The Adventure Zone by The McElroy Family and Carey Piestsch
Since January, I have been slowly re-reading my favorite graphic novel series. Not just because I love it, but because the finale is coming – the seventh and final volume, THE ADVENTURE ZONE: STORY AND SONG.
The Adventure Zone series is an adaptation of an actual play Dungeons & Dragons podcast. In the podcast, one participant is running the D&D game while the other participants embody characters that experience the world the Game Master has created.
This series focuses on three main characters. Magnus Burnsides is a human fighter, known for throwing himself into danger to protect anyone and everyone. Taako is an elven wizard with a large vocabulary of swears and a flair for the dramatic. Merle Highchurch is a dwarven cleric who is not particularly religious and not really into mining – his cohorts find him lovably incompetent.
The boys – as they are affectionately known by fans – have won battle-wagon races, saved a one-horse western town that was stuck in a time loop, and survived a demented carnival game designed to destroy them. They solved a murder on a train, they saved the world from being transformed into pink tourmaline, and they failed to stop the destruction of a village which was consumed by magical fire. You can’t win them all.
The books are full of the kind of humor that fans of the podcast expect; it is both silly and irreverent by turns. But the interpersonal relationships are the heart of the story. Both the friendship of the core trio and their interactions with the characters they meet during their adventures.
The overarching story that connects this series is the quest for seven relics scattered throughout the world. Magnus, Merle, and Taako belong to an organization called the Bureau of Balance, which dedicated itself to finding and eliminating these relics before their powers fall into the wrong hands.
Each relic has a specific ability but they all affect their bearer’s mind. They corrupt even the most well-intentioned use of their power. The Bureau – thanks in large part to the boys – has found and destroyed six of the seven relics, but the Bureau’s director has been keeping secrets. And Magnus, Merle, and Taako will not rest until all their questions are answered.
Because I listened to the podcast, I do know how this story ends. I also know that there is a lot of ground to cover in one book. Many mysteries remain unsolved; some of those mysteries even remain undiscovered. This is going to be a dense book, but – to paraphrase The Adventure Zone’s goddess of fate – it’s going to be amazing.
The final volume of The Adventure Zone comes out this month. I suggest you start from the beginning, but the library’s copy of STORY AND SONG is on pre-order; it should be here in a matter of days!
Book review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian
