The Game Masters of Garden Place
by Denis Markell

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Middle grade fantasy

Since they were first introduced to the tabletop roleplaying game Reign of Dragons at around 10 years of age, Ralph and his friends began to play the game weekly. Over the next couple of years their characters face monsters and perils in search of the components of a powerful item, which no one has managed to complete in the history of Reign of Dragons. But since Ralph and his friends have gotten farther in the campaign than most, Ralph is sent a special set of dice by the game creator’s son. This leads to Ralph’s gaming group’s fantasy characters coming to life in the real world, and it’s up to Ralph and friends to rein them in and try to get them back home.

I found most aspects of the fantasy characters in the real world enjoyable, including the fact that it wasn’t left to just be a vague, no-real-reason-given effect. Ralph (known as RPG by his friends) is trying to keep his friend group together as they’re growing up a little and developing different interests, though I feel like that angle to the story wasn’t really needed. I really appreciate that the characters aren’t all just stereotypes that I often see in books for this age range; for example, the athlete/warrior character is a female.

There are several scenes that are “in-world,” meaning they are written as if the story is about the fantasy characters and their quest. At first, this is used humorously, as it ends with the characters talking as their real-world players and discussing the need to be done playing due to real life calling. But the more we’re taken back to that world, the more I started to skim those sections. I didn’t really feel the need to know that much detail about their campaigns. Maybe people who are really into Dungeons & Dragons (the game on which Reign of Dragons is based) and other games like that would enjoy it more. And it’s entirely possible that Markell used those sections to build up the characterization of the fantasy characters so we’d be more connected to them when they came into the real world. I can’t really say for sure how necessary they were for that, but I can say that, for the most part, Markell did pretty well having distinct personalities for the five fantasy characters.

Sometimes the kids act a little too old for their ages, especially when you think about the fact that they’re only 10 when they come up with some of the backgrounds that they do for their characters. There’s also something a little off-putting about these grown adults being in a somewhat intimate setting with 12-year-olds, but nothing that was a huge deal in the end. Though one of the fantasy characters is revealed to be gay, which means that A) his 10-year-old creator decided to make his character gay (or decided on that at some point in the next 2 years) and B) the young creator is also most likely gay (which is hinted at in the story as well). I’ve never been a fan of the attempt to normalize these things for kids, and I am certain that there are others who will want to be aware of this in advance. At the very least, if you have the same concerns at all, I would recommend reading the book first, to evaluate for yourself whether you feel it’s okay for them to read or to simply be able to discuss it with them as/after they read the book. I did not factor any of this into my rating, and I know many people won’t care one way or the other, but I share this for those who do. With that in mind, though, I think many people, kids and adults, who are fans of fantasy roleplaying games or other similar ventures will enjoy this book. My husband has played some D&D over the years, so I have enough peripheral knowledge of the game to have found the real-life D&D characters aspect of this book interesting. Overall, really, anyone who’s played any kind of game where they play as fantasy characters, or even who has written a book with…well, characters, could probably identify with the main premise here.

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