Dire Bare
Legend
Well, it didn't come before I finished my own post, but I knew it would come soon.
Dark Sun Novels
- Thread starter AZNtrogdor
- Start date
Well, it didn't come before I finished my own post, but I knew it would come soon.
I only read the Prism Pentad series.
The books are not bad, they were an interesting read.
Admittedly, their effects on the playable setting were disastrous.
Imagine you bought a RPG game set in Star Wars, just a couple of years before Episode 4, and you really, really like it.
Then, they make 3 movies, and after them you're left with.
- No Empire
- No Darth Vader
- No Yoda or Obi Wan
- A New Republic
- Han Solo married and Leia pregnant.
That's the scope of the changes the novels brought, I think you get the idea...
The fact that they were published concurrently to the boxed set and first adventures (actually, some were a sort of "side trek" of the novels main events) and they thrashed the setting so much than all subsequent products were in facts incompatible with some of the original setting assumpions, so that a revised setting had to be published just a few years later, well, let's say it was not well received by fans.
So, if you want to read the books, I think they're worth the money. Just keep in mind that you should maybe consider them like a "What If?".
The books are not bad, they were an interesting read.
Admittedly, their effects on the playable setting were disastrous.
Imagine you bought a RPG game set in Star Wars, just a couple of years before Episode 4, and you really, really like it.
Then, they make 3 movies, and after them you're left with.
- No Empire
- No Darth Vader
- No Yoda or Obi Wan
- A New Republic
- Han Solo married and Leia pregnant.
That's the scope of the changes the novels brought, I think you get the idea...
The fact that they were published concurrently to the boxed set and first adventures (actually, some were a sort of "side trek" of the novels main events) and they thrashed the setting so much than all subsequent products were in facts incompatible with some of the original setting assumpions, so that a revised setting had to be published just a few years later, well, let's say it was not well received by fans.
So, if you want to read the books, I think they're worth the money. Just keep in mind that you should maybe consider them like a "What If?".
Crothian
First Post
The other books though use that as part of their history so they might have confusing things in them since they don't explain what happened in those novel. I've been slowly rereading all the DS novels this year. They haven't been great.
Mark Hope
Hero
The Prism Pentad, while not exceptionally well written, does portray Athas extremely well - as good as if not better than the game material. I'd recommend The Prism Pentad as premier source material for a DS game. The Amber Enchantress in particular gives a great look at life across Athas. Yes, they are metaplot heavy, but it spans a decade and is easily ignored if you don't like it. There is virtually no overlap between novels and game material at all as far as metaplot is concerned - only the very later DS material is impacted by the metaplot, and even then it's minimal. The whole "novels destroyed the gameworld" thing is kinda exaggerated for DS.
The Tribe of One have some wonderful desert descriptions and flora/fauna, but other than that I rated them very poorly as DS novels. Broken Blade was terrible. Really terrible. Darkness Before the Dawn had some interesting moments (a tohr-kreen and an attack by a cloud ray were highlights) but failed to deliver any real excitement.
The Pavek books (The Brazen Gambit, Cinnabar Shadows, and The Rise and Fall of a Dragon King) are excellent. Best-written of all the DS novels and capture the world and the environment perfectly. They stray from canon a bit but are fantastic all the same. They're based in Urik and feature a disgruntled templar as a central character, and also the sorcerer-king Hamanu in the third book. Highly recommended.
The Tribe of One have some wonderful desert descriptions and flora/fauna, but other than that I rated them very poorly as DS novels. Broken Blade was terrible. Really terrible. Darkness Before the Dawn had some interesting moments (a tohr-kreen and an attack by a cloud ray were highlights) but failed to deliver any real excitement.
The Pavek books (The Brazen Gambit, Cinnabar Shadows, and The Rise and Fall of a Dragon King) are excellent. Best-written of all the DS novels and capture the world and the environment perfectly. They stray from canon a bit but are fantastic all the same. They're based in Urik and feature a disgruntled templar as a central character, and also the sorcerer-king Hamanu in the third book. Highly recommended.
Thanael
Explorer
If you are in the US make sure to check out Half.com. You can get most of the old TSR novels for very cheap there....
Or check with ebay for book lots.
Bookfinder.com is another great resource to use in tracking down oop books but it doesn't include ebay or half.com in it's searches.
Athas.org used to be the officialy sanctioned 3e Dark Sun fan-website. They have a few fiction pieces available for download as well as an excellent 3E conversion of the 2E Setting rules. You can learn much about Dark Sun there. The site is a bit hard to navigate though. For the 3E pdfs filter the Products with "published by Athas.org".
