The Cave of Time

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The Cave of Time is a 1979 gamebook by Edward Packard with illustrations by Paul Granger (a psuedonym for Don Hedin) that is the first installment published in the Choose Your Own Adventure book series. The popularity of the book would serve as the basis for the long-running series, which would continue publishing new adventures until 1998.

The Cave of Time. The first ever CYOA book.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

As in the other books in the series, the reader is portrayed as the protagonist of the story, referred to in the present tense and by the second person pronoun "you." The reader is visiting his Uncle Howard at Red Creek Ranch when he stumbles upon a cave he had never noticed before. The cave turns out to be a portal to various time periods, and through different choices the reader can go on the Titanic, journey back to the Middle Ages, or witness the end of the world. There are forty possible endings. It is explained in a sequel that the cave exists outside time and space, and because of that one can exit it in anytime and anywhere.