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Time Machine #1
Time Machine 1: Secret of the Knights
In the 14th century, King Edward III began an order of knights who wore a cloth garter on their sleeves. A secret motto was written on it: "Honi soit qui mal y pense." Why did the knights wear this garter, and what does the motto mean? To find out, you have to travel back in time and become a knight yourself!
108 pages, Unbound
First published January 1, 1984
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
June 11, 2024
Secret of the Knights is on the high end of the scale among gamebooks I've read, easily worth two and a half stars, and the balance between it tipping forward to three stars or back to two is a close one. Time Machine junior novels are different than most gamebooks; because there is only one ending to Secret of the Knights, suspense can't be generated by the threat of death or a failed mission. When the imminence of disaster arises to where it can no longer be averted by natural methods, the worst consequence is that you have to blow your cover as an ordinary person and instantly travel out of the hot spot to a safer time and/or location. But have no fear, you can always then go back slightly further into the past than the moment of crisis you fled, and the slate will have been wiped clean. Since there's no risk of a gruesome end, the story's intrigue derives from the possibility that the bricks you lay so carefully in building toward the solution you seek may all be knocked asunder if you error in choosing the right time to visit, or make decisions based on whim rather than historical fact. Even if you're close to the end of your quest, a blunder or two can knock you pretty far back in the historical narrative, where you'll have to start rebuilding again. This creates suspense with each choice you make, the correct one leading you closer to the end while the wrong move bumps you back aways, so the lack of grizzly endings in no way diminishes the import of your decisions. And unlike some Time Machine books, the structure of time loops and occasional backwards inertia is logically linear in Secret of the Knights. If you make what appears to be the right call, it probably is the right one, and won't send you around and around in dizzying circles that make gameplay more an annoyance than a pleasure. Secret of the Knights is all fun, and gamebook fans will delight in romping through its history to the surprisingly satisfactory conclusion.
Your mission: to use the state-of-the-art time machine provided you to travel into the Middle Ages and uncover the secret history behind the origin of the Knights of the Garter and their curious motto, "Honi soit qui mal y pense." Are the Knights an Arthurian creation, or did they come about decades or even centuries following the exploits of the historical man known in legend as King Arthur? With only a few rudimentary guidelines to help your investigation, you must choose where to roam within the expanse of history relevant to your mission. But beware, for awful dangers dot this troubled time in European history. There's the Black Plague of 1348, and if you're not careful, you could end up right in the middle of it, surrounded by anguished Britons dropping like flies from a disease they can't comprehend. There's also the dangers of frequent war to consider, and many in charge who won't think twice about grafting you into sudden conflict with their enemies. Perhaps most deadly of all for you in particular is the superstitious mindset of the era. The smallest idiosyncrasies in individuals under the crown's rule are enough to cast suspicion on them for sorcery or witchcraft, so what are they going to think if they catch a glimpse of your time-travel technology? Surely any peasant or royal in possession of his faculties will immediately denounce you as a witch, and while you do have the luxury of instant time travel to fall back on should your life be jeopardized, bailing out of the investigation is not conducive to your completing the mission, to say the least. It can also cause problems if the information trail you're following leads you back to these same time periods.
As you bounce between certain decades and centuries in the Middle Ages, possibly going as far back as the 400s A.D., your modern perspective doesn't keep you from making friends in the past, even ones who recognize you from multiple years you have visited. Take advantage of the honest people you meet and remain wary of the duplicitous; as in any time, a good turn is often rewarded by the same, but seething resentment can multiply into treachery just as quickly. If you can prove your good intentions to your friends, and act heroically in the face of danger when they need your help most, you may find becoming a knight doesn't necessarily require long years of training and good luck. The answer to your questions about the Knights of the Garter might be closer than you realize, and finding it could be a specially fulfilling experience, even if it doesn't strike you that way at first. "How would you feel," you say, "if you went through all sorts of dangers to find something. Then when you found what you were looking for, it wasn't what you thought it was at all?" But your listener knows exactly how to respond. "That's the way it is with most knightly quests. The knights of the Round Table spent their lives looking for the Holy Grail, but most of them never found it. It doesn't matter so much what you're searching for as much as how you look for it, what you find along the way, and how much you can help the other people searching." The words cap the entire book splendidly, a mark of deeper literary value than all but a few gamebooks I've read. Never let yourself forget that it isn't finding a spectacular answer to your mystery that defines whether or not you've succeeded, but the integrity with which you've conducted yourself while pursuing it, and the lives you've affirmed by your presence, even for such a brief time as you were allowed to stay. Knowing you've succeeded in all that is what makes completing this quest so gratifying, and why Secret of the Knights stands above most other literature of its kind.
