The Maze of Peril

I really, really dug Maze of Peril! I'm a big fan of Holmes' sample dungeon "Zenopus's Tower" in the Blue Box Basic Set, and there are definitely echoes of that dungeon in the first section of the book - although there are more differences than similarities, and the book goes in some interesting directions in subsequent chapters.

I picked up a copy direct from the publisher, after seeing that Space & Time's mailing address is like 20 blocks from me. I'd definitely recommend the book to anyone interested in old-school D&D, and to match action to words, I'd be happy to serve as your overseas purchase agent, bigjackbrass - send me a PM and we can work out the details.

There are several J. Eric Holmes stories in The Dragon, up through about issue #58 (my first, which featured his "In the Bag" story). So, if you have the Dragon Archive or the original issues, or illegal .pdfs, you can search around for his stories to read them and see if you like his style. The issues are 31, 46, and 58.

There are a few good threads about JEH and MoP on the Acaeum and DF, too; see
www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=23769 and www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=519732 and www.acaeum.com/forum/post-44199.html

I think it, and JEH's stories in general, are worth checking out: they're certainly not high literature, but they are fun reads

Yeah, Maze of Peril is definitely a fun read. I posted a review of it over on the KnK boards a long while back. I don't think anyone responded to it so I'm not sure if they were interested. But, while it certainly isn't great literature I did find myself wanting more when it ended. It does make me chuckle though, because to me it did have the "feel" of stories written about actual D&D sessions, not like "stories" like Dragonlance for instance. So the way characters reacted to other character's deaths, for example, was pretty funny because it is definitely how characters are in game, but in a typical fantasy story i think it would be handled differently. I don't know, hard to explain.

Well, I've finished the three stories from Dragon and they're actually rather enjoyable. A dark elf hero! and yes, a hobbit called Boinger. Nothing spectacular, but they're decently written and far superior to a lot of the other gaming fiction I've slogged my way through over the years.

With my taste for Ye Olde fantasy novels piqued I started on Quag Keep. A couple of chapters in so far and... uh, I'm reserving judgement until I finish it...

Thanks for the links, grodog! It's inspiring to see Holmes' Gen Con events listed, and good to know that there's other fiction of his out there.

A Google Scholar search seems to indicate that the online archives of Psychology Today don't go as far back as 1980. A university library might well have a copy, though. Here are the specifics:
Psychology today [0033-3107] Holmes yr:1980 vol:14 pg:84

I'm glad to hear that Tasmania is as isolated as my imagination would suggest! Please do not disillusion me about its devils

I live just down the street from Columbia University, but their security wised up last time I was at their library and confiscated my many-years-out-of-date college ID

And it doesn't look like the NY Public Library keeps more than the last 5 years of paper copies.

Perhaps some other resourceful Holmes fan will step up?

You'd be a scholar and a gentleman if you were able to find the time grodog.

And Tavis, Tassie Devils don't spin around in a whirlwind if that's what you mean, but they are grumpy, angry little buggers. Sadly I only see them as roadkill.

I'd love to read the article. Searching for it on-line brings up an enormous number of references, but they're very often anti-gaming religious groups citing it, and other articles, rather selectively. I was a little surprised that such an old piece, particularly one that does receive comment even now, is not more easily available on the Internet.

Your library's will definitely be faster than me, so do please post it if you're able!

Nice! ;D

Thanks Dan: that's also a better copy than my 1980s slick-paper photocopy

Awesome! I'm fascinated by the mix of elements in Holmes' career (as well as that of Carl Sargent), and there's some nice tidbits relating to that here, like his gaming group being made up of doctors & nurses with a "touching faith in the power of healing". As expected, there's also glimpses of the early history of the game (lamias as PCs!), as well as the social context of the article - apparently by 1980 you could assume that a general audience would have some idea what D&D is, since Holmes seems remarkably free of the need to laboriously explain the fundamentals of a role-playing game.

I checked with Space & Time Books' publisher, Gordon Linzner, and they do indeed have copies of Maze of Peril left in stock. Last time we met I pumped Gordon for background on the book's publication. He wasn't a D&D fan, although as someone who had been going to SF cons since the '50s he was certainly aware of the game. He decided to publish Maze because he thought it was a good read & would make a good addition to his small press catalog. No particular details about the book's history stood out in Gordon's mind 20+ years later. We speculated that it wasn't picked up by a major publisher because it was relatively short, at a time when fat fantasy trilogies and series were the going thing, and perhaps also due to a prejudice against "game fiction".

Not necessarily. Lee Gold still produces A&E and I've heard that she will provide photocopies of articles from previous issues, for a fee. Might be worth getting in touch.

Ah, looks like my information is a bit out of date, greyharp.

EDIT to add: Have you seen this Acaeum thread about a Holmes bibliography? Annoyingly, the bibliography it links to lacks the A&E issue number info you're after, although it does mention the name of the stories, but if you look to the bottom of the page there's a post from February saying that "zhowar" has the issue numbers and will post an update... Obviously a bit overdue Might be a lead for you to follow if you can contact zhowar.