Dark Sun Novels

[AZNtrogdor]

I just found out that next year, wotc will be coming out with the 4e campaign guide for Dark Sun. I'm new to the setting, but the description sounds really cool. I want to read a Dark Sun novel to get a little bit more excited for the setting. Anyone have any favorite Dark Sun novels? Anyone want to suggest a novel for someone completely new to the campaign settings?

 

[doctorhook]

I just found out that next year, wotc will be coming out with the 4e campaign guide for Dark Sun. I'm new to the setting, but the description sounds really cool. I want to read a Dark Sun novel to get a little bit more excited for the setting. Anyone have any favorite Dark Sun novels? Anyone want to suggest a novel for someone completely new to the campaign settings?

I can't honestly say that I know of any, but that doesn't mean they don't exist from back in the day. Now, with that said, we know that WotC is planning on publishing some new Dark Sun novels next year -- in fact, prior to GenCon, the surest hint we had that Dark Sun would be the 2010 setting was the hush-hush news that WotC had hired a "Dark Sun novel editor".

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that there should be some new Dark Sun novels coming out soon! (Well, soon-ish.)

 

[CasvalRemDeikun]

There are several Dark Sun novels, including a novel set that was just rereleased, the Prizm Pentad by Troy Denning.

From what I understand, the original Dark Sun novels weren't exactly that popular and may or may not have sold well. We will have to wait and see if that changes in the future.

On a side note, I do find it rather odd that WotC is discontinuing its most successful novel line(Dragonlance) this year.

 

[Echohawk]

Here is a quick list of the three series of Dark Sun novels released between 1991 and 1996:

Prism Pentad
1: The Verdant Passage
2: The Crimson Legion
3: The Amber Enchantress
4: The Obsidian Oracle
5: The Cerulean Storm

Tribe of One Trilogy
1: The Outcast
2: The Seeker
3: The Nomad

Chronicles of Athas
1: The Brazen Gambit
2: The Darkness Before Dawn
3: The Broken Blade
4: Cinnabar Shadows
5: The Rise and Fall of a Dragon King

 

[Dire Bare]

There are several Dark Sun novels, including a novel set that was just rereleased, the Prizm Pentad by Troy Denning.

From what I understand, the original Dark Sun novels weren't exactly that popular and may or may not have sold well. We will have to wait and see if that changes in the future.

On a side note, I do find it rather odd that WotC is discontinuing its most successful novel line(Dragonlance) this year.

Actually, the Prism Pentad sold quite well, they are reprinting the series after all!! You don't reprint novels that sold poorly, even if you are launching a game setting the next year.

I personally found the Prism Pentad by Troy Denning to be an incredibly awesome series of books, very well written. I highly recommend them, and they should be easy to find in bookstores as they were just rereleased.

You'll hear a lot of grief from a subset of gamers that feel the books "destroyed" the Dark Sun setting. In fact, probably before I manage to finish this post! I think that attitude is crap. The situation is the original boxed set for the game was released, and at the same time the novel series was released, which took the "current events" in the boxed set and changed them drastically by the end of the fifth and final book. To some, this invalidated the world as presented in the boxed set . . . . my group just ignored the events of the novels and had fun. We also all read the novels and enjoyed them. YMMV.

 

[Dire Bare]

Here is a quick list of the three series of Dark Sun novels released between 1991 and 1996:

Prism Pentad
1: The Verdant Passage
2: The Crimson Legion
3: The Amber Enchantress
4: The Obsidian Oracle
5: The Cerulean Storm

Tribe of One Trilogy
1: The Outcast
2: The Seeker
3: The Nomad

Chronicles of Athas
1: The Brazen Gambit
2: The Darkness Before Dawn
3: The Broken Blade
4: Cinnabar Shadows
5: The Rise and Fall of a Dragon King

Good list!

The Broken Blade is really the Tribe of One Trilogy, Book 4! It continues the story of the protagonist from that series. I enjoyed Tribe of One, all four books, when I was younger, but haven't reread them in a long time. Don't remember much about the other four books in the Chronicles of Athas series.

 

[CasvalRemDeikun]

Actually, the Prism Pentad sold quite well, they are reprinting the series after all!! You don't reprint novels that sold poorly, even if you are launching a game setting the next year.

I personally found the Prism Pentad by Troy Denning to be an incredibly awesome series of books, very well written. I highly recommend them, and they should be easy to find in bookstores as they were just rereleased.

I didn't mean to sound like the books were bad, just that the subset you referenced is extremely vocal about their dislike for the books. As for the sales of the novels, the Prizm Pentad may have sold well, but how did the rest of the series do?

Honestly, I am not here to argue the merits of the Dark Sun novels, I have never read them. What I do know is that they exist, and the new setting invalidates them to a point (it will take place before the PP). I definitely would point the OP to the Prizm Pentad though, especially since it has been reprinted and all five novels are out.

 

[Dire Bare]

I didn't mean to sound like the books were bad, just that the subset you referenced is extremely vocal about their dislike for the books. As for the sales of the novels, the Prizm Pentad may have sold well, but how did the rest of the series do?

Honestly, I am not here to argue the merits of the Dark Sun novels, I have never read them. What I do know is that they exist, and the new setting invalidates them to a point (it will take place before the PP). I definitely would point the OP to the Prizm Pentad though, especially since it has been reprinted and all five novels are out.

Heh, looks like we are pretty much on the same page.

I imagine, purely speculatively, that the second series, "Tribe of One" didn't sell as well as the Prism Pentad. And that the Chronicles of Athas sold even less, especially as the line did not continue. The first set of books, the Pentad, I don't think you can go wrong there!

 

[Olli]

DON´T read the prism pedant, it´s only reason to exist is to trash the content of the setting into oblivion. Really, back in the days, you got a big box full of harsh grittiness, and along strolls Troy Denning and destroys all in one fell swoop (ok in five swoops...)

Oh, and Rise and Fall of a Dragonking is somewhat entertaining, but written by someone who had only passing knowledge with the setting, so it´s full of glaring mistakes and misconceptions.

Olli

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Chronicles of Athas
1: The Brazen Gambit

4: Cinnabar Shadows
5: The Rise and Fall of a Dragon King

These three novels are very, very good - among the best gaming fiction which I have read (although that's admittedly not saying much...).

The Prism Pentad is okay. I didn't like the "Tribe of One" series much.