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

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book is not a biography as much as it is a series of vignettes and anecdotes and I thoroughly enjoyed this book despite itself. Witwer is forced to make up some scenes and they often feel made up. There are some cheesy elements within the writing and structure, but at its heart, it's a fascinating tale about the rise and fall of Gygax's gaming empire.

Having grown up as a gamer, this history brought back many memories and so I cherished reading this book. I especially enjoyed the ending which delved into Gygax's enduring legacy. There's a great quote from Adam Rogers (editor of Wired magazine) who wrote, "Gary Gygax died last week and the universe did not collapse. That surprises me a little bit, because he built it" (p. 230). (To be fair, that credit should be shared with Dave Arneson who co-created D&D and died the following year).

Unfortunately, because of the narrative structure, the book leaves huge gaps in the timeline and leaves the reader yearning for more. Despite the book being over 300 pages long, the actual content is only 242 (the ending is filled with notes, a bibliography, a timeline, etc.) and with so many white pages between chapters, it's probably closer to 200. Hence, it's a quick read, but fails to give the full picture. It's unfortunate that no one took the time to write Gygax's biography while he was still alive and could easily fill in those gaps. I'm hopeful that a more thorough biography appears in the future as Gygax and Arneson both deserve one.



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