D&D Novels- best authors?

[JacktheRabbit]

Greenwood - Total Elminster wank and for being the creater of FR he walks all over the rules in what he writes.

Salvatore - The first books were ok but te Dark Elf trilogy and onward became just horrible wank of the drow. In the first book he ever wrote Drizzt ambused and defeated the barbarian lord at the beginning of the book but still has quite a fight on ihs hands. By the latest book Drizzt is a walking immortal of wank.

Elaine Cunningham - I never thought anyone could wank Drow worse than Salvatore when out comes Cunninghan. I finally just decided that her favorite little Moonblade character was just a Mary Jane (or is tht Mary Sue?).

Don't know the names of the authors on these but:

Pool of Radiance - Has to be one of the three worst books I have EVER read.

Against the Giants - Started to read and it was just too painful.

Prince of Lies - Not too bad a book. I liked it pretty well and since the main characters were almost all gods it didnt feel like a wankfest.


Times of Trouble - Probably the best series written for FR. Made me cringe the least and I enjoyed most of it.

Two Original DL trilogies - These are by far the best works ever done for DnD. Give them to someone and dont tell them and they will not guess that these gaming gaming novels.

 

[green slime]

Quoted for truth.

It pains me to say it because it's so negative, but my honest answer based on a lot of experience is...nobody

D&D novels have ranged from "Average" to "Amongst the worst books ever" in my opinion.

I'm not going to bother singing the praises of "Average"

 

[delericho]

Unfortunately, good D&D novels (and good game related novels in general) are exceedingly rare. One of the consequences of this is that I now skip virtually all of it. However, there are a few I can recommend:

The first two Dragonlance trilogies, and "The Legend of Huma" are good. Sadly, everything Dragonlance since Second Generation seems to have fallen apart.

Likewise, the Icewind Dale trilogy, Dark Elf trilogy and "The Legacy" are good. Again, Salvatore seems to have lost his touch - he desperately needs to learn to kill off a significant character occasionally, and keep them dead. Plus, I despise the names he gives his dwarven characters in the latest Drizzt trilogy.

I quite enjoyed "Daughter of the Drow" and "Tangled Webs" by Elaine Cunningham. I haven't read anything else by her.

I really enjoyed the first three books of the War of the Spider Queen series. Books four and five weren't as good, and I haven't read book six yet.

Lastly, "The Iron Throne" by Simon Hawke (Birthright) and both "I, Strahd" books by P.N. Elrod were enjoyable reads.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

The first two Dragonlance trilogies, and "The Legend of Huma" are good. Sadly, everything Dragonlance since Second Generation seems to have fallen apart.

Oh yes Legend of Huma was very good. Forgot about that one which is funny since I actually have a copy signed by the author.

The semi-followup Kaz the Minotaur was ok but became a sad example of Minotaur wank toward its end. Replace Minotaur with Drow and it starts to look like a Salvatore book.

 

[BadMojo]

There's that other Paul, too... Paul S. Kemp. I especially enjoyed Shadow's Witness, Book II of the Sembia series. The character of Erevis Cale proved to be so popular he returned for a trilogy of his own, of which two novels have thus far come out, Twilight Falling and Dawn of Night. He also wrote the conclusion of the City of the Spider Queen series, Resurrection.

I really like Paul S. Kemp's stuff. I've read and enjoyed all of the Erevis Cale books, and I'm not normally a fan of gaming fiction. Unfortunately, I agree that most of the WotC novels range from mediocre to terrible, but Paul Kemp's books are one of the few exceptions.

For the record, some of the my other favorite authors are Steven Brust, George R R Martin, Neil Gaiman and China Mieville.

 

[Kuld]

I don’t think anyone mentioned Douglas Niles. His work is really likable, although that’s probably due to nostalgia in my case.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

I'll jump on the Paul Kidd bandwagon. And if Salvatore would concentrate on Bruenor and kin more, I'd be very happy. I keep homing Drizz it will get eaten by his panther or something.

 

[Michael Dean]

I'll join the broken record chorus and sing praises for Paul Kidd. After reading his Justicar short fiction in Dragon, I had to track down his Greyhawk trilogy and I enjoyed them immensely. If he ever writes more Justicar, I'll buy.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Every DnD book will have something that will tick me off, even the ones I really enjoy. *Sigh* I just find it so much harder to enjoy fantasy books than science fiction ones.

Positive

Paul S. Kemp - for writing Twilight Falling. Very good book. I've read some of his other books, but I don't recall their titles. They may have been good ... or maybe not.

Keith Baker - for writing City of Towers.

R. A. Salvatore - for writing exciting combat sequences.

Hickman and Weis - for writing some good Dragonlance books (and some non-DnD books, too).

Negative

Are you saying that you don't even like Elaine Cunningham, TB?

I know I'll say it. The only Cunningham book that I really enjoyed was Elfsong, despite the lame villainous bard. At least Khelben is revealed to actually have weaknesses in this book, and it also heavily features Elaith. (Alas, Elaith doesn't look so good in some of her other books.) Oh yeah, and then there's the ridiculous "perfect elves" and even more "perfect" drow. Sheesh. Even Elaith falls victim to that, to some extent. Even in the last book of the Windwalker, where you actually get to see not one but too drow of limited intelligence (as villains) they still kick way too much arse.

Considering how much I dislike her work, I wonder why I read so many of her books. Must be because I like Elaith, and was hoping to see another character like him.

I didn't really like the Troy Denning's Prism Pentad Dark Sun series (pretty much any character who isn't a normal human or mul gets killed, and the Tyrian army is amazingly stupid and ineffective). I've only got to read three of the books in the series, however, two of which revolved around armies. Maybe his writing is better when the main heroes aren't surrounded by useless NPCs.

I don't like Greenwood's work that much, as it seems to me that every other female in the book will be "overly sexually free". Realistic female characters would be nice. Plus, he invented the Chosen of Mystra, and I wonder if he's responsible for the whole Time of Troubles and Mystra = good aligned mess.

 

[Michael Tree]

Has anyone read any of Chris Pierson's books? I was a huge fan of Taladas back in the day, and his Blades of the Tiger : The Taladas Chronicles sounds intriguing. I generally avoid gaming fiction, as it tends to be mediocre at best, but I long for a bit of well done Taladas.