by Tim Collins; illustrated by Steven Wood

In this Sci-fi mystery adventure, readers get to read many, many endings depending on which decisions they make as they read. I found myself octopus-fingers in pages as I tried out the many choices offered along each path. I did not even get to all of them! The basic premise is that this band of space travelers has picked up rocks and potentially an alien being at the planet they had been exploring. Midway through their cryogenic sleep home, the crew awakens fearing that an alien is hiding within one of them. It’s happened before causing the brave decision to blow up the entire former ship and all aboard to save Earth. The travelers would like to avoid that. The only way to stop Earth from being infected is to figure out who is no longer themself and eradicate the now-alien among them. Each path leads to accusations and showdowns. In some scenarios the culprit is found; in others, all become infected and Earth will be doomed. Black and white illustrations keep the book accessible to struggling readers, but doesn’t overwhelm the text.  Along the way, there are brainteasers to solve. Some of these were quite hard, though luckily the answers are given in the back. My only objection with these is that they did not REALLY need to be solved in order to continue down the path. They could be easily skipped since they had no real connection to the plot line of that particular scenario. I think readers who love choose-your-own adventure stories will enjoy this modern story. (The old paperbacks from the 1990s? 1980s? are out of print and look pretty tired now. It’s time for some new multi-path adventures.) I did as many paths as I had energy to do and did lose interest in trying to follow all of them. So, did I read all of the book (192 pages)…no. Did I enjoy what I DID read…yes. I think middle school readers will find the same.