1. Escape from the Carnival of Horrors
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Cover artist uncredited, no internal illustrations
First Published: July, 1995
ISBN: 0-590-55323-2
Length: 135 pages
Number of Endings: 25
Plot Summary: The carnival has returned to town. Last year it was
pitiful, but this year it's larger, more spectacular, and (of course)
totally evil.
Collected In: Give Yourself Goosebumps Books #1-#4
Translation: German
My Thoughts: R. L. Stine is not the most praiseworthy author in the
world, but he does occasionally manage to create an interesting gamebook by
adding unusual features. In addition to the usual choices, this book
includes a number of special gimmicks that make it more fun, most of them
involving carnival games.
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2. Tick Tock, You're Dead
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Nagata (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: November, 1995
ISBN: 0-590-56645-8
Length: 135 pages
Number of Endings: 28
Plot Summary: Your uncooperative younger brother stumbles into a
time travel experiment at a museum and you must bring him back before his
time runs out and he ceases to exist.
Collected In: Give Yourself Goosebumps Books #1-#4
My Thoughts: This is a fairly well-designed book; the various story
threads fit together pretty well and some are creatively reused. There
aren't as many games and non-typical choices as the previous book, but it is
something of a challenge to get through successfully.
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3. Trapped in Bat Wing Hall
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Nagata (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: December, 1995
ISBN: 0-590-56646-6
Length: 137 pages
Number of Endings: 27
Plot Summary: After moving to a new town you have difficulty making
friends until you are invited by a boy you can't quite remember to a club
meeting in a haunted house.
Collected In: Give Yourself Goosebumps Books #1-#4
Translations: German, Italian
My Thoughts: This is the most straightforward,
Choose Your Own Adventure-like book so far in the
series as far as gameplay goes. In every other respect, it's fairly typical.
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4. The Deadly Experiments of Dr. Eeek
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Nagata (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: February, 1996
ISBN: 0-590-67318-1
Length: 130 pages
Number of Endings: 26
Plot Summary: You and your best friend try to find your mother in
the research lab where she works.
Collected In: Give Yourself Goosebumps Books #1-#4
My Thoughts: This book is considerably weaker than the previous
three. The plot is fairly aimless, the internal consistency is poor, and
there's nothing particularly unusual about the gameplay.
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5. Night in Werewolf Woods
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Nagata (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: April, 1996
ISBN: 0-590-67319-X
Length: 133 pages
Number of Endings: 23
Plot Summary: A summer vacation at WoodsWorld turns out to be
rather unpleasant thanks to a multitude of werewolves.
Translation: German
My Thoughts: This is a decidedly strange book; the events in it really
have nothing to do with one another and some of the locations are quite
bizarre. Sadly, this strangeness doesn't prove to be a good thing and the
incoherent text isn't backed up by interesting gameplay. All in all, this
isn't a terribly enjoyable read.
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6. Beware of the Purple Peanut Butter
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Nagata (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: June, 1996
ISBN: 0-590-67320-3
Length: 135 pages
Number of Endings: 26
Plot Summary: Eating food in the off-limits basement of your aunt's
house proves to be a bad idea - it causes your size to change dramatically.
My Thoughts: Like the previous book this is strange , but not in a
good way... The plot is ludicrous (which is to be expected from this series,
I suppose) and the novelties in the gameplay (which include some coin
flipping and choices dependent on time of week or age of the reader) are
pointless and uninteresting.
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7. Under the Magician's Spell
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Nagata (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: July, 1996
ISBN: 0-590-67321-1
Length: 135 pages
Number of Endings: 23
Plot Summary: Your annoying younger sister tags along when you go to
the mall to meet a friend and ultimately ends up causing trouble in a magic
shop.
Translation: German
My Thoughts: This isn't too bad for the series, but it's a fairly
tedious read. Just about the most innovative thing in the book involves
drawing a card out of a deck, but it serves little purpose and is merely
another variation on the pointless randomization that's in many of these
books.
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8. The Curse of the Creeping Coffin
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrators: Nagata (cover), internal illustrator uncredited
First Published: August, 1996
ISBN: 0-590-84765-1
Length: 132 pages
Number of Endings: 21
Plot Summary: The graveyard behind your grandmother's house is
presently moving around by itself, a fact which unnerves you greatly...
My Thoughts: This book is surprisingly good for the series; some of
the decisions are aided by actual thought rather than luck and the sarcastic
sense of humor present in many of these books is used much more effectively
than usual.
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9. The Knight in Screaming Armor
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrators: Uncredited
First Published: September, 1996
ISBN: 0-590-84766-X
Length: 136 pages
Number of Endings: 21 (plus two "endings" which instruct the reader to continue)
Plot Summary: A suit of armor brought to the U.S. from England has
a curse on it connected to your family.
Translation: Italian
My Thoughts: This book has some fairly good moments, but it also
has some bad ones. While it's a more entertaining read than most books in
the series, many of the choices in it are pointless or change the plot in
seemingly random ways. Additionally, while it's slightly interesting that
a maze is included in the book, it serves no real purpose to the gameplay.
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10. Diary of a Mad Mummy
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Nagata (cover), internal illustrator uncredited
First Published: October, 1996
ISBN: 0-590-84767-8
Length: 136 pages
Number of Endings: 23
Plot Summary: While examining an Egyptian mummy in an American-built
pyramid-shaped skyscraper you stumble across an ancient diary which appears
to have been written by the corpse... in English!
Translations: German, Italian
My Thoughts: While being for the most part stupid and senseless, this
book has several redeeming features. First of all, while it includes many of
the cliches common to gamebooks involving mummies, it twists them enough to
be slightly unpredictable. Second, it uses the phrase Klaatu Barada
Nikto, something a movie buff like myself can't help but appreciate.
Finally, it has more illustration than usual, including a maze used in a
slightly unconventional (but sadly ineffective) manner. Also worth noting
is that the player has an older sibling in this story, something which
happens fairly infrequently in gamebooks of this sort.
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11. Deep in the Jungle of Doom
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Nagata (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: November, 1996
ISBN: 0-590-84768-6
Length: 136 pages
Number of Endings: 25
Plot Summary: You go off the trail on a South American jungle tour
with your friend Zoe and have an adventure.
Translation: German
My Thoughts: This book was a bit more entertaining than most of the
others in the series, but that may just be the result of a personal leaning
towards cheesy adventure stories set in the jungle... In most respects it's
really just average.
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12. Welcome to the Wicked Wax Museum
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Nagata (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: December, 1996
ISBN: 0-590-84772-4
Length: 137 pages
Number of Endings: 22
Plot Summary: On the way to a wax museum, you and two of your friends
get in trouble and are forced to stay in the lobby when you reach your
destination. Your friend Jake decides to wander off anyway, and it's all
downhill from there...
My Thoughts: This book seems to cover a bit more territory than some
of the others in the series, which makes the gameplay a bit more fun than
usual. The story is incredibly unoriginal, of course, but it would be quite
a surprise if it weren't. The book also includes a maze which brings the
Be an Interplanetary Spy series to mind but is
pretty much pointless.
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13. Scream of the Evil Genie
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Nagata (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: January, 1997
ISBN: 0-590-84773-2
Length: 137 pages
Number of Endings: 22
Plot Summary: You find a genie in a cola can and she offers you
three wishes...
Translations: German, Italian
My Thoughts: The genie scenario is a familiar one in the gamebook
world and this is a fairly unexceptional version of the story. This book
does seem to have a wider variety of choices than many other books in the
series, but that doesn't help it to escape the familiarity of its plot.
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14. The Creepy Creations of Professor Shock
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Nagata (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: February, 1997
ISBN: 0-590-84774-0
Length: 135 pages
Number of Endings: 21
Plot Summary: You get hired to clean out an inventors garage, and
what do you do? You go through the door you were specifically instructed
to avoid at all costs!
My Thoughts: This is a very strange book in a series of very strange
books. While its strangeness doesn't really manage to be particularly
clever, it does have its moments and is a fairly enjoyable read. The mirror
world section is particularly interesting. The game design here is also not
too bad, being more sophisticated than usual for the series; sections are
re-used creatively here and there.
Errata: For some reason, the back of my copy of this book (which is
a first edition) lists the next book in the series as Secret Agent
Grandma when it should be Please Don't Feed the Vampire.
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15. Please Don't Feed the Vampire
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Nagata (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: March, 1997
ISBN: 0-590-93477-5
Length: 137 pages
Number of Endings: 21
Plot Summary: The "Vampire in a Can" costume you just
bought turns out to be a bit troublesome when you discover (the hard way)
that the fake blood it contains turns whatever consumes it into a vampire!
My Thoughts: Although the gameplay in this book is almost totally
uninteresting, the writing isn't too bad... Some of the humor comes close to
actually being funny (though not too close). Of some note is the fact
that the first choice comes only two pages into the book; this is a bit
quicker than usual. Further into the story, though, there are plenty of long
stretches devoid of choices. On an unrelated note, it's interesting that the
description on the back cover suggests that Fifi the dog is male. Hmm...
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16. Secret Agent Grandma
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Nagata (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: April, 1997
ISBN: 0-590-84775-9
Length: 131 pages
Number of Endings: 23
Plot Summary: You have to meet your grandmother at the train station.
