Bantam, $1.50, ISBN 0-553-26080-4
Fantasy, 1979

Edward Packard’s The Cave of Time is the very first entry in the original Choose Your Own Adventure line. Many would rightfully call it the first popular form of what will later evolve into gamebooks in all their variants. Hence, it has its place in the annals of history.

In this one, you are some kid hiking in Snake Canyon when you come across this cave. You’ve never seen it before, so of course you happily walks in to have a look-see. As you will soon discover, leaving the cave each time will transport you to a different time in history and, oddly enough, a different place too depending on the whims of Mr Packard.

You may end up in the Stone Age, on board a ship bound to kiss an iceberg soon, take part in the Gettysburg, be part of the indentured Great Wall of China chain gang, and so forth.

Where you end up, and when, is entirely random, though. Will you ever find your back home… do you even want to?

While this one has its share of abrupt endings—oh, there are so many of them—this is largely due to the random nature of the campaign. You have no clue, no direction; you pick choices that are given to you mostly on a whim, as you are given no indication as to what may happen should you choose this or that option.

Some of the routes are superficial history lessons for young kids, while others are pulled out of Mr Packard’s rear end and act mostly as campaign filler.

That’s the downfall of this one: the routes are many but short, rarely giving your character any agency. You’re on the passenger seat for the most part, which won’t be so bad if the routes were actually memorable. Sadly, most of them are too short to leave much of an impact on your mind.

Nonetheless, there is some fun to be had exploring all possible options, although this is a relatively quick task, so you may find yourself quickly having worn out everything this one has to offer.

Also, the high point of this campaign seems to be meeting an old philosopher, although this one can be reached easily and quickly enough. The fellow serves to impart some philosophical natter that will likely pass over younger kids’ heads, but you may find them either hippie dipstick claptrap or something probably too high art for a kiddie gamebook.

Edward Packard lays thick the mumbo jumbo in a far more palatable manner than RA Montgomery, though, so the more esoteric side of the campaign never feels like you need to smoke a lot of weed to make sense of what is being rubbed all over your face.

The Cave of Time isn’t a bad gamebook to explore out of curiosity, as it never feels antiquated or obsolete despite being published a few decades ago. It isn’t that memorable, however, so its greater value lies in its place in the history of gamebooks than in its campaign.