Flight from the Dark by Joe Dever

Book Review

Sarah Deeming

You are the sole survivor of the Kai, the protectors of Sommerlund; all your comrades and teachers have been killed by the Darklords of Helgedad, who have launched a full-scale invasion on Sommerlund and its capital, Holmgard. You must navigate your way from your destroyed home to the capital, dodging enemies, fighting monsters and saving refugees to warn the king before it is too late.

Flight from the Dark is the first in a pick-your-own adventure book series. It was initially released in 1984 and now re-released for a new middle-grade audience. At its core, Flight from the Dark is a first step into roleplaying adventure games, and it has everything young adventurers need for their first journey. There is an explanation of their character and the disciplines available to build their character. There’s a map and explanations of everything from combat and enemies to pronunciation of unique words, how the character’s backpack works and even a number grid at the back in case the reader doesn’t have access to a die. The font and language are pitched for a young person to read independently or play with friends without the need for adult supervision. The main character isn’t gendered so they are whoever the reader wants them to be.

Luckily, I have a member of the target audience in my household, so I sat down with him to see how a book that came out for Generation X fared with a member of Generation Alpha. Perhaps also luckily, my Gen Alpha already has a decent understanding of how these things work, having played a basic Dungeons and Dragons campaign with us, so he got his notepad and his bag of dice and set off. And I am pleased to say it kept him quiet for the weekend. He wasn’t successful at first and announced with a laugh that he died, then he went back to the beginning, re-selected his disciplines (he chose to pick his own rather than one of the pre-set discipline examples given at the beginning) and went again.

As RPGs are becoming popular among new generations of audiences, books like Flight from the Dark and The Kai Series are brilliant first steps to introduce them into the wider RPG world. It’s something that a middle-grade reader can do on their own and develop an understanding of the rules and game mechanisms to move on to something bigger. I also vaguely remember playing these types of games myself when I was younger, so I enjoyed spending time with my son and sharing that experience with him. So, if you are a TTRPGer yourself, or even if that phrase means nothing to you, but your child wants to get into roleplaying games, this is a great place to start. Highly recommended.