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Choose Your Own Adventure #1
The Cave of Time
"You're the Star! 40 Thrilling Endings!"
"Will You Become Trapped in Time"?
You are hiking in Snake Canyon when you find yourself lost in the strange, dimly lit Cave of Time. Gradually you can make out two passageways. One curves downward to the right; the other leads upward to the left. It occurs to you that the one leading down may go to the past and the one leading up may go to the future. Which way will you choose?
If you take the left branch, turn to page 20. If you take the right branch, turn to page 61. If you walk outside the cave, turn to page 21. Be careful! In the Cave of Time you might meet up with a hungry Tyrannosaurus Rex, or be lured aboard an alien spaceship!
What happens next in the story? It all depends on the choices you make. How does the story end? Only you can find out! And the best part is that you can keep reading and rereading until you've had not one but many incredibly daring experiences!
"Will You Become Trapped in Time"?
You are hiking in Snake Canyon when you find yourself lost in the strange, dimly lit Cave of Time. Gradually you can make out two passageways. One curves downward to the right; the other leads upward to the left. It occurs to you that the one leading down may go to the past and the one leading up may go to the future. Which way will you choose?
If you take the left branch, turn to page 20. If you take the right branch, turn to page 61. If you walk outside the cave, turn to page 21. Be careful! In the Cave of Time you might meet up with a hungry Tyrannosaurus Rex, or be lured aboard an alien spaceship!
What happens next in the story? It all depends on the choices you make. How does the story end? Only you can find out! And the best part is that you can keep reading and rereading until you've had not one but many incredibly daring experiences!
115 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
124 people are currently reading
2668 people want to read
About the author
Edward Packard
169 books125 followersEdward Packard attended and graduated from both Princeton University and Columbia Law School. He was one of the first authors to explore the idea of gamebooks, in which the reader is inserted as the main character and makes choices about the direction the story will go at designated places in the text.
The first such book that Edward Packard wrote in the Choose Your Own Adventure series was titled "Sugarcane Island", but it was not actually published as the first entry in the Choose Your Own Adventure Series. In 1979, the first book to be released in the series was "The Cave of Time", a fantasy time-travel story that remained in print for many years. Eventually, one hundred eighty-four Choose Your Own Adventure books would be published before production on new entries to the series ceased in 1998. Edward Packard was the author of many of these books, though a substantial number of other authors were included as well.
In 2005, Choose Your Own Adventure books once again began to be published, but none of Edward Packard's titles have yet been included among the newly-released books.
The first such book that Edward Packard wrote in the Choose Your Own Adventure series was titled "Sugarcane Island", but it was not actually published as the first entry in the Choose Your Own Adventure Series. In 1979, the first book to be released in the series was "The Cave of Time", a fantasy time-travel story that remained in print for many years. Eventually, one hundred eighty-four Choose Your Own Adventure books would be published before production on new entries to the series ceased in 1998. Edward Packard was the author of many of these books, though a substantial number of other authors were included as well.
In 2005, Choose Your Own Adventure books once again began to be published, but none of Edward Packard's titles have yet been included among the newly-released books.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 188 reviews
August 15, 2013
Struck with a touch of insomnia (I'm finally building my deck tomorrow and oddly it feels like Christmas!) I thought, what better time to read the classic first volume of the Choose Your Own Adventure series?
In The Cave of Time you are a kid, apparently with no name, on a hike. You come upon a cave you've never seen before. You venture inside and when you emerge shortly after it is a completely different time, and thus begins the adventure.
The pictures, by stalwart CYOA illustrator Paul Granger, made this one out as if it were going to be exciting. There's a medieval knight, the Great Wall of China, castles, a swamp monster, and in my travels I never came across one of these. I spent most of my time choosing either the left or the right tunnel, and somehow intuitively knowing all the while which one of those lead to the past and which to the future. Go figure. Anyway, here are the outcomes of the adventures I went on last night...
1) Went back to an Ice Age, met some cave people, migrated south and lived out my life with them.
2) Fell down a crevasse, met an old man who complained about being a do-nothing philosopher. Boo-hoo.
3) Left the cave and found the sun burning up the Earth, went back to the cave and ended up at a tropical island populated by friendly, grass-skirted natives, hung with them a while and then tried to get back to the cave, but got strangled to death by a boa constrictor.
4) Jumped a train, found it was carrying Abe Lincoln, chilled with him while he wrote the Gettysburg address.
In The Cave of Time you are a kid, apparently with no name, on a hike. You come upon a cave you've never seen before. You venture inside and when you emerge shortly after it is a completely different time, and thus begins the adventure.
