Item - Space Patrol

This is a fairly good science fiction adventure, though it's pretty typical in most ways. There are a few strange, goofy endings, though.

More reviews by Demian

Having read this book for the first time back in junior high school, it became one of my two absolute favorite science fiction-related titles in the CYOA library (the other is Edward Packard's exceptional The Perfect Planet), and I really enjoy reading it again from time to time.

You are the Commander of a SREV (Space Rescue Emergency Vessel) which is part of the Solar System-based Space Patrol in the 23rd Century. You travel between planets and moons and generally keep the peace, as well as perform emergency rescues and repairs as needed.

You are aided by a sentient computer named HENRY, and he is good company on your missions. Many things can occur as a Space Patrol Commander. One story has you do battle with the ever-cliched space pirates. You can also do repairs to your own ship, and attempt to avoid space-based hazards like radiation storms.

There are two storylines in this book that interested me the most. One is that you have to thwart "revolutionists" (the author's euphemism for terrorists) from releasing deadly viruses such as Venusian Swamp Fever into the population of the solar system. If you follow the right path, you can actually prevent it from happening. That's good, I think!

The other one has you discover a strange glow on an asteroid in the belt between Mars and Jupiter, and it turns out to be a gigantic door built by an alien species. If you choose to go in, you discover that the technology put there by the highly-advanced alien civilization can teach you many things, and can even help you make modifications to put you in orbit around their world. What happens next is completely left up to the reader's imagination. That's really cool!

This CYOA title is is of my favorites. Be warned, though, of the very first choice you need to make. If you choose wrong, the story abruptly ends! This is the only case of having that happen that I know of in any gamebook, that the wrong choice on the first try results in a bad ending. Yeesh!

I also noticed that the author, Julius Goodman, wrote very few books in this series. As for the illustrator, Ralph Reese, he is one of my favorites along with Frank Bolle and Ron Wing.

One ending I particularly enjoyed has you traveling through a strange energy "drain," and it is really a "temporal vortex" of sorts, and you end up trapped in the early 21st Century. In other words, now! And the author refers to the population of Earth as "primitive." What a hoot!

There are also some other pretty funny endings in this book as well. Read it today!

More reviews by drereichdude

Fun, but one I don't read much. 7/10

More reviews by Good

I think I returned to this book more than the others in this series when I was younger, and now having come across it again, I still find that it is a satisfying read. The adventures are quite varied, but mostly common sci-fi type scenarios. However, I like the internal dialogue and situations between the main character and the computer Henry, with some good comedic passages. I think that avenue could have been exploited further for a great book, but nonetheless, I think it was this aspect that kept me coming back to this book.

More reviews by ntar

[Rating: 2/10]
[Recommended? NO]

Though it suffers from being of the same low literary quality as the rest of the Choose Your Own Adventure series, I would argue that Julius Goodman makes a stronger-than-average effort with his "Space Patrol" compared to its fellow CYOA fare. Released during the fantasy genre's golden age (1970s-1980s, save in Japan where the genre's kept going strong), this path-picking gamebook is able to take its predominantly science fiction focus and look at the trappings of a decently-fleshed-out intergalactic series of conflicts. While one might be quick to identify many of the elements as common tropes found throughout the genre - a position which I agree with - I would say that the futuristic feel is relatively successful at creating a suspension of disbelief... at least as far as the setting goes.

This gamebook, as with several of the series' better entries, would've been more satisfying had it been given a more straightforward, non-linear treatment, or at least if it had cut out half of the twenty-six endings and fleshed out more some of the others. I firmly believe that the demands of the publisher/editor(s) are to blame, and I would argue that the series' better writers were the less prolific ones (ex. Julius Goodman, Ann Hodgman, etc.). (Need I say anything about how the idiotic R. A. Montgomery killed the series' better writers' offerings?) It seems like there's worldbuilding talent put to waste; most of the plot elements are carbon copies of other stories, none of the characters sincerely resonate, and several of the directional changes are wackier than the story's logic would have realistically dictated. Readers will undoubtedly be left cold in some way; I also think that, rather than being eased into the decision-making process, getting thrust into the role of a solo-operating S.R.E.V. Commander causes some of the planning and technical know-how of the protagonist to be lost on the reader, since we - as the self-insert protagonist - don't get to know what the hero of the story knows about the space pirates or interrelated happenings and difficulties of the 23rd century.