This being a gamebook, that doesn't prove to be a simple or safe task.
My Thoughts: This is a pretty lousy book; its plot is derivative
(which is no surprise for this series), its internal consistency is just
about nonexistent, and it's full of annoyingly weak attempts at suspense.
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17. Little Comic Shop of Horrors
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Nagata (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: May, 1997
ISBN: 0-590-93483-X
Length: 137 pages
Number of Endings: 30
Plot Summary: A shortcut home from school leads you to a comic shop.
Unfortunately, wandering into the store leads to you getting trapped in an
unusual place...
My Thoughts: This isn't one of the absolute best books in this series,
but it's on the higher end of the scale. The story's not too bad and the
gameplay is made more interesting by some choices which require you to test
your balance and reflexes.
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18. Attack of the Beastly Baby-Sitter
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrators: Nagata (cover), internal illustrator uncredited
First Published: June, 1997
ISBN: 0-590-93485-6
Length: 136 pages
Number of Endings: 23 (plus two "false" endings
Plot Summary: You're annoyed when you discover that you're going to
have a babysitter and horrified when you discover that your babysitter is an
evil imposter...
My Thoughts: This isn't the most well-written book, but it does have a
much higher number of mini-games and puzzles than most books in this series,
so fans of gamebook novelties should find it somewhat entertaining...
There's a maze, a follow-the-ropes puzzle, a "spinner" like the
one used in the first book of this series and various other challenges of
luck and skill. The book's continuity is also a bit better than usual...
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19. Escape from Camp Run-For-Your-Life
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Nagata (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: July, 1997
ISBN: 0-590-93489-9
Length: 137 pages
Number of Endings: 23
Plot Summary: Your trip to a summer sports camp turns out to be
considerably less pleasant than you expected...
My Thoughts: Apart from a choice which asks you to point at a random
spot on a map of the United States in order to make a decision, there's
nothing new in this book, though it's not as bad as some of the other books
in the series.
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20. Toy Terror: Batteries Included
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Nagata (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: August, 1997
ISBN: 0-590-93492-9
Length: 137 pages
Number of Endings: 21
Plot Summary: You've won a contest and now you have a choice: do
you want to take a tour of a toy factory, or would you rather get your very
own Annihilator 3000 toy robot?
My Thoughts: This is a pretty dull entry in the series. There are no
games or puzzles to supplement the text and the choices are for the most part
uninteresting. Certain elements of the plot are slightly reminiscent of some
classic Doctor Who episodes, but I suspect it's just a coincidence...
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21. The Twisted Tale of Tiki Island
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrators: Nagata (cover), internal illustrator uncredited
First Published: September, 1997
ISBN: 0-590-93500-3
Length: 137 pages
Number of Endings: 21
Plot Summary: Your summer vacation at Tiki Island turns out to be
rather unpleasant thanks to a rumored curse...
My Thoughts: This is a fairly enjoyable entry in the series; the
"quest of the Tiki Eye" plot strand is particularly fun to play
through. A few of the choices in the book are rather frustrating, though;
there are times when the option that seems to make the most sense just isn't
possible. The book also includes a maze which serves as a trap for those who
would cheat...
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22. Return to the Carnival of Horrors
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Nagata (cover)
First Published: October, 1997
ISBN: 0-590-21062-9
Length: 137 pages
Number of Endings: 21
Plot Summary: Just when you thought you were safely away from the
Carnival of Horrors, you find yourself trapped in it once more!
My Thoughts: As the title suggests, this is a sequel to the first
book in the series, and it's a worthy successor. While it's almost exactly
the same as its predecessor in terms of plot and format, it's worth reading
for its numerous entertaining puzzles and games-within-the-game. They're not
particularly challenging, but they're the sort of thing I always enjoyed when
I read these books as a kid -- the hand-eye coordination game is a particular
highlight. The book also benefits from an intelligent design -- it's not
entirely linear, and in at least one place it refers back to a particular
plot elements to keep track of what the reader has and hasn't done already.
My only real complaint (a big one, I fear) applies to the rest of the series
as much as to this book, and it relates to the blandness of the writing. The
characters are pure stereotypes, and the humor doesn't go far enough into
absurdity to actually be funny most of the time. If the book had less of a
"paint-by-numbers" feel, I might have gone so far as to say it was
good. Oh well. I suppose it's also worth mentioning that this is the final
entry in the series to feature a nifty prism cover.
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23. Zapped in Space
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrators: Nagata (cover), internal illustrator uncredited
First Published: November, 1997
ISBN: 0-590-39774-5
Length: 137 pages
Number of Endings: 22
Plot Summary: You pay a visit to Madame Zapp's Virtual Reality
Arcade, where you get to participate in one of two different VR games:
"Abominable Snow Woman" or "Adrift off Vega."
