D&D 5E Correct order to read ALL of the Forgotten Realms novels?

[Shiroiken]

Agreed 100%. I wish I could remember which ones I read that were bad but its been so long. I just bought Death Masks by Ed Greenwood a few weeks back and I just couldn't get passed the first 10 pages so I returned it to Amazon. The writing style seemed convoluted and drawn out to where it made it hard to follow. I dont remember his earlier stuff I read being like that. In his defense I havent read a fantasy novel in quite some time so it may have just been me.

I use a 50 page rule (25 if less than 400 pages). If you can't interest me within that time, I'm done. The only two books I violated that rule on (and was happy I did so) was the first Wheel of Time book (Eye of the World?) and Game of Thrones. I just had a hard time grasping them on first reading, took a break, then went back to them and was able to enjoy them.

 

[Goonalan]

Mind me asking where you would get all the books?

It's something I would like to try to do but eBay postage is to much.

I bought the first six novels (Moonshae & Icewind) about a month ago (a charity shop & ebay), and then bought the next forty four novels (to make 50 in total) from ebay, amazon & abebooks (all second hand acceptable and above) about two weekends ago. I made a list, in publication order, and had them all bought in about three hours- approx. £170 in total, and a lot of them with free postage. I had to get two from the US, they were the most expensive although they were only £14 for both including postage (from memory).

They've nearly all arrived (three to go) and are all (so far) in good condition, they're stacked on one of my book cases in series/trilogy piles, just waiting to be put in reading order.

Cheers goonalan

 

[Goonalan]

I turned the list I have in to a PDF, perhaps it will upload now... it does (ignore the non FR novels, although I'll be reading these too- probably). As it turns out I bought a few more than the fifty I thought I had, so I have the first sixty or so more or less on the shelf ready to go.

The colour coding is for me, the numbers in the left hand column were my initial reading order... this will probably change after some of the hints and tips from you guys above.

There were a lot of companies I was buying from that did buy 2 or 3 and get 1 free- I got in to that as much as I could to keep the price down. I think I bought about a dozen from abebooks, and I've just had an e-mail from them to say free postage for any follow up orders, so that's nice. I'll probably put the next 20-30 novels on my Christmas list...

Cheers goonalan

 

[MrFurry]

Mind me asking where you would get all the books?

It's something I would like to try to do but eBay postage is to much.

In case you are still wondering, Amazon or eBay is where I get all my old, out-of-print books. Of course, there are other methods of acquisition... Good used bookstores come to mind ;-)

 

[auburn2]

It occurred to me that I know pretty much bugger all about Faerun and the Forgotten Realms, except perhaps for the snippets I have read usually outside the boxed text sections of a variety of D&D (99% 5e) modules and/or rule books.

I/We played 4e in our homebrewed world (Oerth), and most of the previous editions in Greyhawk.

So, I bought a few FR novels, and read through the first two trilogies- Moonshae followed by Icewind Dale. I enjoyed them so much so that I got on ebay and tracked down the next fifty or so books. At which point it occurred to me that their might be a correct/acceptable/preferred (whatever) order for reading all of the FR novels, including the various anthologies (Realms of Valor, Infamy etc.)

Do I read all 15 of the Harpers next? If not when do I read them.
I know I need to read the Avatar series (1-5) before doing the Shadow of the Avatar trilogy.

I think I'm going to do a lot of the series/trilogies in the order that they came out- so, next up The Finder's Stone trilogy, followed by the Maztica, and then the Empires trilogies. Then (perhaps) The Dark Elf followed by Druidhome trilogies... maybe.

So, perfect world- having all of the books to hand, what order do you suggest I read them?

Cheers goonalan

I would forgo the books from the 1980s and 1990s if you want FR lore because the FR is a lot different now with Dragonborn and Tieflings, also the rules were a lot different and the books were at that time tied fairly closely to the rules.

I would concentrate on books from 2000 onward, the exceptions I would make are some of Greenwoods titles because they have a lot of characters that are the core of the realms. Also the avatar series deals with several people that later became Gods and were centered around a cataclysmic time in the realms.

 

[IndigoTraveler]

Jeez Giuseppe that's alotta books/reading! Trying to go in order, in world timeline, seems like its bloody nuts.

 

[Goonalan]

Hi there,

I'm 113 books in so far, here's the thread-

D&D General - I'm reading the Forgotten Realms Novels- #113 Sea of Swords by RA Salvatore (Paths of Darkness 4) | EN World | Dungeons & Dragons | Dragonlance, Pathfinder

Cheers goonalan