Dragonlance book opinions

Posts: 162 · Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2003 1:10 pm

Has anybody read any of the Dragonlance books?

I just finished reading the Dragonlance Chronicals trilogy for the first time and am currently on the first book of the Legends trilogy. I was wondering where I should go after reading the last of the Legends trilogy?

I really liked the Chronicals. I thought the story moved very quickly and was very infectious (I read all three book in four day!) The characters were interesting, unpredictable and were very well developed. I especially liked how they incorporated all of the D&D elements of behavior into the story.

Anybody who cares to offer opinions of these or other Dragonalance books are welcome to offer their insights!

Posts: 840 · Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2003 3:28 pm

I'm at the end of the second chronicless book. I loved the first one, but I didn't like the elves part of the second one. Towards the end it's getting better (Kitiara has just turned up as a Dragon Highlord...). I'm hoping for the third book ...

Posts: 8 · Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2003 4:16 pm

I've read most of the ealry Dragonlance books and most of them are not as good as either Chronicles or Legends. Dragons of Summer Flame is considered a sequel to Chronicles so I would recomend that next. Some of the Legends and Preludes series are pretty good, but I haven't read any in a long time.

Posts: 352 · Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2003 9:09 pm

I read the chronicles and legends a while ago - enjoyed them muchly. Anything by Weiss & Hickman is generally good.
Other than those, the other dragonlance stuff can be very patchy - some absolute rubbish, but also some good stuff.

I read the first tales trilogy and jotted down some notes on the authors as I went and I've updated it as I've read other DL books.

So without further ado - here are my notes!

Mark Anthony - enjoyable, easy to read
Harold Bakst - quite readable but a bit silly
Nancy Varian Berberick - very cliched, difficult, boring, nothing to hold interest
Dezra Despain - alright
Jeff Grub - quite fun, pratchettesque, interesting
Mary Kirchoff - quite ok
Richard A Knaak - actually quite good, very readable
Roger E Moore - alright but crappy realism
Douglas Niles - very enjoyable
Kate Novak - readable
Nick O'Donohoe - midlingly ok but sometimes silly
Dan Parkinson - ok, amusing (Gully dwarf stuff)
Danny Peary - utter crap
Kevin Randle - ok
Barbara & Scott Siegel - quite alright, patchy
Morris Simon - quite alright
Warren B Smith - quite reasonable
Paul B Thompson & Tonya R Carter - kinda reasonable
Michael Williams - crap, ok but hard to read

There's a caveat that most of these opinions are based on the Tales short stories - in many cases probably some of the author's first writing attempts - their subsequent novels *might* be better.

Posts: 352 · Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2003 9:12 pm

Also, check out the DragonLance novel guide :
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=books/dl/novelguide

Posts: 69 · Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2003 7:30 pm

Better yet, go to the DragonLance website:

http://www.dragonlance.com/products/reading.asp

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Posts: 352 · Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2003 9:04 pm

Yeah, that one too! Nice one.

Posts: 162 · Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2003 1:54 pm

Thank you to everybody who chimed in on this one.

The websites are great as is the author opinions.

I think I have enough of a game plan to carry me through the next few weeks.

Any other actual reviews of specific works are more than welcome though...

I'll return with my own reviews as read them in the future if anybody's interested.

Posts: 541 · Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2003 7:00 pm

I agree that all the M. Weiss & Hickman books are all good. I would also recommend the books written by Gygax.

Posts: 352 · Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2003 6:46 am

Yep - I'd be interested in any reviews you post as you read them.