My Thoughts: Being a Goosebumps book, this is no great piece of
English literature, and, like many other books in the series, its internal
consistency is more or less non-existent; still, it's an above-average kids'
gamebook. The virtual reality theme is a good excuse to use diverse settings
in the story, and both plot strands are satisfyingly goal-oriented. Along
the way to completing each mission, the reader gets to face a variety of
puzzles, ranging from choosing which item to grab to solving word searches
and math problems. There's even a trivia question referring back to an
earlier volume in the series (Trapped in Bat Wing Hall). All of these
challenges are quite simple, but they give the book a lot of flavor. It's
not quite at the level of Be an Interplanetary Spy
as far as puzzles go, but it's up there with the more interesting
Twistaplot books. Also worth noting is the fact
that the cover art is printed backwards -- just look for the artist's
signature and you'll see what I mean!
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24. Lost in Stinkeye Swamp
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrators: Nagata (cover), internal illustrator uncredited
First Published: December, 1997
ISBN: 0-590-39775-3
Length: 134 pages
Number of Endings: 26
Plot Summary: You've just moved into a new house, which happens to
be directly adjacent to a swamp rumored to contain treasure... and ghosts.
My Thoughts: Like many books in the series, this one contains
several storylines, all using the same basic plot elements in totally
different ways; in other words, it lacks internal consistency. This didn't
bother me too much here, though, as each storyline provides a relatively
engaging quest, and puzzles and riddles are used liberally to keep things
enjoyable. It's just about as tacky and unoriginal as the rest of these
books, but its swampy setting and slightly eccentric characters strike enough
pleasant chords to make for fun, if intellectually undemanding, reading.
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25. Shop Till You Drop...Dead!
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrators: Craig White (cover), internal illustrator uncredited
First Published: January, 1998
ISBN: 0-590-39776-1
Length: 133 pages
Number of Endings: 27
Plot Summary: Your friend Reggie makes a bet that you and another
friend named Julie can't survive the hour from midnight to one A.M. in his
father's store, which he claims is cursed. You foolishly accept.
My Thoughts: This is the first book in the series to include a plot
line that's largely non-linear and that uses inventory management to prevent
the final battle from being won too quickly. Although not a total triumph
(there's a continuity error or two that crop up if you do things in the wrong
order), it's a decent gamebook, featuring some genuinely interesting
gameplay. It sort of reminds me of the Megaman video games in that
you have to conquer certain areas first in order to acquire special items
which make victory attainable in later locations. The adventure is further
enhanced by the fact that an effort has been made to make the little puzzles
more interesting and challenging than usual -- the word search puzzle is
somewhat unconventional, and the maze is both tricky and restricted by a time
limit! The paths that don't lead to the non-linear part of the book aren't
nearly as interesting, but they're certainly no worse than average for the
series. This is a book worth reading, and if you enjoy it, be sure to also
grab a copy of book 30, which does the same thing, only with even more
success.
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26. Alone in Snakebite Canyon
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Craig White (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: March, 1998
ISBN: 0-590-39997-7
Length: 137 pages
Number of Endings: 24
Plot Summary: While camping in the desert you find a shop and can
buy one of two valuable items: a pair of magic snake eyes that will allow
you to transform into different animals or a map to an old (and deadly) gold
mine.
Translation: German
My Thoughts: I quite enjoyed this book... The animal transformation
part of the book offers a lot of entertaining possibilities and the gold mine
features a fun little riddle that actually requires a few moments of thought
to solve. This is definitely one of the better books in this series.
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27. Checkout Time at the Dead-End Hotel
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Craig White (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: April, 1998
ISBN: 0-590-39998-5
Length: 140 pages
Number of Endings: 21
Plot Summary: You and your friends get trapped in a hotel inhabited
by ghosts and must find the only other human in the place in order to get
out alive.
My Thoughts: This is definitely an above-average entry in the series.
While the story is nothing special, the gameplay is quite challenging,
requiring careful exploration and good luck to get through successfully. As
a bonus, a solution to the first Give Yourself
Goosebumps Special Edition adventure is included in the back of this
book.
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28. Night of a Thousand Claws
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Craig White (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: June, 1998
ISBN: 0-590-40034-7
Length: 137 pages
Number of Endings: 26
Plot Summary: Your family goes on vacation to Cat Cay, an isolated
island with a decidedly unconventional feline population.
Translation: German
My Thoughts: After a few exceptional books in a row, the series has
returned to average here. Only a few things seem notable about this volume.
First of all, its atmosphere is a little closer to being genuinely creepy
than is usual for the series... but it's still not nearly close enough.
