Item - The Golden Udder

After two totally linear volumes, this swings the whole way in the other direction -- it's highly interactive, complete with choices that force the reader to turn to different pages. Unfortunately, though, I actually found this format disappointing. The choices don't generally indicate how they will affect the flow of the story; instead, they either allow the reader to follow specific characters or provide jokey options that don't really mean much of anything. The end result is simply annoying -- you have to make quite a few choices, but it doesn't feel like you're accomplishing anything; all you're doing is missing out on whatever jokes are down the other paths. That doesn't necessarily mean that you're missing out on much of anything, though; I found the story here to be the least entertaining yet, with a heavier reliance on toilet humor and little in the way of original ideas. There are still some good moments, but due to the structure of this book, if you make the wrong choices, you just might miss them. Perhaps Terry Denton is more like Douglas Adams than he'd like to be -- he has a good feel for the bizarre, but after a few books, he doesn't seem entirely sure what to do with it. I still hold out hope for improvement in the future, though!

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