Choose the Fate of Apollo 13
Author: Linda Williams Aber
First Published: 1995
ISBN: 0-448-41116-4
Length: 56 pages (plus one page of background and instructions)
Number of Endings: 16 (so why does the cover say "Over 16 different endings to choose from!?")
Plot Summary: You've invented a velcro board for holding pens in zero
gravity, so NASA declares you a genius and decides to send you to the moon on
Apollo 13. No, I'm not making this up.
My Thoughts: If I had to describe this book in one word, that one
word would be "odd." Although I've never seen the film that
inspired this, I know it's a relatively serious movie; thus, I rather
expected the book to be something like a Time
Machine adventure. Unfortunately, it appears that the author realized
that writing something like that would require research, and decided that it
would be much easier to fill the pages with bad jokes and choices that make
no sense whatsoever (page 50 has a particularly incomprehensible example).
Although the essential concept of the book painfully strains credibility,
the story does somehow manage to start out relatively sane. Unfortunately,
it just gets weirder and weirder as it goes on. Normally I like weird, but
this isn't good weird. This is dumb and pointless weird. Most paths never
even end up having anything to do with the Apollo 13 mission, and those that
do are too short and vague to leave the reader with a real impression of what
happened. This could have been an entertainingly educational book, but it's
not. I'm honestly amazed that it was allowed to be published, and I can only
recommend reading it if you want to be similarly shocked. It's fascinating
in a disturbing sort of way.