Perhaps more interesting is the fact that the adventure isn't as clearly
partitioned into multiple unrelated stories as most of the other books in the
series are. Usually, the first choice determines which storyline you
encounter in a Give Yourself Goosebumps book. Here, though, there's
no such clear partition between the book's storylines. However, just because
the book isn't clearly partitioned, don't think that it's a united whole --
it has as much inconsistency as any volume in the series. Finally, there are
a few gameplay gimmicks, but they're nothing special -- just some pointless
randomization and a "how many words can you find in this phrase?"
puzzle. This isn't a bad book, but it's also not really a special one. I am
indifferent to it.
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29. Invaders from the Big Screen
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrators: Uncredited
First Published: July, 1998
ISBN: 0-590-40289-7
Length: 137 pages
Number of Endings: 28
Plot Summary: You have the choice of seeing three different films:
a King Kong rip-off, an espionage thriller or (of course) a horror
flick. Whichever you choose, it proves rather more realistic than you had
anticipated...
My Thoughts: This is an average entry in the series. While its
movie-based setting offers a certain amount of variety in terms of storylines
(much like the second Which Way book), it doesn't
break any new ground and remains uninspired and predictable throughout. The
title also isn't very accurate; the reader usually ends up going into the
screen rather than battling things coming out of it. In any case, apart from
a somewhat interesting puzzle involving musical notes, this book has nothing
too special to offer. Unless you're really devoted to reading all of these
books, you won't miss much by skipping this one.
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30. You're Plant Food
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Craig White (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: September, 1998
ISBN: 0-590-41974-9
Length: 136 pages
Number of Endings: 24
Plot Summary: Your class trip to the E. Ville Creeper Botanical
Gardens turns out to be a bit more interesting than expected...
My Thoughts: This is quite an interesting little book. Like most of
the volumes in the series, it contains two more or less unrelated adventures,
and it has lots of inconsistencies of storyline. Nonetheless, its game
design is remarkably sophisticated for such a simple book. As in book 25,
one of the storylines included here is extremely non-linear and requires
the player to figure out the best order for the actions to be carried out in.
Inventory management is also essential in order for the book's mission to be
successfully completed. The other storyline is more straightforward, but it
still has the twist that if you fail to perform a particular action early on,
you can't succeed at the end. This is definitely about as close to a
"real" gamebook that you're going to get in this series, and it's
a fairly entertaining read.
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31. The Werewolf of Twisted Tree Lodge
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Craig White (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: November, 1998
ISBN: 0-590-46306-3
Length: 137 pages
Number of Endings: 25
Plot Summary: A bit of plagiarism has won you a spot at the Twisted
Tree Lodge horror convention; alas, all is not as it seems....
My Thoughts: After the previous book's interesting game design, this
one plunges back into the realm of totally random senselessness. There's
absolutely no coherence whatsoever to the book; characters and circumstances
change wildly depending on your choices, so there's no strategy involved, and
the author throws around so many different styles and concepts that it's
impossible to tell what's even supposed to be going on. There are a couple
of ideas that might have been interesting if they had been developed
consistently throughout the book, but since everything feels so
half-finished, the whole thing is really just a waste of time.
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32. It's Only a Nightmare!
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Craig White (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: December, 1998
ISBN: 0-590-76785-2
Length: 137 pages
Number of Endings: 40
Plot Summary: You're trying to sleep while visiting an inn with your
parents; this is a little difficult since your bed's headboard is covered in
creepy gargoyles and you have recurring nightmares about a strange being who
calls himself the Sleep Master.
My Thoughts: I think that I probably would have enjoyed this book had
I read it when I was younger; since it's about dreaming, it covers a broad
variety of scenarios, many of them not even attempting to be horrific in any
way. It's fast-paced and surreal, and it just feels a little different from
the average book in this series. It lacks substance and direction, though,
and being different doesn't really save it from being mediocre. It's a
change of pace, but it's not an especially worthwhile one, nor does it come
close to living up to its potential -- the Sleep Master could have been much
creepier, and most of the dream scenarios lack originality and miss
opportunities for both scares and laughs.
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33. It Came from the Internet
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrators: Craig White (cover), internal illustrator uncredited
First Published: February, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-51665-5
Length: 135 pages
Number of Endings: 22
Plot Summary: You've installed some new web crawling software, and
now your computer has a virus... a rather unusual one, at that.
My Thoughts: With my computer science background, few things annoy me
more than ludicrously stupid portrayals of computer technology in popular
culture. For this reason, I braced myself to really hate this book. Rather
to my surprise, it didn't bother me too much. Obviously, there's not a great
degree of realism on display here, what with computer viruses that can pop
out of the monitor and bite people, but enough sense of reality underlies the
fantasy that I could suspend my disbelief and accept it without cringing.