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Mercutio01
First Post
I've just finished the Prism Pentad. I started collecting the books from paperbackswap.com a few months ago when all the buzzing about Dark Sun 4E started to hit the internet. I liked the books. They aren't "great literature" (tm) but they're decent enough for media tie-in fiction. I wouldn't want to play in the world *after* the Pentad, so I can certainly see how it "destroyed Dark Sun," but with that said, it certainly can't hurt to read the books. If anything, there are elements of the books that are excellent for setting the background for your game.
Incidentally, I feel the same way about Dragonlance. I loved the books when I first read them (now I just like them), but they have a way of completely changing the game world enough that I avoid using the big events from them in my games. The last Dragonlance game I played it completely ignored any mention of anything from the Chronicles forward. With Dark Sun, you could easily do the same -- just ignore the world-shaking events and use the parts you do like.
Incidentally, I feel the same way about Dragonlance. I loved the books when I first read them (now I just like them), but they have a way of completely changing the game world enough that I avoid using the big events from them in my games. The last Dragonlance game I played it completely ignored any mention of anything from the Chronicles forward. With Dark Sun, you could easily do the same -- just ignore the world-shaking events and use the parts you do like.
Obryn
Hero
I'll take a middle road here. I'm a fan of the original Dark Sun setting, but not a fan of the changes to the setting which occurred post-Prism-Pentad. I'm an original box set kind of guy.
With that said, the Prism Pentad is actually pretty well-written, for gaming fiction. It's a fun read and it gives you an awesome feel for the setting. I'd recommend it whole-heartedly; I just wouldn't treat it as canon for the setting.
-O
With that said, the Prism Pentad is actually pretty well-written, for gaming fiction. It's a fun read and it gives you an awesome feel for the setting. I'd recommend it whole-heartedly; I just wouldn't treat it as canon for the setting.
-O
AdmundfortGeographer
Getting lost in fantasy maps
I've mentioned this in threads on Dark Sun novels in the past. But at the time the Prism Pentad was being written, the TSR novels department was kept separate from the game department. Troy Denning and Tim Brown, along with collaboration from Brom and Mary Kirchoff, designed the setting. Promptly after the original boxed set was put together, Troy Denning was shuffled off to write the novels to coincide with the setting.
From that point on, Troy Denning was kept in the dark with what was going on with his baby. All the while he was finishing up the Prism Pentad, another team was in control of producing material for Dark Sun. This came to a clashing conclusion in the final book where Rick Baker was writing a supplement on Ur Draxa (the city of The Dragon) while Troy was concluding the story with a confrontation . . . in Ur Draxa!
Rich Baker wasn't clued in that Troy was taking the finale into Ur Draxa, and Troy Denning wasn't told Rich Baker had just finished the supplement for the city. This caused Troy to have to rip out and re-write whole chapters at the end that detailed what Troy wanted to be in Ur Draxa.
Plus, the finale destroyed Ur Draxa, making the accessory Rich Baker created useless except for some little details about the Silt Sea.
This insane corporate structure continued past this fiasco with the rest of the Dark Sun line.
Lynn Abbey was kept in the dark about significant Dark Sun metaplots, she was given barely enough material. She repeatedly asked her contacts in the novels department for more information from the RPG department on Dark Sun. The RPG department was tight lipped on their secrets. So Lynn Abbey threw caution to the wind and just wrote a damn good novel. Because the RPG department wouldn't clue Lynn in on certain canon background ideas, Lynn invented her own to keep her story coherent.
FWIW, where she came up with a background I'm a fan of what Lynn invented over the RPG department's background.
From that point on, Troy Denning was kept in the dark with what was going on with his baby. All the while he was finishing up the Prism Pentad, another team was in control of producing material for Dark Sun. This came to a clashing conclusion in the final book where Rick Baker was writing a supplement on Ur Draxa (the city of The Dragon) while Troy was concluding the story with a confrontation . . . in Ur Draxa!
Rich Baker wasn't clued in that Troy was taking the finale into Ur Draxa, and Troy Denning wasn't told Rich Baker had just finished the supplement for the city. This caused Troy to have to rip out and re-write whole chapters at the end that detailed what Troy wanted to be in Ur Draxa.
Plus, the finale destroyed Ur Draxa, making the accessory Rich Baker created useless except for some little details about the Silt Sea.
This insane corporate structure continued past this fiasco with the rest of the Dark Sun line.
Lynn Abbey was kept in the dark about significant Dark Sun metaplots, she was given barely enough material. She repeatedly asked her contacts in the novels department for more information from the RPG department on Dark Sun. The RPG department was tight lipped on their secrets. So Lynn Abbey threw caution to the wind and just wrote a damn good novel. Because the RPG department wouldn't clue Lynn in on certain canon background ideas, Lynn invented her own to keep her story coherent.
FWIW, where she came up with a background I'm a fan of what Lynn invented over the RPG department's background.
Verdant Passage. That's where most of us started. I'd recommend sticking to the Denning novels.
Tom
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