Volcano!

Choose Your Own Adventure #64

by Meryl Siegman

The reader is challenged to find the silver sword hidden in the depths of a Hawaiian volcano before the volcano erupts.

Genres: Gamebooks, Choose Your Own Adventure, Fiction

129 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Remo · Rating 4 out of 5]

La serie de Elige tu propia aventura es, literalmente, un clásico de nuestra infancia. He releído algunos, años después, y me parecen un poco cortos de miras, limitados en las posibilidades, pero cuando tenía 10 años cada uno de ellos era una maravilla lista para ser explorada hasta que hubiera dado todo lo que tenía dentro.
Al final siempre sabías que ibas a recorrer todos y cada uno de los caminos posibles. La emoción estaba, por tanto, en ganar y pasarte la historia al primer intento. Si no podías, pues nada, seguro que en el intento 18 acababas encontrando el camino. A veces los autores iban "a pillar", poniéndote los resultados buenos detrás de decisiones que eran claramente anómalas.
Recuerdo haber aprendido tanto palabras como hechos y datos en estos libros. No nadar contra la corriente cuando quieres llegar a tierra, dónde colocarse cuando un avión va a despegar, un montón de cosas interesantes y un montón de historias vividas, decenas por cada libro, que convirtieron a las serie en una colección fractal, donde cada vez podías elegir un libro nuevo entre los que ya tenías.
Llegué hasta el tomo 54 y dejé de tener interés por la serie, pero la serie siguió hasta superar los 180 títulos. Tal vez mis hijos quieran seguir el camino que yo empecé. Si quieres que lo sigan, pasa a la página 7.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a child, I gobbled up this and many other Choose Your Own Adventure books. I spent a lot of hours figuring out each possible scenario; the good, the bad and the ugly. Now an adult, these books and storylines still hold up as entertaining, and make for great evening reads. One of the great things is they're not entirely predictable, in fact, I'd argue they're less predictable than more than a few mystery novels I've read.

I do have to ask...how do the kids in these stories get so much independence? How does one get permission to simply ride a horse to a Volcano with a friend?

[Petercsm730 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Choose Your Own Adventure book (CYOA #64: Volcano) isn't bad. I read it as a kid and have just reread it and my feelings are about the same. You take on the role (written in the first person) of a kid whose parents own a ranch in Maui right below a possibly soon-to-erupt volcano. You've been trying to find a legendary silver sword that you learned in school is believed to be in the volcano's crater and this time make the trek on horseback with a friend. There are many different scenarios that can result in volcanic eruptions, smugglers, snakes, haunted owls, and ancient deities (though the picture of the ancient deity Maui looks like a reject D.C. comics supervillain from the '70s complete with underwear on the outside of his pants and all). There's only one path that leads to you finding the fabled sword with many other paths leading to (swordless) satisfying ending, ones where you simply fail, and a few where your search is postponed. The latter tend to be the result of passive decisions like turning back or being afraid of something. However if you make too risky a choice you pretty much always end up dead. There really isn't a super duper happy ending where everything you wanted is achieved.

The writing gets things moving quickly and does a fine job of creating many varied scenarios. If a lack of continuity bothers you, there is some of that here. For example the path you take for some decisions has the volcano erupting while other decisions result in it only smoldering or in minor trembles. Also the sword can be found in two separate locations depending on your path. None of this bothered me but a (relatively minor) lack of story continuity to me keeps me guessing. One odd lack of continuity has the character of Boris being drawn as a man with a ponytail in one path and in another path he's described as bald (..maybe it was a wig and not a lack of communication between writer and artist).

As a kid the one thing that stood out about this book were the ending deaths. They're not gruesome nor do they explicitly say you're dead and yet they fill you with a sense of sad wondering that felt right and made me want to pick the correct path. It helps that the author, Meryl Siegman, doesn't just flat out say YOU DIED, SUCKER. You can't help but think of your character's foreboding future (one time you're knocked off a boat in treacherous seas and another you're stuck in a pit hoping maybe somebody will come along and find you). That said, there are quite a few 'oh well, we'll look for the sword next weekend endings' which always feel unsatisfying (but that's why you go back and do it over again!).

The art is competent. It's not great and kids aren't going to be flipping through the pages to look at the pictures or anything but other than a few minor discrepancies with the text it gets the job done. Well, besides the previously described depiction of the Maui deity. I have no idea what's going on with that picture.

Overall it's a good entry to the series. It's not one of the best but it does a very good job of widely switching up scenarios for each path.

[Jacek · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enjoyable Choose Your Own Adventure book wherein you search for a legendary sword on a volcano in Hawaii that is on the verge of potentially erupting. There is a degree of randomness as to whether the volcano does erupt, which heightens the stakes, and you might end up dealing with some unsavory elements.

[Mikana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the choose your-own-adventure books during my early years, and believe these are a great set of books for those who are new to reading their own books.