Hardly a week goes by without "another great book from Interface Publications" ((c) Interface Publications) whacking onto the doormat in the entrance hall of PCN towers. Creating Adventure Programs On The ZX Spectrum by Peter Shaw and James Mortleman, is one of the latest from this stable, and follows Interface's traditional format by having plenty of listing for you to hack in.

There are seven complete adventures including 'Elsie the Aardvark (sic, throughout) Goes Lunar Surveying.' There are a number of howlers along these lines, including 'Minataurs, Hydra and the Cylla make excellent monsters.' PCN's culture correspondent reveals that Scylla was actually a rock, and while this may be a handy way of dealing with those failed user-defined graphics, the authors here seem to have unintentionally underlined the need for good research when you're writing an adventure.

The section on how to write an adventure takes up slightly less than the first half of the book, but there's enough information to show you the techniques to use in programming an adventure. The problem is that the techniques aren't really all that different to those you'd use in other programs.

Work out how you store your locations in arrays and how to give the game a vocabulary, then you just zip through PLOT and DRAW and that's that. The only other things you'd need to know would be a little on organising long Basic programs, how to write a script, and how to produce fast complex graphic displays. None of these are covered in any detail. Still, seven adventures for £4.95 can't be bad.

Spectrum Magic - Your First Programming Book is a different kettle of fish. Aimed at children from nine upwards, it sports a jolly cover that looks a bit like Gerald Scarfe's impression of Ronald Reagan leading the invasion of Grenada.

It starts with the usual 'setting it up' chapter, plus a short homily on the subject of 'butter spoils the works' which indeed it does. The author takes a gently, gently, approach throughout - too gently I'd have thought, as by the time a beginner's reached the end of the book they'll have learned only very basic programming techniques.

This makes chapter 31 'Speeding ahead', look a bit bizarre. It presents a sketchily explained piece of machine code, plus its Basic equivalent, to illustrate the difference in speed. Readers that reach chapter 30 thinking they've learned a bit about programming are liable to change their minds when they hit 31.

Step By Step Programming For The ZX Spectrum, by Ian Graham, comes in two volumes, and is again educational. Both volumes are beautifully presented, and use a screenshot technique to produce the program listings. The ground covered in Book one is similar to that dealt with by Spectrum Magic, but it's a little wordier and the explanations are clearer.

Book two follows the same format, but this turns into a disadvantage because program length is limited to one screenful. Also the information included seems a lot less systematic than in the first volume.

Mike James' An Expert Guide To The Spectrum turns out to be an interesting book, although its usefulness is limited by an inadequate index. Mr. James concentrates on what is going on inside the machine when a program is running, so when you've finished reading it you'll probably have a better understanding of what the Spectrum does, and why it does it.

Spectrum Basic is covered, along with the tape system, Microdrives, communications and advanced programming applications, and the book includes enough in the way of machine code routines to whet the beginner's appetite.

And finally, what can a non-astromer say about a book about astronomy? ZX Spectrum Astronomy, by Maurice Gavin, isn't aimed at astronomers, but rather at Spectrum owners "who wish to expand their computing interests into other fields". It includes routines to allow you to simulate the movement of the stars and to produce star maps, but I think you'd have to have some prior interest in the field for the book to grab and hold your attention.

John Lettice