The pictures, by stalwart CYOA illustrator Paul Granger, made this one out as if it were going to be exciting. There's a medieval knight, the Great Wall of China, castles, a swamp monster, and in my travels I never came across one of these. I spent most of my time choosing either the left or the right tunnel, and somehow intuitively knowing all the while which one of those lead to the past and which to the future. Go figure. Anyway, here are the outcomes of the adventures I went on last night...
1) Went back to an Ice Age, met some cave people, migrated south and lived out my life with them.
2) Fell down a crevasse, met an old man who complained about being a do-nothing philosopher. Boo-hoo.
3) Left the cave and found the sun burning up the Earth, went back to the cave and ended up at a tropical island populated by friendly, grass-skirted natives, hung with them a while and then tried to get back to the cave, but got strangled to death by a boa constrictor.
4) Jumped a train, found it was carrying Abe Lincoln, chilled with him while he wrote the Gettysburg address.
March 4, 2018
An amazingly fun and hilarious series! I recommend this series not only to the age group they are meant to be for, those from age 9-12 years old, but to everybody else, too! I find them laugh out loud funny to read and I am in my mid-60's. The illustrations are wonderful, and the 40 or so endings that you can pick to end the story are so cutely done. I didn't mind flipping about the books in the series and finding out, depending on the choices I made every two pages or so, how I died this time or if I won or got lost or how I killed my friends or the bad guys!
July 23, 2023
A quite enjoyable debut of the original series. I'd remembered some of the plot points and the drawings but not others. But in this case, I kept it handy to read and I think I read it all the way through so I got to all 40 endings--or at least very close to that.
In this one--no big surprise--you go into a cave and depending on the pathways you take within the cave, you end up at various times and places in history and the future.
Quite an enjoyable way to reminisce about my childhood reading. Loved it.
In this one--no big surprise--you go into a cave and depending on the pathways you take within the cave, you end up at various times and places in history and the future.
Quite an enjoyable way to reminisce about my childhood reading. Loved it.
January 28, 2008
You might think, "oh, a time traveling cave, how could this possibly end badly?" well brother, are you wrong! it can end badly in so, so many ways. Like with aliens! or dinosaurs! Time travel is tricky.
October 18, 2025
1979 was the biggest year in gamebook history to that point. With The Cave of Time's release as the first Choose Your Own Adventure book, Edward Packard became architect of one of the great series in twentieth century youth literature. Does the book itself live up to the hype? While visiting your uncle Howard at Red Creek Ranch, you go off by yourself and explore Snake Canyon. You spot a cave you've never seen that was probably uncovered by a rock slide. The interior is unnaturally dark, so after taking a few paces inside, you back out...only to find the landscape is transformed and night has fallen. You feel sure you didn't fall asleep, but how else can the time lapse be explained? You want to head back to Red Creek Ranch immediately, knowing Uncle Howard will be worried, but maybe it's wiser to spend the night here and not risk hiking after dark.
Starting out for home is an understandable impulse, but the trail is totally changed. If you duck back into the cave, hoping to reorient, you find an intersection of branching tunnels. One of them takes you onto the Titanic, where you alone are aware the vessel is doomed to a watery grave. Should you warn the captain and try to change the ship's fate? Escaping the Titanic back into what you now think of as the Cave of Time may land you in 1940 London during the German Blitz, or in the age of dinosaurs; if you're lucky, you might find a passageway home instead. In another part of the cave system you meet Louisa, a girl from the year 2022. Explore the caves together with caution, and you can get home again. If you don't meet Louisa you might end up in 1718 Boston; a plethora of careers and lifestyles await in Colonial America if you're open to staying, but look out for the long arm of the law.
Does your appetite for adventure remain? You could exit a tunnel onto a version of earth where the brutally hot sun will kill you in minutes. Escaping that, you might accidentally slide into a rock-walled grotto with only a patch of cerulean sky above. You're trapped, unless you risk swimming to freedom through an underwater passage. Win this harrowing race against drowning, and you surface in a land much like Hawaii. Permanently staying with the natives isn't the worst that could happen. If you never try the underwater tunnel at all, you meet a strange, timeless woman with a unique perspective on existence. She can send you home if you desire.
Maybe you attempted the hike back to Red Creek Ranch at the first, rather than reenter the Cave of Time. You find yourself in a long-ago ice age, and a cave entrance further on shelters a clan of primitive humans. Stay with them and they'll accept you into their culture, but if you move on by yourself, a starving wolf attacks. Can you kill it or should you run? The right combination of choices sends you into a chamber in the Cave of Time where you meet a philosopher with the power to get you home, but he first asks a question: why do you wish to be in your own time? His response to your answer yields remarkable insight. Another set of choices has you ride a woolly mammoth across the ice age plains, but the ride is seriously risky. Avoid the mammoth and you could wind up in the year 3742, or 1860s America. An encounter with Abraham Lincoln is certain to change your life forever.
