Item - War with the Evil Power Master

"HI, MY NAME IS EVIL. POWER IS MY MIDDLE NAME." Like any good James Bond villain, the tyrannical Evil Power Master isn't subtle with his designs and intentions (and may be the first person to invent shouting in CAPS). He's definitely into evil, and all about the power. Your character is a James Bond-type intergalactic agent tasked with finding and defeating the EPM before he destroys the democratic forces of the alliance of good planets, the Lacoonian System.

This book is a childhood favorite of mine, presented in the style of classic comic-book sci-fi. The villain's name may be blatant, but his tactics can be subtle, just like the devil. He can take any form as he tries to corrupt and destroy the forces of good, and it is a challenge for your character to flush him out, or even resist the subtle temptation to join forces with the EPM and his allies.

A fun book with lots of adventure but also insight into moral and political issues, I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

More reviews by auximenes

I didn't particularly enjoy this book... The sci-fi fails to work very well; too much time is spent on exposition that fails to really explain anything, and the author wanders off into weird abstractions a few times too many. The book also suffers from choices that really don't matter because you just get blown up before your decision has time to yield any results. It could be argued that this is done to add a touch of realism, but it's kind of frustrating in a reader-driven story. There are some interesting moments, though, such as a point in the story where you get injured and must choose who will become the new commander. Still, these few moments of creativity don't save the book from mediocrity.

More reviews by Demian

People need to learn to quit while they're ahead. Like R. A. Montgomery after writing two gamebooks that didn't stick in my craw. I'm glad he wanted to bring Choose Your Own Adventure to a new generation, and I'd probably be even more excited if the books reissued weren't... his. The Evil Power Master (has there ever been a villain with a lamer name?) returns, and once again it's up to you and trusty Martian Flppto to save the day.

Unfortunately, everything that helped cement Prisoner of the Ant People's place in my memory is absent from its sequel. There are no cartoony aliens to encounter, no silly interplay between the members of your team. Rendoxoll isn't even there for most of the book. Also there's too many "the Evil Power Master sees what you're doing and exterminates you with a wave of his hand" type endings. Yes, my enemy's all-powerful. That doesn't make it any less annoying. Reading it I get an image in my mind of R. A. deciding he liked the characters from Prisoner, but didn't like how silly it all turned out so he decided to try again with a more serious tone. Look what happened.

Too much randomness without enough silliness to make it fun. Yep, should've quit while he was ahead.

More reviews by Fireguard

Sounds worse than The Antarctic People.

More reviews by Good

A sequel to Prisoner of the Ant People, one of the weirder episodes from the first twenty-five Choose Your Own Adventure books? This I had to see. Your computer prodigy skills have vaulted you to become primary unit commander of the Lacoonian System Rapid Force, and you'll need every ounce of expertise for the challenge ahead. You and your Martian friend Flppto have run in with the Evil Power Master before, an entity who disintegrates whole planets through psychokinetic force, but lately his aggression is on the rise. You must stop his galactic rampage, but should you head to Sector 31-47-89 right away to search, or hatch a plan with Congress?

Tara, a veteran of the Purple Days War, is spokeswoman for Congress. She's elderly but fiery, with decades of leadership informing her decisions. You can undertake a secret mission with Tara on the hunch that the Evil Power Master has a base of operations here on the planet Lacoos, but what if you find the evidence to prove your theory? Should you and Tara ambush one of the enemy's underlings for more information, or call in the Rapid Force to secure the area? Once the government seizes the Evil Power Master's property you'll be drawn into a game of cat and mouse on a massive scale, focused on the emerging probability that the planet Follop is his headquarters. You and Flppto are essentially obligated to follow up any leads you uncover, though they may be traps set by the enemy. Alternatively you could reconnoiter without Tara in the first place, staking out a sea farm on Lacoos called Pwasonn. Whether you sneak into Pwasonn or go undercover as a marine biologist, you find things in this semi-abandoned region are not what they seem. The Evil Power Master's grip is stronger here than seems reasonable, and it takes an abundance of caution not to wind up his latest victim in your quest to liberate the Lacoonians.

If you bypassed Congress and went straight for Sector 31-47-89, you move out aboard the space frigate Menton, commanded by a combat leader named Sartan. The Evil Power Master is increasing his rate of planetary destruction, and there's no time for further debate. You and Flppto could take a ship to the Void of Niro, a hazardous zone in space that offers cover for the Evil Power Master. Travel in the Void is rough, and your opponent seemingly has an inexhaustible bag of tricks to lure you into captivity. You could travel toward the planet Follop instead, where evidence indicates a complex presence that fits the Evil Power Master's profile. You'll face manipulations mental and otherwise the closer you get to his command center. Can you, Flppto, and the Lacoonian System Rapid Force vanquish this terrible threat once and for all?

