THE CAVE OF TIME
First printing of the first installment of the long-running, much-beloved CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE series, by the inventor of the form.
Very good plus.
Price: $500.00
THE CAVE OF TIME
"Now it is clear what has been happening. The cave is a crack in the universe — a place outside space-time. Once inside its tunnels, you could find yourself at any place, at any time."
1. You've read a lot of book catalogues in your career. It used to be a thrill every time, but sooner or later, they all start to blend together. Very good...Rare...Uncommon binding...well, they all say that, don't they. You sigh and rub your aching eyes. Wasn't this supposed to be fun? Wasn't it supposed to be...your vocation?
If you would like to PUT THE CATALOG AWAY FOR LATER, please turn to paragraph 4. If you are brave enough to READ ON, please continue to paragraph 2.
2. Well done! You brutally forge onward. If you would like to HURRY THROUGH TO GET IT OVER WITH, please turn to paragraph 3. If you would like to EXAMINE THE LISTINGS OF GREATEST INTEREST AT LENGTH, turn to paragraph 5.
3. The edge of a page snags your hasty finger, drawing blood. A paper cut. A paper cut! It can't be septic already, but why does it hurt so much? Why is your breath so shallow, your head so light? Poisoned books...the library of the Borgias...you've read about such things, of course...but a book _catalogue_? Cataloguers are your friends! What could you have missed, where did you go wrong? With your last breath, you whisper, "Why?"
4. You close the sturdy covers with a sigh of satisfaction at the richly printed colors, the well-balanced graphic design. It isn't right to play favorites, but you can see there's something special about this one. Anyway, all the books inside will still be available to buy when you come back later to look again. Nobody else will buy them first. You won't be jealous if they do. You're not missing anything. There's no urgency. You won't be haunted for years. You won't have bad dreams. You're very sure about this.
5. This listing, for the very first CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE novel, has an eerie glow that tantalizes and rewards your gaze. THE CAVE OF TIME, by Edward Packard! You've thought of these books fondly for years, and how strange that the very first one ever printed should hold all human history within its covers. Go down one fork of branching paths and they'll find your skeleton in 2000 years; choose another path and go down with the Titanic; choose another and find yourself in the far future of 2025. Though it was published in 1979, the modern concept of second-person adventure fiction is still older than CAVE OF TIME; Packard himself took his first pass at the structure he called "The Adventures of You" with 1969's SUGARCANE ISLAND. But the format found its most beloved form and voice at the dawn of the 1980s, concurrent with the rise of the text adventure computer game, and Packard would go on to write more than 60 installments in the CYOA series, more even than his fellow Adventurer R.A. Montgomery. You run your fingertips over the back cover image: "YOU ARE THE HERO OF YOUR OWN ADVENTURE." "Yes," you whisper to yourself, and a soft breeze ripples the catalogue pages — you ARE alone in the office, aren't you? — "Yes," you repeat; "I AM the star of the story."
The Object
First printing. New York: Bantam, (1979). 7'' x 4.25''. Original pictorial wrappers, cover price $1.25. All edges tinted yellow. Black and white illustrations by Paul Granger. 115, [1] pages, followed by publisher's advertisements. Faint toning/rubbing to covers. Ownership markings in pen along fore-edge, with previous owner's name and homeroom number in authentic vintage bubble-writing to first page. Personal library emboss to title page. Remainder of interior otherwise spotless.
The Fine Print
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