‘Starship Traveller’ – Steve Jackson (Puffin)


I have many weaknesses as far as books are concerned; probably far too many to be allowed anywhere near a bookshop just after I’ve been paid ;o) And one of those weaknesses is Fighting Fantasy books. Whether they’re the latest editions, sat in Waterstones, or an original copy of ‘Starship Traveller’ sat on a shelf in Brockley Books, those books are inevitably coming home with me. And did I say ‘Starship Traveller’ and Brockley Books? Funnily enough, I found a copy of ‘Starship Traveller’ in Brockley Books, the other day, and true to form, it came home with me ;o)

Back in the day, ‘Starship Traveller’ was a Fighting Fantasy book that I only read the once (borrowed it from a friend, I believe) so it was a bit of an odd one to find. Of course I was always going to buy it but it had none of the emotional resonance that I got when I found an original copy of ‘The Forest of Doom’. So I bought it, read it and… Yes, I remembered just why I only read it the once…

Sucked through the appaling nightmare of the Seltsian Void, the starship ‘Traveller’ emerges at the other side of the black hole into an unknown universe. YOU are the captain of the ‘Traveller’ and her fate lies in your hands. Will you be able to discover the way back to Earth from the alien peoples and planets you encounter, or will you and your crew be doomed to roam uncharted space forever…?

Damn, where do I start with this one…?

To be fair, I never really got on with the sci-fi ‘Fighting Fantasy’ entries (apart from ‘Robot Commando’, giant mechs fighting dinosaurs is always cool); I’ve always been about adventuring in Allansia so I’ll admit to a little bias that got in the way here. Having said that though, ‘Starship Traveller’ just feels so lacklustre that it was really hard not to fancy a bit of ‘Deathtrap Dungeon’ instead.

I’d normally comment on plot before illustrations but artwork is just a key part of any ‘Fighting Fantasy’ book and it wasn’t up to scratch here with what looked like rough sketch work instead. I couldn’t engage with that, I don’t think anyone could, so the book was at a disadvantage before it even had a chance to get going. To be fair, this may not be a problem in later editions, I don't know.

And the plot? Well, there wasn’t one really. All we got was a series of ‘go to a planet, make a couple of choices and then leave’ scenarios that kind of petered out when the fictitious crew finally had enough and demanded to be told if I’d figured out the way home. I’m not sure if I had figured it out but I felt really sorry for them and said that I did. After all, the last page is always the winning one. I don’t normally cheat that blatantly but there was literally nothing to keep me reading. No sense of urgency, nothing. Maybe things might have been different if I’d gone to another planet first but I just didn’t want to at that point, not at all.

And that was my experience of ‘Starship Traveller’. I liked the tweaks to the established game rules but if you don’t have a plot to back it up… Well, you get a book like ‘Starship Traveller’. Oh well, you can’t win em’ all. Now what have I done with my copy of ‘House of Hell’?

Comments

  1. Bookstooge5 November 2024 at 00:57

    I played my first Fighting Fantasy in 7th grade. My library didn't have any more and I didn't have the money to order any more from the catalog in book....

    ReplyDelete

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