The Time Machine series has a lot going for it. Tangibly, this includes the "Four Rules of Time Travel" before each story begins, outlining crucial precepts of minimizing one's "footprints" in the time-space continuum, and the "Data Bank", which provides every historical fact you'll need to make informed decisions during your travels through time. Even if you're a strong student of history, you should read the Data Bank before starting at page one. Another good feature of the Time Machine books is the "Data File" at the back, where short clues correlating to specific page numbers offer subtle nudges toward what you should choose to do next. The clues aren't blatantly obvious, and don't reveal anything not already stated in more detail in the Data Bank, so taking a look at the Data File if you're confused may not be a bad idea. I've come to like the Time Machine series, and Secret of the Knights is a solid entry I know I'll want to read again. Nice work, Jim Gasperini.
Your mission: to use the state-of-the-art time machine provided you to travel into the Middle Ages and uncover the secret history behind the origin of the Knights of the Garter and their curious motto, "Honi soit qui mal y pense." Are the Knights an Arthurian creation, or did they come about decades or even centuries following the exploits of the historical man known in legend as King Arthur? With only a few rudimentary guidelines to help your investigation, you must choose where to roam within the expanse of history relevant to your mission. But beware, for awful dangers dot this troubled time in European history. There's the Black Plague of 1348, and if you're not careful, you could end up right in the middle of it, surrounded by anguished Britons dropping like flies from a disease they can't comprehend. There's also the dangers of frequent war to consider, and many in charge who won't think twice about grafting you into sudden conflict with their enemies. Perhaps most deadly of all for you in particular is the superstitious mindset of the era. The smallest idiosyncrasies in individuals under the crown's rule are enough to cast suspicion on them for sorcery or witchcraft, so what are they going to think if they catch a glimpse of your time-travel technology? Surely any peasant or royal in possession of his faculties will immediately denounce you as a witch, and while you do have the luxury of instant time travel to fall back on should your life be jeopardized, bailing out of the investigation is not conducive to your completing the mission, to say the least. It can also cause problems if the information trail you're following leads you back to these same time periods.
As you bounce between certain decades and centuries in the Middle Ages, possibly going as far back as the 400s A.D., your modern perspective doesn't keep you from making friends in the past, even ones who recognize you from multiple years you have visited. Take advantage of the honest people you meet and remain wary of the duplicitous; as in any time, a good turn is often rewarded by the same, but seething resentment can multiply into treachery just as quickly. If you can prove your good intentions to your friends, and act heroically in the face of danger when they need your help most, you may find becoming a knight doesn't necessarily require long years of training and good luck. The answer to your questions about the Knights of the Garter might be closer than you realize, and finding it could be a specially fulfilling experience, even if it doesn't strike you that way at first. "How would you feel," you say, "if you went through all sorts of dangers to find something. Then when you found what you were looking for, it wasn't what you thought it was at all?" But your listener knows exactly how to respond. "That's the way it is with most knightly quests. The knights of the Round Table spent their lives looking for the Holy Grail, but most of them never found it. It doesn't matter so much what you're searching for as much as how you look for it, what you find along the way, and how much you can help the other people searching." The words cap the entire book splendidly, a mark of deeper literary value than all but a few gamebooks I've read. Never let yourself forget that it isn't finding a spectacular answer to your mystery that defines whether or not you've succeeded, but the integrity with which you've conducted yourself while pursuing it, and the lives you've affirmed by your presence, even for such a brief time as you were allowed to stay. Knowing you've succeeded in all that is what makes completing this quest so gratifying, and why Secret of the Knights stands above most other literature of its kind.
