Inside UFO 54-40 [Mass Market Paperback]

Edward Packard (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Bantam (July 1, 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553259873
• ISBN-13: 978-0553259872
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,064,490 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rules are made to be broken, October 17, 2003

By 

Clark S. Coffey (Boulder, co United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Inside UFO 54-40 (Mass Market Paperback)

I was in third grade when I stumbled upon my teacher's (Mrs. Smith) copy of this book in our classroom. It was the first time I had ever seen a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book. I was enthralled from the get go. As a young child, the ability to choose your path through the story made reading more immediately interactive (as video games purport to be today) and allowed someone (me) with a very low level of patience and attention span to learn to love to read. Above this, there is one very interesting fact about this book. There is an ending that cannot be reached by following the very foundational rules of the book. It must either be found on accident (by turning to the wrong page) or by systematically breaking down the book's paths and realizing one page has no connection to any of the others. It seems very elementary to anyone of any age and experience today, but it struck home to me then a very important lesson - follow your own path, break rules, don't accept anything as fact, dance to the beat of your own drum. Pretty empowering thing to learn from such a seemingly innocuous book huh?

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure Gold, May 11, 2005

By 

Eric (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inside UFO 54-40 (Mass Market Paperback)

This book, along with The Cave of Time, made everybody my age in the early eigties want to choose their own adventure, either in this series or any of the other clones that it brought about. What UFO 54-40 teaches us is the blatant futility of aspiring for a perfect or utopian society unless we as a people learn to collectively cheat and read ahead in the book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Edward Packard's best CYOA books, May 27, 2003

By 

Joseph L. Petrow (Yokohama, Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Inside UFO 54-40 (Mass Market Paperback)

I used to love these books as a kid, and even though invariably thought that those by Edward Packard were the best. This was my third favorite book, behind two other Edward Packard CYOA books Hyperspace and Survival At Sea. This book is only book in the series that also features a unique "special ending" that cannot be encountered through normal decision making. Can you stumble upon paradise?? Get the book to find out!

Recommended for anybody who enjoys the Choose Your Own Adventure genre, and especially for kids who enjoy science fiction.