Mystery of the Maya (Choose Your Own Adventure, #11) by R.A. Montgomery

Mystery of the Maya (Choose Your Own Adventure, #11) Reviews

• 
  Jeffrey Caston

  I managed to come across this little gem in a used bookstore. It's copy of the originally published version from 1981. Lucky me!
  
  I do distinctly remember Mystery of the Maya as a mainstay in the large pile of these books I had as a kid. Looking at it, and reading it again as an adult, I am struck by little passages I recall reading on a plaid woven cover couch as a kid. The illustrations have an atmospheric vibe, and perhaps even a bit scary at the time considering that "you" in this story were putting yourself in danger.
  
  Reading it now, it was wild. It had so many different directions with all these wild and crazy ways for the story to turn out. It's got stuff like time travel, space travel, aliens, guides who is not all that they appears to be... You name. It was pretty cool.
  
  Another thing I noticed that distinguishes this one from some of the newer ones Chooseco is putting out. 44 endings! 44! The newer ones I have gotten have some with more endings, but most of the ones I have hover around the 20s. One has only 16. I think these books benefit from having more endings. It gives them a much better re-readability.
• 
  Sydney

  After completing several rounds of the Mystery of the Maya, I believe that this was a very nicely made book. I enjoyed choosing between different life-threatening choices, and seeing what would happen to me if I time traveled to the Mayan times. Each path would lead to very exhilarating choices, which would cause interesting endings. You could never expect what would happen! My only complaint is that there wasn't really a good ending out of the endings I got so it felt like I didn't stand any chance getting a good "The End." But it was still a great book!
  I would recommend this book for ages 10+, just for "violence's sake" since it does talk about human sacrifices and your blood dripping off an altar... which I still consider gruesome! But the word choice is fairly simple, with occasion of a complicated word (but rarely)
• 
  Nelson Zagalo

  Voltei a este formato de livros apenas para poder analisar melhor as técnicas e o design por detrás das escolhas oferecidas ao leitor. Para quem não conhece, "Mystery of the Maya" pertence a uma série que dá pelo nome de "Escolha a Sua Própria Aventura" criada por Edward Packard, que consiste em fazer desenrolar uma aventura base que se diversifica por meio de escolhas conducentes a uma miríade de diferentes desenlaces. O leitor é personagem da própria história e as decisões do personagem são as suas.
  ...
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  Continuar a ler, com links e imagens, no blog:
  
  https://virtual-illusion.blogspot.com...
• 
  Vanellope

  Honestly, I probably shouldn't give it more than 4 stars. But this was one of my two absolute favorite choose your own adventure books when I was little, and I must've read it a million times. So, 5 stars from my 9-year-old self.
• 
  Sally

  I was obsessed with this book when I was very young! The Ashburton library had a lot of choose-your-own-adventures, but for some reason this was the only one I liked. Even if I did die EVERY SINGLE TIME.
• 
  Benjamin Stahl

  Intrepid kid investigator gets himself and his friends killed. Bravo, my lad. Bravo.
• 
  Peter Derk

  For this one, I made an attempt at crowdsourcing. I posted the decision points on a forum and asked people to help make the right decisions.
  
  The story is about a dude who disappeared while doing some kind of reporting on Mayan temples.
  
  So you go to check things out, you meet the requisite creepy guide who seems to know more than he's letting on, and you immediately stumble on some kind of transporter beam taking people to a space ship.
  
  You go into the beam, and here's what the text says:
  
  Gaining confidence, you step into the transporter beam and are carried up into the spacecraft. You hear nothing as you shoot up and away into the far reaches of the universe, to the planet Merganatic and the great Congress on Intergalactic Life. You wonder why the Mayan sites were chosen as contact points. Their brutal and complex society seems an odd choice for other planets. Who knows what lies ahead?
  
  THE END
  
  Okay. So in this "adventure" you make a few choices about which sites to check for your missing friend, then you go into a SPACESHIP, and that's the end of the story.
  
  Let me say that again. The story ENDS when you go into a spaceship and things get exciting and cool.
  
  There was this thing Kurt Vonnegut said about writing, that you should start your stories as close to the end as possible. In a way, this story succeeded AND failed. Yes, it didn't take long to get to the ending. But at the same time, I feel like the thing we're calling the ending is really the beginning in this case.
  
