If you are thinking about buying this book, you probably already have an idea on what this book is supposed to be about... the Dungeons & Dragons role playing game. But what KIND of book is it? I don't exactly know, but I am pretty sure about one thing- its execution is a cascade of missteps, as in, "I missed the first step and fell all the way down the stairs and broke both my legs." If this book were a mental patient, it would be classified as schizophrenic (with my apologies to the truly schizophrenic). Maybe this is what happens when you have a committee write a book.
Apparently (or obviously) this book was supposed to be a "collector's item" type of coffee table book- shrinkwrapped, full color slick from cover to cover; jammed with art, anecdotes, and historical features about D&D from 1974 to 2004. Great idea. But it actually is either a poorly produced art book, or a tepidly-written retrospective on the game rewritten from old press releases. This book has fundamental flaws.
Every page is printed with the text angled 15-degrees (to right or left). This might be really eye-grabbing and cute on a soft-drink coupon, but on a fifty dollar book it is downright annoying. Matt Adelsperger & Brian Fraley (interior design) should be designing floor patterns for Congoleum, not books.
The translucent "vellum" dust jacket is nicely done, but the actual covers are ugly faux-gold and white monochrome illustrations that look like wallpaper.
The book is jammed with art, ranging from okay to great, but none of it individually attributed. No captions, no descriptions, and most of it chopped up by slashy borderings. There ARE stories behind art, but this book ain't talking.
There are some celebrity anecdotes, which are mildly interesting one-page pieces (laid out like Monster Manual pages, but at an angle), but not great. Different Worlds magazine (out of print) did a heck of a lot better job illuminating the social dimension of role-playing twenty years ago with their "My Life and Role Playing" series. Instead of photos of the celebrities (what they SHOULD have done), we get drawings of monsters- Sherman Alexie gets a caveman, Wil Wheaton a moss creature, Laurel Hamilton a mummy, David X. Cohen a beholder, etc.; you get the picture (not the photo). Speaking of photos, don't expect to find many. There is a three-page photo collage of a GENCON (no attribution or titles, looks like it came from a kindergartener's scrapbook), a half-page shot of Ed Stark (why him?), and that's it.
A retrospective book about D&D was a great idea- but it hasn't been written yet.