And there's more adventure still! One tunnel leads to an alien spaceship; steer clear of this, and you might witness the Great Wall of China being built. Don't let them force you into slave labor. A journey to the past places you in feudal England, where a knight in armor offers to escort you to the castle. The foul-tempered King might lock you in his jail tower, but escape is achievable. A particular path leads to Loch Ness, where the monster resurfaces after a century of absence. Are its appearances linked to an underwater Cave of Time entrance? Risk your life searching for that entrance and you may obtain not only passage back home, but possession of an egg with a baby Loch Ness monster inside. Is it the most incredible find in human history?
The Cave of Time is exciting and innovative with an enormous number of compelling plot options, but its central theme, which crops up time and again, is simple. When you take up a grand quest in life, it's easy to fall into the trap of believing success is only found by completing the quest. In this book, that means navigating the Cave of Time to reunite with Uncle Howard at Red Creek Ranch. But in truth, making it home is only one path to success. It's more important that you learn to blossom where you are planted, wherever and whenever in history that is. You can create a satisfying life with cavemen in the ice age, or merchants in pre-Revolution America. You can thrive in Abraham Lincoln's era, or World War II. If your attitude is to make the most of life, you'll find a way to do so regardless of circumstance. That's the point of life's adventure, and that message is why The Cave of Time is the perfect tone setter for this classic series.
The book has flaws—you're way smarter than you reasonably should be, and certain portrayals of the past and future are overly political—but I have no qualms about rating The Cave of Time three stars. As a pioneering work of the gamebook genre, it's fantastic, and there are deeply rewarding story routes that have brought me back to this book throughout my life. The encounter with the wizened philosopher who can send you home, and your train ride in Abraham Lincoln’s presence, are two of the more life-affirming experiences in any Choose Your Own Adventure, and half a dozen other stories in these pages are nearly as good. I haven't even mentioned Paul Granger's illustrations, some of the most iconic and impressive of his career. I love The Cave of Time, and consider it among the great gamebooks ever published.
Starting out for home is an understandable impulse, but the trail is totally changed. If you duck back into the cave, hoping to reorient, you find an intersection of branching tunnels. One of them takes you onto the Titanic, where you alone are aware the vessel is doomed to a watery grave. Should you warn the captain and try to change the ship's fate? Escaping the Titanic back into what you now think of as the Cave of Time may land you in 1940 London during the German Blitz, or in the age of dinosaurs; if you're lucky, you might find a passageway home instead. In another part of the cave system you meet Louisa, a girl from the year 2022. Explore the caves together with caution, and you can get home again. If you don't meet Louisa you might end up in 1718 Boston; a plethora of careers and lifestyles await in Colonial America if you're open to staying, but look out for the long arm of the law.
Does your appetite for adventure remain? You could exit a tunnel onto a version of earth where the brutally hot sun will kill you in minutes. Escaping that, you might accidentally slide into a rock-walled grotto with only a patch of cerulean sky above. You're trapped, unless you risk swimming to freedom through an underwater passage. Win this harrowing race against drowning, and you surface in a land much like Hawaii. Permanently staying with the natives isn't the worst that could happen. If you never try the underwater tunnel at all, you meet a strange, timeless woman with a unique perspective on existence. She can send you home if you desire.
Maybe you attempted the hike back to Red Creek Ranch at the first, rather than reenter the Cave of Time. You find yourself in a long-ago ice age, and a cave entrance further on shelters a clan of primitive humans. Stay with them and they'll accept you into their culture, but if you move on by yourself, a starving wolf attacks. Can you kill it or should you run? The right combination of choices sends you into a chamber in the Cave of Time where you meet a philosopher with the power to get you home, but he first asks a question: why do you wish to be in your own time? His response to your answer yields remarkable insight. Another set of choices has you ride a woolly mammoth across the ice age plains, but the ride is seriously risky. Avoid the mammoth and you could wind up in the year 3742, or 1860s America. An encounter with Abraham Lincoln is certain to change your life forever.
