Guardians of the Flame: The Warriors

I really enjoyed this set of books. Usually, as a rule, I don't really care for "hybrid" stories, ones where reality is mixed with fantasy, but this one works for me. I almost put it down shortly after starting it because it was set on Earth... That quickly changed, however, when the friends get together to play a fantasy roleplaying game and their gamemaster is actually a wizard from another world. Each real-life human is magically transformed into their roleplaying alter-egos and deposited on another planet, where they must fight for their lives from the very beginning. It's interesting to see how each character is torn between what they want to be and what they are -- some take to it better than others. And these are gritty, dark times for the "heroes" as they are tested to the very limits of their sanity, abilities, and morals. No one character particularly stands out as a typical "hero". They are just normal people thrown into alter-personalities, and they are believable as they try to make the most of it. Joel Rosenberg did a fantastic job making this a truly entertaining experience. I can't believe I almost didn't read it. The next book (Heir Apparent) is not nearly so memorable as this set, but I do want to read it again. Only Terry Brooks has done it as well, with his series about The Wizard At Large, Magic Kingdom for Sale: SOLD!, and The Black Unicorn. I have to NOT include Weis & Hickman's Darksword Trilogy and Stephen R. Donaldson's Thomas Covenant Trilogy -- they didn't cut it, as far as the hybrid part goes.

This is the first three "Guardians of the Flame" books together in a Science Fiction Book Club hardback: "The Sleeping Dragon" "The Sword and the Chain" "The Silver Crown" I recently re-read my copy, the first time I'd touched it since the mid-Eighties. To my relief, it was every bit as good as I remember it. (This is not always true with some of the books from my younger years!) I remember the first time I read "The Sleeping Dragon." I was skeptical, because I'd heard about "D & D Gamers" travelling to their game world. [Uh, yeah, sure...] But Rosenberg made it work. Rosenberg wrote what I term Hard Fantasy. Gritty, dark in places, with complex characters. Even the magic follows definite rules. Central characters will die, retire, or travel elsewhere. Sometimes predictable, sometimes not, but always interesting. The series continues in "Guardians of the Flame: The Heroes" (ISBN 1568650507)