The Forces of Krill

Zork #1

by Steve Meretzky

The reader's choices will determine whether the magical sword and spheres of power are returned to Syovar to end the evil rule of the wizard, Krill

Genres: Gamebooks, Fantasy, Fiction, Choose Your Own Adventure, Young Adult, Science Fiction Fantasy

126 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1983

About the author

Steven Eric Meretzky (born May 1, 1957) is an American computer game designer, with dozens of titles to his credit. He has been involved in almost every aspect of game development, from design to production to quality assurance and box design. He is best known for creating some of the famous Infocom games in the early 1980s, including collaborating with celebrated author Douglas Adams on the interactive fiction version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, one of the few games to be certified "platinum" by the Software Publishing Association. Later, he created the Spellcasting trilogy, the flagship adventure series of Legend Entertainment.
His keen wit, prose and coding skill made him one of only two interactive fiction writers (along with Dave Lebling) admitted to the Science Fiction Writers of America, and in September 1999, PC Gamer magazine named Meretzky as one of their twenty-five "Game Gods"; those who have made an indelible mark on the history of computer gaming.
Meretzky was raised in Yonkers, New York. His father was trained as an accountant, but spent a career of 25 years selling automotive hardware. Meretzky's mother was a bookkeeper. He graduated from Yonkers High School in 1975, and was accepted at MIT, where he at first decided he wanted to study architecture. MIT's Department of Architecture, however, convinced him that he should instead pursue a career in Construction Management. He received a Bachelor of Science degree, but two years and several construction firms later, by 1981 he was convinced that he should instead pursue a career as a game tester for Infocom. In 1983, he became a full-time writer (an "Implementor"), scripting Planetfall and creating the famous cult figure robot sidekick "Floyd".
In 1984, he had his most famous collaboration, with Douglas Adams on the computer game version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which became one of the bestselling games of the era. Another popular game was Leather Goddesses of Phobos, whose risque writing pushed the boundaries of the art. In an interview, Meretzky said that he originally just wrote the name on a project board as a joke, but was later asked to actually develop a game to go along with the title.
In A Mind Forever Voyaging, Meretzky attempted to address social issues, but Infocom's success was declining, and the 1988 Zork Zero was one of his last titles there.
In 1994, Meretzky co-founded Boffo Games, where he was Vice President of Creation, and developed such titles as the story puzzle game Hodj 'n' Podj and the detective comedy The Space Bar until the company closed its doors in 1997.
Around the year 2000, Meretzky joined WorldWinner as a game advisor and Principal Game Designer. Meretzky is also a charter member of the Computer Game Developers Association, and a frequent speaker at industry conferences such as GDC.
Meretzky appears as himself antagonizing rapper MC Frontalot in the music video for "It Is Pitch Dark." (released on Secrets from the Future). The song references several of Meretzky's text adventure games, and the video is directed by documentarian Jason Scott Sadofsky, whose film Get Lamp is about the genre.
Several years later, Meretzky joined Blue Fang Games to work on the popular Zoo Tycoon franchise.
He is currently employed as a vice president at social media game developer Playdom.

Reviews

[Bryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you played the Zork text-based computer games back in the day, then there'll be a lot of nostalgia and sentimental value in picking up this book. I played the game lots back in 1983-1985, but had never come across this book before.

I was certainly transported back in time to the old computer game itself - one line even says "you're in a twisty maze of tunnels, each alike". There was a key in the bird's nest when you climb the tree, and you have to move the rug to get to the trapdoor.

Another good thing about this book - it has a MAP of the Underground Empire in the Zork game. Sure... now you can google a map just as good, but back in the day you had to build that map on your own. Had I encountered this map back in 1983, I would have been pleased indeed.

Another thing that the book clarified is the whole Flood Control Dam #3 locale. I admit that in my early teens, that area of the game was never clear to me. They're underground, and there's a dam in a cavern? And water spilling over the top from the reservoir to the frigid river below? Seems like it's not very confusing now, but I was only about 14 years old playing Zork, and obviously didn't pay enough attention if I was unable to visualize this properly.

