Novels with extensive D&D-style ruin/dungeon exploration?

[Mercurius]

I'm looking for novels--hopefully well written ones--with some kind of D&D-style dungeon-crawling and/or ruin exploration. Think the Mines of Moria sequence in Lord of the Rings - that sort of thing. It could also be "travel to the ruined temple of Xaktheros to find the Jewel of Ultimate Power" - something very pulpy and old school D&Dish, in other words (that is, it doesn't have to be a proper dungeon-crawl, just very D&Dish in terms of a quest and exploration of some kind of ruin, involving magic and treasure, monsters, etc).

Any recommendations? I can live with official D&D novels if they're decently written. I'd also prefer if the dungeon/ruin sequence was significant in length and focus to the novel - the more in-depth, the better.

A bonus would be to have an actual adventuring party involved, rather than just one or two characters.

Anything?

p.s. As a secondary question, what are the best of the official D&D novels? I loved the Dragonlance books in the mid-80s and the early Forgotten Realms in the late 80s/early 90s, but I was young and have become more grouchy about writing quality - haven't read anything in twenty years (I think it was the Drizzt book Legacy which turned me off completely; how many times can I read yet another combat sequence that describes how immensely kewl Drizzt is?). I've heard the Erevis Cale books are pretty good, but anything else? And do the Cale novels have any dungeon-crawls?

 

[Water Bob]

The only ones I specifically can think of atm are the actual D&D books. You mentioned the Drizzt books. I read the novelization of Keep on the Borderlands...or was it Against the Giants. Can't remember, but I do remember it was a hard read, poorly written, difficult to get through.

I enjoyed the first Shannara book. Sword of Shannara, I think it is called. Yes, it's a Lord of the Rings clone, but it's an enjoyable one. There some dungeon crawling in that one, but not a lot.

The only other series that comes to mind are the Mithgar books. I've never read a single one of them, so it's hard for me to comment on the quality. I know the series has a legion of fans (but that doesn't always mean you'll like the books). These books were originally meant by the author to carry on in the Lord of the Rings universe, but with the LotR copyright holders turned that down, the author simply changed a few things to make it his own world.

Dennis L. McKiernan writes the Mithgar books. If you do a google-fu on "Mithgar", you'll find a ton of web sites about the series.

From what I understand, The Iron Tower trilogy is the place to start. You'll definitely see the connections in it being related to Lord of the Rings. You can find the trilogy as a omnibus, or just look for the first book, called "The Dark Tide".

I also understand that many of the books take place in different periods of time (not unlike the Shannar books that seem to skip generations).

Many have told me that Dragondoom is a fantastic D&D-ish, LotR-ish book. So, you might want to start there instead of with the Iron Tower trilogy.

That's all I can think of atm.

 

[Klaus]

James Wyatt's Eberron novel "In The Claws of the Tiger" focuses on an expedition to a lost city in another continent. It uses the D&D tropes well, without seeming "written for the rules".

 

[pemerton]

I don't read a lot of fantasy, but there are a few REH Conan stories that involve ruin exploration - "Xuthal of the Dusk" is the most involved, from memory, but also "Iron Shadows in the Moon", "The Pool of the Black One and "The Devil in Iron"

And in a slighlty different genre, there's HPL "At the Mountains of Madness".

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

There is the nasty HPL short story, "In the walls of Eryx":

In the Walls of Eryx - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Terry Brooks includes a bit of ruin/dungeon/cave crawling in his Shanarra/Word books, the one that springs first to mind being the novel Antrax.

Several of the Fafrd & Grey Mouser stories have good crawls in them, so dig out your old Fritz Lieber stuff.

Moorcock uses a few crawls in his Eternal Champion cycle- not just the Elric books- but precisely which ones escapes me at the moment. (I think Sailor on the Seas of Fate had one in it, but don't quote me.)

Oddly enough, the Larry Niven & Steven Barnes Dream Park trilogy also fits the bill. Even though the setting is technically near future sci-fi, most of the storyline occurs where the characters are playing in fantasy LARP crawl scenarios in an environment just shy of STNG holo decks.

 

[Shades of Green]

H.P. Lovecraft's Rats in the Walls and At The Mountains of Madness include dungeon/ruin exploration. Michael Scott Rohan's The Forge in the Forest has dungeon/ruin exploration as well. And if you want a modern megadungeon, read Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky - a novel set in the Moscow Metro system after a nuclear war made the surface uninhabitable.

 

[grodog]

John Eric Holmes (yes, he of the Holmes Basic set fame) wrote a novella _The Maze of Peril_ which features some fun, pulpy dungeon explorations. He also wrote three short stories in Dragon, so if you have the archive, you can read them there.

 

[Meatboy]

The Deeds of Paxanarion by Elizabeth Moon has a ruin exploration or 2 in it IIRC. Plus its probably one of the best DnD feeling books ever!

 

[Daztur]

Not quite like D&D dungeon crawling, but few dungeon crawls are quite as creepy and claustrophobic as In the House of the Worm by George R. R. Martin (short story).

 

[Rabulias]

The Deeds of Paxanarion by Elizabeth Moon has a ruin exploration or 2 in it IIRC. Plus its probably one of the best DnD feeling books ever!

I assume you mean The Deed of Paksenarrion.