Time Machine #7: Ice Age Explorer

 

"This book is your passport into time."

I have mixed feelings about Time Machine #7, and the series as a whole if Ice Age Explorer is anything to go by.

The premise is that you, the reader, are an explorer who travels through time for scientific research purposes. In this case, we are trying to identify a weird and possibly extinct animal depicted in cave paintings, which has left contemporary scientists (for 1985 anyway) utterly baffled.

Its presentation is pretty bomb, there's no doubt about that. The cover with the raging mammoth is eye-catching, and the interior has a nice balance of text and imagery to give each chapter a flourish that more bog-standard gamebooks lack. 

Time Machine books also have a databank in the first few pages, which gives an educational crash-course of the time period you are about to enter; and a list of hints in the back, which you sometimes have the option to consult when you reach certain pages. I found the databank more helpful than the cryptic, sometimes redundant hints. It was useful to know that the ice age had hot spells, but hints like "which choice will bring you closer to the cave paintings?" are annoyingly worthless. I was already asking myself that question, Time Machine!

Most gamebooks include chapter art here and there, but Time Machine has a nice sci-fi aesthetic throughout, from the chapter headers, to the "buttons" giving you your options. The artwork itself for Ice Age Explorer is well-done, too, and has a pulp comic book vibe to it, although the cover art is a bit misleading, as most of the scenes depicted are pretty mundane, if not for the fact that their subject matter is prehistoric landscapes. That in itself is cool, but nothing exciting is really happening in any of these illustrations apart from one chapter where the artwork depicted cavemen chasing elephants.

I think that summarizes the big drawback of the book. Cooler at a glance than it actually is. The premise is great, travelling back in time to better understand prehistoric times and lost civilizations. And you don't just travel backward: your journey takes you back and forth to different time periods--as far back as prehistory, as late as turn-of-the-century--as you try to get your bearings and uncover clues about the ancient people you are studying.

The bit that loses me is the constant back-and-forth, and the fact that you're mostly a passive observer. There are instances where you find yourself in mortal danger, but most of the time your only options are using a time jump. The constant jumping back and forth through time on a scavenger hunt gets kind of tiresome. I felt utterly lost most of the time, running around in circles and no doubt making swiss cheese out of the space-time continuum as I did so. I suppose if you want a demonstration of what it's like to be hopelessly lost in time, this book does an excellent job of it. 

Whether you find that experience engaging or entertaining, your mileage may vary. I found myself getting frustrated as my simple task of identifying the critter in a cave painting took me on an aeons-long wild goose chase.

I intend to get a few other entries in this series to see if they all feel this way, or if it's just this one book. Maybe my feelings on the series will change then. Meanwhile I may or may not revisit this one.

Time for bed. Uncle Mac out.