Return to Quag Keep

Gary Gygax co-invented the game of D&D, and formed the company TSR in 1974 to publish the new game. Two years later, Gygax invited the popular sf/fantasy author Andre Norton to play a session of D&D set within his own home campaign world of Greyhawk. Norton subsequently wrote a novel titled Quag Keep, which was the first published novel based on a tabletop role-playing game. The book was published in 1978.

In the early 2000s, Norton and Jean Rabe began to collaborate on a sequel to Quag Keep, but Norton died before the book was completed. Rabe subsequently finished Return to Quag Keep, which was published by Tor Books in 2006.^[1]

Critics were unimpressed by this novel. Publishers Weekly didn't think Rabe's writing compared to her predecessor's, saying, "For the most part, the story and characters lack the magic and imagination typical of the late SF Grand Master Norton at her best."^[2]

Don D'Ammassa also reviewed Rabe's sequel for the Science Fiction Chronicle and called it "another routine quest adventure with the same cast of characters. It's not a bad story, but it doesn't read like something Norton would have written, not does it feel like it's based on a role-playing game."^[3]

Kirkus Reviews called it "Derivative, stale rubbish."^[4]