Thirty Years of Adventure : A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons

Rating:
Summary: A Loving Tribute
Review: A nostalgic look at 30 years of the modern Monopoly. Yes, it's been thirty years since this game hit the streets. As movie actor Vin Diesel says in the introduction to this book: "We were all drawn to the bame because it allowed us to become these characters, vastly different in appearance and in actions, but what kept us hooked was the search for the character that represneted our higher self. Playing D&D was a training ground for our imaginations and an opportunity to explore our own identities."

This book is not on playing the game, it's not exactly a history, it's just a look back. There are parts and articles by Gary Gygax, creator of the game, by various people who have been involved with the game, there are photographs of people, events, bits of the game and more.

Rating:
Summary: Good as a yearbook of memories
Review: I was excited about seeing this book because I've been playing D&D for 24 of the 30 years they cover. A lot of the artwork you've seen before but you really buy the book to trigger all the great memories you have of the game. It's great to get some background on the various worlds and why they have decided to make the different editions of the game. The interviews with various famous people, some more so than others, are nice to get some other perspectives on the game though most are pretty similar.

Mainly I wanted this book so I could think on all those friends I've played games with over the years, something I still do regularly.

My only warning for those buying the book, the vellum cover may not hold up very well if you're going to handle the book a lot. You may want to store it on a shelf until you finish reading the book.

Rating:
Summary: "Great Expectations"... and then "A Pillar of Sand"
Review: If you are thinking about buying this book, you probably already have an idea on what this book is supposed to be about... the Dungeons & Dragons role playing game. But what KIND of book is it? I don't exactly know, but I am pretty sure about one thing- its execution is a cascade of missteps, as in, "I missed the first step and fell all the way down the stairs and broke both my legs." If this book were a mental patient, it would be classified as schizophrenic (with my apologies to the truly schizophrenic). Maybe this is what happens when you have a committee write a book.

Apparently (or obviously) this book was supposed to be a "collector's item" type of coffee table book- shrinkwrapped, full color slick from cover to cover; jammed with art, anecdotes, and historical features about D&D from 1974 to 2004. Great idea. But it actually is either a poorly produced art book, or a tepidly-written retrospective on the game rewritten from old press releases. This book has fundamental flaws.

Every page is printed with the text angled 15-degrees (to right or left). This might be really eye-grabbing and cute on a soft-drink coupon, but on a fifty dollar book it is downright annoying. Matt Adelsperger & Brian Fraley (interior design) should be designing floor patterns for Congoleum, not books.

The translucent "vellum" dust jacket is nicely done, but the actual covers are ugly faux-gold and white monochrome illustrations that look like wallpaper.

The book is jammed with art, ranging from okay to great, but none of it individually attributed. No captions, no descriptions, and most of it chopped up by slashy borderings. There ARE stories behind art, but this book ain't talking.

There are some celebrity anecdotes, which are mildly interesting one-page pieces (laid out like Monster Manual pages, but at an angle), but not great. Different Worlds magazine (out of print) did a heck of a lot better job illuminating the social dimension of role-playing twenty years ago with their "My Life and Role Playing" series. Instead of photos of the celebrities (what they SHOULD have done), we get drawings of monsters- Sherman Alexie gets a caveman, Wil Wheaton a moss creature, Laurel Hamilton a mummy, David X. Cohen a beholder, etc.; you get the picture (not the photo). Speaking of photos, don't expect to find many. There is a three-page photo collage of a GENCON (no attribution or titles, looks like it came from a kindergartener's scrapbook), a half-page shot of Ed Stark (why him?), and that's it.

A retrospective book about D&D was a great idea- but it hasn't been written yet.


Rating:
Summary: Save your money.
Review: This book is low on content and high on typos and other errors. It looks like it wasn't even proof read before it went to the publisher. It's filled with typos and grammatical mistakes. As far as content three of the chapters are actually interesting. I especially enjoyed the history of the Forgotten Realms. For the most part though this book is atrocious. The bit by Gary Gygax, creator of the game, was written six years ago. I would think for a tribute they could have at least tried to obtain some new content. To sum it up this book is nearly as good as the D&D movie (i.e. Terrible.)