The Sable Sea

The Sable Sea Review

The Sable Sea is a horror CYOA that attempts to establish a cat-and-mouse thriller style chase with frequent perspective shifts between 2 characters, one who is trying to kill the other, but falls flat on its face. I’m going to be honest, I didn’t like this one very much, but I figure that since I read it, I might as well write up a review. Looking at the last time the author logged in, it’s been over 10 years, so he’s likely not going to see this anyway. But what the hell, I’m here anyways so I might as well finish this review.

The perspective change was jarring and annoying. I feel like each time I had finally grasped what was going on, the story immediately shifts to the POV of the other guy. This isn’t because I don’t enjoy the style, I had literally just read and reviewed “Father Leofwine is Dead”, and that story pulls off the style much better. In order to actually make this work, you need to do proper character writing and give us a reason to actually root for these characters.

I did like the way you slowly told Eric’s backstory over the course of the narrative. That shows some promise and some degree of skill, but I must admit, I just wasn’t very into it. Of the 2 characters, I was definitely more interested in Eric’s story, but even then it was pretty lackluster.

It turns out that the intruder was a killer, and Eric was this depressed emo college student who gets pissed drunk and mopey whenever he thinks about his friends. I guess the story was trying to shock us by revealing that the guy who boarded “The Sable Sea” was actually a killer this whole time, but to be honest, I just wasn’t very into it.

It feels like the author reuses the same death scene each time, even when it’s not situationally appropriate, to the point where I hit the back button and rerouted to try again. Once I reached the end, the only thing I really liked was the last line: “The sea rolls and tosses beneath me, like a lover.” That was pretty cool.

This wasn’t really my cup of tea. I felt that this story was missing some key ingredients it desperately needed in order to sell me on the idea that this is a proper horror-thriller. It feels like the narrative sort of just goes on and on, like the unending sea, and upon writing this review, there’s not much I can really remember that affected me one way or another. Ultimately, the story was kind of mid.

Rating: 3/8.

If I was being unkind I'd suggest the main reason this story has been passed over for comment is because it has a Play Length greater than 1 or 2... as it stands this is a strong and tension-developing piece of writing which draws the reader in but there are a few points which I am a little puzzled over:
1) Why is the reader's character approaching the boat? Was it explained and I missed it?
2) Why does the reader's perspective transfer suddenly from first person to third? In a prose story where you can leave a space to explain this shift it's easier to follow but in this story it appears suddenly unexpected.
3) This story is in what we might call an enclosed-universe, the main character/reader, experiences everything aboard this vessel and nothing outside that but I would question whether in reality we would not just stop and think "woah, this is a dodgy ship, perhaps I'd better call the coastguard". It is a good idea to create immersive worlds but I'd suggest addressing and then destroying our chances of communicating with the outside world (no phone/GPS signal, tides sweep our own vessel away etc).

Altogether I enjoyed this terrifically though, the story-telling is taught, interesting and reveals itself slowly, if in unusual ways. Definitely a good read :)

I just don't understand why it is I'm doing anything. I genuinely see no character motivation. The story is nice, though.

Bravo!

Took for a while to get started, but it did get a bit interesting towards the end. Really, I didn't see that my choices had much impact on the story - other than hiding in the right room, or picking up the knife. It didn't even feel like the boat was deserted in the first place. I thought I'd just snuck onto some random boat (why are you there in the first place? who are you?) and woken some guy up. It wasn't until you started mentioning dead bodies that it felt a bit like horror.

Oh, and those 10+ single-link pages at the end dragged it down too. It did have a plot, though. In the end it just felt like I was running around a boat.

The rating would've been considably higher if, toward the end, the different perspectives weren't so convoluted. Great story! Keep trying! :)

Wow, this was quite the interesting read. I don't think I was expecting that ending in all honesty.

Interesting story. Exploration was good. The constant switch between "He", and "I", and "You" are kind of confusing.

Enjoyed it. Cute story.

Wow. Fantastic job for a first story. And, I know you said it was more of a story, but next time add more choices and make them affect you more, more detailed and engaging. Otherwise, you did a pretty good job. Keep on writing your stories :3