Review – The Guild: The Official Companion

If you love Felicia Day’s web series The Guild then you’ll enjoy this great companion book that takes you behind the scenes, from when Day first conceived the idea through the sixth season. It proudly proclaims to have an introduction by Felicia Day, but the entire book is made up of interviews with the cast and crew, Day most of all, so most of the book is really from Felicia Day herself.

The companion book starts appropriately with how The Guild was first created out of Day’s addiction to World of Warcraft. Interviews with the whole main cast are scattered throughout, along with sections dedicated to each member of the Knights of Good. The book takes us through the production of each season, giving us fun tidbits about how they were made. We learn how the web series managed to stay funded, and we get an interesting look at the special extras that Day created to promote the series, such as the music videos and holiday specials. It even includes the complete lyrics to all three songs made into the music videos.

The Guild was one of the first web series to really take off, so when it started Day had very little to go on for how to make bring her idea to life, but it developed a following and has been going strong for six seasons. This book relives the highlights of those seasons and ends on an acknowledgements page, where the main cast and crew thank the fans for keeping the series alive. If you’re looking for any hint about whether or not the series will continue, there’s nothing for certain outlined in these pages. Felicia Day, however, does mention that she doubts it will continue in a web format, but she’d love to continue the story in comic book form.

This book is filled with great and fascinating facts, and lets you hear from each of the Guild members, but it’s also a great guide for anyone looking to make a web series themselves. After reading this you’ll have a much better appreciation for all the work that has gone into the series over the years and just what exactly is needed to make a series for the web. The crew got to stumble their way through figuring out what producers are for, how you feed everyone on set, and how on earth you’re supposed to film anywhere that’s not in your garage, so reading this will give you an idea of just what the production of a series, even on the web, requires.

The book is full of glossy color pictures that make it an excellent collector’s item. The only drawback is that there are numerous typos and errors that should have been caught by an editor. They don’t detract from the quality of the information, but they can be distracting when reading. Other than that, this is a wonderful book for fans of the series. Pick up a copy today to find out about the odd aging of Clara’s kids and just how they burned Cheesybeard’s to the ground. You won’t regret it.