Dragonlance Here's That Official Dragonlance Novels Announcement, Featuring Classic Characters & An Old Logo!

We've known about it for a while due to lawsuits and product placeholder pages on Amazon, but Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman have just announced their new Dragonlance series of novels!

It returns 'the most beloved characters from the original novels', as well as a 'new, strong protagonist'. Previous information from the lawsuit about this series indicated that the first book was to be called Dragons of Deceit, and the second Dragons of Fate. The Amazon placeholder page says the release date is 29th July 2021. Of course, any of that information may have changed.

Original (classic) DL logo

Later (Fifth Age) DL logo​

The branding refers to "Classic Dragonlance" and uses the older, original (and my favourite) Dragonlance logo. Whether that in some way distinguishes it from any potential WotC Dragonlance materials remains to be seen. The logo changed in the 1990s, and continued to be used throughout the 3E era.

The news was shared on Twitter and on Tracy Hickman's website.

 PRESS RELEASE

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Wilmington, NC – January 25, 2021 – Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman are pleased to announce a multi-year licensing agreement with Wizards of the Coast to produce a new, three book series of Classic Dragonlance novels.

The new trilogy will return fans to the most beloved characters from the original novels along with introducing a new strong protagonist. The books will be published by Del Rey Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Although a publishing date has not yet been formally set, they anticipate announcing when the first book will be released later this year.

“We couldn’t be happier to be returning to the world we love,” says Margaret Weis. “Dragonlance is what brought Tracy and I together so many years ago. We’re thrilled to be able to do this for existing lovers of Krynn while bringing our beloved characters to a new generation of readers.”

The first Classic Dragonlance novel, Dragons of Autumn Twilight, was written by Weis and Hickman and published in 1984. Since that time, more than 190 novels have been published in the setting. Weis and Hickman have collaborated on numerous series over the last 30 years including projects set within the world of Classic Dragonlance and outside of it. Two notable series are The Death Gate Cycle and The Darksword Series, both published by Penguin Random House.

“We credit the fans of Dragonlance for making this journey possible,” says Tracy Hickman. “We wrote this series out of our thanks to them for this amazing life-long journey…and from our wish that they join us once more on the road to Solace.”

The license for the series was secured by Weis & Hickman in 2018. Their recent dispute with Wizards of the Coast was resolved at the end of 2020, with all parties pleased to have come to agreement on how best to move forward with the trilogy. All are focused on producing the best series possible and will not comment on the past dispute other than to say it has been resolved.

Watch for additional news from Weis and Hickman about Classic Dragonlance and other projects on the horizon in the coming months.

 

[Dire Bare]

What I'm most curious about is how the new Dragonlance stories will treat race, and racism, in D&D. Especially the gully dwarves . . . .

 

[Scribe]

What I'm most curious about is how the new Dragonlance stories will treat race, and racism, in D&D. Especially the gully dwarves . . . .

Honestly hope they change nothing.

A human isn't an ogre isn't a kender.

That's fantasy. Biology is real, and sentient races are actually different.

Yeah, that means Gully Dwarves are uneducated.

 

[Parmandur]

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman are, of course, the authors of the original Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy. However, they own ZERO PERCENT of the Dragonlance story and setting. The setting, story, and characters of Dragonlance were developed by in-house committee by TSR. Weis & Hickman were important members of that committee, but not the only ones, and TSR owns the Dragonlance IP lock, stock, and barrel. Or well, now WotC does, as they purchased TSR and all rights that went along with that.

WotC is going this interesting publishing route, granting a license to Weis & Hickman, and Del Rey, instead of publishing in-house like they used to . . . because they have simply decided they don't want to be in the novel publishing business anymore. This arrangement doesn't change the IP rights in any way, however.

IIRC, Penguin (which owns Del Rey) does literally all of WotC actual physical printing work. They piblish the art books, cookbooks, and so on, at the very least

 

[Mannahnin]

That's fantasy. Biology is real, and sentient races are actually different.

Yeah, that means Gully Dwarves are uneducated.

Being uneducated isn't biology.

 

[Scribe]

Being uneducated isn't biology.

True, I was thinking of saying dimwitted, but it's been so long since I read it I went with the safe bet that they are just not educated. lol

 

[Mind of tempest]

True, I was thinking of saying dimwitted, but it's been so long since I read it I went with the safe bet that they are just not educated. lol

dimwitted is an understatement they honestly do not work as a concept.

 

[Quartz]

I never - and still don't - understood the 'gully dwarves are black people' complaint. So they're a race of dimwitted but loveable creatures. So what? People don't have problems with races of hypergeniuses, so why the reverse? ISTM it's just people wanting to take offence. Le sigh.

Actually, for the longest time I thought the Solamnics were primarily black.

 

[Emirikol Prime]

I suppose that is nice for them.

Ya think?

 

[Mind of tempest]

how are you getting black people from gully dwarfs?
do you want me to be technical with how they will raise a stink?

Ya think?

look Dragonlance is more of my dad's thing and even he was not that into it.

 

[sstacks]

Yay. Yay I say