Dragonlance Chronicles Omnibus Coming February 2025

Dragonlance fans will be able to pick up a compiled hardcover edition next year. By Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, the trilogy was originally launched in 1984 with Dragons of Autumn Twilight. While there have been omnibus editions before (I have one!), this one features a foreword by actor and Dragonlance megafan Joe Manganiello.

The hardcover comes out February 4th 2025 for $35. You can pre-order it from Penguin Random House.

ABOUT DRAGONLANCE CHRONICLES

“Before there was Game of Thrones―there was Dragonlance.”—Vox

Rediscover the unforgettable world of the New York Times bestselling Dragonlance series with the first three novels of one of the most popular fantasy series of all time—now featuring a new foreword by Joe Manganiello!

Once merely creatures of legend, the dragons have returned—but with their arrival comes the departure of the old gods, and all healing magic. As war threatens to engulf the land, lifelong friends reunite for an adventure that will change their lives and shape their world forever….

Meet Sturm the Solamnic knight, Tanis Half-Elf, Tasslehoff Burrfoot the irrepressible Kender, Flint the Dwarf, Caramon the warrior and his twin brother, Raistlin the red-robed mage—former comrades together again after five years apart, and looking for adventure.

They find it when they see a woman use a blue crystal staff to heal a villager. Wondering if it’s a sign the gods have not abandoned them after all, they investigate and swiftly find themselves in deep trouble.

The Seekers, members of a new religious order, want the artifact for their own ends, believing it will help them replace the gods and win the continent of Ansalon. Now these old comrades in arms must fight again to prevent the staff from falling into the hands of darkness….

Dragonlance Chronicles features the three novels Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night, and Dragons of Spring Dawning.

 

[Nikosandros]

The blurb makes it sound like they're trying to avoid spoilers for anything beyond the first couple of chapters of Dragons of Autumn Twilight. Odd choice for a 40-year-old book, but OK.

Well, I'm sure they hope to sell copies also to people who haven't already read it.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Imagine a world where GRRT had published more than 210 books set in Westeros.

I kinda think that going with the high page count releases for A Song of Ice and Fire was a mistake. If you look at his previous work, much of it is novella and short story length. The Armageddon Rag, the last full-length novel he published before A Game of Thrones, was still under 400 pages. If he had kept things at a tidy 200-300 page length, he might not have gotten as easily trapped by the dozens of threads he had going. Or at least, he wouldn't be stuck trying to unravel them all in a thousand-page book for thirteen years and counting.

 

[Reynard]

Well, I'm sure they hope to sell copies also to people who haven't already read it.

I don't know. These kinds of collections are almost exclusively of interest to existing fans.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I kinda think that going with the high page count releases for A Song of Ice and Fire was a mistake. If you look at his previous work, much of it is novella and short story length. The Armageddon Rag, the last full-length novel he published before A Game of Thrones, was still under 400 pages. If he had kept things at a tidy 200-300 page length, he might not have gotten as easily trapped by the dozens of threads he had going. Or at least, he wouldn't be stuck trying to unravel them all in a thousand-page book for thirteen years and counting.

I think that he and many other would be better served by writing episodic novels in the setting. They can have an overall arc if they want but trying to construct multi-volume novels with dozens of characters is too much of an ask.

 

[Dioltach]

Recent rereads have been disappointing, but I remember back in the mid-1980s, and how eager I was to get my hands on them - the small town in rural Holland where I lived was largely cut off from popular culture of the day - and how much I loved them when I finally did. I wanted to be Tanis. I was in love with Laurana, and Kitiara. I cried at Sturm's death. I could even tolerate Tasslehof.

And then came Legends, which was ten times as good...

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I think that he and many other would be better served by writing episodic novels in the setting. They can have an overall arc if they want but trying to construct multi-volume novels with dozens of characters is too much of an ask.

Totally. Just look at Rothfuss - he seems to have little trouble banging out novellas and short stories, but he's still completely stuck on Doors of Stone.

Recent rereads have been disappointing, but I remember back in the mid-1980s, and how eager I was to get my hands on them - the small town in rural Holland where I lived was largely cut off from popular culture of the day - and how much I loved them when I finally did. I wanted to be Tanis. I was in love with Laurana, and Kitiara. I cried at Sturm's death. I could even tolerate Tasslehof.

And then came Legends, which was ten times as good...

While I have more of a soft spot for the original Chronicles, Legends is the better-written trilogy. Their greater experience and the smaller cast of characters really made a difference.

 

[Helena Real]

Every time I read someone say that they used to like the DL Chronicles but cannot go back because of how bad they really are, I feel like I must be from other planet or something. I read them first when I was a teenager, and I have re-read them throughout the years and, let me tell you, they hold up SO well for me.

If I'm extra honest, I prefer the Chronicles to a lot of (supposedly better) contemporary fantasy. I think it reads better than ASoI&F, for example, way better than anything Sanderson has ever published, and so on and so forth.

Maybe the difference comes down to what is it you're looking for in a novel. I don't care much for an "innovative" plot (one that you can't guess, I assume), but I have to love at least 1 main character. And I love so many of them in the Chronicles! What's there not to love about Tanis, Raistlin, Sturm, Goldmoon, or Tas? Both Caramon and Riverwind are lovely too, in their own way. And Flint is such a classic grumpy old person with a heart of gold!

So, yeah, I'm pretty excited for this. I hope it does well and I wish we could get more novels in my favorite D&D setting.

But, even if we don't, I can always return to the Chronicles and the Legends and, at least so far, it has always been a blast ☺

 

[Reynard]

Every time I read someone say that they used to like the DL Chronicles but cannot go bavk because of how bad they really are, I feel like I must be from other planet or something. I read them first when I was a teenager, and I have re-read them throughout the years and, let me tell you, they hold up SO well for me.

If I'm extra honest, I prefer the DL Chronicles to a lot of (supposedly better) contemporary fantasy. I think it reads better than ASoI&F, for example, way better than anything Sanderson has ever published, and so on and so forth.

Maybe the difference comes down to what is it you're looking for in a novel. I don't care much for an "innovative" plot (one that you can't guess, I assume), but I have to love at least 1 main character. And I love so many of them in the Chronicles. What's there not to love about Tanis, Raistlin, Sturm, Goldmoon, or Tas? Both Caramon and Riverwind are lovely too, in their own way. And Flint is such a classic grumpy old person with a heart of gold!

So, yeah, I'm pretty excited for this. I hope it does well and I wish we could get more novels in my favorite D&D setting.

But, even if we don't, I can always return to the Chronicles and the Legends

I mean, the writing, the actual prose, sentence by sentence, is bad IMO. It reads like YA fiction, and I am not a fan of that style of prose.

 

[Helena Real]

I mean, the writing, the actual prose, sentence by sentence, is bad IMO. It reads like YA fiction, and I am not a fan of that style of prose.

Well, to me it reads very well, dynamic and to the point. Moreover, each out of the eight main characters has a distinct voice. You can read a line of dialogue and know EXACTLY who's speaking, without needing to see the tag.

"Prose" is not an objective measurement. As everything else in literature, it is highly subjective.

 

[Reynard]

Well, to me it reads very well, dynamic and to the point. Moreover, each out of the eight main characters has a distinct voice. You can read a line of dialogue and know EXACTLY who's speaking, without needing to see the tag.

"Prose" is not an objective measurement. As everything else in literature, it is highly subjective.

I wasn't suggesting it was, just answering your question of why some folks (like me) don't think it holds up.