Also good is the fact that the book largely focuses on a single plotline.
There are some stupid deaths and pointless asides, but after the last two
books of disjointed random wandering, it was nice to see some degree of
consistency again. Add a gratuitous maze to keep things interesting and you
have an unexceptional but entirely readable adventure which explores some
technological themes that are too new to have been explored during the height
of gamebooks in the eighties.
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34. Elevator to Nowhere
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrators: Craig White (cover), internal illustrator uncredited
First Published: March, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-51670-1
Length: 136 pages
Number of Endings: 23
Plot Summary: You visit your science fair partner's uncle, an
inventor, and get mixed up in adventures involving an elevator that leads to
other dimensions.
My Thoughts: There sure are a lot of strange scientist uncles in
gamebook-land; the first few pages of this book felt awfully familiar to me.
Indeed, there are a lot of familiar plot devices on display here, but I found
the book to be a lot more fun than I expected. There's a clear mission to
accomplish, a variety of places to explore, multiple paths to victory, and a
sense of continuity nearly unprecedented in this series -- I was actually
able to use something I learned from my first play-through to avoid getting
killed during a later adventure. The book is also fairly well-written,
having a certain sense of fun while still taking itself relatively seriously
and, for better or worse, being surprisingly violent. This obviously isn't a
classic, but it's another unexpectedly respectable entry in a series that I
never thought I'd hold any respect for whatsoever.
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1. Into the Jaws of Doom
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Craig White (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: February, 1998
ISBN: 0-590-39777-X
Length: 238 sections (plus 10 pages of introductory material and rules)
Number of Endings: 39
Plot Summary: You lag behind the rest of your class during a field
trip to the museum and end up getting trapped by an insane Super Computer
that wants you dead!
My Thoughts: When I first opened this book, I nearly let out an
audible gasp. It has several sections per page, it requires the reader to
keep track of inventory, and it even uses dice! The only thing that keeps it
from being a "real" gamebook is its lack of character statistics
like strength or hit points. This is remarkable, especially for a
mass-market book published in 1998! Alas, the book isn't all it could be --
the design is rather spoiled by the die rolling. All of the die rolls in the
text are pure tests of luck, and since many of them are completely
unavoidable, it becomes increasingly likely that you'll lose due to bad luck
the farther into the story you get. For what it's worth, things seem to get
easier as you go, but the die-rolling still makes replaying without cheating
very tedious and is simply a bad design practice. It's unfortunate that a
point-based character creation system wasn't added to the rules -- this could
have offered a way for players to strategically avoid death by poor die rolls,
assuming that different rolls were adjusted by different abilities. Oh well;
I guess you can't have everything. Despite its flaws, it's a nice change of
pace from the more traditional Give Yourself
Goosebumps series, and its style of gameplay certainly suggests that R.
L. Stine hasn't forgotten about his classic Hark
series.
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2. Return to Terror Tower
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrators: Craig White (cover), internal illustrator uncredited
First Published: May, 1998
ISBN: 0-590-39999-3
Length: 136 pages
Number of Endings: 26
Plot Summary: Eddie and Sue, the main characters of the 27th
non-interactive Goosebumps book, escort you back 800 years in time to
save England from a tyrannical threat.
My Thoughts: This is considerably more simplistic than the previous
book. We're back to the usual numbered pages rather than numbered sections,
and there's no use of dice; the only game mechanic retained is the inventory
management, and it isn't exactly ground-breaking. The game design doesn't
seem bad at first, allowing you to explore a number of medieval locations in
a non-linear fashion, but its flaws show through rather quickly. The worst
is a nasty continuity problem -- if you go to the forest, you have an
important encounter. If you then go to the village, it's entirely possible
that you'll end up having that very same encounter again due to the way the
paths converge. Very sloppy! Other problems include the fact that there's
little strategy involved in play (death often comes seemingly at random) and
the incredible stupidity of the player character -- when you come across a
bunch of signs which match the illustrations on your map, you're still
supposedly puzzled about what they could mean... And when you follow the
path leading to one tower, you believe for some reason that it leads to the
other one! Perhaps the author intended for the book's drawings to be less
obvious than what the illustrator ultimately created, but as it stands, it's
kind of annoying. This book should have been much better, and it's a shame
that the series lost its complexity after only one relatively interesting
book was published.
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3. Trapped in the Circus of Fear
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Cover artist uncredited, no internal illustrations
First Published: August, 1998
ISBN: 0-590-41920-X
Length: 131 pages
Number of Endings: 26
Plot Summary: You and your friend Richie have won the opportunity to
participate in a real circus as a result of your excellent performance at
circus camp. Of course, this being a horror story, it's not a very pleasant
place to be....