The Time Machine series has a lot going for it. Tangibly, this includes the "Four Rules of Time Travel" before each story begins, outlining crucial precepts of minimizing one's "footprints" in the time-space continuum, and the "Data Bank", which provides every historical fact you'll need to make informed decisions during your travels through time. Even if you're a strong student of history, you should read the Data Bank before starting at page one. Another good feature of the Time Machine books is the "Data File" at the back, where short clues correlating to specific page numbers offer subtle nudges toward what you should choose to do next. The clues aren't blatantly obvious, and don't reveal anything not already stated in more detail in the Data Bank, so taking a look at the Data File if you're confused may not be a bad idea. I've come to like the Time Machine series, and Secret of the Knights is a solid entry I know I'll want to read again. Nice work, Jim Gasperini.
August 2, 2010
The first entry in this series presents a historical adventure and provides a bit of education on the subject. Unlike the CYOA books, the reader cannot actually "die" in this book, due to the timely intervention of the time machine. You can, however, go in an infinite loop if you do not learn from your mistakes.
October 19, 2010
I thought it was a good book because it was about some knights......And it is a good book because it sounds more real than you think.They have this big war and everything else knights do in a castle and other things.You should read this book you will get addicted to it some times and you won't want to stop reading it!!!I rate it a 5 beacause it the best book I have ever read.They have many of these books. There's like 5 of them. They are all different ones.
March 4, 2020
Aaaaah, childhood memories.
July 12, 2017
This series' approach differs from the classic Choose Your Own Adventure(tm) series in that the choices given are much less arbitrary: there is almost always a more logical choice at any decision point, usually keyed off a historical fact related to the period you've time traveled to.
The book provides a 'Data Bank' of relevant facts about the time period you can refer to you when you want (and even a cheat sheet matching particular facts with relevant page numbers). So you get a bit of educational value and no surprise bad ends, but also a much more linear, less wild ride than other CYOA. It's also fun that you frequently slide back and forth within the time period you're assigned to, seeing characters at different ages, etc - you're zapping through time a *lot*. Writing-wise, bland, but as a CYOA experience, kind of neat.
My favorite part was pretending to be a bard, and the possible-King-Arthur-figure I was trying to impress thinking I was the worst he'd ever heard.
The book provides a 'Data Bank' of relevant facts about the time period you can refer to you when you want (and even a cheat sheet matching particular facts with relevant page numbers). So you get a bit of educational value and no surprise bad ends, but also a much more linear, less wild ride than other CYOA. It's also fun that you frequently slide back and forth within the time period you're assigned to, seeing characters at different ages, etc - you're zapping through time a *lot*. Writing-wise, bland, but as a CYOA experience, kind of neat.
My favorite part was pretending to be a bard, and the possible-King-Arthur-figure I was trying to impress thinking I was the worst he'd ever heard.
August 13, 2022
La colección de "La máquina del tiempo" era un elige tu propia aventura bastante clásico, al que se le quería dar una pátina de culturilla. Así, no solo ambientaban cada libro en una época específica sobre la que luego íbamos a aprender un montón de cosas, sino que a veces incluso les encargaban los libros a especialistas en la materia (el de los dinosaurios está escrito por un paleontólogo, por ejemplo).
Bueno, el infierno está empedrado de buenas intenciones, como se suele decir. Recuerdo de estos libros un montón de fallos de continuidad (te encuentras con Peter en una rama temporal pero luego al hacer otra distinta y posterior te lo presentan, ese tipo de cosas).
No fueron los primeros que leí, por lo que el efecto maravilla que me hizo amar los originales no lo tuve con estos. Tal vez eso contribuyó a que no me parecieran tan buenos.
