67. Aventura en las Estrellas
Literal Translation of Spanish Title: Adventure in the Stars
Authors: Jacqueline Marty Aboitiz de Balcells (credited as Jacqueline Balcells), Ana María Güiraldes Camerati (credited as Ana María Güiraldes) and Alberto I. Balcells (credited as Alberto Balcells) (gamebook), Ana María Larraín (afterword)
Illustrator: Andrés Jullian
First Published: 1987
ISBN: 956-13-0461-9 (incorrectly listed as 956-13-0461-8 on some editions)
Length: 110 pages
Number of Endings: 10 (only one victory)
Plot Summary: It's the Twenty-fifth Century, and Venus has been
colonized by mankind. Now the entire planet is in danger of being conquered
by an evil race of lizard-like creatures. Together with Poncio, your pet
robot, you embark on a mission to find the source of their power -- the evil
Mandragor Tree -- and destroy it before the human race is exterminated.
My Thoughts: Since I can't read Spanish, there's not much that I
can say about this book, so I'll let guest reviewer Guillermo Paredes take
the floor, so to speak....
Guillermo Paredes' Thoughts:
This book starts out promisingly; unlike many other books aimed at this age
group, the player is given a clear goal to accomplish and the action begins
right from the first page. However, this is mostly a disappointing book. My
first complaint is that the book is ultra-linear; there is only one path to
victory, so the vast majority of choices are of the "if you're right,
the story proceeds, if you're wrong, you fail" type. Some people might
like this kind of book, but for me it's frustrating to read an interactive
book with almost no alternative satisfying paths to explore, since this cuts
down the replay value of the book. The linearity problem wouldn't be that
bad if the book were really challenging, but it's not. At almost every
point, the authors try so hard to dissuade the reader from picking the
"correct" choice that after a few tries the way to victory becomes
obvious.
The writing isn't very good; although there are a lot of non-player
characters in the book, almost none of them are developed in enough detail to
be particularly interesting, with the possible exception of the robot
sidekick, who seems to be the true protagonist of this series. This book
feels more like a fantasy adventure than a sci-fi one because of the
inclusion of several mythological and fantastic creatures which can be
encountered by the player. The artwork is of very uneven quality, with some
excellent drawings and others that are just awful.
Although the story is rife with references to Star Wars and Isaac Asimov
(this is obvious just by looking at the cover), the science fiction in the
book is silly and scientifically implausible at times (ancient nuclear
warheads reused as fuel for spaceships? Come on!). The story has some good
moments, such as some exciting (though brief) space dogfights, and an
encounter with a two-headed giant with a split personality, but these moments
don't save the book from mediocrity. This isn't worth investing much time
on, and I hope the later volumes are better.
The magenta-covered scan is a third printing; it was contributed by
Guillermo Paredes. The orange-covered scan is a fourth printing and comes
from my personal collection.
78. Misión Alfa Centauro
Literal Translation of Spanish Title: Mission: Alpha Centauri
Authors: Jacqueline Marty Aboitiz de Balcells (credited as Jacqueline Balcells), Ana María Güiraldes Camerati (credited as Ana María Güiraldes) and Alberto I. Balcells (credited as Alberto Balcells)
Illustrator: Andrés Jullian
First Published: 1988
ISBN: 956-13-1188-7
Length: 136 pages (plus a 4-page activity supplement)
Number of Endings: 10 (nine failures plus one successful ending led to from three places)
Plot Summary: It's one hundred years after the evil creatures from the
previous volume were defeated. Now, the overpopulation of Earth, Mars and
Venus has forced a group of colonists to travel to a new, hospitable planet
in the Alpha Centauri constellation to find out whether it can be a new home
for mankind. For that purpose, an enormous ship called the Alondra is
prepared, transporting several families, plus plant and animal specimens, on
board. After four years in space, a strange virus which only affects
grown-ups forces all adults on board to go into hibernation, leaving the
children alone to pilot the ship to its destination for the following two
years. You are twelve year-old Camilo, the son of the ship's captain, and
the ship's computer chooses you as the next captain....
My Thoughts: Once again, Guillermo Paredes has delved into a world
barred to me by my linguistic limitations....
Guillermo Paredes' Thoughts:
Found the plot summary interesting? Well, it's just about the only
interesting aspect of this book, so you can skip it without regret. I must
say that, despite my disappointment with the first book, I had somewhat high
hopes for this one, if only because it has more pages. However, the extra
space is used without any real skill. About the only good things which can
be said about this book is that it's not as frustratingly linear as the first
entry and that the choices are not as obvious. There is still only one
succesful ending, but there are different paths to reach it, so a person can
at least be motivated to find them all. Despite this, the book's gameplay
feels far worse than that of its predecessor. Because of its size and
format, it closely resembles a Star Challenge book, and I was hoping it would
have the same level of action and variety in it. Alas, I was wrong. It's
not another ultra-linear quest, but it's nothing good either.
