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A review by roach
Typhoon! (Choose Your Own Adventure, #162) by Edward Packard
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
"I've shot men whose lives were worth more than yours", she exclaimed cold as ice.
[Quote translated from German.]
Typhoon! is one of those choose-your-own-adventure books I bought as a kid and absolutely loved back then. I remember grabbing it from the book store and being a bit disappointed that they didn't have any CYOA books on the shelf that day with a subject or setting that I was more interested in, since I never cared much about nautical stuff, but then being positively surprised when I read it at home and loved it. Kid-me gave this one a full 10/10 rating and called it a favorite of the series.
So, as an adult, still having a handful of these books on my shelf, I was curious if this one would hold up in any way all these years later. After all, I still had a genuine blast reading reading Through The Black Hole as an adult. And both of them were written by Edward Packard himself who is credited for popularizing the whole CYOA genre.
Typhoon! has you be the navigator on a boat trying to navigate your friends through the waves of an oncoming typhoon somewhere in tropic water. There is some neat stuff where at one point the book actually shows you a map of surrounding waters and have you decide what path to try though I would have liked to have more like that.
The story itself is pretty good though, as far as CYOA books go, because it's a bit more focused than a lot of other books of its kind where it just flipflops all over the place. There still are surprises in here that can show up a bit out of nowhere, but there is an overall thread that works to make it coherent enough. The endings are pretty satisfying as well and it doesn't have as many early dead-ends as other books I've read.
I don't agree with my childhood self that this is a full-on 10/10 book of its kind, but I do agree that it is one of the better ones I've read. Certainly much better than Packard's own classic Sugarcane Island, I would say.
Typhoon! is one of those choose-your-own-adventure books I bought as a kid and absolutely loved back then. I remember grabbing it from the book store and being a bit disappointed that they didn't have any CYOA books on the shelf that day with a subject or setting that I was more interested in, since I never cared much about nautical stuff, but then being positively surprised when I read it at home and loved it. Kid-me gave this one a full 10/10 rating and called it a favorite of the series.
So, as an adult, still having a handful of these books on my shelf, I was curious if this one would hold up in any way all these years later. After all, I still had a genuine blast reading reading Through The Black Hole as an adult. And both of them were written by Edward Packard himself who is credited for popularizing the whole CYOA genre.
Typhoon! has you be the navigator on a boat trying to navigate your friends through the waves of an oncoming typhoon somewhere in tropic water. There is some neat stuff where at one point the book actually shows you a map of surrounding waters and have you decide what path to try though I would have liked to have more like that.
The story itself is pretty good though, as far as CYOA books go, because it's a bit more focused than a lot of other books of its kind where it just flipflops all over the place. There still are surprises in here that can show up a bit out of nowhere, but there is an overall thread that works to make it coherent enough. The endings are pretty satisfying as well and it doesn't have as many early dead-ends as other books I've read.
I don't agree with my childhood self that this is a full-on 10/10 book of its kind, but I do agree that it is one of the better ones I've read. Certainly much better than Packard's own classic Sugarcane Island, I would say.