And there's more adventure still! One tunnel leads to an alien spaceship; steer clear of this, and you might witness the Great Wall of China being built. Don't let them force you into slave labor. A journey to the past places you in feudal England, where a knight in armor offers to escort you to the castle. The foul-tempered King might lock you in his jail tower, but escape is achievable. A particular path leads to Loch Ness, where the monster resurfaces after a century of absence. Are its appearances linked to an underwater Cave of Time entrance? Risk your life searching for that entrance and you may obtain not only passage back home, but possession of an egg with a baby Loch Ness monster inside. Is it the most incredible find in human history?
The Cave of Time is exciting and innovative with an enormous number of compelling plot options, but its central theme, which crops up time and again, is simple. When you take up a grand quest in life, it's easy to fall into the trap of believing success is only found by completing the quest. In this book, that means navigating the Cave of Time to reunite with Uncle Howard at Red Creek Ranch. But in truth, making it home is only one path to success. It's more important that you learn to blossom where you are planted, wherever and whenever in history that is. You can create a satisfying life with cavemen in the ice age, or merchants in pre-Revolution America. You can thrive in Abraham Lincoln's era, or World War II. If your attitude is to make the most of life, you'll find a way to do so regardless of circumstance. That's the point of life's adventure, and that message is why The Cave of Time is the perfect tone setter for this classic series.
The book has flaws—you're way smarter than you reasonably should be, and certain portrayals of the past and future are overly political—but I have no qualms about rating The Cave of Time three stars. As a pioneering work of the gamebook genre, it's fantastic, and there are deeply rewarding story routes that have brought me back to this book throughout my life. The encounter with the wizened philosopher who can send you home, and your train ride in Abraham Lincoln’s presence, are two of the more life-affirming experiences in any Choose Your Own Adventure, and half a dozen other stories in these pages are nearly as good. I haven't even mentioned Paul Granger's illustrations, some of the most iconic and impressive of his career. I love The Cave of Time, and consider it among the great gamebooks ever published.
June 4, 2025
همیشه خوندن این مجموعه کتابهای "ماجرای خودت رو انتخاب کن" خیلی حال میده، این جلدش انقدر پایانهای متفاوت داشت که به معنی واقعی کلمه توی داستان گم شده بودم. همشون آبکی و بدون منطق بودن ولی خوندنش چسبید.
October 30, 2015
Choose my own adventures is one of my most favorite series ever!!! The adventures, the mysteries, the thrills of choosing something wrong, the uncertainties and possibilities.. I love them all. Lorong Waktu is the first of the series, I've read the translation version and the old school vibe made this book more memorable - i feel sentimental when reading it :) I hope Gramedia will republish this series. I will definitely collect them again and will pass them down to my kid!!
June 11, 2013
This wasn't the first Choose Your Own Adventure book I read, but as soon as I discovered that this was a series, I wanted to go back to the beginning and read them in order (even though they are not in any way dependent on reading sequentially since they are independent adventures). In this book, you as the protagonist get to choose whether you go left or right in a mysterious cave, and one of the forks leads to the past and the other one leads to the future. Of course as a science fiction nerd I was more interested in the future, but I read all the endings. I would always tend to make my "actual" choices first and read it once through, then go back and choose things I would never choose so I could find out how it worked out. In this first one, though, most of the choices I had to make weren't meaningful. I preferred being given choices that introduced a moral dilemma or asked me whether I would fight or hide, but in this book we get a lot of "left or right?" and "up or down?" type choices where we have no hint about what could happen, which makes the process of choosing pointless. I didn't like that some of the super-simplistic, silly situations were trying to be awe-inspiring (even as a kid I thought they were hollow). Also, being a little pedant, I had a problem with the premise of a second-person book: They want me to imagine "I" am the protagonist, but they are assigning me an uncle I don't have and past experiences I never went through.
November 22, 2019
*PopSugar2019 Reto #44: Libro “elige tu propia aventura”*
Me divertí mucho eligiendo diferentes finales, sobre todo el primero que ni tiempo me dieron de avanzar cuando ya me habían sacado del juego xD
Me divertí mucho eligiendo diferentes finales, sobre todo el primero que ni tiempo me dieron de avanzar cuando ya me habían sacado del juego xD
December 4, 2019
Popsugar Reading Challenge #41: Un libro "elige tu propia aventura
No puedo decir mucho, mi aventura fue super corta y nada emocionante jejeje
Al menos no me mori jijiji
No puedo decir mucho, mi aventura fue super corta y nada emocionante jejeje
Al menos no me mori jijiji
December 31, 2019
Estos libros no son para mí.
