Baldur's Gate II by Matt Bell

Upon its release in 2000, BioWare's PC role-playing epic Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn was hailed as a paragon of its genre and named "RPG of the Year" by IGN, GameSpy, and GameSpot. A game like Baldur's Gate II requires not just a master wordsmith but a dungeon master. Enter award-winning novelist Matt Bell, author of four works of fiction and co-author of the Dungeons & Dragons novel The Last Garrison.

Bell's book explores BG2's immersive narrative and complex mechanics, unpacks how RPG systems enable our emotional investment in characters, investigates the game's non-linear story, and relates his own struggle to reconcile being a "serious" adult with his love of D&D and video games. Dig in, geek out, and go for the eyes, Boo!

Matt Bell is the author of the novels Scrapper and In the House upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods, a finalist for the Young Lions Fiction Award and the winner of the Paula Anderson Book Award, as well as two previous books, How They Were Found and Cataclysm Baby. Born in Michigan, he now teaches creative writing at Arizona State University.