Dragonlance There's A New Dragonlance Novel Coming

After all the legal drama between WotC, Margaret Weis, and Tracy Hickman recently, this probably won't surprise anybody. However, on Amazon, there is now a placeholder for a Dragonlance paperback novel set for a 29th July release this year.

The 2020 lawsuit referred to a trilogy - Dragons of Deceit, Dragons of Fate, and a third book.

As expected, it's by Weis and Hickman, and being published by Del Rey which is the sci-fi and fantasy imprint of Penguin Random House. It's 304 pages. And that's pretty much all we know!

After the lawsuit was dropped, Margaret Weis tweeted that exciting news was coming; it looks like this is that exciting news.

Dragonlance is a legacy D&D setting and best-selling novel series created in the mid-1980s by TSR, the then-owners of Dungeons & Dragons.

 

[darjr]

Dragonlance Classic

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman to Publish a New Series Based on Classic Dragonlance.

trhickman.com

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

"Beloved Characters from the original novels" would imply that this new trilogy will take place in the past. Interesting - not the move I had expected, but as I've said before, the most concentrated nostalgia for Dragonlance is with the War of the Lance era. The question then is "when?" Before, after, or during the War of the Lance?

 

[M.L. Martin]

"Beloved Characters from the original novels" would imply that this new trilogy will take place in the past. Interesting - not the move I had expected, but as I've said before, the most concentrated nostalgia for Dragonlance is with the War of the Lance era. The question then is "when?" Before, after, or during the War of the Lance?

My money's on during--specifically, the Gilthanas/Silvara expedition to Sanction, which gives them a way to introduce new characters with a familiar and much-wondered-about starting point, and then spin off into new material. Some of this is because Dragons of Deceit, the placeholder name for the first book, is the title of the adventure that covered those events.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Dragonlance: Rogue One.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Yeah, wasn't there also a bunch of stuff in Icereach that they only vaguely alluded to?

My money's on during--specifically, the Gilthanas/Silvara expedition to Sanction, which gives them a way to introduce new characters with a familiar and much-wondered-about starting point, and then spin off into new material. Some of this is because Dragons of Deceit, the placeholder name for the first book, is the title of the adventure that covered those events.

 

[cbwjm]

Yeah, wasn't there also a bunch of stuff in Icereach that they only vaguely alluded to?

There was a fair bit in between the books in the original trilogy that I don't recall reading (I had most of the dragonlance books but could have missed some) so it might be filling in the gaps. A new protagonist though makes me wonder if it is something else.

 

[M.L. Martin]

Yeah, wasn't there also a bunch of stuff in Icereach that they only vaguely alluded to?

They filled that and the gap between the first two books about 14 years ago with the Lost Chronicles books. Dragons of Deceit is the only one of the original modules that hasn't been covered by a Weis & Hickman novel at this point.

 

[Stormonu]

Not that any of you care, but "Innerdude's Official Dragonlance Canon" is exactly 8 novels:

• Autumn Twilight / Winter Night / Spring Dawning
• Time / War / Test of the Twins
• Legend of Huma + Kaz the Minotaur

Even that is a product more of nostalgia remembering what it was like reading them for the first time at age 14 than on the actual merits of the writing.

Everything else I would categorize as "legends," in the same vein as Disney relegating all of the Star Wars expanded universe novels to "legends." I read Dragons of Summer Flame and the War of Souls trilogy. Very much "meh."

As such, I find myself with barely a flicker of excitement at new Dragonlance novels.

The best writing Weis and Hickman ever produced were the 3rd and 4th novels of the Death Gate cycle, Fire Sea and Serpent Mage respectively. Fire Sea to this day is easily in my top 10 fantasy novels ever. The world building in that novel was spectacular beyond belief, and Jonathan the Lazar is an unbelievably cool character concept.

Never read Kaz, but I agree with the above and will add Dragons of the Dwarven Depths which covers DL3 & 4 (especially the Floating Citadel!). I've still got to get through Highlord Skies and Hourglass Mage, but I strongly suspect they'll be as good as Dwarven Depths, as they were written about the same time.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Another thing I thought about is that it could also mean bringing them into the future, for some reason. That enables them to get the band back together, so to speak, and still cover new ground.

I enjoyed the time travel stories . . . in the anthologies. And of course Legends was amazing. But I don't think I want to see time travel changing the War of the Lance. But hey, if the story is well done, W&H can do anything and I'll be on board.

I knew that they had covered some of that in various stories, but I haven't gotten to reading most of them.

They filled that and the gap between the first two books about 14 years ago with the Lost Chronicles books. Dragons of Deceit is the only one of the original modules that hasn't been covered by a Weis & Hickman novel at this point.

 

[Alzrius]

They filled that and the gap between the first two books about 14 years ago with the Lost Chronicles books. Dragons of Deceit is the only one of the original modules that hasn't been covered by a Weis & Hickman novel at this point.

While not based on any game products, the pre-War of the Lance exploits of Raistlin and Caramon are similarly covered in Margaret Weis's The Soulforge and its sequel, Weis and Don Perrin's Brothers in Arms (i.e. the "Raistlin Chronicles").