Put broadly, the book is just a collection of random, unexplained encounters
and events which change wildly depending on your decisions (and have little
to do with the actual goal of the adventure). The story itself is so boring
and silly that there is no point in describing it; in fact, the only things
which are really worth discussing about this book are its unusual features.
One of the two first options you can choose in this book leads to a series of
diverging paths which all end up in failure. This is an extremely bad design
practice: I much prefer gamebooks where each conglomerate of paths offers at
least one chance of victory. Doesn't that make sense? Poncio, the pet robot
from the previous adventure, appears in this one as well, but his
participation in the story ranges from none to very little (once again,
depending on the choices you make).
Don't be deceived into thinking this book offers a detailed account of a
two-year journey. It all revolves around having two or three completely
unexplained encounters immediately after your job as captain begins, and
after that the remainder of the trip is described in two or three pages of
text, without anything of note happening (and this only if you're lucky.
Some of the victorious paths skip the journey completely and lead you
directly to the end, which makes for a confusing read). Lastly, if you're
wondering why there's a metal sword and a castle on the front cover, I'll
tell you the book has a fantasy medieval sequence, in which you must enter a
virtual reality game (though the term "Virtual Reality" is never
used here; the technology is simply described as a more advanced form of
cinema) and you get to choose to become (you guessed it) either a knight or a
wizard's apprentice. This leaves me puzzled for two reasons. First, it
amazes me that the authors could, in 1988, at least portray the capabilities
of Virtual Reality technology. Secondly, the resemblance to the Wizards, Warriors and You series is clear, even though
this series was not very well-known in the Spanish-speaking world. However,
the "choose to become the
wizard or the warrior" ripoff may seem too obvious to go unnoticed. The
fantasy sequence, however, fails as miserably as the rest of the book because
there is no point to it: in both cases your character gets to fight one - or
even several - enemies without any player input, and no matter which
character you choose to become, you'll only encounter one more choice point,
with one choice leading to failure and the other ending the adventure
successfully.
To sum it up, this is another waste of time which I would advise people to
avoid at all costs. If these authors have any real writing skills, they
unfortunately don't show in this interactive format. I still have some hope
for the final book in this series, though, since it seems like another title
which is completely different from the others....
85. La Rebelión de los Robots
Literal Translation of Spanish Title: The Rebellion of the Robots
Authors: Jacqueline Marty Aboitiz de Balcells (credited as Jacqueline Balcells), Ana María Güiraldes Camerati (credited as Ana María Güiraldes) and Alberto I. Balcells (credited as Alberto Balcells) (gamebook), Carlos Iturra (essay)
Illustrator: Andrés Jullian
First Published: 1989
ISBN: 956-13-0785-5
Length: 141 pages, plus an essay on "Science Fiction, Utopia and the Rebellion of the Robots"
Number of Endings: 4
Plot Summary: The thriving civilization in the fourth planet has
become decadent. The humans have abandoned any idea of progress and are now
leaving all work to be done by robots. Seeing there is no hope for the human
race, the old robot Poncio decides to install a device on all robots, which
makes them forget the first law of robotics, and then expels all humans from
the cities and forces them to live in the wilderness so that they will become
apt for civilizing again. You play a young man who has become a hunter in
the wilderness, and together with your girlfriend and Poncio, you must defeat
an evil robot army which now threatens to exterminate all humankind.
My Thoughts: Guillermo Paredes has been kind enough to finish
reviewing the trilogy, so I'll let him have his say....
Guillermo Paredes' Thoughts:
This is a linear novel disguised as an interactive book. There are very few
choices, and none of them are of any consequence. Having only four endings
does not allow for much diversity, and some of the endings are just plain
stupid (one of them reveals you're not talking to your companion character,
but you have rather become trapped in a timewarp, while the other option
proceeds the story normally. There is another one which is even worse).
Unsurprisingly, there are extremely long stretches of text without any
choices (but with lots of page-turning, nonetheless), so the reader feels
most of the time like a spectator rather than a participant in the story.
Another choice only allows you to choose which character you read about, and
means you get to miss a large chunk of the storyline if you choose one of the
characters. The book's story is rather boring (even for the age group this
is aimed at), being a rather incoherent mix of Greek mythology with armies of
intelligent apes fighting one another and a final showdown against the evil
robot (with a lot of events happening without allowing the reader any input
and several opportunities for decision-making being perfectly ignored). This
is the worst book in the series. Stay away from it and go read a Skylark Choose your Own Adventure instead.