My Thoughts: The series keeps getting more simplistic -- the last
volume featured inventory management, but this one just asks you to pick
three items from a list of options before starting play, much like the
gimmick in some of the Time Machine books. Once
your initial items are chosen, they never change, and you can't pick up any
others. There are also enough hints in the text about item selection which
make the whole book remarkably easy to complete successfully (though lots of
deaths are nonetheless inevitable). There are only two other things that are
special about this Special Edition other than the item selection. First of
all, there's an interesting word search where you have to count the number of
times you find a word, multiply this by another number and then turn to that
page; this is slightly reminiscent of (admittedly more complicated) math
puzzles found in some of the better British gamebooks. The other unusual
thing is the fact that the entire book is devoted to one storyline rather
than being broken up into two or more unrelated adventures like most of the
regular Give Yourself Goosebumps books are.
Despite this, though, the adventure seems kind of short. Regardless of its
disappointing elements, though, the book isn't awful. Somehow, it wasn't as
cringe-inducing as I've come to expect from this series, and I actually
almost (though not quite) chuckled at its humor here and there. This isn't
as good as the first Special Edition, but it definitely beats the second one.
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4. One Night in Payne House
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrators: Craig White (cover), internal illustrator uncredited
First Published: October, 1998
ISBN: 0-590-43378-4
Length: 135 pages
Number of Endings: 23
Plot Summary: You and your friend Trevor have dared each other to
spend a night in Payne House, the setting of a horror movie you've seen many
times. Predictably enough, the movie is all too real....
My Thoughts: This book uses the same item-picking game system as the
last book, though it adds the ability to pick up additional items; there are
a couple things in the house that you can grab for later use. The adventure
is also considerably more challenging than the last -- there are quite a few
red herrings, and only after you've died many times, receiving hints and
knowledge of the house in the process, do you have much hope of winning.
There challenge is further enhanced by a "figure out a number and then
turn to that page" puzzle along with a clever method of ensuring that
the reader has visited a particular location and grabbed a necessary
inventory item. All in all, the book has a fairly decent design, since it
allows the reader to experience most of the story before winning, though it
ultimately feels kind of hollow -- there's really no skill involved in
winning; it's just process of elimination combined with luck. It also seems
unfair that a reader who weighs under sixty pounds is completely doomed and
can't win without cheating. Of course, what more should I expect from a
Goosebumps book? Taken in the context of the series, this is pretty good.
Taken out of that context, it's mediocre, though not entirely without
redeeming features.
Errata: The second choice on page 71 should probably read "If
you didn't bring the bat, or if you don't wish to use it, turn to PAGE
113." Otherwise, it would be impossible for the reader to ever make use
of the bat later on in the story, since as things stand, the story only
advances if you don't have the bat.
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5. The Curse of the Cave Creatures
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrators: Craig White (cover), internal illustrator uncredited
First Published: January, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-18734-1
Length: 136 pages
Number of Endings: 28
Plot Summary: While hiking through the desert, you find a cave. All
too quickly, you manage to break an ancient skull and release a dangerous
spirit, and it's now your job to undo the damage you have done!
My Thoughts: It seems that R. L. Stine (or whatever author was
borrowing his name for the purposes of writing this book) was feeling a bit
nostalgic for Wizards, Warriors & You when the concept for this
adventure was devised. The first choice you are faced with is whether to be
a hunter or a spellcaster, and depending on your decision, you must then
pick out a selection of weapons or spells to bring along on your mission.
This, combined with the fairly promising-sounding plot, raised my hopes that
this would be an entertaining adventure. Unfortunately, it fell far short of
its potential. The weapon and spell choosing is rather pointless since in
each case you get to pick three items from a list of only four, and there's
not much strategy to actually using the things you choose, especially if you
become a hunter. Similarly pointless are the pair of puzzles found in the
book -- although the word transformation puzzle is used in what could almost
(but not quite) be called a clever manner, I really can't comprehend the
point of the color-in-the-squares thingie on page 120. Things are made much
worse by the fact that the writing is well below par (and par is pretty low
when you consider that we're talking about Goosebumps here). The overall
tone is light, but not humorous, thus undermining the horror and inducing
apathy in the reader. There are lots of pointless sentence fragments (my
favorite was the gramatically nightmarish "Let him show itself."),
and descriptions often go too far overboard in attempting to be impressive (a
Pterosaur as big as a tree?!). Add at least one dumb factual error
(tarantulas and scorpions aren't insects, and most people know that by now),
and you've got quite a mess. It's not very challenging either, and the title
doesn't feel quite appropriate. Definitely the low point of the series thus
far.
