Children of the Dragon; Revenge of the Rainbow Dragons, by Rose Estes

[rachelmanija]

Children of the Dragon is a small-scale but otherwise standard story about three siblings and their dragon eggs; ends just as it starts to get interesting, that is, with the hatching. I wonder if a sequel was intended but never written? It certainly read that way.

Revenge of the Rainbow Dragons is an adorable, lighthearted entry in the Endless Quest (same principle as Choose Your Own Adventure), with rainbow dragons, a castle in the clouds, and a bratty princess.

My favorite Rose Estes book, and also my favorite Endless Quest (D&D-based, which I preferred to Choose Your Own Adventure), is still Circus of Fear, which has three totally different and super-fun tracks in which you run away to a fantasy circus and apprentice with 1) fantasy animal trainers, 2) freaks, 3) acrobats. Obviously 1 is best because blink dogs, pegasi, etc., but the other two, with very sympathetic “freaks” and an arrogant acrobat, are fun as well.

Any of you read Endless Quest and/or Choose Your Own Adventure? Which was your favorite, or most memorably bonkers? Anyone else stick slips of paper at choice points to help you backtrack when you ran out of fingers?

Revenge of the Rainbow Dragons (An Endless Quest Book, 6) (Pick A Path to Adventure)



Circus of Fear (An Endless Quest Book, 10)

Comments

[zeborah]

I read so many CYOAs. I particularly remember one set among the Aztecs(maybe??) where you're running a race and there's a very early death state in which you win the race and therefore get sacrificed. But also I remember one where you have an unfortunate incident with a time machine resulting in your perceptions are running ahead of your body by so many seconds or minutes, which seems survivable and even potentially advantageous until you have to cross a road.

I also attempted to write multiple CYOAs, stymied by the fact that I'm bad enough at finishing stories even once: finishing a story in multiple different ways was well beyond my stick-to-it-iveness. The first couple I wrote as a tween I think, but as a teenI also attempted one in Hypercard that included random number generators and tracked variables based on your decisions and was about you being a spaceship captain in a space war and at some point you'd discover you were actually a surgically modified/amnesia-fied person of the opposing force, it'd be all very angsty. I don't think I'd written very much at all in fact but it still gives me all the feels. As does Hypercard, requiescat in pace.

[rachelmanija]

That's such a great idea! Maybe you should just write it as a regular story.