At the end of the day I find it unfortunately difficult to recommend the book, be as it may one of the stronger CYOA quests. Rare as it has since become over the years, the sheer potential and refreshingly intergalactic feel of this story - lacking in personality as it might - nevertheless stands out while never reaching anywhere close to its full potential. But given its limitations, this book is little more than an idea-shackled offering with some questionable decisions that sadly falls apart in the same ways so many of these books do: this adventure is NOT out of this world in its enjoyability, which is a bit of a shame since it could've been so much better. ^^

(Mysteriously disappears into the shadows.)

More reviews by Shadeheart

This book is great. I think I like it the most out of all the CYOAs I currently have. The material manages to be funny and works surprisingly well, especially - as previous reviewers have noted - the passages between the reader's character and Henry.

One thing I do wonder about, however, is why Mr. Goodman used the gramatically correct but stylistically questionable term "revolutionists" to describe the terrorists in the book who want to release the swamp fever virus. I find the use of this word to be annoying, detracting from any sense of realism previously built up in the narrative. It smells like political correctness, but you never know.

More reviews by Stockton

Space Patrol, coming in at no. 22, meanders excessively. Though this is characteristic of many Choose Your Own Adventure books early in the series, I found that Space Patrol overdoes it. Many of the choices take the reader down multipage inconsequential and unmeaningful diversions. These diversions then either culminate in unsatisfying conclusions or loop back into the same points in the book that actually serve to drive the narrative forward. Just as one example, all of pages 25, 29, 31, 33, and 116 loop back into either one or both of pages 36 and 54 after taking us on almost entirely distracting detours. This is unfortunate because, with a premise such as this book’s, had these dozens of pages been dedicated to actually meaningful storytelling, Space Patrol could have ascended into one of the best in the series.

The book contains two main arcs that offer mostly consistent offshooting arcs. In one of the two major arcs, you—as a Commander (described as a “twenty-third century policeman,” see pg. 2) in the Space Patrol—set out to defeat a group of radical revolutionists. This, for me, was the highlight of the book. You stumble into this adventure after responding to a distress call from a space shuttle on which a passenger is infected with the deadly and highly contagious Venusian Swamp Fever. As a Space Patrol Commander, the options you provide to the shuttle have to do with either voluntarily flying into the sun to be vaporized or to be vaporized by your vessel’s weaponry. An utterly grim, entirely dire, and delightfully captivating first act! What proceeded therefrom in this story branch was mostly engaging and represents the best of what Space Patrol has to offer.

In the other major arc, you stumble onto a classified alien site on an asteroid for a most Kubrickian episode. It very much reminded me of the final act of 2001: A Space Odyssey wherein Dave happens into a large room. There are some striking parallels between the two (e.g., the eerie, lone presence of the protagonist in an unfamiliar, perhaps alien, indoor space; the dispensation of other-worldly revelations; the possibility of mortal danger etc.) and I feel confident that 2001 was Julius Goodman’s inspiration for at least this narrative arc.

Ralph Reese’s artwork was, as usual, very pleasing. I want to satirically mention that the illustrated evidence reveals the secret that the Mandalorian was previously involved in illegal outer-spatial diamond mining (see pg. 103). Despite the positive aspects of this book, I am decidedly at odds with the bulk of the reviewers in our community who are generously giving it high marks. In my assessment, this is only a slightly better-than-average entry into the series.

Rating: 5.5/10.0

More reviews by tonylachief

All of the varied science-fiction adventures were pretty enjoyable. I liked the fact that you are able to experience multiple adventures without coming to a final ending. Some of the dialogue between the reader and Henry was originally funny, and the plot thread about the deadly viruses was interesting. One of my favorite books in the series.

More reviews by Waluigi Freak 99

Space Patrol is dry as all get-out with not much in the way of incident. As a reader of a CYOA book, I want to die horribly, find victory, see the future, meet weird creatures from deep space, not just perform my duties as a public servant. Uniquely boring, as I could see a kid taking this seriously, but as an adult, it's stultifying.

More reviews by williamtuttlewho