The Seventh Expert: An Interactive Medieval Adventure.

Sandy Campbell is a reference librarian in the Science and Technology Library at the University of Alberta.

A storm has destroyed your coastal village and killed many people. You play as a leader of the survivors, who spend seven years building a new village inland. You have six experts to help rebuild the village: trades people, hunters, and warriors. You are the seventh expert.

Before you play, you need to read the mostly well-written instructions thoroughly (the battle instructions are a little unclear). You begin the game with an allocation of points—1,000 “effort,” 100 “supplies,” and 0 “defence.” Your first-year goal is to get 1,000 supplies points. Using your “effort,” you get “supplies” from the Experts Catalogue at the back of the book. Your choices determine how well your village does. Much of your playing time is spent in the Catalogue. Each year has a different goal. If you do well, your village thrives. If you fail, your people die or move away.

Compared with a video game, this “interactive medieval adventure” is as much fun as it is challenging. It just requires writing and record-keeping that a video game would do for you, and would be a good alternative for kids who aren’t allowed to play video games. The game took about eight hours to play.

The book includes good illustrations, sidebar facts, and references. The game, which could be played by a whole class, would be a great way for junior high students to learn medieval history. Highly recommended.

** This review was written in collaboration with Sean Borle **