#Popsugar2019 Reto 44: Un libro “elige tu propia aventura”
#Popsugar2019 Reto 44: Un libro “elige tu propia aventura”
October 19, 2025
1979 was the biggest year in gamebook history to that point. With The Cave of Time's release as the first Choose Your Own Adventure book, Edward Packard became architect of one of the great series in twentieth century youth literature. Does the book itself live up to the hype? While visiting your uncle Howard at Red Creek Ranch, you go off by yourself and explore Snake Canyon. You spot a cave you've never seen that was probably uncovered by a rock slide. The interior is unnaturally dark, so after taking a few paces inside, you back out...only to find the landscape is transformed and night has fallen. You feel sure you didn't fall asleep, but how else can the time lapse be explained? You want to head back to Red Creek Ranch immediately, knowing Uncle Howard will be worried, but maybe it's wiser to spend the night here and not risk hiking after dark.
Starting out for home is an understandable impulse, but the trail is totally changed. If you duck back into the cave, hoping to reorient, you find an intersection of branching tunnels. One of them takes you onto the Titanic, where you alone are aware the vessel is doomed to a watery grave. Should you warn the captain and try to change the ship's fate? Escaping the Titanic back into what you now think of as the Cave of Time may land you in 1940 London during the German Blitz, or in the age of dinosaurs; if you're lucky, you might find a passageway home instead. In another part of the cave system you meet Louisa, a girl from the year 2022. Explore the caves together with caution, and you can get home again. If you don't meet Louisa you might end up in 1718 Boston; a plethora of careers and lifestyles await in Colonial America if you're open to staying, but look out for the long arm of the law.
Does your appetite for adventure remain? You could exit a tunnel onto a version of earth where the brutally hot sun will kill you in minutes. Escaping that, you might accidentally slide into a rock-walled grotto with only a patch of cerulean sky above. You're trapped, unless you risk swimming to freedom through an underwater passage. Win this harrowing race against drowning, and you surface in a land much like Hawaii. Permanently staying with the natives isn't the worst that could happen. If you never try the underwater tunnel at all, you meet a strange, timeless woman with a unique perspective on existence. She can send you home if you desire.
Maybe you attempted the hike back to Red Creek Ranch at the first, rather than reenter the Cave of Time. You find yourself in a long-ago ice age, and a cave entrance further on shelters a clan of primitive humans. Stay with them and they'll accept you into their culture, but if you move on by yourself, a starving wolf attacks. Can you kill it or should you run? The right combination of choices sends you into a chamber in the Cave of Time where you meet a philosopher with the power to get you home, but he first asks a question: why do you wish to be in your own time? His response to your answer yields remarkable insight. Another set of choices has you ride a woolly mammoth across the ice age plains, but the ride is seriously risky. Avoid the mammoth and you could wind up in the year 3742, or 1860s America. An encounter with Abraham Lincoln is certain to change your life forever.
And there's more adventure still! One tunnel leads to an alien spaceship; steer clear of this, and you might witness the Great Wall of China being built. Don't let them force you into slave labor. A journey to the past places you in feudal England, where a knight in armor offers to escort you to the castle. The foul-tempered King might lock you in his jail tower, but escape is achievable. A particular path leads to Loch Ness, where the monster resurfaces after a century of absence. Are its appearances linked to an underwater Cave of Time entrance? Risk your life searching for that entrance and you may obtain not only passage back home, but possession of an egg with a baby Loch Ness monster inside. Is it the most incredible find in human history?
The Cave of Time is exciting and innovative with an enormous number of compelling plot options, but its central theme, which crops up time and again, is simple. When you take up a grand quest in life, it's easy to fall into the trap of believing success is only found by completing the quest. In this book, that means navigating the Cave of Time to reunite with Uncle Howard at Red Creek Ranch. But in truth, making it home is only one path to success. It's more important that you learn to blossom where you are planted, wherever and whenever in history that is. You can create a satisfying life with cavemen in the ice age, or merchants in pre-Revolution America. You can thrive in Abraham Lincoln's era, or World War II. If your attitude is to make the most of life, you'll find a way to do so regardless of circumstance. That's the point of life's adventure, and that message is why The Cave of Time is the perfect tone setter for this classic series.
The book has flaws—you're way smarter than you reasonably should be, and certain portrayals of the past and future are overly political—but I have no qualms about rating The Cave of Time three stars. As a pioneering work of the gamebook genre, it's fantastic, and there are deeply rewarding story routes that have brought me back to this book throughout my life. The encounter with the wizened philosopher who can send you home, and your train ride in Abraham Lincoln’s presence, are two of the more life-affirming experiences in any Choose Your Own Adventure, and half a dozen other stories in these pages are nearly as good. I haven't even mentioned Paul Granger's illustrations—including the cover mosaic for this edition—but they are some of the most iconic and impressive of his career. I love The Cave of Time, and consider it among the great gamebooks ever published.
