D&D General Best D&D Novels

[Sacrosanct]

The term "Mary Sue" is inaccurate and demeaning. Salvatore hasn't been "forced" by anyone to write more Drizzt novels . . . his fans want more, he enjoys writing them, they sell well (he makes money), and he has a deep attachment to the characters.

This isn't entirely true. Drizzt was never meant to be any more important than anyone else, but after the first books, TSR did in fact force Salvatore to crank out a bunch of new novels with him as the star. Riggs hits on this in his recent book, Slaying the Dragon.

 

[schneeland]

I enjoyed the Dark Elf novels. The Icewind Dale trilogy had good parts, but also some I remember to be rather mediocre. Same can be said about Dragonlance Chronicles.

And one for "Other": I really liked "Murder in Cormyr".

 

[Paul Farquhar]

For I left field entry, I quite enjoyed Ravnica: City of Guilds. It was written as a MTG novel, but since Ravnica is now a 5e setting...

 

[Zardnaar]

I think I read Saga of Old City and Artifact of Evil around the same time I started playing 1e, so they're both ridiculously nostalgic for me. The later books were not as good and too verbose, but I did quite enjoy the first two.

I like the earlier Drizzt books but there's to many and they've gone down hill. The last great one was 1999 the last good ones early 2000's IMHO.

Dark Elf trilogy is better than the ice wind Dale ones.

 

[Dire Bare]

This isn't entirely true. Drizzt was never meant to be any more important than anyone else, but after the first books, TSR did in fact force Salvatore to crank out a bunch of new novels with him as the star. Riggs hits on this in his recent book, Slaying the Dragon.

I haven't read "Slaying the Dragon" yet (its on my to-read list), but . . . "forced"? I'm skeptical until I read Rigg's book. TSR telling Salvatore, "Hey, your dark elf character is the one everyone is responding to, we want more of that! And if you want to keep writing D&D novels for us . . . ."

All (official) D&D novels are work-for-hire, and to various degrees, each author gets a list of what TSR, then later WotC, wants out of the books. This was true with the Dragonlance novels all the way through to the movie tie-in novels released this week. Salvatore being "forced" to write about Drizzt isn't any more or less true than all of those other authors being "forced" to write towards TSR/WotC's specs.

 

[Mr. Wilson]

Obviously, Chronicles was my intro into D&D and is very special to me for that reason.

I also liked many of the Eberron novel series, particularly the Thorn of Breland series and The Blade of Flame series.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

For I left field entry, I quite enjoyed Ravnica: City of Guilds. It was written as a MTG novel, but since Ravnica is now a 5e setting...

The OG Ravnica trilogy IMHO was some of the best story telling in MtG history before Planewalker Gatewatch CW drama ruined most (but not all the story lines). It became about the Planeswalkers, not the Planes at that point, and things went down hill with a few exceptions.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I haven't read "Slaying the Dragon" yet (its on my to-read list), but . . . "forced"? I'm skeptical until I read Rigg's book. TSR telling Salvatore, "Hey, your dark elf character is the one everyone is responding to, we want more of that! And if you want to keep writing D&D novels for us . . . ."

All (official) D&D novels are work-for-hire, and to various degrees, each author gets a list of what TSR, then later WotC, wants out of the books. This was true with the Dragonlance novels all the way through to the movie tie-in novels released this week. Salvatore being "forced" to write about Drizzt isn't any more or less true than all of those other authors being "forced" to write towards TSR/WotC's specs.

Yeah. That’s pretty close to how it happened. They saw $ signs and forced him to crank out novels. Which is par for the course for how Williams treated all of the talent. There is a reason she drove out all their top talent.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Lynn Abbey’s Dark Sun series.

 

[Dire Bare]

Yeah. That’s pretty close to how it happened. They saw $ signs and forced him to crank out novels. Which is par for the course for how Williams treated all of the talent. There is a reason she drove out all their top talent.

I'm going to push back on the word "forced" again . . . . Salvatore wants to write Realms novels, TSR/WotC wants him to continue, but with a focus on Drizzt, his most popular character. It's not being forced, it's a negotiation. Salvatore might've asked at some point, "I'd love to start a NEW series with NEW characters . . ." and TSR or WotC responded, "Well, for now, could you just give us another Drizzt book? That's what the kids want, so that's what we want to publish!" I doubt Salvatore was overly upset, felt forced, or had his arm twisted to continue writing about the Dark Elf and the Companions of the Hall.

Salvatore can write whatever he wants . . . but WotC doesn't have to give it the editorial OK for Random House to publish it. And Salvatore does have a lot of pull, as his books are very popular. Plus, he writes plenty of non-Drizzt stories . . . for other publishers.

That's how it works in publishing, especially shared-world franchises and work-for-hire. Nobody is being "forced to crank out novels", they are being hired to do so, its a negotiation.