Sometimes I feel like I'm wasting my time writing a review when I should really just be pointing at a game and demanding that people play it. This is one of those times. Steve Jackson's Sorcery! is an absolutely marvelous fantasy storybook adventure. Lushly illustrated and expertly told, it should not be missed by anyone even remotely interested in the genre.

Even though technology is evolving at a pace that might impress a super-virus, humanity’s fondness for settling down with a good story hasn’t dissipated. What has changed is the way we consume those stories: While many of us are content to feel rough pages turn under our fingers, the popularity of eBooks and digital readers has blossomed over the past five years.

Back in the early 80s, Steve Jackson created a four-part gamebook series entitled Sorcery! that took readers/players on an epic quest for a powerful artifact called the Crown of Kings. Now that tale of action and adventure is coming to the 21st century thanks to a team-up with developer inkle, which is recreating that four-part series as a gamebook for iOS devices.

I’d never heard of Zach Weinersmith, author of Trial of the Clone, but I probably should have. The author of a popular webcomic, he decided to try his hand at writing a gamebook and gathered the necessary funds via Kickstarter. The resulting book has now made its way to iOS and into my review queue.

Space pirate adventure games are as common as star-lice on the hull of a space ship, but that’s because they remain fun no matter how many times you set sail for fame and glory. Plus, space is vast and mysterious, so it’s easy enough to pen endless mythologies around it. By comparison, we already know that sea-bound pirates stole a bunch of stuff and had a problem with their teeth falling out. Exciting.

It’s likely rough for developers of interactive novels to hit the sweet spot that falls just in between “interactive” and “novel.” If your novel relays a big tale without stopping to let you make a story selection, it’s not very interactive. On the other hand, all the story selections in the world won’t make a boring game worth playing. If a studio is unable to strike a perfect balance of interactivity and decent storytelling, then it’s preferable to do like Dysfunctional Systems Episode 1: Learning to Manage Chaos and give the audience a solid tale over lots of decision-making.

Monster Loves You! playfully bills itself as a monster “life simulator.”  While genres are malleable and rarely set in stone, I’d like to reclassify it right now: Monster Loves You! is a visual novel.  It’s a charming, unexpected visual novel arranged entirely around the choices you make, but a visual novel all the same.  Semantics out of the way, we can now focus on whether or not it’s a good game.  (Spoiler: it is.)

Video games occupy dozens of niches, and interactive Japanese novels is as niche as games get. Either you instantly fall in love with these text-heavy mystery titles, or you raise an eyebrow after ten minutes of play and sweep your mouse cursor towards the “Uninstall” button. Café 0: The Drowned Mermaid for iOS is an interactive novel that subscribes to most of the genre’s clichés. If you’re into similar fare you’ll appreciate that the game exists, but it has enough issues to fill up a swimming pool.

For the last decade, Georgina Bensley, founder of visual novel/RPG-making company Hanako Games, has brought us anime-inspired, female-friendly fare packed with action, romance and feats of derring-do. This month, Bensley takes us on yet another fascinating—if somewhat imperfect—adventure in her company's latest visual novel, The Royal Trap.

Since I’ve never shot a gun and have a tendency to be way too trusting, I probably wouldn’t last long in a zombie apocalypse. Survivor Z by Mongadillo Studios and 3 Jacks Software is driving that point home even more since its text-based RPG adventuring and turn-based combat incorporates real world locations. Yes, the struggle against the undead is now personal on your iPhone, but that doesn’t mean it’s any easier.