D&D novels would be an ubiquitous and important part of the whole world building of the various settings with novel series like those set in the Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms setting selling millions upon millions of copies. In 1978, 4 years into the appearance of the game things were a little different and they would continue to be so until 1984’s Dragons of Autumn Twilight which really kicked off in earnest the hundreds of D&D novels to come.

Before that happened we would still have fiction in the shape of the Endless Adventure gamebooks which would appear in the early 80s and before all of that, this book. Quag Keep by Andre Norton (real name Alice Mary Norton) is set in the Greyhawk setting, and it starts off in the city of Greyhawk as adventurers come together to understand what the hell is happening to them. They are all suffering from a sort of amnesia and glimpses of another world (out world), they also have these kinds of charm bracelets with polyhedral dice… what is going on?

Unusually for D&D novels this mixes our world with the world of the game, and it’s a pretty fun read, most of it is a road trip as adventurers try to reach the titular Quag Keep to destroy the cause of their planar dislocation. Andre Norton is a good writer and there are a couple of cool references to Greyhawk elements, I particularly liked a mention of the Frog Temple from the Blackmoor supplement. Worth a read, more as a curiosity than anything, but still entertaining.