom and everything. Good but not great, Underground Kingdom pushes down a few boundaries - just enough to make it more memorable than other entries in the series, but not enough to truly make it stand out.

More reviews by Waluigi Freak 99

To me, I didn't think that the "warning" at the beginning about how difficult it is to reach the Underground Kingdom was all that necessary. One of the first choices in the book is that you're slipping into a deep crack in the earth, and should you let yourself fall or try to land on a ledge? Well, you can figure out if it's an Underground Kingdom, you need to get underground to get there, so I just fell. Boom, you're there. Unless they mean it's hard to get into a certain part of the Underground, like into one of the tribe's settlements, but I assumed that it just meant the whole underground world. Of course, if you chose to land on the ledge, it's possible to escape from the crack and then you don't ever get down there, but that's actually the smaller arc in the story, and it's possible to get back underground after that point. Anyway.

I have to say that the pictures in this book are simply awful, in a hilarious way. The illustrator is Anthony Kramer, who I've seen draw for other gamebooks, including Which Way's The Spell of the Black Raven. People's faces are asymmetrical, and some things just look downright goofy. The "angel birds" have these googly eyes, and the native, ape-like tribes will make you laugh out loud. But the actual book is pretty good.

More reviews by yunakitty