  I didn't die. I also solved the mystery of the Maya, or A mystery of the Maya, I guess. But it was unsatisfying, to say the least. This book, it's like if Star Wars started where it did, and then ended when the group decided to go and save Leia. You go through all the boring stuff, the moving characters around stuff, and just when it gets good, that's when it's like, "And then, what happened after that? Who knows? Use your imagination!"
  
  Oh, I should also mention the cardinal sin, this book starts with an "It Was Only A Dream" moment. So it's not that the whole story is bad, just the beginning AND the ending, and the stuff in the middle.
• 
  Storlen

  The book I'm going to review is MYSTERY OF THE MAYA. The author is R.A. Montgomery. This book is fiction of the readers making. In other words, it is a chose-your-own-ending piece of fiction.
  The main characters are Manuel and I, as a young teenage girl. In the start of the story I'm a reporter who has to write about why the Mayans disappeared. I begin the story by taking a plane to Mexico where I met Manuel, the guide. My first choice was to go straight to the Mayan ruins,but i asked Manuel to take me to Dr.Lopez where he gave me a potion that took me back in time.
  One problem was that the Mayan priest had killed me by sacrificing me to there gods. I did like this book because it told me the way the Mayan sacrificed people. So the gods could make it rain.
  I would recommend this book to Dianny because she has family in EL Salvador.
• 
  Tricia

  I used to really love these as a kid. You got to decide what happens and if you die you can come back again and try something else. There is definitely an attraction to them.
  
  My issue with this one is that it was very inconsistent in places. For example in one case you get the treasure yourself and it is not there, but you get help and it is. Tom appears to be either dead, in the past or in the future. Regardless of the path shouldn't he be in the same spot? There is no explanation for this. Maybe they all had these inconsistencies and I am only noticing it now because I am an adult.
• 
  Jorge Rosas

  From time travel to evil gangs and revolutions, this one was very exiting and the outcomes are very different from each other.
• 
  Lynn K.

  Very frequent choices. Fun and immersive.
• 
  Molly

  Okay, I'll admit, I indulged with this. It took me back to leisure reading I did as a 10 year old. I couldn't pass up the opportunity. I will admit to an overwhelming feeling of silliness as I read it. Seemed wrong. LOL.
  
  I did the book 3 times or had three "adventures". On the first one I learned a bit about the Mayan civilization and was killed by a Toltec arrow. The second adventure was Independence Day done Mayan style and in the third I was a klutz and nearly died. All in all, a ridiculous experiment.
• 
  Mizuki Kaiju

  Mystery of the Maya
  Written by R.A Montgomery
  
  Time:7/9=6min
  7words
  Maya-lost-friend-adventure-time travel-warrior-fight
  Discussion Question
  If you were to have to fight as a warrior, can you do it?
  In my case, I can't do it because I can't kill people even I have to do. Maybe I will escape from it.
  
  This book can make our own stories. We can choose our own adventure. It was exciting. Actually, I tried to read it many times. I didn't like that story, but I can enjoy my adventure.
• 
  Syd Knee

  Book was pretty good. i read it a few times. And every time it seemed to have a different story then I remember the time before. Not many books can have that effect on me. I think it's a great book. But you should only read it once if you liked it. If you think it sucked try to read it again. I bet you you will have a different view the second, third or fourth time.
• 
  Laura Vogt

  Okay, so these books are definitely for an older audience than my three-year-old. But, my daughter really enjoyed the unique format. She enjoyed choosing what to do next. I glossed over some of the more violent themes (and did some serious add-lib), but overall, this was a fun read-aloud.
  
  I remember adoring these as a child. Highly recommended.
  