Starting out for home is an understandable impulse, but the trail is totally changed. If you duck back into the cave, hoping to reorient, you find an intersection of branching tunnels. One of them takes you onto the Titanic, where you alone are aware the vessel is doomed to a watery grave. Should you warn the captain and try to change the ship's fate? Escaping the Titanic back into what you now think of as the Cave of Time may land you in 1940 London during the German Blitz, or in the age of dinosaurs; if you're lucky, you might find a passageway home instead. In another part of the cave system you meet Louisa, a girl from the year 2022. Explore the caves together with caution, and you can get home again. If you don't meet Louisa you might end up in 1718 Boston; a plethora of careers and lifestyles await in Colonial America if you're open to staying, but look out for the long arm of the law.
Does your appetite for adventure remain? You could exit a tunnel onto a version of earth where the brutally hot sun will kill you in minutes. Escaping that, you might accidentally slide into a rock-walled grotto with only a patch of cerulean sky above. You're trapped, unless you risk swimming to freedom through an underwater passage. Win this harrowing race against drowning, and you surface in a land much like Hawaii. Permanently staying with the natives isn't the worst that could happen. If you never try the underwater tunnel at all, you meet a strange, timeless woman with a unique perspective on existence. She can send you home if you desire.
Maybe you attempted the hike back to Red Creek Ranch at the first, rather than reenter the Cave of Time. You find yourself in a long-ago ice age, and a cave entrance further on shelters a clan of primitive humans. Stay with them and they'll accept you into their culture, but if you move on by yourself, a starving wolf attacks. Can you kill it or should you run? The right combination of choices sends you into a chamber in the Cave of Time where you meet a philosopher with the power to get you home, but he first asks a question: why do you wish to be in your own time? His response to your answer yields remarkable insight. Another set of choices has you ride a woolly mammoth across the ice age plains, but the ride is seriously risky. Avoid the mammoth and you could wind up in the year 3742, or 1860s America. An encounter with Abraham Lincoln is certain to change your life forever.
And there's more adventure still! One tunnel leads to an alien spaceship; steer clear of this, and you might witness the Great Wall of China being built. Don't let them force you into slave labor. A journey to the past places you in feudal England, where a knight in armor offers to escort you to the castle. The foul-tempered King might lock you in his jail tower, but escape is achievable. A particular path leads to Loch Ness, where the monster resurfaces after a century of absence. Are its appearances linked to an underwater Cave of Time entrance? Risk your life searching for that entrance and you may obtain not only passage back home, but possession of an egg with a baby Loch Ness monster inside. Is it the most incredible find in human history?
The Cave of Time is exciting and innovative with an enormous number of compelling plot options, but its central theme, which crops up time and again, is simple. When you take up a grand quest in life, it's easy to fall into the trap of believing success is only found by completing the quest. In this book, that means navigating the Cave of Time to reunite with Uncle Howard at Red Creek Ranch. But in truth, making it home is only one path to success. It's more important that you learn to blossom where you are planted, wherever and whenever in history that is. You can create a satisfying life with cavemen in the ice age, or merchants in pre-Revolution America. You can thrive in Abraham Lincoln's era, or World War II. If your attitude is to make the most of life, you'll find a way to do so regardless of circumstance. That's the point of life's adventure, and that message is why The Cave of Time is the perfect tone setter for this classic series.
The book has flaws—you're way smarter than you reasonably should be, and certain portrayals of the past and future are overly political—but I have no qualms about rating The Cave of Time three stars. As a pioneering work of the gamebook genre, it's fantastic, and there are deeply rewarding story routes that have brought me back to this book throughout my life. The encounter with the wizened philosopher who can send you home, and your train ride in Abraham Lincoln’s presence, are two of the more life-affirming experiences in any Choose Your Own Adventure, and half a dozen other stories in these pages are nearly as good. I haven't even mentioned Paul Granger's illustrations—including the cover mosaic for this edition—but they are some of the most iconic and impressive of his career. I love The Cave of Time, and consider it among the great gamebooks ever published.
March 16, 2009
First in the series, and a decent book. Unfortunately, it suffers from too-many-endings syndrome, an ailment a lot of the early books had. There simply aren't enough pages for the author to flesh out very compelling storylines. On the other hand, these books have a larger variety of events to take part in. It all comes down to what you prefer. Personally, I find the 20 endings standard found in the Give Yourself Goosebumps series to be the best compromise between choice and plot.
The quality of writing isn't stellar, but it works. The story is cast in a rather mysterious light due to the conservative amount of details. The drawings fit, but nothing amazing.
