The Forgotten Planet

Choose Your Own Adventure #133

by Doug Wilhelm, Ron Wing (Illustrator)

The year is 2145. You are working a summer job at Interweb, a galaxy-wide communications network, when you discover evidence of a government cover-up. A routine space probe vanished 40 years ago—but the company denies it ever existed. Do you tell someone about your discovery? Or do you try to find out more on your own? You decide.

Genres: Choose Your Own Adventure, Fiction, Gamebooks, Childrens

113 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1993

About the author

Doug Wilhelm is the author of 17 books for young readers, including Street of Storytellers, a multi-award winning novel for YA and adult readers:

• Gold medal, YA fiction, 2020 Independent Press Awards
• Silver medal, teen fiction, 2020 Benjamin Franklin Awards
• Winner, young adult books, 2019 Independent Publishers of New England Book Awards
• Kirkus Reviews Indie Editors Choice

Doug's previous books include The Revealers, a novel about bullying that has been the focus of reading-and-discussion projects in over 1,000 U.S. middle schools, and True Shoes, the Revealers sequel on cyberbullying. Doug began writing for young people with the legendary Choose Your Own Adventure series, for which he has written 10 books. When he visits schools to talk about his books, kids notice that he is six feet ten inches tall!

http://www.dougwilhelm.com/
http://us.macmillan.com/author/dougwi...

Reviews

[Lautaro Lobo]

Another solid Sci-Fi book for kids that like the Choose Your... format.

[Mark Austin · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Josiah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'd heard a few things about The Forgotten Planet before cracking the binding for the first time. The impression I had is that serious gamebook readers consider it a subpar Choose Your Own Adventure, but I was curious what my own take would be. You are a computer intern at Interweb Central on the planet Casgar of the Sirian solar system. In the year 2145 it's normal to live and work well beyond Earth within the Galaxy Union government system, but interplanetary peace hits a snag when reporter Jack Herbert of the Earth News Service reaches out to you for help. Herbert has hit a cyber-blockade around all information regarding a probe launched forty years ago to investigate the planet Minos. The situation has the earmarks of a government coverup. You could search the Interweb for info yourself and risk the wrath of the Galaxy Union, but would it be wiser to consult your uncle Jardon, a historian with a personal connection to the Minos Probe?

Jardon's reaction to your inquiry is a giveaway that something's not right. He introduces you to Murphy, a Galaxy Union Intelligence officer with his finger on the pulse of the Minos problem. Murphy says there were three Minos Probes sent to the planet. None ever came back, and recent energy signals emitted from that sector are purposely jamming the Interweb. Murphy and Jardon propose physically projecting you to the surface of Minos to diagnose the issue. If you project into the mountains, you fall in with a group of human rebels from the original Minos Probe, fighting an entity called the Power. These humans are no match on their own for the Power, but you might help them destroy the microwave transceptors the Power has weaponized against the Interweb. If you join the rebels you might meet your great-aunt Julia, a prisoner here as a crew member from the Minos Probe. Are you or Julia prepared to sacrifice your life to beat the Power? If you projected into the city rather than the mountains you meet a younger boy named 2-4 who wants to assist your mission. The fate of the Sirian solar system and beyond is on your shoulders; can you rescue 2-4 without jeopardizing the plot to stop the Power?

Given the pervasive coverup by the Galaxy Union about the Minos Probe's history, it's understandable if you opt never to include Uncle Jardon in your investigation after receiving Jack Herbert's original complaint. Examining the Interweb yourself produces the same dead ends Herbert spoke of; the stonewalling is insidious. Just as you're executing a clever end-around, your supervisor pops up onscreen to say your internship has been terminated for reasons she isn't privy to. The Galaxy Union is definitely hiding something. Arranging a meeting with Jardon at this point loops around to your being commissioned by Murphy, but traveling to Earth to interview Jack Herbert in person doesn't go far before your life and project abruptly end. Getting on the Galaxy Union's bad side has disturbing consequences; your best bet for discovering the truth about the Minos Probe is to sync up with Murphy and make your involvement official.

The Forgotten Planet isn't a good book. The concept is fine—in fact, could have yielded a brilliant story—but its execution is awful in more ways than I'm likely to recall for this review. More than once, specific plot points shift without explanation; for instance, why are you shocked when Uncle Jardon admits the Minos Probe existed? In the early pages you and Jack Herbert treat it as common knowledge. The Galaxy Union's coverup of everything related to the probe makes no pragmatic sense, and their censorship enforcement tactics reveal they are at least as evil as the Power. Why should the reader care, then, if we prevent the Power from attacking? We should worry first about overthrowing the authoritarian Galaxy Union. The book's biggest flaw is how many endings take you through a single mild escapade and then end the story before you ever really battle the Power; things draws to a close before the adventure can start in earnest. The highlight of The Forgotten Planet is 2-4, a human child forced into factory labor on Minos. He truly cares about helping you, and his backbone is inspiring. This book doesn't have much to praise, but I might rate it one and a half stars. 2-4 and his evergreen spirit is a bright spot that will have me coming back.

[Vicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una entrega singular dentro de la serie Elige tu propia aventura, que combina ciencia ficción, misterio y una profunda exploración simbólica de la identidad. El planeta olvidado nos sitúa en un mundo desconocido, donde el protagonista despierta sin memoria y cada decisión lo acerca o lo aleja de descubrir quién es y por qué está allí. A diferencia de otras aventuras más externas, esta historia ritualiza la pérdida de memoria como un umbral hacia la transformación interior. Con un tono más introspectivo que otras entregas de la colección, Doug Wilhelm logra una experiencia emocional y filosófica que atrapa y conmueve. Una lectura que invita a elegir, reconstruirse y evolucionar.

[Oxalis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Suitable for some childhood nostalgia.

[JKR · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good entry in the CYOA series, with a compelling background mystery and well developed story threads. The tone being a bit too serious stops me giving it an extra star.

[Lucky MBor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lo leí de chico y me encantó, fue el libro que inicio mi amor por este tipo de lectura al hacerme sentir parte de la aventura.