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6. Revenge of the Body Squeezers
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Craig White (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: June, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-51674-4
Length: 134 pages
Number of Endings: 23
Plot Summary: You return from a trip to find out that your friend
Jack has just fended off an alien invasion -- and a second one is just
beginning!
My Thoughts: This book doesn't really seem to belong in this series;
there's nothing special about it to make it a Special Edition -- no gimmicks,
no rules, no extra-high challenge level. The only justification I can think
of is the fact that it's a sequel to a non-interactive Goosebumps 2000 novel,
though that doesn't seem like a very good reason to me. Even if I didn't
feel the need to complain about its inappropriate classification, though, I
still would have a lot to gripe about -- this is a mediocre effort at best.
As in the last book, the writing is pretty awful, being filled with annoying
sentence fragments that seem to be meant to make things more exciting but
which actually serve only to distract the reader. Like practically
everything bearing the Goosebumps label, the adventure lacks originality and
intelligence. Surprisingly, though, there is one small but amusing sign of
creativity in the book: in probably the most bizarre scene in the whole
series, you attempt to save Los Angeles from an alien squeeze-bomb by
attacking Leonard Nimoy's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a pick-ax!
Alas, the execution of this wonderfully bizarre idea isn't as good as it
should have been, but the idea alone made me laugh, and that's more than I
can say for most members of the Give Yourself
Goosebumps family. This is a pretty lousy book, but it deserves a little
credit for being more outrageously odd than most of its kin.
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7. Trick or... Trapped!
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Craig White (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: October, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-99393-3
Length: 135 pages
Number of Endings: 27
Plot Summary: It's Halloween, and your classmate Nathan has just
tipped you off to a great place to acquire loads of candy!
My Thoughts: This book is at least a bit more special than the last
one -- this time there is a gimmick, namely inventory management. As you
explore the book, you also have to keep track of the candy and other items
that you pick up. Sounds interesting enough, but it's seriously underused.
Books with inventory management work best when you can either use the items
strategically or when the book itself feels like a puzzle. Obviously, in a
book without attributes or hit points, strategic item use doesn't figure into
the mix, and this book doesn't manage to inspire the puzzle feeling since no
items are essential for victory... there isn't even an end score for them to
contribute to! So ultimately, the whole thing feels empty; lots of random,
pseudo-horrific events combined a few pointless items to pick up do not make
a very successful gamebook. It's not entirely awful, but it doesn't have
enough distinguishing features to make it worth wasting time on.
Errata: Page 38 should really offer an "If you have neither
item, turn to..." option. I guess the author was just desperate to
sucker people into falling for the cheater trap on page 92.
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8. Weekend at Poison Lake
Author: R. L. Stine
Illustrator: Craig White (cover), no internal illustrations
First Published: December, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-99652-5
Length: 135 pages
Number of Endings: 23
Plot Summary: In four mostly unrelated but somewhat parallel stories,
your trip to Poison Lake turns out to be a decidedly horrific event.
My Thoughts: As I understand it, the Goosebumps books were nearly the
doom of Scholastic; lots of money was invested into the series, but then it
suddenly dropped in popularity, leaving contractual obligations to be
fulfilled but little public interest in more books. If not for the timely
appearance of Harry Potter, the publisher would probably be in considerably
worse shape than it actually is today. In any case, I say all this to
justify my theory that the use of the phrase "Last Chance" on the
cover of this, the last Special Edition Give Yourself Goosebumps book,
is not a coincidence -- in fact, there was likely some temptation to put
"Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish" somewhere on the book's exterior.
Anyway, publishing industry disasters aside, this is a pretty pitiful ending
to a series that started out by exceeding all expectations. The gimmick here
is that you pick a lucky number at the start of the book, and this lucky
number determines which of the four unrelated stories you end up participating
in. At numerous times during each adventure, you have chances to use your
lucky number to get out of bad situations. If this were something like the
"Test Your Luck" situations in Fighting
Fantasy, it might be interesting. Unfortunately, there's no pattern to
the way your lucky number works, so it acts mainly as an excuse for the
author to include random story branches without having to devise actual
meaningful choices. It almost goes without saying that the writing isn't
good enough to compensate for the frustratingly pointless game design.
Although I was pretty displeased with this book, I could see its basic format
working well in more capable hands -- it normally frustrates me when gamebook
plot lines deviate as wildly as the plots do here, but the difference is that
most gamebooks have one introductory passage from which all plots diverge.
In this book, however, the first choice comes before any plot is introduced,
and thus each storyline has its own distinct beginning. Imagine an
interactive collection of short stories, running parallel with one another
and sharing the same themes but being otherwise distinct (except, perhaps,
for occasional opportunities for the reader to cross over from one into
another). I think it could be fascinating if done correctly.
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1. Golden Girl and the Vanishing Unicorn
