D&D Novels- best authors?

[skinnydwarf]

Hey all,

I was wondering, who do you think are the best authors of the various D&D novels?

Personally, I like R.A. Salvatore (esp. the Dark Elf Trilogy), Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman, and Gary Gygax (the Gord the Rogue books I've read were great). But I don't know who else to read. I don't want to spend my hard earned bucks on some terrible (or just bad) writing, and I've gotten enough used D&D novels from various authors to know there is a fair amount of that. I have [too many] D&D novels on my bookshelf, unfinished because they were so badly written. So, who are your favorite D&D authors?

[edited for grammar and clarity]

 

[mirivor]

R.A. Salvatore, as you pointed out, as well as Ed Greenwood and the author who writes the Arilyn Moonblade and Danillo Thann? series. I forget her name..... ARRGGHHH!! Someone help me out, please!

 

[skinnydwarf]

R.A. Salvatore, as you pointed out, as well as Ed Greenwood and the author who writes the Arilyn Moonblade and Danillo Thann? series. I forget her name..... ARRGGHHH!! Someone help me out, please!

I think you are thinking of Elaine Cunningham. I've tried several times to read through "Elfshadow" and can never finish it. Maybe her later stuff is better, I dunno.

 

[IronWolf]

the author who writes the Arilyn Moonblade and Danillo Thann? series. I forget her name..... ARRGGHHH!! Someone help me out, please!

Elaine Cunningham. And I think she is a good author as well. I have always enjoyed here books.

EDIT: skinnydwarf beat me to it!

 

[Darth Shoju]

Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman are pretty good, but I am undecided if their best work was within the D&D brand or not. I really enjoyed RA Salvatore's earlier work; Tolkien got me into fantasy but Salvatore got me into D&D. He got a little too prolific there for a while and it hurt his work IMO, so I eventually gave up on him, but he managed to create characters I enjoyed so much that I still wonder what I am missing.

Other than them, Douglas Niles (the Elven Nations, Moonshae and Maztica trilogies) and Dan Parkinson (the Dwarven Nations trilogy) are the only ones that come to mind.

I've always considered Ed Greenwood to be a much better world builder than author (but that is just IMO obviously).

 

[molonel]

He got a little too prolific there for a while and it hurt his work IMO, so I eventually gave up on him, but he managed to create characters I enjoyed so much that I still wonder what I am missing.

That's a good way of putting it, actually. I enjoyed Salvatore's early novels. He created several characters that I just plain enjoy reading about. The last half-dozen dark elf books have just sucked, though, and sometimes it seems like Salvatore himself is bored of writing them. The ongoing fued between Drizzt and Artemis just never went anywhere important, or exciting. I keep walking into the bookstore. Ah, another dark elf novel. And I'll skip through it in maybe fifteen or twenty minutes to see if the writing has improved. So far, no luck.

 

[Darth Shoju]

That's a good way of putting it, actually. I enjoyed Salvatore's early novels. He created several characters that I just plain enjoy reading about. The last half-dozen dark elf books have just sucked, though, and sometimes it seems like Salvatore himself is bored of writing them. The ongoing fued between Drizzt and Artemis just never went anywhere important, or exciting. I keep walking into the bookstore. Ah, another dark elf novel. And I'll skip through it in maybe fifteen or twenty minutes to see if the writing has improved. So far, no luck.

Amen. I think the problem is that the logical conclusion to the fued between Drizzt and Entreri is that one of them would die. Unfortuneately they both have become so popular that that outcome seems to be rather unlikely. Hence why Artemis and Jarlaxle (another villain too popular to kill) are in the Bloodstone Lands now (and to be honest, those two characters in that setting might prove to be too tempting for me to pass up.)

 

[Teflon Billy]

...So, who are your favorite D&D authors?

It pains me to say it because it's so negative, but my honest answer based on a lot of experience is...nobody

D&D novels have ranged from "Average" to "Amongst the worst books ever" in my opinion.

I'm not going to bother singing the praises of "Average"

 

[Wraith Form]

It pains me to say it because it's so negative, but my honest answer based on a lot of experience is...nobody

D&D novels have ranged from "Average" to "Amongst the worst books ever" in my opinion.

I'm not going to bother singing the praises of "Average"

I'm slightly surprised to read this, but then again you're a smart, bright guy Billy....and you're so darn likeable--I just have to respect your opinion! (Is there a TB plush coming out so I can cuddle it? )

Are you saying that you don't even like Elaine Cunningham, TB?

Another author that I enjoy (although I hate his character names) is Jeff Grubb. I liked Cormyr quite a bit--kinda the best of both Grubb and Greenwood, with very little of the "worst" parts of them.

For some reason I really loved King Pinch by David Cook, too. It was the first (and, to my knowledge, last) time he wrote a novel, which is a shame.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

It pains me to say it because it's so negative, but my honest answer based on a lot of experience is...nobody

D&D novels have ranged from "Average" to "Amongst the worst books ever" in my opinion.

I'm not going to bother singing the praises of "Average"

Have you read Paul Kidd's stuff? I don't have to qualify praise of it by saying "it's good...for game fiction." I've found it to be damned fine heroic fantasy. He's pretty much the only D&D author I can say that about (well, except for Gygax, but he's an acquired taste )