Pretty forgettable entry on the whole, but still worth reading.
The quality of writing isn't stellar, but it works. The story is cast in a rather mysterious light due to the conservative amount of details. The drawings fit, but nothing amazing.
Pretty forgettable entry on the whole, but still worth reading.
January 24, 2018
Que original.
Creo que puedo pasarme horas leyendo libros de este estilo.
Estaba en una cueva, en la que había dos túneles, decidí ir al pasado y ví una especie de fin del mundo. Volví, con esperanza de regresar a casa, pero terminé en un mar, hablando con una mujer que me dijo que me pasaría la vida entera ahí, que sería inmortal pero no sería nadie. Luego de un rato me dijo cómo volver, y por suerte ¡solo he llegado tarde para la cena!
Relectura:
Esta vez fui a la Era del Hielo, me crucé a un mamut y terminé en el año 3000 mirando películas viejas.
Creo que puedo pasarme horas leyendo libros de este estilo.
Estaba en una cueva, en la que había dos túneles, decidí ir al pasado y ví una especie de fin del mundo. Volví, con esperanza de regresar a casa, pero terminé en un mar, hablando con una mujer que me dijo que me pasaría la vida entera ahí, que sería inmortal pero no sería nadie. Luego de un rato me dijo cómo volver, y por suerte ¡solo he llegado tarde para la cena!
Relectura:
Esta vez fui a la Era del Hielo, me crucé a un mamut y terminé en el año 3000 mirando películas viejas.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 14, 2019
Okay, I was reading another review and these books were mentioned. I know I'm taking a trip down memory lane of Jr. High reading with "Sweet Valley High", "Nancy Drew" and now these. These were great! I devoured them. In the end, Mom wouldn't buy the bazillion set (probably not a bad idea), but I checked them all out from the library. I remember reading it through the first time, then again with different choices and finally from cover to cover to catch it all. Brilliant!
September 18, 2015
What fun! I used to love these books as a kid and I ran across it in a box of donations at work. Just had to read it. I went though every possible scenario. A book like this must be hard to write with all of the possible connections and choices. I'd love to see the planning diagram! I might see if I can track down more. I'm hooked all over again and I'm over 50. *Sheepish grin*
January 3, 2014
This book blew my mind as a kid -- fantasy! science fiction! what-if! -- and was a major influence on my love of reading, interest in science, and all things cool. I still have my original edition from 1979 and recently picked up a few others at a used bookstore. Great juvenile literature.
January 11, 2018
De mis primeras lecturas de la infancia... La recuerdo con gran cariño porque lo leía antes de ir a dormir y soñaba con ese mundo al que mis decisiones me llevaban... Totalmente recomendable para todas las edades!
August 20, 2022
First time reading the 1st ever Choose your own adventure book, The Cave of Time. And, it was ok. Super simple even for a CYOA book. Didn't really go anywhere, just entered, found I was in the Ice Age then went home again. Not as fun as the cover would have you believe.
January 21, 2021
Lo encontré guardado x ahí, en mi casa. Era de mi papá, y me pinto leerlo a la madrugada.
La verdad, no suelo leer este tipo de cosas, pero este libro me gustó bastante, porque no necesité pensar mucho (aclare que eran las dos de la mañana), y la historia me entretuvo mucho.
Con respecto a la trama en si, no es mi preferida, pero cambia todo que sea un "Elige Tu Propia Aventura".
7,8/10
La verdad, no suelo leer este tipo de cosas, pero este libro me gustó bastante, porque no necesité pensar mucho (aclare que eran las dos de la mañana), y la historia me entretuvo mucho.
Con respecto a la trama en si, no es mi preferida, pero cambia todo que sea un "Elige Tu Propia Aventura".
7,8/10
December 10, 2015
Uno de los libros primeros libros de la series con más soluciones (40 nada menos); aunque las historias no resultan muy largas, no están mal de longitud. Es una lectura estimulante, porqué el recurso de viajar en el tiempo, pasado o futuro, siempre resulta atractiva. En ésta aventura nos encontraremos haciendo de marineros, o conociendo a reyes ( incluso a Arturo), en la prehistória o en plena contrucción de la muralla china, por ejemplo. En el apartado de viaje al futuro, está más delimitado ( y no porqué a Packard le faltase imaginación, precisamente, como se ve en otros libros de la serie basados en el espacio), en ése aspecto, quizá flojea. Añadir que muchas veces no regresas a tu tiempo, a algunos quizá les frustre o no. Supongo que el autor pensó que los que leíamos ése libro queríamos cambiar de época y escenario ( ¿quizá es más adecuado para adultos, entonces?..jeje).
