The other, weirder favourite of my stereotypical student prog phase, trips with Robert Fripp & Friends were more turbulent than Pink Floyd's, but with such a diverse discography, there was usually something I was in the mood for.
That said, I haven't really listened to them for a while, and never really listened past the '70s anyway. Here Are My The Top 13 King Crimson Albums. Someone else can sort out the live saga and box sets.
So obvious that I had to check I hadn't done it already since my last 10-year reappraisal (when Ride the Lightning decided to be inextricably part of my memories of Singapore), but also so old-school in the literal sense that it would maybe be better to let my teenage self gush with inexperienced infatuation, if only I'd actually written 'em all.
I could have done something less useless with my increasingly dwindling free time, but let's see how noisy nostalgia clashes with literal dad taste. Here are The Top 10 Metallica Studio Albums (is that all? Lazy).
2021 / Jigsaw puzzles / 1 player
***
They could have differentiated it from her other one ('Days Out?') by highlighting that it's doing the seasons and months of the year. That educational angle was part of the reason I bought it, beyond it being a dead cert for her good behaviour reward chart. That took her a while.
Joe Dever, Lone Wolf, Book 1: Flight from the Dark
****
An unforgiving introduction to the advanced children's gamebook series that unashamedly dazzled me in my 20s, this was a lot harder than I remembered, requiring arcade-game patience to keep starting over. Motivation to make it to the next books only lasted so long before I gave up for now. I'd only abruptly die again and have to start this whole thing over anyway.
This one in particular is notably short for its spine, so it can pack in a dense tangle of stray and valid paths. Though, with a map to follow, anyone who doesn't know their compass points would presumably have an even shorter adventure.
Dave Morris and Mark Smith, Virtual Reality Adventure: Green Blood
1993 / Adventure gamebook / 1 player / UK
Heart of Ice was one of my best gamebook experiences (fittingly in digital form), so it was about time I got around to another in the self-important series, determined by eBay value. This would be my first of many poor choices.
For a series that fancies itself as a next-level solo RPG experience, this is still hampered by arbitrary deaths and illogical time loops when you abuse your freedom of choice and don't follow the author's preferred text. And while I was looking forward to some eco warrior cheese, being subjected to a primary school quiz was too patronising.
After a few annoying deaths I got into the groove and things were going well, until I turned out to be stuck there. I'll finish it some time, but I'd sooner pick up a Fighting Fantasy, Knightmare or other "inferior" progenitor.
Dave Morris, Knightmare: The Labyrinths of Fear
****
It was a later, more kid-friendly entry in this series that introduced me to adventure gamebooks around the age of eight, and all paragraph dungeons since have basically been me pretending I'm in Knightmare. This was the only one of the variably impossible gamebooks I was never able to find a scan of, so I had to go satisfyingly old school via eBay, and read it at the right point in a comprehensive rewatch for maximum immersion. This was definitely the right call.
Sharing the spine with a related novella, the multiple-choice quest is on the shorter side, which is just one of many ways it feels authentic to the series (albeit harder, since you have the benefit of replays). All the familiar characters are there, and some even make cameos in the novel, which customarily takes Treguard out of his sedentary lifestyle.
More than the other books, trivia from the novel is essential for various gamebook riddles, so fortunately it's worth reading. Remarkably, it's probably better than the game.
Hogfather (1996) **
A fortuitously-timed festive special at the chronological climax of my trilogy of trilogies, this was a thoughtful exploration of its theme as ever, once again let down by the need for actual plot. I'm even bored of the good characters now.
The Deep Range (1957) ***
An improvement on the short story, the Stingray to his usual Thunderbirds makes a good case for aquatic SF. But I like space, me.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1957) ***
Saved festively for last, but my Green Eggs and Ham-loving toddler decided she didn't have the cultural foundations to fully appreciate it yet. She said something along those lines, anyway. Its anti-corporate message could prove useful propaganda in the long term.
J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan (1911) ****
A random Disney film she's taken to, as a responsible parent I screened the source material to see how boring it would be as a future bedtime book. Fairly, but the psychoanalysis kept me interested, and it's less cynical escapism than Narnia.
Much Ado About Nothing (1600) *
It took several aborted attempts and most of the year to make it through this tedious loveteam tangle, which doesn't even bother to rhyme most of the time. I'm not even halfway through the comedies yet.
Love's Labour's Lost (1598) **
Self-parodying sonnets and deliberately bad plays that you actually have to sit through.
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1605) **
A promising supernatural layer amounts only to temporary tomfoolery and the story accidentally ends a couple of acts too early.
The Chimes (1844) ****
A New Year special rather than a Christmas book, there are similar supernatural apparitions and sentimental premonitions to its better-known predecessor, tempered by multiple-choice ambiguity courtesy of madness, dying hallucinations or plain old dreaming.