California Countdown

Freeway Warrior #4

by Joe Dever

You are Cal Phoenix, the freeway warrior, champion and protector of Dallas Colony One. The final stage of your life-or-death exodus to the California coast is fraught with extraordinary dangers- breakdowns, rockfalls and unexplained deaths. Can you unravel the mystery that surrounds your journey, or will you perish without a trace in the wastelands of Arizona?

It's survival of the fittest- and your strength alone will determine if you come out alive.

Genres: Gamebooks

238 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Joe Dever was an award-winning British fantasist and game designer. Originally a musician, Dever became the first British winner of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Championship of America in 1982.

He created the fictional world of Magnamund as a setting for his Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. In 1984 he released the first book of the Lone Wolf series of young-adult gamebooks, and the series has since sold over 10.2 million copies worldwide. He experienced difficulty with his publishers as the game books market began to contract in 1995, until publication ceased in 1998 before the final four books (numbers 29-32) were released. Since 2003, however, the series has enjoyed a strong revival of interest in France, Italy, and Spain following the re-release of the gamebook series in these countries.

From 1996 onwards, Dever was involved in the production of several successful computer and console games. He also contributed to a Dungeons & Dragons-style role playing game for Lone Wolf published by Mongoose Publishing (UK) in 2004. Currently he is Lead Designer of a Lone Wolf computer game, and he is writing the final books in the Lone Wolf series. No official publication schedule exists for these works.

Reviews

[Yousseif Abdellatif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honest reaction to Verso la California: I laughed, I winced, and then I texted my ex something I shouldn't have. Joe Dever nails the awkward, petty, 2 a.m. energy of a breakup, especially the scene where the narrator drafts nine different "casual" texts and sends the worst one. It's funny, but it's also uncomfortably accurate. The plot wobbles in the middle, and a few jokes run too long. Great for anyone who's ever replayed a bad conversation for a week. Skip it if you're still too raw.

[Giacomo Girolimetto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Riletto dopo 30 anni tutta la serie. Ricordare è bello e anche in fondo rigiocare sebbene alcuni spezzoni erano rimasti in testa. Ma basta così, nel game si vede il limite di un prodotto scritto 40 anni fa. E lo possiamo dire solo a posteriori dopo i nostri smartphone e le varie Pstation 1 2 3 4 5. Ora il librogame per competere dovrebbe avere 1000 biforcazioni e 1000 pagine. O essere caposaldo nel nostro vecchio cuore.
Grazie Joe