• 
  Eric

  Go to the next page if you love making your own decisions about how the plot develops in a book! These are excellent read alouds for the classroom too! The author made the effort to make the Mayan world depicted historically accurate.
• 
  Truly

  Cuman pikiran iseng, kalau buku ini cetul saat heboh ttg kalender bangsa Maya, kira-kira bakalan laris manis ngak ya. Maklum judulnya sudah sangat jelas menyebutkan tentang bangsa Maya, dan seringnya orang latah memburu segala hal yang dianggap jadi topik hangat alias kekinian.
• 
  isabelb

  everyone should read this book
  it has alot to do with mexico
  and alot of stuff it can't always tell u
  about how the maya dispear
• 
  Marts (Thinker)

  Another 'Choose your own adventure', this time its a Mayan mystery, hope you don't die on your first try!!
• 
  Alex

  I only give it two stars because I KEEP DYING!!! No matter what I choose, no matter what I do, I die somehow! Not cool!
• 
  Mikaela

  chose your own adventure...
• 
  Haadi

  I liked this book since it was very cool. My favorite ending is when I drew a yellow straw which made me leader of the Mayan civilization.
• 
  Cara

  Have read multiple "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. Love them all, great for kids.
• 
  Read Aloud West Virginia

  Recommended by our volunteer readers for reading aloud to grades 5-8.
• 
  Samantha Glasser

  These Choose Your Own Adventure books were always really great because they often taught history lessons. I remember being fascinated by ancient civilizations as a kid and this book fueled that fire.
• 
  Dane Barrett

  This book is part missing person's case and part time travel adventure. Your friend (a journalist) has gone missing while investigating Mayan ruins and quite early in the narrative you are given the choice of either time travelling back to Mayan times or performing your investigation in present day.
  
  And yes, at least one of the present day endings has the protagonist encountering extra-terrestrials. It wouldn't be an RA Montgomery book without at least one of those!
  
  Parents should also know beforehand (and as this book is still readily available from ChooseCo) that there are a number of references to human sacrifice in the book, so if you're not comfortable with your youngsters reading about such things you may want to pass on this book.
  
  The time travel adventure is by far the more interesting part of the story and tends to go for a bit longer too (the present day story tends to have quite a number of quickfire endings). I will say that this book is a major contrast from a book such as Sugarcane Island, where in that book there were plenty of endings in which you are successful, whereas here this book clearly wants you to die. If you persevere there are some good endings to be had, but not many. No one ever said living in Mayan times was easy!
  
  The book briefly touches on an aspect of time travel that would have been magnificent if fleshed out more. At one point you find a hidden treasure and are given the option of stealing it then and there, or going forward in time to "discover" it in your own time. I can imagine how entertaining a book based on a similar time travel premise could be if done right.
  
  Mystery of the Maya is a decent CYOA book which would have been better had it focused on the ancient Mayan timeline.
• 
  Emily

  My rating is mainly due to personal preference as opposed to the skill of the writer or the interest of the content. First, I’m not a big fan of reading mysteries, and second, I have now found out that I don’t like choose your own adventure books. Positively, I think anyone who can write a book with multiple storylines that intertwine has skill, and this particular story gives a lot of cultural information about the Mayans. However, I’m more of a linear thinking, so the back and forth and skipping pages, etc. was a bit maddening for me. If I could just make the choices and walk away with what happened to me because of my choices, I would be okay, but then it doesn’t feel like I’ve actually read the book. I also thought some of the threads of the story were rather ridiculous. In the end, if you like the choose your own adventure genre, this book would be a good one for you to read.
• 
  Kristen

  My husband of all people recommended this to me. No seriously, there we were in the board game isle at Walmart and he saw the game created after this book series. He was very shocked, and could not believe that I have never read or ever heard of this series. I kid you not he took me to the book store and bought me this book. Apparently I am the only one in my house and among our friends that has never read or heard of this series. Well I finally read it and can see why it is loved by many. I enjoyed the choices the reader makes in deciding and being part of the story. It's a very fun and unique concept. The Mystery of the Maya was interesting and certain choices made it fun and exciting. I read 3 outcomes and decided it was a pretty good adventure. Maybe I will buy more!
• 
  elstaffe

  Conflicted about this. On the one hand, enjoyed some of the gameplay, including the fact that you could loop through a couple of times, depending on what path you took, and get a longer story. On the other hand, some of the illustrations and endings were a little...problematic, in this the year 2019. On a third hand, the magnificent bleakness and existential despair of some of the endings (you are lost in time and there's no going back; you are caught in a time warp and while you can see the other time, you're separated by a wall that neither of you can get through to one another; etc) cannot be denied.