Books Illustrated by Catherine Huerta

2. Journey Under the Sea
Author: R. A. Montgomery
Illustrators: Don Hedin (credited as Paul Granger) (interior and original cover), Catherine Huerta (reissue cover)
First Published: 1979 (earlier edition published in 1977)
ISBN: 0-553-14003-5 (early printings), 0-553-20979-5 (later printings), 0-553-23229-0 (even later printings), 0-553-27393-0 (much later printings)
Length: 117 pages
Number of Endings: 42
Plot Summary: You are an undersea explorer in search of Atlantis.
Translations: Catalan, Dutch, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish (Argentina), Spanish (Spain), Urdu
My Thoughts: Although the writing is a little weak, this is a good gamebook. The mission to find Atlantis gives the reader a goal and sense of purpose, which generally makes these things a lot more fun. This book was first published as part of the Adventures of You series.

78. Return to Atlantis
Author: R. A. Montgomery
Illustrators: Catherine Huerta (cover), George Tsui
First Published: April, 1988
ISBN: 0-553-27123-7
Length: 113 pages
Number of Endings: 18
Plot Summary: Three years after discovering Atlantis, you decide to go back and learn more about the lost city.
Translations: Catalan, Spanish (Spain)
My Thoughts: After more than ten years, R. A. Montgomery wrote this sequel to what was probably his first gamebook, Journey Under the Sea. The book suffers from the fact that it has no particular objective or plot, and not all of its branches and endings are entirely satisfying, but it is still a respectable adventure full of the implausible but fun science-fantasy concepts that readers have come to expect of the series. In and of itself, the book isn't anything too special, but for fans of this series, and R. A. Montgomery's work in particular, it provides plenty of new and unusual territory to explore and is well worth a read.

82. Hurricane!
Author: Richard Brightfield
Illustrators: Catherine Huerta (cover), Leslie Morrill (interior)
First Published: August, 1988
ISBN: 0-553-27356-6
Length: 114 pages
Number of Endings: 16
Plot Summary: You are a seeker of sunken treasures, but you are distracted from your normal activities when a girl asks you to help her find her lost father, a computer programmer who disappeared while searching for the source of some mysterious signals.
My Thoughts: Like the last title, this book fully embraces the unique tone of this series. In its chaotic pages, it has pirates, mad scientists, mysterious armies, ancient structures and, as the title suggests, some nasty weather. I didn't really find it to be a terribly interesting read, though; the book simply fails to offer anything new, and past entries in the series have dealt with the same subject matter in a more interesting fashion. It does earn some points by giving the player a clear objective to aim for and making it somewhat difficult to achieve that objective, but since the choices are more random than strategic, there's no particular satisfaction in "winning." Interestingly enough, my copy of this book is a seventh printing, which suggests that this was reprinted a lot more times than the average book in the series was. Perhaps it has some special charm that I'm somehow completely missing.

83. Track of the Bear
Author: R. A. Montgomery
Illustrators: Catherine Huerta (cover), Frank Bolle (interior)
First Published: September, 1988
ISBN: 0-553-27533-X
Length: 113 pages
Number of Endings: 15
Plot Summary: You are the descendent of a long-lost Arctic explorer, and when you hear that a movie is going to be made about his more famous and successful rival, you decide that it's time to find out what really happened all those years ago....
Translation: German
My Thoughts: This was something of a surprise. After two books that consisted almost entirely of disjointed random events, I was shocked to run across a book with a consistent and fully-developed plot. I was even more startled to find such a book coming from R. A. Montgomery, an author not generally known for being satisfied with just one storyline at a time. While I found the book to be rather seriously flawed by its sometimes less than likeable characters and its over-the-top good-guy/bad-guy rivalry, it really is refreshing once in a while to read through a book which actually makes an effort to answer most of the questions that it raises. Although it's not as impressive an accomplishment as Danger at Anchor Mine (another solidly plot-oriented Choose Your Own Adventure), it's still a mostly satisfying work and an interesting departure for its author.

