Item - Escape

Escape is one CYOA that stayed with me after I found other stuff to buy with my allowance. Perhaps it's only because it's the first book of its kind that I read. But I liked the combined mystery and escape elements. You were captured on a reconnaissance mission you led to Dorado, a totalitarian state. Your parents are high up in the government of Turtalia, still a democracy with Denver as its capital, in an America that's been split in three. You have three friends with you, but the Doradan government always seems to know where you're going. So: is one of them a traitor?

Perhaps I'd have seen the clues a bit more easily as an adult. But I still enjoy the options to escape by land or air--many CYOAs have two radically different branches with nothing in common and feel like two separate small books. There's also the ways in which the traitor, on rereading, seeks to slow things down, as well as the endings where something weird is up, but you're not sure. Also there's one ending where it seems like you make it back, but you-the-character overlooked something, and the Turtalian air forces follow protocol and shoot you down without knowing your identity. And you can also enter Los Angeles and San Francisco, noted war zones. Perhaps I just found it neater and more sci-fi than most Westerns or whatever. Well, we should all have a few of those.

Years later, on re-reading Escape, I found myself glad to see all three of my companions, even the traitor. This may fall in the nostalgia category, but it is relatively consistent, and the air versus land escapes provide different forms of tension. There's even a scene where a friend (he swears it's him) can't quite remember the signs and counter-signs, and you have to make the decision to trust him.

More reviews by andrewschultz

This one annoyed the living daylights out of me way back when. Essentially, at the start you have a choice which divides the story into two main threads: either you're fleeing by plane or by car.

However, in the car thread, there are NO conclusive victory endings! Essentially, if you choose 'wrong' in the first thread you doom yourself at best to an ending that says something like "You head to the border and know you're going to make it!" Gee, book, don't knock yourself out there.

The identity of the traitor is transparently obvious, but his / her identity really doesn't make that much of a difference in the majority of the plot threads.

Some of the endings are just bizarre as well. At one point when you fly your plane into a cloud-bank, the books tells you "You fly into the clouds. You are never seen again." What??? Can't you at least tell me whether I crashed, starved or whatever?

Anyway, definitely one of the lesser efforts of the series.

More reviews by Aussiesmurf

Escape depicts a dystopian future in which the U. S. has split into three hostile states. Your goal is to escape the totalitarian nation of Dorado with the rebel leader and invasion plans. This book is very well plotted with a great sense of realism. Your companions, Matt, Mimla, and Haven, are well written, and their verbal disputes about possible courses of action drive the choices presented to you. Chance and randomness play a part in some of the endings, but other endings are the result of intelligent choices you can make if you puzzle things out. Good world-building presents a plausible depiction of the possible future. I remember learning the vocabulary word "totalitarian" from this book. As far as reading material goes, it was a rather mature concept for a 10 year old. This is a favorite from my childhood, and it still reads well today.

4 out of 5 stars.

An amusing postscript: your character is depicted in the artwork with a shadowy face so that you can imagine that it is you. One of your companions is named Matt, and when I was younger I thought he looked like Duke from G. I. Joe. Of course I wanted to be Duke, so I identified with him as the main character. I always wondered why "Matt" didn't have a face, not realizing that he was really the reader's character.

More reviews by auximenes

This is another average book. It's not bad, but it's also not particularly exceptional. The futuristic setting is a good idea, but it's rather uncreatively developed.

More reviews by Demian

Escape strategy is VERY good, I must say. The many escapes make for a SUPER fun adventure.
The funniest character by far, is Haven. He's the--never mind, don't want to ruin it--nervous guy.
Getting to freedom is easy enough but not too much, like Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?
Great read. Again, highly recommend.
10/10

More reviews by Good

Escape envisions a United States divided by cultural hostilities into three regions: Dorado, Rebellium, and Turtalia. The year is 2035, and you were heading up a Turtalian spy mission in Doradan territory when the Secret Police nabbed you. After escaping custody, you and fellow resistance leaders Mimla, Matt, and Haven are waiting in the desert for a rescue airplane, but the pilot is late. Soon, Doradan officers will catch up to you. Is it wiser to wait for the plane, or sneak back into town and devise another method of escape to the Turtalian capital of Denver?

The Windmaster plane eventually arrives, but the pilot, Bill, suffers a heart attack. Are you willing to try flying the plane with enemies firing on you? Violent stormclouds brew, and you could easily collide with an obscured mountain peak en route to Denver. Risking a radio distress call from the air to Turtalia might draw Doradan pilots right to you, and you have to deal with your fellow escapee Haven, a nervous man prone to blunders. Is he inept, or a Doradan mole? If the enemy confirms your location in the air, death is imminent unless you trick them using stolen spy codes. Fortune favors the bold, but any wrong move can get you blown out of the sky. If you're forced into a crash landing, you can migrate to Denver on foot, but Bill is in no condition to travel. Should you stash him in a sheltered spot and leave without him? Perhaps you never attempted to pilot the Windmaster, and instead took off with Mimla, Matt, and Haven in a 2005 Chevy Blazer truck. Out in the desert you're exposed to aircraft; you can try to blend in with Doradan traffic on Highway 56, or cut across treacherous Satan Pass. The farther you go in the mountains the less likely you'll be apprehended, but be on the lookout for a strong ally to help get you the rest of the way home.

Abandon from the very start the idea of waiting for the Windmaster plane, and you, Mimla, Matt, and Haven end up hiding across from Doradan Secret Police headquarters in Albuquerque at the house of a Turtalian sympathizer named Julio. You can't linger in New Mexico; try the flatland evacuation route and you find yourself relying on fake IDs to get past security checkpoints. When you pass an unattended jeep, should you steal it or continue on foot? Maybe you'd rather take the arduous mountain route to Denver, but before you leave Julio’s house, a man leaves a message claiming there's a traitor in your midst. Do you believe him? If Julio knocks at his house's front door and claims he's forgotten the password, should you accept his excuse or leave him outside where soldiers shoot curfew violators? The only way to survive and someday possibly reunite America is to make it to Denver, but there are lots of painful bumps on the road.

This book is more disciplined than most R. A. Montgomery entries in the first twenty classic Choose Your Own Adventures. The premise is simple: complete your escape from Dorado to Denver. You don't make it all the way in every good ending, but as long as you're safe from immediate execution, you've accomplished your goal as far as this book is concerned. Reforming the broken United States is another matter, one you'll learn more about in Beyond Escape!, Choose Your Own Adventure book sixty-one. As for Escape, there could be more surprises and narrative variety, but it may be Montgomery's second-best book to this point in the series, behind The Race Forever. Pull Escape off the shelf when you want fast action without much baggage.

More reviews by KenJenningsJeopardy74

I don't like this book. To me, it seemed to be just as stupid as many of R. A.'s other entries in this series. Following on what Demian said, the setting seems to just be World War II by any other name. Moreover, I also find it unlikely that "Mimla" is a very common name in what's likely a Spanish-speaking country. The illustrations are full of technological anachronisms unlikely to be found in 2032.

As for the mechanics of this book, R. A. isn't as bad here as he can often be. Only a few of the endings are inconclusive - mainly, you either get caught or make it. The spy Haven remains a traitor in all threads and doesn't change his role depending which path you take. However, it still isn't a very engaging or original story and although the writing is slightly better, that didn't change my overall impression.

More reviews by Stockton

I was a bit disturbed by what's blatantly a mockery of Christianity on page 82, but I really shouldn't judge the book by that. Spiritual differences aside, this book is okay. It was a bit bland, and the characters were disappointingly one-dimensional props used to convey the pros and cons of the choices to the reader. However, there were some situations that required logical thought and there is a pretty decent plot twist to make things more memorable.

More reviews by Waluigi Freak 99