I saw this at Barnes and Noble and couldn't resist it - a D&D-themed manga with an entertaining twist. The adventuring party goes up against a dragon, which devours the mage even as she casts a spell to send the rest of the party to safety. When they come to, they find themselves very short of supplies, and with a serious question: is it possible to resurrect someone who's been partially digested by a dragon? [Yes, in D&D games this is sometimes a perfectly sensible question!] They want to retrieve her, but what to do for provisions...

So one party member has the bright idea to start eating the many monsters that inhabit the dungeons. Turns out he's been curious about this for some time and seizes the opportunity to put it into practice - with varying results. Seems some critters are tastier than others, and of course the preparation methods are important - so now their quest not only includes dungeon-delving and monster-fighting but menu-planning!

The manga plays with this, presenting the preparation and cooking instructions as if it were a normal food-manga - and in many cases the recipes sound workable, if you replace things like dried slime with seaweed or something.

There are other elements to the story - we learn more about the characters and their back stories, and there's clearly more going on with the adventure arc than a simple quest. And our heroes find that, while dining on monsters is an effective way of stretching their provisions, it has its drawbacks: at one point someone points out that they're behind schedule because of all the time it took to properly roast a basilisk!

I enjoyed the book - the bit about "Living Armor Casserole" really cracked me up - but I'm not sure how long this concept can sustain a series. Still, it was a lot of fun!

[There's a TV Tropes page on the series.]

I'm putting this book in the manga/graphic novel bookbox, which will be on its way to its next stop soon. Enjoy!

Taken from the manga box. This sounds like a lot of fun!

I think I liked the concept for this story more than the result. As creative as some parts were, as a whole, it just wasn't holding my attention very well and I kept putting it down. I didn't find most of the characters all that interesting (Senshi was my favorite) and it made it hard to get too invested in their quest. The art wasn't anything special, but conveyed what it needed to. I loved the depictions and descriptions of all the possibly edible critters the came across, and their unusual methods of dealing with them, but that isn't enough to keep me wanting more of the series.

Added to the Magical Beasties box

This book was in my Box Full of Magical, Mystical Stories and Dangerous Beasties bookbox. Thanks for sending it my way.