Star Trek II: Distress Call!

Plot-Your-Own-Adventure Stories/Plot-It-Yourself Adventure Stories

by William Rotsler

Aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, Captain Kirk and Mister Spock respond to a distress call from the planet Varda III. The reader is allowed to make decisions which determine how the plot will proceed.

Genres: Star Trek, Gamebooks, Star Trek Original Series, Science Fiction, Choose Your Own Adventure

126 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1982

About the author

William "Bill" Rotsler was an American cartoonist and graphic artist; author of several science fiction novels and short stories, and television and film novelizations, and non-fiction works on a variety of topics, ranging from Star Trek to pornography; a prominent member of science fiction fandom; and a sculptor, primarily in metal, who contributed to the art at the entrance to the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters.

Pseudonyms:
Victor W. II Appleton, William Arrow, Andrew Garth, John Ryder Hall, Cord Heller, Latham Hilliard, Linda Holland, Harmony Holt, Lothar Korda, Honey Malcom, Hord Markham, Clay McCord, Howard Scott Miles, Clint Randall, Beverly Sorenson, Beth Waring, Fletcher Westflag.

Reviews

[Reesha · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars if I had the option.

This was a really fun build-your-own-adventure book, with several different plots to unfold. (As a Virgo, I obviously tracked forward and back to ensure I read every single one.)

There are plots that seem they could have been a TOS episode, plots that are utterly silly and ridiculous, violent plots, plots with easily-defeated Klingons, and, my favourite, a plot where Spock mind-melds with a sentient dragon and then cheekily offers to share with it the rules to Dungeons & Dragons. I'm not kidding.

As a kid, I would loved this book, but I also would have hated it, because I've been a Virgo all my life, and there are some very unfortunate missteps on the page direction.

Several of the plots jump important points, sending you to a reaction page where you haven't read what put the crew in this particular position and why everyone's so worried about the Captain when you haven't even been told what he's doing.

I've never in my life read a make-your-own-adventure book that doesn't have at least one broken plot due to incomplete editing (or possibly a late-game change in pagination), but it happened half a dozen times with this one.

With better editing, it would sneak by on 4 stars for me. Especially for kids!

[Audiophile · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating: 1.5

Quite disappointing. The writing is frankly not good and there are a few glitches in the construction of some of the paths.

But page 115? Makes it worth it lol

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite the Star Trek II title, this book has no discernible relationship to The Wrath of Khan. Instead it's focused around a brief mission to Varda III where the USS Enterprise responds to a distress call from an archaeological team.

Two things make this book standout: a respectable level of writing and a unique approach to the choose-your-own-adventure genre. Instead of inserting the reader as a player character, the reader acts like a director plotting out the action. Do you follow the away team led by Spock or McCoy? Should Chekov take a cautious approach or dive right in? Go with a "quick solution" or opt for a "strange experience?" Finally the book's multiple endings all draw to satisfying conclusions, unlike the vast majority of gamebooks out there.

This book is geared for younger readers and its brevity is noticeable and it does have a few branching paths which awkwardly merge together. Personally I think I prefer the randomness of the Which Way Books, but the writing is much better here.

[Ken · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was disappointed by this choose your own adventure star trek book. The best books in this genre have a central plot, and your choices serve to discover all the different nuances of it. In this book, every choice you make changes the plot, leaving the book without a coherent story to tell. Furthermore, none of the choices presented were particularly interesting ones to make, they were of the "which officer would you like to follow" kind, many even just saying, "now turn to page xx to see what happens". Usually I finish all the possible permutations of the story before declaring a cya book finished, but after doing about half the book, I found I couldn't be bothered to "complete" it.

[Renee Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a quick read, however, it ended before I realized it had ended. As the reader, you determine which direction the story will go. This kind of made the story jerky at certain points. Also, the title is misleading in that you usually think of The Wrath of Khan when mention is made of Star Trek II and this book has nothing to do with The Wrath of Khan. If you want a quick read this fits the bill. However, if you want a Star Trek novel that has more depth in it, leave it on the shelf.