1. Tenopia Island
Author: Edward Packard
Illustrators: Catherine Huerta (cover), David Perry (interior)
First Published: June, 1986
ISBN: 0-553-25472-3
Length: 133 pages
Number of Endings: 1
Plot Summary: You are the only survivor of an unfortunate encounter between a spaceship and a meteor. Your lifepod lands on the dangerous planet of Tenopia, and you must find a way home.
Translation: Spanish
My Thoughts: I found note-taking to be rather essential for this book. During your travels on Tenopia Island, you're often asked if you've been to certain specific locations before. Since the place names are all rather unmemorable, it's hard to keep track of where you've been without writing some things down. Perhaps I took the note-taking too far, however; I also wrote down some clues, and by following them, I managed to finish the book so quickly that I didn't have much chance to be entertained by it. I certainly wasn't as thrilled as when I first played it about a decade ago and fell in love with the series. Still, this isn't a bad design -- it's much more game-like than Edward Packard's better-known Choose Your Own Adventure books, with map-reading and puzzle-solving playing important parts on the way to victory. The fact that there's no way to lose may disappoint gamebook fans looking for a challenge, however; Fighting Fantasy this is not...

2. Trapped in the Sea Kingdom
Author: Richard Brightfield
Illustrators: Catherine Huerta (cover), David Perry (interior)
First Published: June, 1986
ISBN: 0-553-25473-1
Length: 134 pages
Number of Endings: 1
Plot Summary: On your way to Kabran, you fall from a balloon, get implanted with gills and find yourself in need of a way out of the dangerous Sea Kingdom.
Translation: Spanish
My Thoughts: As far as the need for extensive note-taking goes, this is an improvement over its predecessor; the locations are, for the most part, fairly distinctive, so it's much easier to remember where you've previously been. The overall challenge level is also higher than the previous book; while there are some clues about the path to safety, they're not nearly as explicit as before. I like the undersea setting quite a bit, though the story isn't as exciting as it might have been -- far too much time is wasted being captured again and again by countless similar evil races. Really, the most notable thing about the whole book is its "translate the ancient language" cryptogram puzzle, which works surprisingly well and doesn't feel as gratuitous as such puzzles often do. As with the previous book, I really loved this when I first read it years ago, but I wasn't too impressed when I returned to it more recently. I find this a little saddening, though I guess I shouldn't be surprised that my literary priorities have changed a bit over the years...

3. Terror on Kabran
Author: Richard Brightfield
Illustrators: Catherine Huerta (cover), David Perry (interior)
First Published: August, 1986
ISBN: 0-553-25636-X
Length: 129 pages
Number of Endings: 1
Plot Summary: At last you've reached Kabran... but now you need to figure out where the Galactic Patrol Station that holds the key to your freedom is actually located!
Translation: Spanish
My Thoughts: This adventure has the best sense of exploration so far in the series. Rather than giving you a general direction to travel in and forcing you to plod along while avoiding setbacks, this book instead gives you no initial clues as to where your destination lies; you've got to do all of the detective work from scratch. Unfortunately, I didn't find the ultimate solution to be very satisfying; in fact, I don't know what happened -- after wandering in circles I eventually randomly came across a signpost displaying some familiar symbols, and I was out. Trying to act on clues didn't seem to help much. Perhaps I missed some important detail somewhere, but I don't think so... I also think the book might have been a little more fun if it required the reader to keep track of Pango seed expenditure; the seeds are used as currency in the book, but the reader's supply dwindles and is replenished for the convenience of the plot rather than in any realistic way. It might have been more fun to have required seeds to be spent at certain times and earned by playing minigames at others. Of course, this probably would have made the book more complex than the authors would have liked... but perhaps a little more complexity is just what the series needed. In any case, this is the most fun I've had up to this point in my exploration of Tenopia, but it's definitely far from perfect.

4. Star System Tenopia
Author: Richard Brightfield
Illustrators: Catherine Huerta (cover), David Perry (interior)
First Published: September, 1986
ISBN: 0-553-25637-8
Length: 131 pages
Number of Endings: 1
Plot Summary: Life is never easy. Just as you think you're on your way home, space pirates attack your ship and force you to track down an alternate means of transport: the well-hidden emergency Galactic Patrol starship.
Translation: Spanish
My Thoughts: Time to get out the notebook again... Like the first book in the series, there are a lot of weird place names to remember (some of which differ by only a single letter), and you'll almost certainly have to write them down if you wish to correctly answer the "have you been to this place before?" questions. Despite this annoyance, the book is entertaining; much of the challenge lies in collecting five words which make up a code needed to activate the starship you seek. "Collect the parts" is certainly a classic gamebook objective, and it's done well (though without much innovation) here. Unfortunately, though, the book suffers from excessive linearity at times. The first section of the story is seven pages long (not including illustrations), and there are several points where the reader isn't given a choice when he or she really should be able to make one (why, for example, would you want to fly directly into a pirate base?). Perhaps the original manuscript was longer than the publisher wanted and some choices had to be edited out. Despite its problems, though, the book is fun, and it definitely ends the series on a high note.