D&D Novels

[Dire Bare]

Start with Quag Keep, the first Greyhawk novel (the first D&D novel, too). It was written by Andre Norton, one of the greats of Sci-Fi and S&S fiction. You can even get a paperback copy for cheap or get it for your Kindle -

Amazon.com: Quag Keep (9780765313027): Andre Norton: Books

I enjoyed Quag Keep and it's much newer sequel, Return to Quag's Keep . . . but I'm not sure I'd recommend them to somebody starting into D&D fiction. They aren't Norton's best work, and they read a bit slow-paced and, well, archaic (as in 70's archaic, not ancient culture archaic).

 

[Dire Bare]

That's a dirty trick to pull on someone asking for advice about what books to read. Hopefully, anyone following that link you provided reads it very carefully instead of just skimming it.

Ignore this "advice". Estes wrote some of the worst D&D books ever to have killed trees (the Endless Quest books were ok for what they were though). I picked up a set of those when I was just getting started in D&D thinking it might give me some good material for a campaign. Was I ever wrong. On the bright side, I bought them as a set at a dollar store, so I didn't waste too much money on them. I should probably trade them in for something better at the book swap (a local store that sells used paperbacks and gives credit for trade-ins) one of these days.

It's been forever since I read them, but I remember Estes' Tiger Nomad books fondly. But as they are probably pretty hard to get, probably not a good place to start anyway. Best to go with something you can find on today's Barnes & Noble shelves.

 

[Thanael]

Oh well. Make sure you read the Rose Estes Hate Page (by Greyhawk guru Erik Mona himself iirc) that Hobo linked to before buying any of her books.

There are also a few Greyhawk novels by Gygax - but similar to the Greenwood Realms novels they are critically acclaimed. I personally liked the Gord the Rogue novels very much, but the general opinion seems to be that they're not very well-written. Perhaps not being a native speaker helps me here. They are certainly very Gygaxian. For me they were very much a back to the roots experience, seeing how Gygax envisioned his D&D and coinciding with my delve from 2E into the 1E books.

Here are two older threads on Canonfire on the topic of GH novels:
The Books, Please
Gord the Rogue: Does book order matter?

Quag Keep was an interesting read, being the first D&D novel. There's also Nightwatch by Robin Wayne Bailey which is set in future Greyhawk. It is kind of low fantasy but comes highly recommended.


Being a great fan of the Ravenloft setting I feel i must also mention the Ravenloft novels line. There's a list of them with reviews on the Fraternity of Shadows site.

From the FR novels line I also very much liked Lisa Smedman's House of Serpents Trilogy.


As for non-D&D fantasy novels, i wonder that nobody has yet mentioned the Vlad Taltos novels by Steven Brust. They are quite good. The main protagonist was inspired by the 1E D&D assassin class, and the books have some D&Disms like resurrection.

 

[Mark CMG]

I enjoyed Quag Keep and it's much newer sequel, Return to Quag's Keep . . . but I'm not sure I'd recommend them to somebody starting into D&D fiction. They aren't Norton's best work, and they read a bit slow-paced and, well, archaic (as in 70's archaic, not ancient culture archaic).

I think it would make for a good introduction into D&D-based fiction. It's not the best but it is the first and it helps to gain an understanding of how the genre (within a genre) developed. The Estes stuff being put forth is not something I endorse (and the posting by "hobo" is obviously meant to be threadcrapping since you shot down his earlier opinion).

 

[Tamlyn]

One more, if your interested in FR. You may try the "Best of the Realms" anthologies, or Realms of...(War, the Dead, Valor, etc...) They're all short stories and can give you a taste of various authors. I'm not a huge FR fan, but I do enjoy some of the fiction.

 

[rogueattorney]

I read dozens of D&D related novels in the mid-80's and into the early 90's. I think I hated myself just a little more with every one I finished. I don't know why I kept reading them. I'd put one down and swear, "That's it! No more," and then one of my gaming buddies would come running up and promise me, "No, this one is really good, for real this time."

Maybe they've gotten a lot better over the last 15 years or so, but considering the early ones from the era I was reading (Ice Wind Dale and Chronicles... Ugh!!!) and the ones being recommended here, I kind of doubt it.

My suggestion would rather to read some of the books that inspired D&D in the first place, if you haven't done so already. Particularly, the following:

Tolkien's The Hobbit
Poul Anderson's The High Crusade, Three Hearts and Three Lions, and The Broken Sword
Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories
Vance's Dying Earth stories
Howard's Conan stories
Moorcock's Elric stories
Burrough's Mars books
DePratt & Camp's Harold Shea stories
Zelazny's Amber stories
Bellairs' Face in the Frost

 

[Desdichado]

That's a dirty trick to pull on someone asking for advice about what books to read. Hopefully, anyone following that link you provided reads it very carefully instead of just skimming it.

