The Elfish Gene
Mark Barrowcliffe
ISBN: 9781569475225
Published: November, 2008
Pricing
Paperback $14.00
Description
Summer, 1976. Twelve-year-old Mark Barrowcliffe had a chance to be normal. He blew it.
While other teenagers were being coolly rebellious, Mark—and twenty million other boys in the 1970s and ’80s—chose to spend his entire adolescence pretending to be a wizard, a warrior, or an evil priest.
Armed only with pen, paper, and som...
Summer, 1976. Twelve-year-old Mark Barrowcliffe had a chance to be normal. He blew it.
While other teenagers were being coolly rebellious, Mark—and twenty million other boys in the 1970s and ’80s—chose to spend his entire adolescence pretending to be a wizard, a warrior, or an evil priest.
Armed only with pen, paper, and some funny-shaped dice, this lost generation gave themselves up to the craze of fantasy role-playing games. Spat at by bullies and laughed at by girls, they now rule the world. They were the geeks, the fantasy war gamers, and this is their story.
Media
“Funny ... [Barrowcliffe’s] gently knowing style makes the pain of identification a pleasure.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“Mark Barrowcliffe’s humorous, self-deprecating memoir of his misspent youth, The Elfish Gene, is another welcome addition to the growing ‘nerdsploitation’ genre.”
—Associated Press
“Hilarious, unbelievably well-remembered . . . begs a movie adaptation. . . . Barrowcliffe writes . . . with uncommon insight.”
—The Seattle Times
“In the best tradition of British humor. . . . Laugh-out-loud funny.”