Reviews - The Adventure Zone: The Eleventh Hour

TAZ: The Eleventh Hour like all the TAZ graphic novels before is fun, but isn't as fun as listening to the podcast. It's great to see the story adapted for print, but it lacks the lively improvisational nature of the McElroy's actually playing DND. The Eleventh Hour was my personal favorite arc of TAZ: Balance, so I had some higher expectations for this book, and it didn't meet them. There's at least one very good change that provides more backstory to Merle in a better more meaningful way. The rest of the changes are cutting characters and scenes to tell a more concise story. Taako and Magnus are also given more depth in this arc, but for some reason in this format it feels less earned than in the podcast. Nothing is poorly written, and there's an great gag with chapter numbers that I adore, but it was just good. If you enjoyed TAZ, or the other graphic novels, you should check this out.

emily_faye89's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

findleydunn's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

becthree's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous funny fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The adventure continues, with arguably the best arc of the campaign! Seriously, The Eleventh Hour is tied with Petals to the Metal for my favorite Balance arc, so I've been looking forward to this one. Finding out more about what drives our heroes was one of the best parts of the story, and their rebuking of this relic's temptation was a powerful moment. I was skeptical about how this arc and the surrounding Lunar Interlude was going to be adapted into graphic novel format (how does one portray a whole bunch of trial-and-error run-throughs of a time loop?), but my skepticism was rebuffed pretty early into this book, as Clint McElroy and Carey Pietsch have done an excellent job of telling this story. Special mention for Pietsch's behind-the-scenes art section, seeing that process was very neat. The rest of the campaign, in terms of both content and the challenge of adaptation, is going to be very interesting to see.

lavendersblues's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

mmsimpson's review against another edition

4.5

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

bugmancharles's review against another edition

3.0

If Goodreads allowed half stars I'd give this one a 3.5 probably.

I think the TAZ books DO work as books read apart from the podcast - like you could read the books and not listen to the podcast, and it would be a story. And in particular this one is restructured and abridged in a way that the narrative maybe makes more sense and has more flow, but the feeling of the podcast is still missing, b/c it's also just kind of fundamentally impossible to mimic the energy of a dad and his three rowdy adult sons riffing at each other.

The illustrations are very good.

artandwhimsy's review against another edition

4.0

What can I say when it arrived in the mail I couldn’t help but read it all in one go. This book is a great re-creation of the original adventure zone podcast. While it doesn’t completely capture all of the natural jokes that were told in the moment in the original podcast episodes surrounding this arc, this is a really great adaptation of the 11th hour storyline. If you are a fan of dungeons and dragons, the adventure zone, or fantastical heart filled storytelling, I recommend giving this a read!

emmisary's review against another edition

5.0

Read for Popsugar: a book that's guaranteed to bring you joy

This is my favorite arc of the podcast, so I had high hopes, which were spectacularly met. They are knocking it out of the park with these graphic novel adaptations!

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