What do you think?
Rate this book
Choose Your Own Adventure #26
මායා සබ්මැරීනය
# 26 in the Choose Your Own Adventure series.
111 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1983
2 people are currently reading
104 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 11, 2021
La serie roja de "elige tu propia aventura" me resultó un poco decepcionante después de haber leído los de "la máquina del tiempo" pero me trae la nostalgia y el cariño de leerlos cuando mi mundo se reducía a divertirme leyendo horas infinitas. Qué asco la adultez XD
July 5, 2016
Nunca sabré nada del submarino :(
August 27, 2025
Richard Brightfield's second Choose Your Own Adventure, The Phantom Submarine casts you as an ordinary young person who begins having psychic visions that warn when calamity is about to occur. After undergoing government tests to confirm your extrasensory perception, you accompany a top secret mission to discover why submarines have been vanishing all around the world. Assisting Dr. Greta Thursen and Captain Hornbolt on the submarine Manta, your ESP will serve as an early warning system if trouble arises. Do you choose to explore near the Arctic, or the South Pacific?
In the warm South Pacific, an invisible force sweeps the Manta deep underwater and holds it there. Guide the ship to surface as quickly as possible and you'll be nabbed by "sea people" who are hostile to mankind for its treatment of the oceans. If you tried to escape the force that pulled you underwater by staying deep rather than surfacing, you'll end up trapped in an undersea cavern. You might eventually surface at an island, but something about it triggers your ESP. Is it safe to approach? If you stayed undersea, you could discover an alien vessel. Extract yourself in one piece and you'll be captured by the same force that first yanked the Manta underwater. Aquatic creatures in a domed room accuse mankind of polluting the seas, and demand you act as ambassador to your fellow humans and demand they stop. You have little room to negotiate; refuse to act as go-between, and you may lose all personal agency.
Steer for the Arctic instead of the South Pacific from the first, and you get stuck beneath thick polar ice. It surrounds you on every side under the water, but you could ask Hornbolt to drill a hole to the surface. Follow a brilliant light after emerging from the hole and you'll see a vision of an ice castle, but perhaps you decided against drilling through the ice and used torpedoes instead. The blasts are intense, but you take the Manta's scout craft to check for safety on the other side and find a majestic sailing ship trapped there. You meet a spectral figure who captained this ship long ago, before an eerie force pulled it to the seafloor and killed his crew. When you return to the Manta with "Skipper", you realize you're the only one who can perceive him. Skipper is a ghost. He advises you to run the Manta directly through a wall of ice. Should you trust him? Get through the wall and you're accosted again by the force that pulled you underwater at first. You can attempt to outrace your invisible enemy in the Manta, but may be abducted by crablike beings from the planet Erbolt. Do you agree to a lifetime of slavery in their titanium mines, or will you live out your years on Erbolt as their pet? Skipper has one last trick up his sleeve; escape your captors and you might have just enough stamina to get out of here. Everyone on the Manta owes their lives to Skipper, who couldn't save his own crew but redeemed himself all these years later.
The Phantom Submarine isn't dull, but it's a mess. Internal continuity barely factors in, and the way decisions are structured is ridiculous. Too often you're directed to choose based on what your ESP is "telling you" without any real information in the text to inform your decision. The only actual "ESP input" the reader has is what the story tells us, so when it gives nothing, we're choosing based on dumb luck. That's not compelling. I might rate The Phantom Submarine one and a half stars because it doesn't drag on overly long, but it performs well below Richard Brightfield's best gamebooks.
In the warm South Pacific, an invisible force sweeps the Manta deep underwater and holds it there. Guide the ship to surface as quickly as possible and you'll be nabbed by "sea people" who are hostile to mankind for its treatment of the oceans. If you tried to escape the force that pulled you underwater by staying deep rather than surfacing, you'll end up trapped in an undersea cavern. You might eventually surface at an island, but something about it triggers your ESP. Is it safe to approach? If you stayed undersea, you could discover an alien vessel. Extract yourself in one piece and you'll be captured by the same force that first yanked the Manta underwater. Aquatic creatures in a domed room accuse mankind of polluting the seas, and demand you act as ambassador to your fellow humans and demand they stop. You have little room to negotiate; refuse to act as go-between, and you may lose all personal agency.
