Monday, September 12, 2022

MMGM with review of Can You Survive the Wonderful Wizard of Oz?: A Choose Your Path Book by Ryan Jacobson


Shannon Messenger was the first person to start it, and the tradition carries on with Always in the Middle.  (CLICK HERE FOR PAST MMGM POSTS)


Can You Survive the Wonderful Wizard of Oz?: A Choose Your Path Book by 

The Can You Survive series consists of roughly eight books, and includes classics like, Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, and Treasure Island, there's even a Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse that sounds like it would be fun.  I also found two solve the mystery types of books titled The Empty Cabin and The Ghost of Old Central School and two Choose to Win sports books with Back to Pass and Goal Minded out at Home.  The beginning of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz really roots you in Kansas just before the tornado, and it has the feel of a Dungeon and Dragons kind of quest, sort of like there's a dungeon master or DM setting up the scene.     
These are what you'd consider to be interactive fiction and are quite creative, taking something known, like The Wizard of Oz and having the reader choose one of two possible outcomes every couple of pages.  You then skip ahead or flip back to continue on with the story.  But if you make a poor decision, you die.  Whelp, needless to say I didn't survive this one.  All in all, I read about twenty-four pages before making my demise, with about four-pages or so before each choice and then some skipping around to the next part.  It was kind of fun to peruse through the other scenarios that I didn't choose, I can see there are multiple possible paths to choose, but there only appears to be one correct ending.  There are elements from the original The Wizard of Oz storyline, like Dorothy meeting the good witch, the Munchkins and the Scarecrow and Lion but it did venture off into a few things I wasn't as familiar with, which could just be my poor recollection of the original book.  Certainly, worth a look if you enjoy choose your own adventure types of stories and especially would be enjoyable if you've read the original story that it's based off.      

5 comments:

  1. I used to love those adventure books when I was a kid, and basing it on a classic sounds a great idea! I'd probably be more tempted by Can you survive the zombie apocalypse? I suspect the answer for me is no! :) Thanks for sharing!

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    1. I'm very tempted by that one too. Have a lovely week and thanks for commenting.

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  2. I also enjoyed the original Choose Your Own Adventure stories and have found many reluctant readers gravitate to these books. Thanks for featuring this newest series and the latest installment on MMGM.

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  3. What an interesting series of adventure stories. Thanks for sharing!

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  4. This sounds like an interesting take on some classics. Maybe I will give this a try. Thanks for telling me about it.

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