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A review by roach
Die spektakuläre Reise ins Schwarze Loch by Edward Packard
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
5.0
The view from the window is impressive. Your ship is so fast that the whole sky is distorted by relativistic effects. The planets and star clusters seem to ball up behind you. Everything shines in an eerie reddish orange. The stars in front of you have a violet shade. Located in the middle is a jet-black disc - the black hole.
(Quote translated from German.)
Originally titled Through the Black Hole, this Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book by Edward Packard - who is basically the creator of the genre - was my favorite book of the kind when I was a kid. Revisiting this as an adult out of nostalgic curiosity, I was obviously skeptical that it would have the same effect as it had back then, especially after revisiting another book from the same series by another author which ended up being somewhat disappointing. Surprisingly though, I still absolutely loved Packard's space-travel adventure.
Despite the middle-grade prose and the brief chapters due to the nature of the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure mechanics, Through the Black Hole manages to build up a really fun scifi atmosphere and incorporates some very cool ideas in the different possible story pathways. It doesn't waste much time with a dry introduction either and offers up plenty of interesting endings.
During what I would call the canonical main storyline it even takes its time at points to really let the world breathe a bit, which is a bit unusual of these game books.
Additionally, this German publication of the book included some really cool illustrations by artist Felix Scheinberger that added a lot to the experience.
I genuinely recommend this wholeheartedly as a gift for a teenager. It can get a bit gnarly at points with some of the ideas of being stranded for dead in space, but it's not that graphic and it makes for some really engaging reading.
Originally titled Through the Black Hole, this Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book by Edward Packard - who is basically the creator of the genre - was my favorite book of the kind when I was a kid. Revisiting this as an adult out of nostalgic curiosity, I was obviously skeptical that it would have the same effect as it had back then, especially after revisiting another book from the same series by another author which ended up being somewhat disappointing. Surprisingly though, I still absolutely loved Packard's space-travel adventure.
Despite the middle-grade prose and the brief chapters due to the nature of the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure mechanics, Through the Black Hole manages to build up a really fun scifi atmosphere and incorporates some very cool ideas in the different possible story pathways. It doesn't waste much time with a dry introduction either and offers up plenty of interesting endings.
During what I would call the canonical main storyline it even takes its time at points to really let the world breathe a bit, which is a bit unusual of these game books.
Additionally, this German publication of the book included some really cool illustrations by artist Felix Scheinberger that added a lot to the experience.
I genuinely recommend this wholeheartedly as a gift for a teenager. It can get a bit gnarly at points with some of the ideas of being stranded for dead in space, but it's not that graphic and it makes for some really engaging reading.