Customer Reviews

Greed, Guns, and Gold (Choose Your Own Adventure No. 170)

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If Greed, Guns, and Gold (Choose Your Own Adventure #170) by Edward Packard is typical of the quality of the latter books in this series then it's no wonder the series ended shortly thereafter. Packard created the series and has written a lot of fun books but this entry reads more like bad youth fiction than a CYOA.

There are very few choices in this book. And the first three choices you come across (in fact, nearly ALL of the choices you come across) have a 50% chance of ending your adventure immediately. So you're done before anything happens. There's only once choice in the first 14 pages. And there are 10 pages between the second and third choice. Rather than feeling like the you get a choice things are often decided for your character. Like yelling out 'Hello' to an approaching flashlight on a desert island with a dead man next to you and treasure at your feet. Hm, probably not the choice I would've made.

The one good thing about the writing is its consistency. No matter which path you choose the characters react in the same type of way, do the same things, and the treasure is always in the same location. It's too bad this is the only good thing I can say about the writing as my curiosity was piqued about the treasure map when it was first mentioned. But that didn't last long.

There are some odd inconsistencies like a sailor being called both Matt and Mack on the same page and the written versus drawn depiction of a specific sea captain are at odds with each other. Otherwise the art by Tom La Padula is alright. Nothing terrible, nothing amazing, but it usually gets the job done and he does do a good job of playing up the more exciting aspects of the story even when little is happening on the written page.