Steer for the Arctic instead of the South Pacific from the first, and you get stuck beneath thick polar ice. It surrounds you on every side under the water, but you could ask Hornbolt to drill a hole to the surface. Follow a brilliant light after emerging from the hole and you'll see a vision of an ice castle, but perhaps you decided against drilling through the ice and used torpedoes instead. The blasts are intense, but you take the Manta's scout craft to check for safety on the other side and find a majestic sailing ship trapped there. You meet a spectral figure who captained this ship long ago, before an eerie force pulled it to the seafloor and killed his crew. When you return to the Manta with "Skipper", you realize you're the only one who can perceive him. Skipper is a ghost. He advises you to run the Manta directly through a wall of ice. Should you trust him? Get through the wall and you're accosted again by the force that pulled you underwater at first. You can attempt to outrace your invisible enemy in the Manta, but may be abducted by crablike beings from the planet Erbolt. Do you agree to a lifetime of slavery in their titanium mines, or will you live out your years on Erbolt as their pet? Skipper has one last trick up his sleeve; escape your captors and you might have just enough stamina to get out of here. Everyone on the Manta owes their lives to Skipper, who couldn't save his own crew but redeemed himself all these years later.
The Phantom Submarine isn't dull, but it's a mess. Internal continuity barely factors in, and the way decisions are structured is ridiculous. Too often you're directed to choose based on what your ESP is "telling you" without any real information in the text to inform your decision. The only actual "ESP input" the reader has is what the story tells us, so when it gives nothing, we're choosing based on dumb luck. That's not compelling. I might rate The Phantom Submarine one and a half stars because it doesn't drag on overly long, but it performs well below Richard Brightfield's best gamebooks.
July 5, 2020
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.
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.
May 16, 2022
Loved the connection to environmental ethics here - good resource to start a conversation with kids on pollutions and solutions.
July 23, 2017
This was super fun! I read it with my 5 year old and the regular decisions helped to keep him engaged and he was always excited to see what was going to happen next. So even though we were pretty bummed with our particular ending (1 of 22 possible) it was an adventure worthy of revisiting.
December 4, 2021
SCEGLI LA TUA AVVENTURA raccoglie alcune semplici avventure a bivi, giocabili anche da neofiti e senza dadi o schede personaggio.
Avventura di ambientazione marina e un po' bislacca, che proprio per questo però meriterebbe l'esplorazione di ogni possibile finale.
Avventura di ambientazione marina e un po' bislacca, che proprio per questo però meriterebbe l'esplorazione di ogni possibile finale.
March 4, 2022
this is such a retro title, it was a fun trip and i died a lot which is the general lesson i have learned with adventure books like this one. i love the cover specifically, i am inspired by it- really digging on the stark yellow outline and soft pastels showcased within.
April 10, 2020
Awful. Bad art. Long stretches with no choices. Boring. The only really interesting bit was that the military created a submarine that runs on ESP!
September 30, 2024
txikitan irakurtzen nitun pila bat ta pec, kriston ilusioa egin dit berriz irakurtzea :) 4 izar oraindik ez detelako lortu bukatzea...
December 10, 2015
En ésta décimo novena entrega de la colección, somos una joven que descubre su percepción extra sensorial, especializada en prever peligros. Un organismo del gobierno nos reclutará para una misión submarina que quiere descubrir el porqué de la extraña desaparición de buques en todo el mundo. Nuestro cargo es esencial, ya que los sensores de incluso los barcos más avanzados fallan.
Es el libro con una historia ,de partida, más interesante del autor. Posee una buena ambientación ,una atmósfera inquietante y misteriosa. Un libro con una temática de corte entre fantástico y científico, con mitos incluidos, abducciones mentales, secuestros, temas ecológicos, piratas y fantasmas entre sus diversas soluciones, hecho que resulta ser muy atractivo a nivel narrativo y de lectura para el más joven, aunque hay algunos finales algo frustrantes e inconclusos.
Lo recuerdo como uno de los libros que más veces cogía, por su temática. A destacar que es uno de los pocos con protagonista femenina (a pesar que sea el sexo que sea, tú eres el protagonista, recuérdalo!)
Es el libro con una historia ,de partida, más interesante del autor. Posee una buena ambientación ,una atmósfera inquietante y misteriosa. Un libro con una temática de corte entre fantástico y científico, con mitos incluidos, abducciones mentales, secuestros, temas ecológicos, piratas y fantasmas entre sus diversas soluciones, hecho que resulta ser muy atractivo a nivel narrativo y de lectura para el más joven, aunque hay algunos finales algo frustrantes e inconclusos.
Lo recuerdo como uno de los libros que más veces cogía, por su temática. A destacar que es uno de los pocos con protagonista femenina (a pesar que sea el sexo que sea, tú eres el protagonista, recuérdalo!)
May 30, 2015
I loved the Choose Your Own Adventure books, and constantly borrowed them from the library. I owned a few, too, and would mark little pencilled notations on all the endings I managed to reach in my own copies (I'd tuck aside a piece of paper for the ones from the library). When I was nine and ten, these books got re-read so many times it was unreal, and they paved the way to me wanting to write, too, as sometimes I got annoyed at an obvious, missing option.
February 6, 2016
I love these books yet had forgotten how silly and basic they are. Still good fun though.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews