Dragonlance: Our LotR?

[Mallus]

Me, all I can remember was Tolkien going on for three pages about the predilections and tendencies of Hobbits, and Hobbit communities, and the plans for the party, etc.

Heh... that's the kind of thing I recently referred to in another thread as the "hobbit toast-buttering songs". It does seem to go on forever, doesn't it? But for me that isn't bad writing, more like an odd choice of subject matter. I suppose you could call that bad writing on structural grounds, if you were so inclined.

Whereas Weis and Hickman just wrote sentences that made my head hurt. The only example of worse prose I can think of is E.E. Doc Smith's Lensman books, which, in their defense, have a certain madcap charm to them.

Dragonlance was my first long-novel fiction (age 13 or so) whereas prior to that the biggest thing I had read was a comic book anthology. it was Dragonlance that spurred me into reading, not any of the works that school had assigned, or any of my teachers.

Maybe it is an age thing. I read LotR first, then Elric and Co., then Covenent. I didn't attempt reading Dragonlance until years later.

 

[hexgrid]

Huh. Really? I always kinda considered LotR to be "our" LotR. I think more people get turned to to fantasy gaming by reading that still than by reading D&D novels. You've got to already be a D&D player to even consider reading those, for the most part.

For the most part, yes. But some D&D novels - like Dragonlance and the Drizzt books -reached a far wider audience than just gamers. I think it's plausible that they were a lot of people's first exposure to fantasy.

 

[tenkar]

I have this wierd suspicion that 90% of the people who say they have read the LotR haven't. It used to be closer to 75%, but after the movies the BS rate went up do to familiarity.

(Not accusing you, btw -- just pointing out that it is a hard book to read, and not as "fun" as many fantasy adventure novels, DL included , and therefore I think a lot of folks would like to have read, feel like they've read it, and assume they get "honorary credit" for reading it after seeing the movies 10 times and listening to all the director commentary. put simple, I don't think the LotR is actually the LotR for most people).

I just hate statistics like this... numbers used to back up one's opinion, but the numbers have no basis in fact.

I read the trilogy twice before i was 18... DnD gave me a hunger for it. Heck, my large and unwieldly gaming group used to discuss the trilogy in depth throughout college. No one avoided it. All read it. We also read Dragonlance when it was published. Not as big of a hit among my group.

Based on my group I could say that 100% of the pople I know that claim to have read the LotR did... i'm not going to assume that number covers the rest of the population in question tho

 

[GreatLemur]

Don't. As a big time fan of Dragonlance I understand completely what you mean and I personally think in a similiar vein.

Please stop MySpacing your posts, already.

 

[mmu1]

I have this wierd suspicion that 90% of the people who say they have read the LotR haven't. It used to be closer to 75%, but after the movies the BS rate went up do to familiarity.

(Not accusing you, btw -- just pointing out that it is a hard book to read, and not as "fun" as many fantasy adventure novels, DL included , and therefore I think a lot of folks would like to have read, feel like they've read it, and assume they get "honorary credit" for reading it after seeing the movies 10 times and listening to all the director commentary. put simple, I don't think the LotR is actually the LotR for most people).

Never met anyone who claimed to have read the LotR but didn't. (that I could tell) I've met plenty of people who did read it multiple times... Hell, one guy I gamed with had the elven runes from the One Ring tattooed in a band around his forearm. I've read the books multiple times in two languages...

 

[pawsplay]

I knew a couple that was teaching their todder son Quenya.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Not even close in my estimation.

There is a certain camp of diehard DL loyalists who think it was the greatest series ever written, but my experience reading it was...different.
As an avid Fantasy and SciFi junkie, who has whiled away countless hours of my life reading across both genres, and who has a tendency to want to enjoy any book I read (so I tend to be very forgiving), I found DL to be well below par.

It just failed for me on so many levels.

So to me, JRR still reigns supreme.

{And the above is presented as my opinion only, in response to the original question.}

I think DL reads a lot better to younger readers. I read it when I was a wee lad and it was amazing. I re-read it a few years ago and it wasn't nearly as awesome as I remembered it being, and was downright poor in various parts. Good overall idea, and some good characters, but the writing itself isn't that great.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

I'll take Lord of the rings over Dragonlance any day. I also prefer steak over potted meat.

 

[Henry]

I knew a couple that was teaching their todder son Quenya.

Whereas I used to bake Solinari, Lunitari, and Nuitari cookies on Halloween straight to the Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home Specifications. (TERRIBLE cookies, by the way, with no flavoring built in). Always wanted to try "Stag On Steel", but never had a group wanting to cook it by the book....

Goes to show that we had the "gamer generation gap" even within the same gamer generation! How many teens out there will treat "Full Metal Alchemist" or "Princess Monoke" anime with similar devotion -- THEIR "Lord of the Rings"...

 

[Reynard]

I just hate statistics like this... numbers used to back up one's opinion, but the numbers have no basis in fact.

I read the trilogy twice before i was 18... DnD gave me a hunger for it. Heck, my large and unwieldly gaming group used to discuss the trilogy in depth throughout college. No one avoided it. All read it. We also read Dragonlance when it was published. Not as big of a hit among my group.

Based on my group I could say that 100% of the pople I know that claim to have read the LotR did... i'm not going to assume that number covers the rest of the population in question tho

It isn't a statistic. It is a number pulled out of my keister -- with more than a little exageration thrown in -- to make a point. I mean, really -- you've never been to a con or in a game shop and overhead a LotR "debate" that was obviously fueled by either a) a lot of assumptions, or b) a degree of misunderstanding the text so great that it might as well have equalled "haven't read it"?

If your answer is "No", I implore you to count yourself lucky.