Un buen libro, sin ser de los mejores, que es entretenido y con un tema siempre atractivo.
Un buen libro, sin ser de los mejores, que es entretenido y con un tema siempre atractivo.
May 21, 2018
Ah, Choose Your Own Adventure, that paper bridge between that 5th grade fantasy map (see my Hobbit review) and my life-changing discovery of Dungeons & Dragons in the 7th grade.
Some of them were great, some punishing, some arbitrary, but they revealed to me for the first time that I could make choices and that they had immediate effect the course on my (fictional) reality. For a kid whose home life felt largely hopeless and inescapable, the empowerment of making my own way by the power of my own choices and facing consequences traceable directly to my decisions, wow!
While day-to-day reality seemed to deal out arbitrary, unpredictable punishments regardless of my actions, here was a place where I could experiment and learn and grow in safety and if I was punished there was always a why.
Some of them were great, some punishing, some arbitrary, but they revealed to me for the first time that I could make choices and that they had immediate effect the course on my (fictional) reality. For a kid whose home life felt largely hopeless and inescapable, the empowerment of making my own way by the power of my own choices and facing consequences traceable directly to my decisions, wow!
While day-to-day reality seemed to deal out arbitrary, unpredictable punishments regardless of my actions, here was a place where I could experiment and learn and grow in safety and if I was punished there was always a why.
February 5, 2016
Ini bacanya mungkin ga se-menyenangkan Rahasia Rumah Terkutuk, tapi tetap seru!
Menjelajah gua dan harus milih berbagai pilihan yang kayaknya ga berbahaya, tapi bisa membawamu ke perut monster Loch Ness atau ke masa ketika matahari padam ─=≡Σ((( つ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)つ
Menjelajah gua dan harus milih berbagai pilihan yang kayaknya ga berbahaya, tapi bisa membawamu ke perut monster Loch Ness atau ke masa ketika matahari padam ─=≡Σ((( つ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)つ
July 17, 2017
I'd read several of these as a child but never realized there were so many!
This wonderful series taught me early on there is no ‘right’ answer in life.
Highly recommended for pre-teens and young adults.
This wonderful series taught me early on there is no ‘right’ answer in life.
Highly recommended for pre-teens and young adults.
June 18, 2010
When you find these books in your mom's attic, do not reread them. They're not as good as you remember.
February 5, 2014
Weren't Choose Your Own Adventures great?
But there weren't really books, were they. More like collections of non-linear vignettes.
But there weren't really books, were they. More like collections of non-linear vignettes.
June 10, 2019
Pues... partiendo de la base de que no me gustan este tipo de libros... ha sido muy meh.
Me ha pillado una tormenta, me he refugiado en una cueva y me he caído en una especie de estanque. Me ha encontrado un caballero tonto que me ha llevado ante su rey (más tonto todavía). Le he contado una mentira que no se ha tragado, y por eso me ha encerrado en una torre. Torre de la que he escapado saltando al foso. En mi huida me han acogido unos pescadores del lago Ness, después no recuerdo muy bien como llegué otra vez a la cueva esa, encontré un huevo y volví a casa de mi tío. Y allí un científico (nunca os fiéis de ellos) me timó y se quedó con el huevo.
Y fin... eso ha sido todo.
Pues... 2 estrellas sobre 5, y gracias...
Me ha pillado una tormenta, me he refugiado en una cueva y me he caído en una especie de estanque. Me ha encontrado un caballero tonto que me ha llevado ante su rey (más tonto todavía). Le he contado una mentira que no se ha tragado, y por eso me ha encerrado en una torre. Torre de la que he escapado saltando al foso. En mi huida me han acogido unos pescadores del lago Ness, después no recuerdo muy bien como llegué otra vez a la cueva esa, encontré un huevo y volví a casa de mi tío. Y allí un científico (nunca os fiéis de ellos) me timó y se quedó con el huevo.
Y fin... eso ha sido todo.
Pues... 2 estrellas sobre 5, y gracias...
December 2, 2020
I used to love the Goosebumps 'choose your own adventure' books when I was younger, but I had never read this series, so I thought I'd give it a try (and I've had it on my TBR for 6+ years, so I thought why not). It was a fun book, but something I would have enjoyed when I was much younger. The completionist in me wanted to go back and read every outcome, but I stopped myself after doing a few, and I'm glad I did because apparently there are 40 different endings. But at least it succeeded in taking my mind off the ending of How to Kill a Rock Star for a while because that book destroyed me.
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