Bueno, el infierno está empedrado de buenas intenciones, como se suele decir. Recuerdo de estos libros un montón de fallos de continuidad (te encuentras con Peter en una rama temporal pero luego al hacer otra distinta y posterior te lo presentan, ese tipo de cosas).
No fueron los primeros que leí, por lo que el efecto maravilla que me hizo amar los originales no lo tuve con estos. Tal vez eso contribuyó a que no me parecieran tan buenos.
November 19, 2022
Having grown up during the age of choose-your-own-adventure style books, it was a fun trip down memory lane to revisit this book. A true classic of the genre, you are sent on a quest back to 1300s England to become a knight and learn the meaning behind the moto of an elite order of the King's finest.
July 25, 2025
El libro es divertido la temática que tú decides pero la vdd que aparte de eso no me encanto como tal el libro osea está bueno pero no tanto y a veces te pierdes bien cañón y así por eso 3 estrellas no está malo pero no lo volvería a leer
February 12, 2019
It was really great when I was a kid. I guess we can't go back in time after all...
January 4, 2023
Loving my trip down memory lane. These types of books were a big part of my childhood. This entry was action packed and kept me entertained the entire time.
September 4, 2025
This book was better when I was 10 but still a good way to pass an hour on the train.
February 21, 2022
Hola hola aprendiz y lector.
Hoy tenemos la reseña de "El secreto de los caballeros"
Con 126pag
Infantil y didáctico.
Este libro no lo lees en orden, puedes leerlo super rápido o super tardado, ya que es interactivo/didáctico ya que al final de cada capítulo tu tomas la desición de a donde ir de acuerdo a la historia.
La trama es sencilla pero puede volverse un revoltijo.
Puede ser un gran reto.
Al ser una de mis primeras lecturas de este tipo, si me tomo por sorpresa y me perdí en la última parte, hubo como dos caps que los leí 4 veces y casi me los aprendo jajajaja
En realidad es corto pero el hecho de ir viajando entre el tiempo y personas lo hace especial, divertido.
Creo que para pasar una tarde divertida o algo con tus primos y sobrinos es una gran opción.
Por todo esto y más le doy esta calificación.
Hoy tenemos la reseña de "El secreto de los caballeros"
Con 126pag
Infantil y didáctico.
Este libro no lo lees en orden, puedes leerlo super rápido o super tardado, ya que es interactivo/didáctico ya que al final de cada capítulo tu tomas la desición de a donde ir de acuerdo a la historia.
La trama es sencilla pero puede volverse un revoltijo.
Puede ser un gran reto.
Al ser una de mis primeras lecturas de este tipo, si me tomo por sorpresa y me perdí en la última parte, hubo como dos caps que los leí 4 veces y casi me los aprendo jajajaja
En realidad es corto pero el hecho de ir viajando entre el tiempo y personas lo hace especial, divertido.
Creo que para pasar una tarde divertida o algo con tus primos y sobrinos es una gran opción.
Por todo esto y más le doy esta calificación.
June 25, 2010
I read this because Matt brought it home from the library. We both read these Choose Your Own Adventure stories as children. Like many things, it was much easier this time to make the correct jumps in time to solve the puzzle, but I still had to look at the hints.
February 12, 2010
I'm much smarter than my grade school self.
The book does a really neat job of having characters in each class that appear throughout the book.
The book does a really neat job of having characters in each class that appear throughout the book.
October 22, 2013
Weakest book out of the whole series. Just as I recall from 87'
Read
June 2, 2013I read some of these Time Machine books back when I was 10-ish years old. Just looking at their covers is really taking me back!
July 28, 2015
I read this over and over when I was a kid. I doubt I'd like it much today, but then I'm not the target audience anymore - back when I was, this book was amazing!
January 31, 2016
4.5/5
I remember devouring these as a kid in the summer of 1996. Great times.
I remember devouring these as a kid in the summer of 1996. Great times.
January 21, 2020
Jim Gasperini does not disappoint here. His are some of the best written entries in the Time Machine series.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews