1. Find the Kirillian!
Author: Seth McEvoy
Illustrators: Marc Hempel and Mark Wheatley (original artwork), Steve Fastner (reissue cover)
First Published: June, 1983
ISBN: 0-553-23506-0 (original), 0-553-25863-X (reissue)
Length: 121 pages
Number of Endings: 16
Plot Summary: You must rescue a young prince and retrieve valuable
jewels from an evil interplanetary criminal named Phatax.
Translations: Spanish, Swedish
My Thoughts: This isn't a bad start to the series... Some of the
puzzles are fairly interesting, though the vast majority are exceedingly
simple, pointless, or entirely based on random luck. This book was later
released with a different cover, probably because Space Invaders look of the
first cover illustration was a bit dated by the mid 80s.
2. The Galactic Pirate
Author: Seth McEvoy
Illustrators: Marc Hempel (original artwork and reissue cover) and Mark Wheatley (original artwork only)
First Published: June, 1983
ISBN: 0-553-23507-9 (original), 0-553-25862-1 (reissue)
Length: 121 pages
Number of Endings: 25
Plot Summary: Marko Khen, an evil space pirate, has been mutating
harmless animals into huge monsters and using them to terrorize innocent
planets. You must find and stop him.
Translations: Spanish, Swedish
My Thoughts: This book is similar in quality to the previous one.
Most of the puzzles are similar as well, being for the most part mazes and
pattern recognition challenges.
The reissued version of this book is not part of my collection; the scan
is courtesy of Jaret R. Morgan.
3. Robot World
Author: Seth McEvoy
Illustrators: Marc Hempel and Mark Wheatley
First Published: August, 1983
ISBN: 0-553-23700-4
Length: 121 pages
Number of Endings: 23
Plot Summary: An experiment to see if robots can be used as settlers
goes terribly wrong when the robots involved decide to destroy humans for
their imperfection. You must stop the rebellion and rescue Dr. Cyberg, the
creator of the robots.
Translations: Spanish, Swedish
My Thoughts: The difficulty level is a bit higher in this book;
some of the puzzles require a bit more thought than those in the earlier
books did. Some effort is also made to make the book slightly less
linear by allowing the reader to visit a few locations in random order.
4. Space Olympics
Author: Ron Martinez
Illustrators: Rich Larson and Steve Fastner (cover), John Pierard and Tom Sutton (interior)
First Published: August, 1983
ISBN: 0-553-23701-2
Length: 121 pages
Number of Endings: 15
Plot Summary: An evil spy named Gresh wishes to sabotage the first
Space Olympics, and you must stop him while protecting the superathlete
Andromeda.
Translation: Spanish
My Thoughts: This is the first book in the series not written by
Seth McEvoy. It's slightly more wordy than McEvoy's work (which is not
to say it has much text; none of these books do) and consequently has
fewer puzzles. What puzzles are present are fairly simple. The most
unusual thing in the book is a device which functions differently depending
on the eye color of the reader.
5. Monsters of Doorna
Author: Seth McEvoy
Illustrators: Marc Hempel and Steve Fastner (cover), Marc Hempel and Mark Wheatley (interior)
First Published: November, 1983
ISBN: 0-553-23941-4
Length: 121 pages
Number of Endings: 22
Plot Summary: A report of attacking monsters in a distant sector
sends you on a mission to go farther from Spy Center than any agent has ever
before gone, using an experimental X-wing (!) spacecraft.
Translation: Spanish
My Thoughts: This is largely an average book -- I wasn't particularly
impressed with it, but I also have no major complaints. As with the rest of
the series, many of the puzzles are rather pointless, but there are a few
clever ones -- my favorite involved using shadows to determine the direction
of the movement of two suns. Too many choices relied on memorizing details
of illustrations seen long ago, though. The illustrations, which are a vital
part of these books considering the brevity of the text, largely failed to
impress me, but I can at least appreciate the creativity of conveying the
height of the story's mysterious tower by forcing the reader to turn the book
sideways and look at two consecutive two-page pictures; too bad the actual
art is less than awe-inspiring. The final thing worth mentioning about this
book is the fact that it turns out to be a direct sequel to a previous title;
while I like this sort of thing, it didn't really advance the story much
here.
6. The Star Crystal
Author: Ron Martinez
Illustrators: Rich Larson and Steve Fastner
First Published: January, 1984
ISBN: 0-553-23942-2
Length: 121 pages
Number of Endings: 17
Plot Summary: You must guard the Star Crystal, a priceless jewel,
as it is transported on an unusual ship known as the Moebius Express.