I'd rate War with the Evil Power Master more or less equal to Prisoner of the Ant People. In some ways it's better; you and Flppto behave more like well-trained operatives than ill-tempered toddlers the way you did in the first book. Narrative continuity is still way off, though on occasion attempts are made to maintain plausibility. I wondered at the beginning where Rendoxoll the robot had gone, but that question is eventually answered, even if the answer presents the robot in a far different way than Prisoner of the Ant People. War with the Evil Power Master isn't bad, but it could have been a more disciplined, better story, and I believe R. A. Montgomery was capable of achieving that had he put in the effort.

More reviews by KenJenningsJeopardy74

It seems like this book is not too popular, but I personally enjoyed it. First of all let me point out that the author is a former consultant of the Peace Corps in Washington DC and West Africa. To me this is very interesting because I like to imagine that some of his personal experiences had to affect some of the scenes depicted in this book. Also the incredible illustrations were done by an artist who has worked for Marvel Comics and Heavy Metal magazine.

In this book you are a young but able commander of the Lacoonian System Rapid Force. You're going to be running around this science fiction setting attending important meetings, flying in space ships, and infiltrating the enemy base. Once the action starts things can move very fast because large significant actions can take place in a few sentences without much detail just informing you of what happened. This can make things feel a little detached for you, but at the same time, forces move in and take care of the job all thanks to the information that you were able to discover; in other words, you're still just a pawn of a large team, and it feels that way as it should.

The Evil Power Master does have a generic name but the character is quite interesting; he changes appearances very often, and into some very curious ones at that, three-headed, old/young two-face, small lobster like thing, and there is also the possibility that perhaps he is not all that evil. I didn't know that this was a sequel to Prisoner of the Ant People; I haven't read that one and it doesn't seem to be a problem if you start off with this book. At least for the most part, decisions that you make seemed to be quite logical in my opinion; so many times in other game books I find myself shaking my head at the results of the choices. My final conclusion is that this is not bad at all but I do recommend multiple readings, it grew on me as I did that.

More reviews by knifebat

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

R. A. Montgomery does what he always does - write a mind-bogglingly bad excuse for a gamebook - in his "War with the Evil Power Master", an excessively awful, illustriously bad book that is one of the many disserviceable blots making up the tragically poor-in-quality Choose Your Own Adventure from the golden age of fantasy literature and gamebooks (1970s-1980s). This book is a snarky, pretentious and depressing offering (honestly, though, I wouldn't expect anything else from high-and-mighty Montgomery) which misplaces its ludicrous premise from the very opening pages, quickly getting intentionally lost in the fog of logicless loserdom.

To be aware of what the author has written before and to expect anything different would be a fatal mistake: this is an extremely deterministic, utterly miserable experience of excessive ramblings, shallow caricatures and major setbacks that are intentionally embedded within every page. From the eyeroll of a title to the idiotic misuse of adverbs, from a structural and conceptual standpoint this book is a total disaster, and that's even before one looks at the fact that it is truly impossible to so much as guess what's going on at a given time. One cannot bend anatomical logic in space and time to this many contradictions and then expect readers to be able to follow along. One also cannot be allowed to preach nihilistic cynicism behind the thinly disguised veil of an excuse for a plot and expect to get away with it. If you ask me, there is absolutely nothing enjoyable or redeeming about this excuse for interactive "literature". This book doesn't even deserve one's pity; Montgomery knows he's awful, makes no effort to improve, and even makes no effort to disguise his condescending tone to readers - I think each of those reasons on their own would justify dropping a book, and - surprise, surprise - you get all those at once with each book by this criminally bad author.

...If I may use his own words against him, "[w]ith the swiftness of a forest that falls silent at an intruder's appearance", Montgomery really should have stopped before he ever began. Reading his books are painful. Not funny. Painful.

At the end of the day, this book doesn't stand a chance - I do not recommend this immeasurably self-obsessed sci-fi failure and its many misgivings, nor do I generally recommend the CYOA series in general. You'd best avoid this book; R. A. Montgomery has never written anything of value or substance, and this sad excuse for an interactive adventure is an imprisoning escapade of short-lived scope; zero elements of enjoyability whatsoever can be found within this pusillanimous problem of a book. ^^

(Mysteriously disappears into the shadows.)

More reviews by Shadeheart

Given that my local library has most of the reissued CYOAs, I figured I'd do some catching up. I've been reading R. A.'s "works" just for the heck of it. I guess that means I have questionable taste in literature, but anyway....

This book is yet another shining example of R. A.'s vomit-inducing prose. Yet again, he produces strange abstractions aplenty (what the heck is the "Purple Days War?") and comes up with an equally asinine plot. I wish he'd taken the time to explain exactly what the Evil Power Master is – after all, R. A. already gives too much detail about the Lacoonian System federation's origins and operations so it's really only fair.

Not only that, but your character's actions also go unexplained at times. There is really no reason at all given as to why you would go to the end of the Earth to look at a fish farm, but you do it nevertheless. Yes, I agree this book has some interesting moments, but they just can't carry it; the illustrations in the reissued version are better than the actual story.

Sci-fi has been done so much better in other books like Space Patrol and The Third Planet from Altair. This book really just seems like a waste of good paper. But you know, some writers never learn.

More reviews by Stockton