As a book (and not as a nostalgia piece)... look elsewhere. This isn't even a good choose-your-own-adventure book. Too many choices immediately end in your death, so just a few bookmarks (usually only two) are needed to quickly go back and resume after a wrong choice or two. There's only one successful ending, and only two paths lead you there, but still the whole book (including all the unsuccessful endings) can be read in about 25-30 minutes.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes, you can be eaten by a grue. :-) Contains a number of Zork references (Flood Control Dam #3, etc.), but otherwise, meh.
The book has one 10 point ending (the maximum score the reader can earn). All other endings show a partial score, and how to backtrack to continue. The "unreachable" ending on P124 of 126 was amusing: "THE END: Your score is negative fifty million billion zillion points. The score for the best ending probably isn't important to a cheater like you who probably looks at the last page first." Yup, guilty.

[Ellis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, this is not the book that has been haunting me since childhood, and ILL will not let me get Invaders of Hark, so I will never know if that's the one!

[Koen Crolla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Choose-your-own-adventure, which is a clever idea for a Zork book, but the execution isn't terrific; that it would be much shorter and much easier than the original Zork trilogy is a given, but it also lacks much of its wit and misjudges the age of its target audience by at least a decade. For some reason there are also at least as many LotR references as there are Zork ones: our tweenage protagonists, who are transported to the land of Zork [sic] after finding a magical sword on their way home from school, are charged by a guy named Ellron to retrieve the three Palantirs of Zork, and along the way encounter a "gnome" with suspiciously hairy feet.
It's a nice bit of video game history, but not much more than that. Steve Meretzky would eventually become a better writer than this, I feel, but 1983 was very early.

[Jesse Ames · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fantasy COYA styled book written for kids (target audience about 10 years old). It stars both a boy and a girl, which I found thoughtfully inclusive. The kids must survive a dangerous swords & sorcery styled world, aiding their uncle in defeating an evil menace. This is a very short book, easily finished in 30 minutes or less, with not a ton of choices to make. When you fail or succeed, you're given a score. I found some type-o's, the proofreading's not the best. However there's a lot of nicely drawn pictures spicing up the text. Overall not the best COYA ever, but a decent fantasy jaunt for a young child.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm happy to say I've been around from the birth of the land of Zork. Reading this when it came out, I'd never imagine the video games it would inspire. The entire series is equal in quality. If you only played the computer games and want to traverse Zork again, try to find these volumes.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of two of the first books I ever bought and read. I was in the second grade. Although I don't remember anything about the book I remember loving it. It's a choose your own adventure and thought was pretty cool as a second grader.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really dug the Zork books and other choose your own adventure stuff back in the day.

[Shana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever played the Atari computer game Zork? This is the book version. I've enjoyed the game ever since I was a kid, so I was excited to find a book about it.

[Zachary]

When I read this book it was just called Zork. I loved it, of course.

[schmorie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This brings back childhood memories.

[Amar Pai · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the dark but clean illustrations and all the bad endings. Four stars from childhood nostalgia

[Matthew J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This takes me back. An early variation on the Choose Your Own Adventure book (this time called "A What Do-I-Do-Now book), this one sees two kids transported into a Fantasy world where they've got to get some objects and safe an underground kingdom. OK. It's fairly simple and clearly intended for kids. I was a little annoyed that sometimes the choices almost felt random and sometimes using the information you were given could actually send you down the wrong path. Still, overall, it's a fun read. These sorts of books were what got me into reading and helped set up my interest in tabletop RPGs, too.

[Pilke Valta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man, what a nostalgia trip. Short, kitschy as ever, very sword and sorcery.

[Moon Captain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frobnooiiiddd!

[Dane Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plays like the Choose You Own Adventure series except this book does contain one true ending, rather than just many different variable endings. Most of the side endings here are our heroes perishing horribly after making poor decisions.

While the book is mostly linear, I like how there are two different branching paths near the beginning which eventually lead to the dam, after which the book then steers the reader to the ending in a more straightforward way.

Quite a short book, but reasonably well written. Set in the Zork universe.

[Lc Jones iii · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very campy at times, but it was the earliest form of games in a book. You read a bit and then have to decide what the hero's do and then you flip to see if you were right or need to go back and start over. Excellent book, in fact all four were.