Item - Bound for Australia

While I found this book interesting and enjoyed reading it, it unfortunately has a lot of flaws. First of all, its mission is less than compelling -- finding the first Western settler of Australia is a somewhat vaguely-defined goal, and the ultimate solution has little to do with most of the adventure that leads up to it. Additionally, the book's portrayal of reality is a little more black and white than it is in the better books of the series -- Captain Cook, for example, practically glows with goodness, and while he may well have been a great man (I'm not historian enough to offer an opinion), his portrayal here still seems like it must be awfully exaggerated. Finally, the transitions between sections of the book aren't always smooth -- at one point, for example, you can jump ahead several months on a sea voyage without anyone (including your employer) asking where you were! Despite all of these flaws, though, the book is worth reading if only for the unique option it allows the reader when it becomes necessary to learn more about British convicts....

More reviews by Demian

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

While the promising potential of the premise in the Time Machine adventure "Bound for Australia" is at least partially well-handled, there were particularly few redeeming components to save the quest from its prominent, pitiful weaknesses. It's unfortunate how the dangers are kept at arm's length even though the era's appealing visual-oriented choice-based design system fares well as far as reader immersiveness goes. The writing drifts from uninspired and clunky to very much aware of the narrative's potential, but - as with the majority of the books in the series - I think the adventure would've been more enjoyable had it avoided limiting itself to a single correct path; the inventory selection at the start is a bit arbitrary, I might add, and less seamlessly woven into the story compared to the databank, use of setting and handling of "characters". While the year it take place in may be 1787 AD, you won't find too many pointers suggesting a whole lot of imagination was put into the writing of this quest apart from what had commonly been covered in existing documents/research books or documentaries at the time this was written; though the research isn't exactly dated, per se, retrospectively there are parts scattered about here and there which feel VERY incomplete.

These books, which in all truth are merely self-indulgent and hard-to-find excursions into a different point in time, appear hyper-focused on their short-lived novelty value - a real shame, since the design and the execution of the linear quest itself isn't all that great to begin with. With the exception of collectors of the series or the most ardent of pseudo-history buffs, I'm afraid I can't recommend this title or any of its time-traveling trepidations. ^^

(Mysteriously disappears into the shadows.)

More reviews by Shadeheart