Back in the golden age of pick-your-path books (1985), Troll released four sets of four books under the brand The Choice is Yours: Alien Adventures (sci fi), Solve it Yourself (mystery) Fantastic Adventures (fantasy) and Forgotten Forest (fantasy). I am pretty sure the one of the Fantastic Adventures books, either Mystery at Loch Ness or Adventure in the Lost World was my first encounter with interactive fiction, and I have a fondness for them, even if they’re pretty objectively bland (the former) and terrible (the latter). The two Forgotten Forest books I read a little later though? They’re legit great.

This is the first, The Masters of Mazes (1985), by Carol Gaskin and illustrated by T. Alexander Price. Yes, that Minotaur looks kind of doofy and the illustrations have a sort of happy, storybook quality to them, but I also think they are kind of unsettling. Look at the Minotaur’s eyes, how glassy they are. Look at the size of that mace. Why is there a ballerina? Why is the protagonist’s friend an ant-eater person? Why do so many of the illustrations feature odd crops or run off the page in unpleasant ways?

There are a number of ways to get variably happy endings, but my favorite ending is the one where you confront the Maze Master. He charges, you leap over him, grabbing his horns as you do, and his head comes off. It’s a mask! The Maze Master is just a pathetic old, wailing man! So what do you do? You put the mask on. “Expecting a surge of power, you are surprised to feel no stronger. But the manor house no longer holds any mysteries. You walk directly to the hedge maze to rescue your friend Redfern. The End.”

Why do I get the feeling you’re not actually doing any rescuing?