Author Archives: Christa Porter

I am a gamer, and I have had cats as pets for almost my entire life. So, obviously, I had to read this book.

Cat + Gamer is the first volume of the English translation of the Japanese manga, written and illustrated by Wataru Nadatani. Dark Horse Comics is releasing the collected volumes in North America. So far three volumes are available, with five more to come.

The manga tells the story of Riko, an incredibly efficient office worker. She always goes above and beyond when it comes to her job, and leaves work promptly at 5pm every day. Her co-workers try to invite her to join them for after work hours socializing, but she’s never available. Some of them think she’s anti-social, others say she’s just a very private person.

But, they are all curious – what is her secret life? Well, Riko has a passion for video games! All of her free time is spent playing video games, researching all of the side quests and boss fights, making sure she doesn’t miss a thing. As far as she’s concerned, it’s the most fun and rewarding thing to do.

Until one day her life changes forever. A stray kitten is found in the parking lot of her office building, and for reasons she doesn’t understand, she agrees to take it home.

The book alternates between her viewpoint and the cat’s viewpoint, as they both learn about each other. Riko uses her gaming skills to raise the kitten, ‘leveling up’ the tiny animal, vowing to ‘max out this cat!’.

Cat + Gamer is a story that will obviously appeal to gamers and cat owners. But, anyone looking for a fun, quirky read will appreciate it, too. And don’t worry, the gaming parts of the book are described in a way that I think anyone can understand.

I’ve only read the first volume so far, but I enjoyed it so much, I’m definitely going to be picking up the others.

In all good hearts is a spot of darkness, and in all tragedy is a glimmer of light. – back cover quote.

I picked up this novel after watching the new Dungeons & Dragons movie, Honor Among Thieves. I have been playing D&D for almost 20 years, and in my opinion the movie was an accurate representation of a typical campaign. Exciting, fun, and full of unforeseen events and missteps.

The Druid’s Call is a prequel to the movie, telling the origin story of the tiefling, Doric. In the current 5th edition of D&D, tieflings trace their origins to a deal made in ancient times between power hungry humans and devils from the Nine Hells. Now, they look mostly human, but with horns and a tail, reminiscent of their devilish ancestry.

Tiefling ancestry can hide for many generations and as can sometimes happen, Doric was born to human parents who abandoned her as a child, due to her appearance. Doric struggles to find her purpose and even after being taken in and accepted (mostly) by a group of Neverwinter Wood elves, still feels like an outsider. Her best friend, Torrieth, is very supportive of Doric, encouraging her to practice being a ranger, like the other elves. However, they both soon learn that Doric’s abilities are really that of a druid.

As there are no druids in the elven community, Doric must leave the elves and travel to the Emerald Enclave to train as a druid. It is a difficult journey for her, full of adventures and encounters, both good and bad.

In the end, Doric learns to accept her tiefling and druid self so that she can return to her true family, her elven clan, and help protect them from the humans who have started moving deeper into the elves’ woods, destroying the forest as they go.

I was expecting this book to be like the movie, with campy escapades and exciting fight scenes. But, it was much deeper than that, and I truly appreciated how the author delved more into the characters in the book. As a D&D player, I know that The Druid’s Call portrays the Dungeons & Dragons universe accurately. But, you don’t have to know anything about D&D to understand and enjoy this book. (Or the movie.) The author has done a great job of presenting the D&D world so that anyone who likes fantasy, adventure, and an inspiring story will enjoy this book.