creouts
A number pyramid beside the cover of Escape the Giant's Castle, a puzzle adventure gamebook.

Field Notes

Escape the Giant's Castle: The Story and a Look Inside

2 min read
  • Book story
  • Escape gamebooks
  • Paperback

Escape the Giant's Castle is a puzzle adventure gamebook, so do not read it in order. You solve a puzzle, and the answer in the door brick is the page you turn to next.

The story

Thrum the giant lives in the castle above the village of Pockleton. He is gentle and sound asleep, and he cannot see anything smaller than a loaf of bread, because he lost his spectacles years ago. You have carried a heavy basket home for Bobbin, a castle mouse, when the Night Latch locks every mouse door at nine.

One way out is open before morning: the Tower Door, nine floors up, where the giant's washing line runs down to the village. Everything in the castle is twelve times life size, so a thimble is a bucket and a button is a plate. You climb from the Kitchen Floor through the Pantry, the Table Top, the Hearth, the Great Stair, the Library, the Sewing Room and the Bedchamber to the Tower, one floor an hour from 9 pm to 5 am.

How it plays

Every chamber is one page: a short story beat, a puzzle, and a Next Door box. Solve the puzzle, find the number in the door brick, and turn to that page. A wrong answer sends you to a dead end that tells you which brick to recheck, so a slip costs you a minute and not the whole game.

A look inside

The front cover of Escape the Giant's Castle.
The cover.
The first chamber page of Escape the Giant's Castle: story text, an empty number pyramid and a Next Door box.
The first chamber, as printed. Nothing is solved.

At a glance

  • 45 locked mouse doors on nine floors
  • A set of tools you pick up and use on later doors
  • Hints and full answers in the back
  • Ages 10 to adult; paperback, 146 pages

Books mentioned

Escape the Giant's Castle cover

Escape the Giant's Castle

A puzzle adventure gamebook, paperback, 146 pages. 45 locked mouse doors on nine floors.

View on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Cover images are the ones we have on file; the book you receive may show a slightly different cover.

More field notes