Untold Adventures

I’ll admit, I approached *Untold Adventures* with skepticism—how many more D&D anthologies does the world need? But Shirley’s selections surprised me by sidestepping the usual hero’s-journey clichés. Standouts like the goblin-centric ‘Skullport Scam’ (imagine *Ocean’s Eleven* with more stabbing) and the eerie ‘The Last Word of the Last Druid’ (which plays like a folk horror fable) prove that shared-world fiction can still feel fresh. McConnohie’s performance is a masterclass in vocal range; his delivery of a drow’s venomous asides had me rewinding just to savor the disdain. That said, the audiobook’s pacing stumbles in a few mid-collection stories where the prose gets *too* lyrical—great for print, but McConnohie’s cadence occasionally fights the rhythm, making dense descriptions drag. The real triumph? How these stories *sound* like they’re being told around a campfire between sessions. The production team nails the ambiance—subtle, never cheesy—with environmental cues that ground even the most outlandish tales. My one gripe: a couple of endings feel rushed, as if the authors hit their word count and bailed. But when it works (and it usually does), *Untold Adventures* captures the thrill of a great D&D night—the laughter, the gasps, the ‘wait, did that just happen?’ moments. If you’ve ever scribbled notes for a homebrew campaign, this audiobook will feel like coming home.