Book Review: "Carcrash Parker and the Haven of Larpers"
- marthaengber
- Sep 16
- 2 min read
by Ian M. Rogers
I never would have imagined a book about the LARPing adventures of a young New England man who suffers from crippling social anxiety would have me laughing out loud, but CARCRASH PARKER AND THE HAVEN OF LARPERS, Ian M. Roger’s newest book, achieves that impressive feat.
What is “LARPing” you say? Live Action Role-Playing, a form of entertainment with which I was only vaguely aware until being dropped into this story of the intensely shy Trent Phillips. He escapes his anxiety disorder, which he refers to as the “Onslaught” in the medieval-like LARPing lingo, by becoming the bard Glimrick Therrinbottom during weekend adventures with his small band of friends. Over the span of 48 hours, they dress in their Old English-type costumes, assume their personal characters and commit to talking and acting according to the Adventurer’s Code while playing out moments of magic and battle.
During one such outing, poor Glimrick is hilariously thrust into the middle of an intense feud between Carcrash Parker, a funny, kind, but jobless former LARPing buddy, and his former childhood playmate and tormentor, the manipulative Lord Mylos.
Glimrick tells this story via the High Realm language, in which cars are “carriages” and houses are “estates,” but I quickly caught on and empathized with this humble character who wants nothing more than to be rid of his anxiety in order to be the best member of his band that he can. When he’s unfairly cast out by the evil Lord Mylos, Glimrick’s is forced to partner with Carcrash with the goal of beating their mutual nemesis.
In this wonderfully unique and really funny story in which acceptable weaponry at one point includes water guns, you can’t help but love the earnest Glimrick and the astute, clever and compassionate Carcrash.
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SCATTERED LIGHT, a novel, sequel to WINTER LIGHT, (Nov. 2025)
THE FALCON, THE WOLF AND THE HUMMINGBIRD a historical novel
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WINTER LIGHT, a novel, in paperback and audiobook
THE WIND THIEF, a novel
GROWING GREAT CHARACTERS, a resource for writers
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