Dragonlance Dragonlance Shadow of the Dragon Queen shows up in the wild!

[pukunui]

I re-read the Chronicles a month or so ago in anticipation of the 5e book coming out ... and yeah, fine literature they are not. The prose is pretty awful in places, as is the poetry. They do not read aloud nicely either (not like a Discworld novel does).

That said, I still enjoy the story for the most part, and Laurana is still my favorite character.

 

[darjr]

Also a lot of people forget that the Novels were marketing. As good or great or influential as they are they were made as a marketing tool.

And what went into the initial spark of the reason to do the whole thing was based off customer surveys.

They became the foundation of a product line that kept TSR afloat and arguably their best selling products. However at the time they didn’t know any of that.

 

[Reynard]

Also a lot of people forget that the Novels were marketing. As good or great or influential as they are they were made as a marketing tool.

They became the foundation of a product line that kept TSR afloat and arguably their best selling products. However at the time they didn’t know any of that.

And they are "good" from a certain perspective: they are wonder YA fantasy AND they pull you into D&D. Win-win. They just haven't aged well.

 

[Steel_Wind]

And they are "good" from a certain perspective: they are wonder YA fantasy AND they pull you into D&D. Win-win. They just haven't aged well.

Well, yes...but it's more than that. It's the authors and their writing style.

Dragons of Deceit (referenced above) was released in August 2022. The problems inherent to the text and narrative style remains. It's the YA premise and target age of the novel's audience. Or at least, the ground rules which governs the YA nature of the prose and plot.

But since the original DL Chronicles, it's almost been 40 years. Since DL was in its heyday, we have had a lot of GRRM inspired post-modern fantasy go our way. And that's before we get to Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, too. All of which brings us into grim and gritty themes and narrative styles that have changed over the years. It is an issue which still divides the tastes of many of us.

I appreciate that this remains a significant point of disagreement even among older gamers. Hell, swearing on ENWorld is still seen as in invitation to moderate and remove such language.

I get it, but the YA stuff is no longer for me - and I can't pretend otherwise.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It's easy to forget that Dragonlance pretty much invented the YA genre - at least it came out before there where YA sections is bookshops. But I do read some modern YA stuff (I can't be doing with GRRM doom and gloom, RL is grimdark enough for me) and at least some of it is now a lot better written than Dragonlance was.

 

[Reynard]

It's easy to forget that Dragonlance pretty much invented the YA genre - at least it came out before there where YA sections is bookshops. But I do read some modern YA stuff (I can't be doing with GRRM doom and gloom, RL is grimdark enough for me) and at least some of it is now a lot better written than Dragonlance was.

The invention of the YA genre has a negative impact on a lot of earlier fiction. A Wizard of Earthsea ends up there because it's young protagonist, but it is a book every fantasy fan should read regardless of age. The Last Unicorn, too -- some of the most beautiful prose in all of fantasy fiction and it gets stuck in the YA section because cartoon I guess.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

The invention of the YA genre has a negative impact on a lot of earlier fiction. A Wizard of Earthsea ends up there because it's young protagonist, but it is a book every fantasy fan should read regardless of age. The Last Unicorn, too -- some of the most beautiful prose in all of fantasy fiction and it gets stuck in the YA section because cartoon I guess.

the issue is that YA gets a bad wrap as 'low' versions of there genre when like you said some of the best writing is done there.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

the issue is that YA gets a bad wrap as 'low' versions of there genre when like you said some of the best writing is done there.

(Because teens have a harder time judging what makes media good, so bad authors get by easier writing YA than writing adult fiction.)

And I say this as someone that has read a lot of YA books over the past decade.

 

[Reynard]

the issue is that YA gets a bad wrap as 'low' versions of there genre when like you said some of the best writing is done there.

Those weren't done there, they were banished there. That was my point.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Those weren't done there, they were banished there. That was my point.

And your point is wrong, since it carries the prejudice that everything YA is assumed to be bad, whereas some of the new stuff is of as high standard as Le Guin. There is plenty of really bad OA (Old Adult) literature published too. That doesn't make it all bad.