Don't be frontin'. I've heard the same comments made many times about Quag Keep itself.

The Rose Estes books are interesting... from a certain point of view. They certainly were an important milestone in the development of D&D fiction, and my opinions in regards to it.

Whether the books are good or not is a matter of personal opinion, not objective fact, and regardless of your opinion of the quality of the books, they were important in D&D novel history.

 

[Desdichado]

The Estes stuff being put forth is not something I endorse (and the posting by "hobo" is obviously meant to be threadcrapping since you shot down his earlier opinion).

There's no need to make unwarranted accusations of threadcrapping. Given the reputation of Quag Keep, that accusation could just as easily have been levelled at you.

The fact of the matter is that "common knowledge" is that no D&D novel (or any other licensed fiction, for that matter) have a tendency to be very good, even compared to other mass market paperback genre fiction. Which doesn't have a good reputation for quality either, but which at least has a much better reputation than gamer fiction.

The Rose Estes novels have a certain charm. Granted, it's a bit like watching really crappy B-movies. Some people hate them because they're so terrible. Other people, myself included, are kind fond of them precisely because they're so crappy.

I recommended Rose Estes, and I included a link which serves as a nice caveat on my recommendation. But frankly, if you're going to be reading D&D fiction at all, then you're hardly in a position to throw stones about the quality of Rose Estes, or anyone else's writing who's dipped into this type of licensed fiction.

It's exactly like asking, "what are some fun black and white b-movie science fiction movies from the 50s and 60s that I could watch?" and my recommendation is jumping straight to Plan 9 From Outer Space. If you're going to indulge in terrible books, you might as well indulge in the worst of them. In fact, that's kinda the point.

 

[Dire Bare]

I think it would make for a good introduction into D&D-based fiction. It's not the best but it is the first and it helps to gain an understanding of how the genre (within a genre) developed. The Estes stuff being put forth is not something I endorse (and the posting by "hobo" is obviously meant to be threadcrapping since you shot down his earlier opinion).

There's no need to make unwarranted accusations of threadcrapping. Given the reputation of Quag Keep, that accusation could just as easily have been levelled at you.

The fact of the matter is that "common knowledge" is that no D&D novel (or any other licensed fiction, for that matter) have a tendency to be very good, even compared to other mass market paperback genre fiction. Which doesn't have a good reputation for quality either, but which at least has a much better reputation than gamer fiction.

The Rose Estes novels have a certain charm. Granted, it's a bit like watching really crappy B-movies. Some people hate them because they're so terrible. Other people, myself included, are kind fond of them precisely because they're so crappy.

I recommended Rose Estes, and I included a link which serves as a nice caveat on my recommendation. But frankly, if you're going to be reading D&D fiction at all, then you're hardly in a position to throw stones about the quality of Rose Estes, or anyone else's writing who's dipped into this type of licensed fiction.

It's exactly like asking, "what are some fun black and white b-movie science fiction movies from the 50s and 60s that I could watch?" and my recommendation is jumping straight to Plan 9 From Outer Space. If you're going to indulge in terrible books, you might as well indulge in the worst of them. In fact, that's kinda the point.

Heh. Excellent riposte to Mark there. I never took your comments as threadcrapping myself, I just disagree on some points. And you reminded me of some books I enjoyed when I was young, that I might have in a box somewhere, and I might pull out to read again to see if they hold up. I know I'd recommend the Tiger Nomad series over Quag Keep to someone "getting started" in D&D fiction . . . although neither would be at the top of my list.

I suppose where I disagree most is that D&D novels tend to be crap, fun crap or otherwise. Sure, there were plenty of stinkers released over the years, but in a fiction line over twenty years old, that's bound to happen. I've read almost every D&D book released at some point, and there were only a small handful that I personally felt were total crap, and a decent amount of "mildly entertaining mediocrity". But there were (are) tons of excellent books in the series as well.

So, don't start with Rose Estes or Andre Norton if you are interested in D&D fiction, start with the (widely accepted) good stuff! Salvatore's Drizzt novels would be my top recommendation, but almost anything from the Forgotten Realms line published in the past ten years would also get my vote.

Now, if you know you love D&D fiction and are interested in exploring the boundaries . . . by all means track down Quag Keep and Estes' Greyhawk novels.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I like Rich Baker, Paul Kemp, and Elaine Cunningham.

Some of the latter series they wrote help directly set up 4e.

I dislike Monte Cook, Bruce Cordel and Ed Greenwood. I love their gaming stuff but their writing isn't my style of prefered reading.

Salvatore falls in the middle. I think I've just read too many of his books but they are even more of a 'popcorn' read than many others and the action sequences are fairly detailed.