Favourite sci-fi gamebooks

[Charles X.]

Do any sci-fi handbooks seem particularly excellent to you? Do you think any series does them particularly well (or badly)? In general there are a lot of very average sci-fi gamebooks, particularly in FF, but CYOA can be imaginative, and Endless Quests, as well. One off my favourite handbooks is Light On Quests Mountain, set in the Gamma Word universe.
   Out of FF, I thought Freeway Fighter and Rings Of Khether (however you spell it) were underrated. At least they tried something, where EOTD and GOD didn't bother. Those two deserved their lowly position in the FF rankings.

[Charles X.]

My spellchecker keeps reading gamebook as handbook, so apologies for that.

[bloodbeasthandler]

Like you, I quite like Rings of Kether. Being a cop sent in from the outside to break up a drug cartel was a good setting and I would have liked to have seen more of this sort of thing. Space Assassin appealed to us when it came out, too and I think it's one of the more under-rated FF books. 

I didn't really like Freeway Fighter. The adventure sheet and the background promised a lot but as a gamebook it just didn't work for me. The repeated running out of petrol was really annoying and didn't make much sense to me at the time. Why not bring extra fuel? Why rely on chancing on some tubing (for siphoning fuel) out in the wilderness when you could just bring your own?  

Did you ever read Joe Dever's Freeway Warrior books? They capture the feel of a Mad Max style environment better than FF13, though they are not as focussed on 'Car Wars' style vehicle combat like the Fighting Fantasy book is. 

The Falcon Books (Time Travel) by Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson are pretty good and the earlier ones appear on ebay. The later ones are rare and I don't have them myself, unfortunately. 

My favourite sci-fi books are Heart of Ice by Dave Morris, and Spied by James Schannep which is modern-day/near future but has sci-fi elements to it. You ought to be able to get both quite easily. 

[Charles X.]

I read one of the Freeway Warrior books (California Countdown, I think), I thought it was OK. I agree Heart Of Ice is one of the better Virtual Reality gamebooks, and indeed one of the best gamebooks. 

[petch]

Freeway Fighter and The Rings of Kether are my two favourite sci-fi FFs as well, although I like Rings more for its detective  trappings rather than its sci-fi ones.

I think the whole fuel deal in FF was Livingstone trying to convey the Mad Max idea of fuel being a finite resource, but it then goes on to make a nonsense of its own world-building by having elaborate car races, which would have burned up a load of fuel, with fuel as the prize. I prefer not to overthink it, and just enjoy it as good, dumb fun.

I do need to read Heart of Ice...I keep reading good things about it on the forum!