"Discovering" fantasy fiction: Dragonlance

[Mallus]

Ick.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

They're OK. Better than the average gaming fiction, but that isn't saying much, really. The Hickmans are competent formula writers, but they aren't great. But that's OK so long as the reader is entertained, and if it gets you into reading fantasy, there are plenty of better authors out there to move on to.

If you like D&D, I'd recommend Raymond Feist's Riftwar novels, which are a cut above the Dragonlance novels, for example. Or if you're a LotR Fan, I'd recommend David Eddings or Terry Brooks (yeah, sure, there are some who claim Brooks is a hack who ripped off Tolkein, and it's true ... but I'd still say his writing is generally better than anything you'll pick up that was published by TSR or WotC). If you like excessively long involved series, I can recommend Robert Jordan or Terry Goodkind. If you like satirical humor, Terry Pratchet's your man. If you want to get at D&D's roots, try Jack Vance, or Fred Saberhagen, or R.E. Howard. If you want to read something on par with Tolkein, pick of GRR Martins "Song of Ice & Fire" series.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

I would point you toward the following authors and series
The Runelords five book series by Farland, and a great story
Shadow Star trilogy by Chris Claremont
Magician's Guild trilogy by Trudi Canavan
Doom Brigade & Draconian Measures by Weis and Perrin, in my opinion the best DL novels of all time.
Cry of the Icemark by Hill
Spirit Gate by Kate Elliot
Hood by Lawhead, a retelling of the Robin Hood myths and damned good book haven't gotten the second one yet but I know it's out.

 

[Darth Shoju]

I would point you toward the following authors and series
Shadow Star trilogy by Chris Claremont

I don't mean to crap on anyone's taste in books, but I'd suggest checking this out from the library, or buying the first book second hand if possible. I'm a huge fan of Willow, and I generally enjoy Claremont, so I thought I'd give this series a try a few years ago. I found the first book unbearable and barely finished it. Really, it has very little in common with the Willow movie beyond a few characters, and Claremont's writing is verbose. However, I'm willing to admit this may just be personal preference, so don't think I'm saying not to read it, just take caution.

As far as the original DL series, I haven't read them at least 15 years. I remember them as being one of my favourite D&D series (the other being the Icewind Dale trilogy), but I think nostalgia may be colouring my memories. I'd kind of like to go back and re-read them to see if they hold up as badly as some say.

Still, as far as D&D fiction goes, I'd say they are probably still right up there.

 

[jonesy]

What are other peoples' feelings about the novels?

I love me some Dragonlance. I've read about 160 of them so far and have several on my shelf I haven't even started on. And no, I don't own all of them yet. =)

Having said that so you'd see where I'm coming from the books have two major problems.

First, after people have read books from the core series (those by W&H) they tend to look for more stories of the characters they've grown to like. This regularly and regrettably means the Meetings and Preludes series. Aside from a few exceptions (I liked Brothers Majere) those are the weakest DL books there are.

Second, because there's such a freakish huge amount of them by such a large variety of writers it's easy to stumble into books you won't like.

There are however DL writers and DL books which I've found people consistently liking.

So my recommendation for you, if you still want more after the core books are:
Anything by Richard A. Knaak (everything with his minotaurs), or Chris Pierson (Kingpriest trilogy is great).
Defenders of Magic is my favourite trilogy (better that W&H).
Spirit of the Wind shows how kender should be written about.

And finally Lord Toede simply because it's such a laugh.

 

[Kheti sa-Menik]

The companions have just been captured.

I've known about the characters for a long time so I am not surprised about many of their characteristics. Despite not liking kender, I do like Tas. Tanis was interesting at first but he's very whiny. Goldmoon and Riverwind are interesting. Sturm is nifty, although a little one dimensional. Raistlin I could do without.

It's not the best novel I've read but it's entertaining read for now. I finished a pretty serious novel before I started DoAT so having something like isn't bad. I doubt I'll become a collector though.

 

[Grog]

Ugh. For fantasy fiction, you can do a LOT better than Dragonlance. The only DL books worth reading are the first two trilogies, and they're only okay. Try George RR Martin or David Gemmell for something better.

 

[Agamon]

They were good when I was a kid, but re-reading them in the annotated versions showed me that they weren't all that great. Not bad, but there's a lot better stuff out there, for sure. It is iconic though amongst the newer stuff. Just don't get hooked into buying the follow up novels that take up so much shelf space at book stores (except Legends, which really finishes the storyline Chronicles started).

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

I found the first book unbearable and barely finished it. Really, it has very little in common with the Willow movie beyond a few characters, and Claremont's writing is verbose. However, I'm willing to admit this may just be personal preference, so don't think I'm saying not to read it, just take caution.

The first book was the hardest to get through it had to do all the setup for the whole series. But the world it created and followed up on in the next two was very interesting. The language issue seemed to be his attempt to imitate Tolkien's style and word use. And we all know JRR could get a bit out of hand in the verbage at times to the detriment of the story. Once you got past the first it only became more interesting and fantastic.

 

[Dioltach]

Or if you're a LotR Fan, I'd recommend David Eddings or Terry Brooks (yeah, sure, there are some who claim Brooks is a hack who ripped off Tolkein, and it's true ... but I'd still say his writing is generally better than anything you'll pick up that was published by TSR or WotC).

I'd like to add here that Terry Brooks's first book, The Sword of Shannara, was published simply because it was so similar to LotR. His publisher, Lester Delrey, was trying to open up a new market: don't forget that in the late 1970s, early 1980s (in fact, before Dragonlance Chronicles started to make fantasy hugely popular) there was very little available in the way of fantasy. Delrey published Sword to prove that there was a huge market out there, consisting of readers who loved LotR and were waiting for more of the same.

Brooks's later novels, particularly those after Wishsong, are much further removed from the original formula, which, to be quite honest, is much older than Tolkien anyway.

Back on topic: I devoured the initial Dragonlance novels when they first appeared. Like I said, there wasn't much fantasy out there, and I'd already read most of it. Looking back, I still like the books, although I prefer the second trilogy, but the market has matured, and there's stuff out there that's a lot better (or at least, more suited to my taste). Actually, I don't see how people can complain that Shannara is a Tolkien rip-off but not say the same about the original Dragonlance trilogy.

If you're looking for suggestions about other fantasy novels, I'd like to suggest Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams, as being very close in style to Tolkien, but very different in substance.