Will I like Dragonlance books?

[Matchstick]

Given a limited amount of time there's a heck of lot of other fantasy books I would rank above DragonLance on a reading list.

I read DragonLance once, when I was about 11, and after having read the Lord of the Rings. I made it through, but even though I've tried since then I can't even make it past the first book. They just aren't that good.

I'd say clarify more of what you like, and see what other recommendations you can get. Personally I'd say maybe some Terry Pratchett (Wee Free Men), Glen Cook (Bitter Gold Hearts), Paul Edwin Zimmer (Gathering of Heroes), or Jim Butcher (Dresden Files). Any and all would be worlds better than DL.

 

[Randolpho]

I very much enjoyed the original Dragonlance Trilogy, but I have to agree with some of the critics: it's not the best writing in the world. It does have an interesting plot, characters and setting, however. Overall, it's an enjoyable series. It goes downhill after the second trilogy, and only the Weiss/Hickman books are decent enough to be enjoyable. Avoid the "final" trilogy, however.

I don't know why Jhamin thinks it rips off LotR -- if anything, it's closer to *anti* LotR. I suppose the Forestmaster might be considered "Galadrielish", but that's a stretch -- even then, it doesn't make the entire series LotRish.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

Ignore anyone who tells you not to read them. They are wrong. Read all the DL books you can get your hands on.

 

[Mallus]

They are wrong

Oh yeah?!

 

[Crothian]

The only way to know is to read them. They are not long so it really is not a huge time commitment. And plenty of people have liked them even ones over the age of 20.

 

[GSHamster]

Quite honestly, probably not. They are decent books, and I find them enjoyable, but they are definitely Tier 2 or 3 books. You sound like a person who only likes Tier 1 books (and really doesn't have time for Tier 2/3).

I'd recommend authors like Ursula K. LeGuin, John C. Wright, Guy Gavriel Kay, Tad Williams, China Mieville*.

*I dislike China Mieville, but he is definately a Tier 1 author.

 

[mmu1]

It'd be easier to answer your question if you gave more examples of the stuff you like, but off-hand, if you liked the LotR novels because of the way they were written rather than despite the way they were written, I'd say avoid Dragonlance.

In fact, I'd also say avoid Dragonlance like the plague, because life is short and there are tons of better authors out there. Which is not really saying much - I'm not trying to be malicious, but the Dragonlance novels are some of the worst fantasy books out there, on par with Eragon, though without the excuse of having been written by a child.

Try Williams, Brust, Martin, Erikson, Gaiman, Bujold, Wolfe, Powers... even Mieville and Pullman (though I hate them both, they can write), instead.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

Oh yeah?!

YEAH!

 

[Randolpho]

Ignore anyone who tells you not to read them. They are wrong. Read all the DL books you can get your hands on.

I wouldn't go *that* far. I'd say Vig should definitely read the original trilogy (Dragons of Autumn/Winter/Spring) and probably the second trilogy ([X]of the Twins), but should only read the rest if (s)he absolutely loves the setting.

But be forewarned, Vig -- the quality (such as it is) goes *down* from there.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

The writing in the Chronicles starts out *terrible* but rapidly rises to the level of mediocre or even decent. These were the first published Weiss and Hickman novels, and it shows. Some of the transitions are downright bizarre (and owe to TSR's oddball injunction to only spoil some, rather than all, of the module series).

Other than the prose, however, the Chronicles are actually quite good Epic Fantasy; I would actually rank them well above some of the better-written examples above in terms of entertainment value; I was pleasantly surprised to find I still liked them when I reread them this year.