The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons, and Growing Up Strange by Mark Barrowcliffe

This was a delightful memoir of growing up with D&D that brought back many memories of my own. Some of the author’s anecdotes are frankly hilarious, as when he recounts his adolescent attempts to pick up girls with lines like, “Did you know that trolls have five hit dice and regenerate?” Even more interesting is his probing into the psychology of fantasy and why so many young people are drawn to it. The book poses an interesting conundrum: is reality really better than fantasy? The jury is still out on this one, I think.

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