Non-Fiction

My non-fiction books, available from Legacy Books Press.

By Robert B. Marks

220 pages

ISBN: 978-1-927537-10-7

$22.95 Canada
$19.95 U.S.A.
£15.95 U.K.
€16.95 Europe
$22.95 Australia

At the dawn of the 21st Century, the video game industry experienced a period of wild creativity, fighting for recognition as an art form while making the transformation into a media juggernaut.  And as it did, Garwulf’s Corner was there, watching and commentating.

One of the earliest, if not the first, video game issues columns on the Internet, Garwulf’s Corner ran every two weeks from 2000 to 2002 on Diabloii.net.  Written by Robert B. Marks, author of Diablo: Demonsbane and The EverQuest Companion, it explored everything up to and including Diablo, the birth of artificial intelligence, hackers, literature and movies, and the video game’s struggle for legitimacy.

Collected here for the first time in print – with new introductions and updates – are all 52 installments of Garwulf’s Corner, along with the three columns written years later for the unpublished Blurred Edge Magazine, the holiday issue that never was, and the author’s final word (so far) on Diablo III and Diablo in general.  Insightful, controversial, witty, and thought-provoking, Garwulf’s Corner is a journey into the world of video games that is still relevant today.

Now available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com, and for order at your local bookstore.

By R. Drew Griffith and Robert B. Marks

316 pages

ISBN: 978-0-9784652-2-3

$29.95 U.S.A./Canada
£18.95 U.K.
€20.95 Europe
$27.95 Australia

Ancient Greece and Rome aren’t usually remembered for their sense of humour. However, in reality the ancient Greeks and Romans often refused to take themselves seriously. Strange and outlandish activities abounded – including somebody accidentally exposing himself while dancing sideways at his wedding (those wearing bed sheets didn’t wear underwear) and a group of drunk young men thinking their house is sinking at sea, and tossing all their furniture out the windows.

In this new edition, R. Drew Griffith and Robert B. Marks take you on a lively and funny journey through the more bizarre activities of the ancient world, venturing out as far as Egypt, Babylon, and Scandinavia, ranging everywhere from moochers to quacks to shrews to perhaps the oldest laundromat joke in history, and even revealing the most terrible thing you can do to anybody involving a radish.

Now available from Amazon.com in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, from Barnes & Noble, and for order at your local bookstore.  Also available as an Adobe Digital Editions e-book at the low price of $12.95 US from Powells, Ebookmall, Diesel E-books, and Booksonboard.

By Robert B. Marks

234 pages

ISBN: 978-1927537-38-1

$26.95 Canada
$19.95 U.S.A.
£13.95 U.K
€18.95 Europe
$22.95 Australia

A pioneer in video game commentary, Robert B. Marks was one of the first – if not the first – video games issues columnists in the English language. In March 2015 he returned to take a fresh new look at video games and pop culture.

Thought provoking, controversial, and insightful – and with new introductions – this collection includes:

– All 29 installments of Garwulf’s Corner from the pages of The Escapist, covering issues ranging from outrage culture to diversity to the culture war over the Hugo Awards.

– “Beyond the Escapist,” a collection of installments including an examination of shared cinematic universes, an analysis of one of the most famous Twitter harassment criminal cases of all time, and the first two parts of “The Road to GamerGate,” a planned but abandoned 4-part series taking a historical look at the events of August 2014 – most published here for the first time.

– Garwulf Speaks, Robert B. Marks’ magazine experiment, with feature articles covering video game piracy to the history of the public climate change debate to the changing identity of the gamer – and short stories to thrill, move, and even terrify.

From the toy industry to the revival of Battlebots, from the Ghostbusters remake to one of video gaming’s first mass murder simulators, this is a fascinating odyssey into the amazing world of video games and pop culture.

Now available on Amazon.com.

By Robert B. Marks

207 pages

ISBN: 978-1927537-41-1

$26.95 Canada
$19.95 U.S.A.
£15.95 U.K
€17.95 Europe
$29.95 Australia

The year was 2016. The culture wars were deepening, with no end in sight. As the marketplace of ideas faded further into memory, one writer tried to bring it back – and succeeded.

In September 2016 Robert B. Marks’ Garwulf’s Corner returned to The Escapist for another year, presenting a moderate and mature look at many of the hot-button issues facing pop culture. Months after Garwulf’s Corner’s second year came to an end the Escapist was sold to another media company – and its new editor-in-chief libeled everybody who had worked there since 2014. During the ensuing legal action, the whole of Garwulf’s Corner was removed from the pages of the Escapist and all but destroyed…until now.

Insightful, compelling, and still relevant, this volume contains:

– The second year of Garwulf’s Corner, covering topics ranging from Star Wars movies to outrage culture to video games.

– Previously unpublished installments looking at Minecraft, video game addiction, and more.

– The full run of The Most Important PC Games of All Time, a comprehensive look at the decades-long history of the video game from the 1940s to today.

From No Man’s Sky to Police Quest, from Fox’s Gotham to military science fiction, take a fresh and new odyssey back into the world of pop culture.

Now available from Amazon.com.