Translation: Spanish
My Thoughts: This is among the best books in the series. Its
strangeness and use of optical illusions helps it immensely; the puzzles
aren't very hard, but some of them are interestingly designed. As a bonus,
the book also includes a model of the Moebius Express (a moebius strip, of
course) to cut out and assemble.
7. Rebel Spy
Author: Len Neufeld
Illustrators: Steve Fastner (cover), Alex Nino (interior)
First Published: June, 1984
ISBN: 0-553-24198-2
Length: 120 pages
Number of Endings: 20
Plot Summary: You must find and defeat a rebel intent on destroying
the Interplanetary Spy organization.
Translation: Spanish
My Thoughts: The basic content of this book is unexceptional, but
there are a couple of things worth noting. First of all, this picks up right
where the last book left off; the reader is now a level two spy working with
Callisto. This book also marks the point where the basic appearance of the
series changed somewhat with a new logo and slightly different cover layout.
8. Mission to Microworld
Author: Seth McEvoy
Illustrators: Alex Nino and Steve Fastner
First Published: August, 1984
ISBN: 0-553-24521-X
Length: 121 pages
Number of Endings: 24
Plot Summary: You receive a call from your old friend the biodroid,
but when you soon discover that the planet he called from has disappeared.
My Thoughts: Due to the presence of the biodroid and Dr. Cyberg,
this is something of a sequel to Robot World. Although this use of
series continuity is interesting, the rest of the book is average.
Errata: At the bottom of page 5, you should turn to page 8 (not page
6 as the book says). Also, at the bottom of page 11, you should turn to page
6 (not page 8). If you follow the incorrect order in the book, you will skip
some puzzles (I think it's 2).
(Thanks to Jason Horner for these
corrections.)
9. Ultraheroes
Authors: Len Neufeld and Michael Banks
Illustrators: Dennis Francis and Steve Fastner
First Published: November, 1984
ISBN: 0-553-24425-6
Length: 120 pages
Number of Endings: 16
Plot Summary: The evil brother of agent Tunk is attempting to
use mind control to sabotage the training of the Ultraheroes, a group of
superheroes who are presently learning how best to fight evil. You must
find out whose mind he is controlling and stop him before it's too late!
My Thoughts: This isn't a bad entry in the series; while many of the
puzzles are pretty pointless, enough are interesting to make up for the
book's shortcomings. My biggest complaint, though, is that the comet swarm
puzzle on pages 84 and 85 doesn't make any sense; neither of the solutions
seem right to me.
10. Planet Hunters
Author: Seth McEvoy
Illustrators: Steve Fastner (cover), Darrel Anderson (interior)
First Published: February, 1985
ISBN: 0-553-24532-5
Length: 121 pages
Number of Endings: 24
Plot Summary: You must capture the Planet Hunters, a trio of fiendish
criminals who destroy entire planets for sport.
My Thoughts: This is a fairly uninteresting entry in the series.
None of the puzzles are particularly inspired and the plot couldn't be much
more linear.
11. The Red Rocket
Author: Seth McEvoy
Illustrators: Steve Fastner (cover), Darrel Anderson (interior)
First Published: May, 1985
ISBN: 0-553-25078-7
Length: 121 pages
Number of Endings: 26
Plot Summary: To prevent an interplanetary war, you must retrieve
a treaty lost in space centuries ago.
My Thoughts: This book refers back to almost all of the previous
books in the series; it's a direct sequel to Robot World and it draws
characters from various other stories. Apart from this it is fairly
unexceptional.
12. Skystalker
Author: Len Neufeld
Illustrators: Paul Rivoche (cover), Brian Humphrey (interior)
First Published: September, 1985
ISBN: 0-553-24894-4
Length: 119 pages
Number of Endings: 17
Plot Summary: A villain named Skystalker has stolen the Romular
Sphere, an ancient and valuable artifact. Unfortunately, he is unaware of
the fact that its contents are capable of destroying the entire universe!
You must recover the Sphere before it is unwittingly opened!
My Thoughts: This isn't a bad end to the series, though it lacks
finality... The book makes such a big deal out of the fact that it is your
first level three mission that you can't help but think that there were
further level three missions planned. The book's story and characters are
typically minimalistic (especially the subplot involving Zillio, which is
ridiculously underdeveloped), but its puzzles are often quite interesting and
the artwork is amusing, especially the illustrations of Daxon. There are a
couple of sloppy points in the book. First of all, on page 29, the stray
sentence "When it sees you, it jumps up and runs away." doesn't
seem to fit in where it shows up. Secondly, the puzzle on page 101 seems
like it could have been presented in a slightly more readable fashion. Flaws
aside, though, I enjoyed the book and wish that more had been written...
