Desert of Danger
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 "Appear on the cover I shall! Snarl at the reader will I!" | |||||||||||||
| "Desert of Danger" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Corgi Books | ||||||||||||
| Imprint | Young Corgi Adventure/Adventure Game Books | ||||||||||||
| First published | 1987 | ||||||||||||
| Writers | Dave Morris | ||||||||||||
| Illustrator | Bob Harvey (interior pencils and cover painting) | ||||||||||||
| ISBN | ISBN 0 552 52502 2 ISBN 9780552525022 | ||||||||||||
| Page count | 71 pp | ||||||||||||
You get embroiled in a Decepticon Headmaster plot on Nebulos.
Synopsis
You are the co-pilot of an interstellar cargo ship, making a delivery to a mining town on the equatorial continent of the planet of Nebulos. While Harry the pilot files your flight papers with Traffic Control you are left to unload the ship's cargo—a crate of Sirian brandy for the Wolf at the Door nightclub and two deliveries to Professor Sparks's laboratory. The first is a package containing computer discs and the second is a flashy red-and-gold sports car which you are astonished to find transforms into the Heroic Autobot Hot Rod.
Hot Rod agrees to deliver the discs to Professor Sparks while you deliver the brandy to the nightclub. Wolf at the Door caters to Nebulan miners, playing loud electronic music while androids serve high-grade oil and sparkplugs. Using an anti-gravity pod you take the brandy down to the cellar but while you are down there you stumble across a pile of gnawed human bones. Returning upstairs in shock you bump into Hot Rod and Sparks but the three of you are quickly bundled out by Monzo, the club's owner. You tell Hot Rod that there's something unusual about the club's cellar and the three of you investigate, observing Monzo and Vorath collaborating with Weirdwolf, one of the evil Decepticons. They have retrieved a cylinder from the desert, killing a space pilot in the process. As they leave you explore further discovering that the cylinders contain Attack Squad robots—ancient Decepticon robotic infantry from the war on Cybertron which contravene the rules of the truce established on Nebulos.
When you return to your ship that night you are hit with some terrible news. The Nebulan police inform you that they have found Harry's ID and they fear he may have been murdered. You meet up with Hot Rod and Sparks who believe the Decepticons are responsible, but before any of you can act, two Attack Squad robots storm the laboratory followed quickly by Mindwipe, Skullcruncher, and Weirdwolf. Hot Rod takes care of the Attack Squad robots while you and Sparks handle Mindwipe, then you trick Skullcruncher into swallowing your anti-gravity pod so he floats high above the battle. Reunited with Hot Rod and Sparks, the three of you face down Weirdwolf and he retreats. Hot Rod ruefully notes that they will have to return the Decepticons under the terms of the truce, but the Attack Squad robots will be melted down into slag.
You head back to the ship to be greeted with the surprise of your life—Harry is waiting for you in the pilot's seat. It turns out that the night before he had lost his jacket and wallet before getting drunk on Betelgeux whiskey with an old friend. You plot the course back to Earth and promise to tell him about your adventures with the Transformers.
Endings
- You, Hot Rod and Sparks are captured by the Decepticons and non-specifically "doomed".
- Mindwipe melts Hot Rod with his viper pistol then crushes you with his fists.
- You electrocute yourself trying to recharge Hot Rod and Sparks.
- Weirdwolf shoots you and you are vapourised.
- You are shot by the Attack Squad robot's ruby lasers.
- Weirdwolf eats you.
Featured characters
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Nebulans | Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Notes
- All Transformers' names are printed in CAPITAL LETTERS.
- All Nebulans are robotic rather than fleshy in this book.
- Hot Rod abbreviates "Decepticons" to "Decepts". He also asks Monzo if he's feeling lucky.
- Oddly, Grax is nowhere to be seen.
- The appearance of alcoholic beverages is surprising for a children's book.
- There appears to be some size-shifting taking place in the book if the illustrations are anything to go by. The text explicitly states that the Nebulans are smaller than Hot Rod and the other Cybertronians. But they appear only a few heads shorter than Hot Rod in the illustrations, rather than being tiny in comparison, as would be expected considering they become the heads and guns for full-sized Transformers.
Errors
- Although in-story the desert's sand is explicitly referred to as being pale green, it is depicted as being gray on the book's cover.
- On page 71, Monzo is drawn as being at least as tall as Hot Rod.
