Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The King of the Nerds Falls Flat

Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons and Dragons by Michael Witwer

by 1 Comment

Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons and Dragons tries to be a history of gaming, both general and specific, a biography, and a business of pop culture (cons, trends, geekdoms, etc) review all at once; it does not succeed. On the biography side, the subject Gry Gygax is presented with little personality other than ‘tempermental’ and ‘creative genius’ and ‘somewhat difficult’. There’s also little narrative to build and follow, mostly scattered episodes. Part of the problem is that no one else […]

It’s the Podcast but in Color!

The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins by Clint McElroy, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, Travis McElroy, Carey Pietsch

by 1 Comment

Ah TAZ, I can’t believe it’s only been a bit over a year since I finished the first arc. For those unfamiliar, The Adventure Zone podcast or, TAZ as it’s known to its fans, is the McElroy Brothers, (Justin, Travis and Griffin) and their father (Clint) playing D&D. The story they create in the first installment of the series, Here There Be Gerblins, is yer basic go-there-get-the-thing quest. Standard D&D stuff. That is a woefully reductive description of a storytelling experience that was so magical that I wish I could erase it out […]

All Aboard for Part Two

The Adventure Zone: Murder on the Rockport Limited! by Clint McElroy

by Leave a Comment

The Adventure Zone: Murder on the Rockport Limited! is still written by the McElroy’s (Clint, Griffin, Justin and Travis) and still amusing. The bad puns are bad and the innuendos even worse. This time, the story is a smidgen predictable (after all the three main characters return from book one, here in book two). You know that Merle, Magnus and Taako will screw around, goof up, accidentally get a magic spell or two right, drink booze (occasionally tea), play their role-playing game, interrupted by the DM […]

Cooking with Magic

by Leave a Comment

I was in the local bookstore to pick something up, and what I was looking for wasn’t there. I browsed around a little since I had a 20% off coupon, and I saw this: The Wizard’s Cookbook. I made an impulse purchase. I regret nothing. This is a cookbook, but all the recipes are based on characters from modern fantasy literature and include everything from the expected Harry Potter and Wizard of Oz to the equally cool but less expected Magica DeSpell, Link, Asterix and […]

An Anatomy of Drew Hayes, but also review of Going Rogue

by Leave a Comment

There are 3 kinds of Drew Hayes books: a) the novels that as complete books are 600+ pages long, have short chapters, and are fairly episodic (ie Super Powereds), b) the novels that are structured more like novels with chapter longer than 1-2 pages and not epic in length (Spells, Swords, & Stealth), and c) the novels that are average in length (under 300 pages) and set up like a series of short stories (Fred the Vampire Accountant). While some of the distinctions come from […]

Mismemory or Starting from the Wrong Place

by Leave a Comment

I remember this event from about 5 years ago where participants engaged in a favorite author quote off. Basically, everyone presented a quote by their favorite author, and the audience voted on the best. Whoever got the fewest votes each round was eliminated. The final round ended up with an English professor show specialized in Renaissance drama using Shakespeare vs one of his colleagues’ tween son using R.A. Salvatore. It was hilarious even though the eventual split decision of Shakespeare as the winner seemed a […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo