Best D&D Fiction

[WayneLigon]

I haven't read a great deal of the gaming-based fiction out there. What I have read is generally based on someone telling me it was very good.

The Icewind Dale trilogy: I liked it, and I've read his Demon series as well, and I liked that as well. Neither really have made me burn with the desire ro seek out everything he's written but I may try more later on.

Quag Keep: still not bad at all. It's still interesting to read what is probably the very first 'gaming' book ever written.

Well of Darkness: I got about half way through this and got distracted by something else. Haven't been back to it, but I may once I'm done with the DragonCrown War books.

The first and second DragonLance trilogies. I liked them a great deal. You should be able to pick up compiled volumes of them pretty cheap.

Spellfire: Honestly, I don't remember a great deal about it. What I DID like was Greenwood's dialogue. If I play in an extended Realms game again, I'll re-read it just to refresh myself on 'How Realms People Talk'. I've been told that the recent rewrites are not as good. Look for it in used book stores.

'Mages' Blood and Old Bones' Anthology based on Tunnels and Trolls. Some very good stories in there.

'King of Sartar' based on the RuneQuest world. I think there might actually be a compilation of the 'Griselda' stories from 'White Dwarf' somewhere. If you can find it, do so. Pay whatever they ask for it.

'Such Pain'. Mage novel. OK. The central idea was pretty good, but the rest of the book was kind of flat.

The first Werewolf anthology. There were some pretty good stories in there. My favorite being 'The Goodbye Club' (I think was the title).

Again, I have to recommend Elaine Cunningham, just based on her other work.

The 'Riftwar' series, 'Deed of Paksenarion', 'Liavek' and Brust's 'Jhereg' series I all consider 'gaming' fiction because they all derived from games or were inspired by same. All of them are excellent.

The 'Guardians of the Flame' series features people drawn into a fantasy world as a result of being involved in an RPG, so that may or may not count here I read the first three, I think, because I got it cheap in a compiled volume from Science Fiction Book Club. It was OK, but not really to my taste. These people have to be the most serious disfunctional gaming group on Earth; how they managed to sit down and game with each other for an extended period of time, I have no idea.

 

[CrusaderX]

Ugh. I can't stand Elaine Cunningham.

The best D&D fiction I've read were the original two Dragonlance trilogies, and the Paul Kidd Greyhawk books with The Justicar and Escalla. The former more for nostalgia than anything else, and the latter because the stories don't take themselves seriously, and end up being alot of fun because of it.

 

[krunchyfrogg]

The first two trilogies (Chronicles and Twins) by Weis and Hickman in the Dragonlance Series are phenomenal, as is Dragons of Summer Flame, the last story in DL's 4th age (don't read beyond that book, it's all downhill).

The Finder's Stone trilogy by Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb, set in Forgotten Realms aren't bad.

Anything by Salvatore is great, IMHO. The Dark Elf Trilogy is about a good-aligned drow who can't fit in in his Underdark city, and his escape to the surface world. Salvatore follows up with many books about this elf on the surface world, with an interesting bunch of adventurers (A dwarf fighter, a human barbarian, a human fighter, and a halfling thief). I think the Dark Elf Trilogy is his best writing.

His Cleric Quintet is pretty good too (Although Salvatore has been quoted as saying that it's always the last guy at the gaming table who has to play the cleric. Remember that when you pick up the books).

 

[Sulimo]

Ugh. I can't stand Elaine Cunningham.

The best D&D fiction I've read were the original two Dragonlance trilogies, and the Paul Kidd Greyhawk books with The Justicar and Escalla. The former more for nostalgia than anything else, and the latter because the stories don't take themselves seriously, and end up being alot of fun because of it.

Hehe. My 2 fave D&D fiction authors are Elaine Cunningham and Paul Kidd....

 

[jonesy]

IMO, all of the Dragonlance core books (the ones by W&H) are worth reading.
Then again, there are very few DL books I don't like.

 

[Alzrius]

I find that the two Ravenloft novels about Lord Soth, Knight of the Black Rose and Specter of the Black Rose are both excellent books.

Paul Kidd's Greyhawk trilogy, White Plume Mountain, Descent into the Depths of the Earth, and Queen of the Demonweb are great reads, though they don't always conform to the D&D rules (e.g. you'll look up a scenario from the book in the PHB and realize that it shouldn't have happened that way).

Crucible: The Trial of Cyric the Mad is a great book, IMHO. Although it's last in a series (following Prince of Lies which followed the Avatar Trilogy), it's also the best. The first-person perspective that's its told from is superlative, especially considering the nature of the teller (an evil little coward who worships Cyric).

I'm also going to recommend Jean Rabe's New Age Trilogy for the Dragonlance line. Something needed to define Krynn after the Chaos War and she did it. It reads very much like a D&D series, not like an epic that was made D&D as an afterthought, which is how I always felt the Weis & Hickman books felt. It's a good series, and I think it doesn't get enough credit, being in the shadow of the W&H books too much.

 

[Pants]

No one else has read Gord the Rogue?
For shame!
Gord is awesome.

 

[Dagger75]

There are so many of those Forgotten Realms books, it would be great if someone could list, by name, the ones that a generally considered very good.

Here is my list. Remember this MY opinion. I am not forcing you people to like this stuff.

-Icewind Dale Trilogy

- Homeland, Exile Sojoroun (Early history of Drizzt)

-Spellfire

-Azure Bonds Trilogy

-Elfshadow

- The Red Mage (I think, was from Harper series, I liked it)

- Very first book in the Harper Series. About a novice Harper sent to the Anuroch Desert

Thats what liked

~Dragonlance~

-Chronicles

-Legends

-Legend of Huma

-Weasals Luck (Best one in my opinion)

Those are my takes on good FR and Dragonlance books

Read George RR Martin

 

[Eternalknight]

The 'Riftwar' series

I have to second that. Not really D&D, but close enough. I've just finished reading Magician and have nearly completed Silverthorn; if the rest of the books are anything like these ones, it won't be long before they are read too.

 

[Mistwell]

Here is my list. Remember this MY opinion. I am not forcing you people to like this stuff.

-Icewind Dale Trilogy

- Homeland, Exile Sojoroun (Early history of Drizzt)

-Spellfire

-Azure Bonds Trilogy

-Elfshadow

- The Red Mage (I think, was from Harper series, I liked it)

- Very first book in the Harper Series. About a novice Harper sent to the Anuroch Desert

So if I were to pick just one of those to try out, which should I pick?