Item - Lost on the Amazon

This is a fairly good book. It's not very interesting in terms of gameplay, but the writing isn't too bad and the artwork is more detailed than usual.

More reviews by Demian

Boring, easy, and not high in my interest chart.
Randomness is not as high, either.
Rating: 2/10

More reviews by Good

[Rating: 0/10]
[Recommended? NO]

The sole talent, so to speak, of the dreadful R. A. Montgomery is figuring out countless ways to squander, butcher and wear out any and every topic he chooses to write about within the typically awful Choose Your Own Adventure series. Naturally, "Lost on the Amazon" is a total disaster from start to finish(es) - this book fails to invigorate readers with any excitement over the topic even though it relies desperately on the commonly associated tropes the subject matter frequents in fiction. Alas, there's bitter, bad writing aplenty surrounding one cultural exploitation after another in a dreary, grim adventure of the most unremarkable kind; all the negative hallmarks of this series, released during the golden age of both gamebooks and fantasy literature as a whole (1970s-1980s), are here in full force.

Nothing about this book was exciting or fresh. Nothing about the reading experience resonates positively. None of the "work" put into constructing the many dangerous paths through the Amazon have any payoff. And not a single bit of credit for originality should be given to the evil Mr. Montgomery for this pitiable excuse of a book, since everything - and I mean literally everything - is familiar due to the exact same scenarios, aspects of worldbuilding and real-life cultural counterparts have been displayed/used elsewhere in fiction and/or real life to a much better extent. Fortunately, Montgomery loses himself once in a while for just long enough that readers aren't endlessly bombarded with his overly pretentious, wordy sessions of droning on and on, but he remembers his cynical tone just often enough to snap readers out of any literary immersiveness this derivative work might've had. Characters are cardboard copies of other existing figures, nothing wraps up nicely, and one's intelligence is regularly insulted by the "educational" author's snarky quips and "attempts" to make his shallow work have some broader offerings. This book isn't only bland - it's a total bore.

At the end of the day, I cannot recommend this title for its offerings, nor do I generally recommend this many misgivings of the CYOA series overall. R. A. Montgomery's notorious inability to communicate anything of value during his high-and-mighty "literary" career is extremely unfortunate, just as the dialogue, scenario, characters, execution and greater intentions of both this book and its series are, from what I can tell, a truly tragic waste of time. One is truly better off looking instead at other gamebooks from better authors, where - so to speak - one can have fun getting lost. ^^

(Mysteriously disappears into the shadows.)

More reviews by Shadeheart

Though it's a little unbelievable that you'd find Maya or Aztec-style pyramids in the middle of the Amazonian jungle and some of the endings are annoyingly inconclusive, this actually isn't a bad read. The gameplay, though, as Demian says, isn't really that spectacular. Nevertheless, I did like that your character (a young doctor specializing in tropical diseases) is portrayed more as an actual adult than a kid miraculously accepted into adult situations. Amazon is probably the best writing I've seen yet from R. A. - and that's saying something, though when taken in context with the series it's about average or just slightly above.

More reviews by Stockton