Do you read non-RPG fantasy novels?

[lukelightning]

EDIT: Crosses the "discussion of religion" line a little too closely. --Henry

 

[Desdichado]

Forgive me if I indicated that authors who make use of other people's ideas are invariably sub-standard. Everybody makes use of other people's ideas, so that's not a very useful distinction. I mean, good grief, OBVIOUSLY I'm not talking about Shakespeare here. Little benefit of the doubt, anyone?

Heh heh. One bit of hyperbole inevitably leads to another.

I'm still not sure that I agree with you; writing licensed, or ghost written, or whatever fiction is a good way to start making a name for yourself so that you can get noticed to the point where someone will publish your own stuff. Sometimes you have to pay your dues before you can expect a big break.

But I think that by and large you're right; good material tends to fend for itself, for the most part. It does occasionally need a nudge, but I tend to believe in market forces being self-correcting in regards to quality products for the most part. In other words, yes, really good writers (or artists in most other media as well) usually make it on their own without having to use a pre-existing fan base as a crutch.

 

[davidschwartznz]

I admit a weakness for Magic novels and anthologies. Yes, its the geek equivalent of a dime-store romance, but I like to think of it as 'mental sorbet'. I read all these deep, dark books, its nice to have a quick, shallow read once in a while.

My favorite 'licenced' writer is definitely Jeff Grubb - he's one of the few writers who can take the mechanics as they are, and still make a good story out of them.

I would warn anybody against reading the Kamigawa novels - never before have I developed an antipathy for a protagonist.

 

[Desdichado]

I would warn anybody against reading the Kamigawa novels - never before have I developed an antipathy for a protagonist.

Ever read Thomas Covenant?

 

[barsoomcore]

Sometimes you have to pay your dues before you can expect a big break.

Sure, and again I'm not arguing for positive causality but negative -- it's not participating in such a system that indicates crappiness but not NOT participating that is the indicator.

I THINK that made sense. Stand by, someone will tell me soon enough.

 

[Turjan]

I clicked on the last option. I've never read any RPG-related novel, because some excerpts I found somewhere were simply horrible. I don't have to repeat that I don't see Lovecraft as RPG-related literature (that's somewhat ridiculous, IMO), and I've read quite a few of his stories when I was a teenager. Generally, I stayed clear from fantasy literature and read much more SF, because I found the quality level of SF generally much higher than that of fantasy books. Nowadays, I read mostly books that have nothing to do with SF or fantasy.

 

[sjmiller]

Let's see, I back ages ago I read the first 3 DragonLance books (when they were the only three) and did not realize they were RPG related till much later. Back in the 90s I read some of the Shadowrun novels, which were hit and miss (the biggest miss being Nix sometime-or-other). I think that covers every RPG related novel. Most of the ones I have seen have been bloody awful, with a remarkably small number raising up to mediocre.

As with the majority here, HPL and MM are not RPG-related. It's the other way around.

 

[Setanta]

I chose the option of only reading non-RPG related books, but then I thought about it as I read the thread. Would Feist count? His novels were originally inspired by an RPG campaign, but they're not licensed work from a published setting like a dragonlance or FR novel.

 

[zeo_evil]

I haven't read any books in a long time. Most new RPG books are in fact lame. SOmething about trying to fit rules into the context of a novel. That being said I used to read FR RPG books like the Drizzt books and the Avatar books. I have read most of the older Dragonlance books as well. Other than that I have read some SF by Larry Niven and others at his level. My favorite books bar none are the Hithchiker's Guide books. You have no idea how much I want ot run a d20 Future game loosely based on them.

 

[Tonguez]

Would Feist count? His novels were originally inspired by an RPG campaign, but they're not licensed work from a published setting like a dragonlance or FR novel.

I'd say they would (but then I don't like his writing so could be biased)

I also remember reading a book in my teens where the protaganist each had a bracelet with different shaped crystals which glowed and spun when combat was entered or other action was to take place. [sblock]at the end of the novel they realised that they were characters being controlled by outsiders and that the objects were dice[/sblock] - anyone remember the name of that book?

BTW I voted RPG books are lame (all the ones I've ever seen are) and again Lovecraft, REH etc are NOT RPG related...