The Golden Path: Into the Hollow Earth

Written by the son of a Choose Your Own Adventure series founder, this first volume of an all-new interactive CYOA series is just as kooky as 30-somethings remember. But whether these versions live up to their original counterparts—and whether contemporary readers, who are used to advanced role-playing games, will find the format compelling—is hard to say. While the thrill of deciding between various potentially lethal courses of action that “you” will follow remains (some especially suspenseful plot threads carry over into the next volume), the sophistication and cohesiveness of the narrative itself might be missing. A half-baked conspiracy theory story set in a dystopian future that is partially conveyed via canned dialogue (“They followed me and my colleagues here to this simple town and destroyed it in an orgy of hate”) and involves three plucky teens, a set of kidnapped parents, a mysterious explosion at a top-secret archeological dig with possible government involvement, a passageway to “Inner Earth” and fierce battles between Agarthans and Lemurians might have looked cutting edge when this format debuted in 1979, but now it seems old hat. Ages 10–up. (Apr.)