DragonLance [Archive] - Giant in the Playground Forums

JadedDM

2007-01-26, 06:43 PM

If you've never read any Dragonlance before, you probably want to start in the beginning. That would be the Chronicles Trilogy. "Dragons of Autumn Twilight," "Dragons of Winter Night" and "Dragons of Spring Dawning."

A lot of fans would agree these are among the best (if not the best) of the series, as well.

Deaddude

2007-01-26, 06:52 PM

If you've never read any Dragonlance before, you probably want to start in the beginning. That would be the Chronicles Trilogy. "Dragons of Autumn Twilight," "Dragons of Winter Night" and "Dragons of Spring Dawning."

Ok. Off to the Library website to order the them :P.

Shadow of the Sun

2007-01-28, 05:24 AM

I really enjoyed "The Soulforge", it was an amazing book.

The Dirge

2007-01-28, 06:21 AM

The chronicle of the twins books are good.

JadedDM

2007-01-28, 04:08 PM

Indeed, once you finish with the Chronicles, if you find yourself wanting more, the Legends Trilogy is the next step, as it's the immediate sequel. They are:

"Time of the Twins"
"War of the Twins"
"Test of the Twins"

"The Soulforge" is a prequel that deals with the history of one of the main characters, Raistlin. I've never read it, but if you really like that character you should probably check it out, too.

Pyre

2007-01-28, 11:41 PM

I loved these books back in the day. They were some of the first "D&D style" books I ever read. And yeah, the "Dragons of 'X'" are probably the best to start with. Ah, the good ol days. A lot of the prequel books are good too, but if you like the main three defintely pick-up the 'Twins books'.

I guess I should thank Piers Anthony for getting me started on reading fantasy-ish books, as "On a Pale Horse" was probably what really got me started.

Jewel Thief

2007-01-29, 01:50 AM

The original trilogy is your best bet. The twins was also a good trilogy, but after that I began to dislike Dragonlance, especially with the death of...

Tanis, which happened after the originals. I was so mad. Then all the rest of the original cast slowly die off, most with pretty crappy deaths. I mean Flint's made sense... it's not always enemies that get you. But Tanis's death wasn't really heroic.

JadedDM

2007-01-29, 02:45 AM

Well, it's important to remember that Dragonlance is very different from say, Forgotten Realms, where the heroes live forever: Elminster, Drizzt, etc, etc. It's constantly moving forward, constantly changing. Dragonlance IS change. The entire world is turned upside-down on a continual basis. It's something you have to get used to in reading the series.

The J Pizzel

2007-01-29, 11:42 AM

I just finished Dragons of Autumn Twilight and have started Winter Nights. I must say, i've read A LOT of fantasy books and this was a welcome break. For some reason...I never got around to reading these. I've read Salvatore, Eddings, Brooks, Feist, Paolini, Tolkien...and many more. Some people told me that DL would be very cliche'. And there absolutely right. The plot is somewhat cliche'...gotta find the (blanks) to destroy all the (blanks). But the writting was just so much better than some other. Also, in regards to what JadedDM just said...about the world changing...thats (i think) what makes me like it so much. I highly recommend these books.

pizzel

Dudukain

2007-01-29, 09:07 PM

If you want to read the Weis/Hickman stuff in order, it goes:

CHRONICLES:
Dragons of the Autumn Twilight
Dragons of the Winter Night
Dragons of the Spring Dawning
LEGENDS:
Time of the Twins
War of the Twins
Test of the Twins
The Second Generation
Dragons of the Summer Flame
THE WAR OF SOULS:
Dragons of the Fallen Sun
Dragons of the Lost Star
Dragons of the Vanished Moon

The War of Souls is just unbelievable good.

starwoof

2007-01-29, 09:25 PM

Ah, Dragonlance, the DnD books I read before I had even heard of DnD. I have to echo the praise Chronicles books. Im also a big fan of the book Conundrum, as it combines my love of gnomes and journey to the center of the earth. There was one that I dont remember the name of, but I think it was called The Dragons. It was about a group of good alligned dragons and their offspring basically throughout most of the history of dragonlance, up until the war of the lance I think.

If anyone likes Kender as much as I do I think theres a series about them. I know that theres one about uncle trapspringer, but I forgot the name. :(

Archmage

2007-01-29, 09:28 PM

I suggest this order:

THE DRAGONLANCE CHRONICLES
-Dragons of Autumn Twilight
-Dragons of Winter Night
-Dragons of Spring Dawning

THE RAISTLIN CHRONICLES (These are prequels, but they should be read after the Dragonlance Chronicles)
-The Soulforge
-Brothers in Arms

THE LEGENDS TRILOGY
-Time of the Twins
-War of the Twins
-Test of the Twins

-Dragons of Summer Flame

KANG'S BRIGADE
-The Doom Brigade
-Draconian Measures

Reptilius

2007-01-29, 09:36 PM

Bah...who needs books (mmm...War of Souls...)? Just get the campaign setting! You'll love yourself and never feel bad about yourself again. The plus side is, there's three Dragonlance Setting books (I think) compared to the eight million other campaign settings deem almost absolutely necessary before you start playing. Eternal happiness never read so good nor cost so little.

clarkvalentine

2007-01-29, 11:12 PM

If you want great literature that will stand up to Dostoevsky and Dickens and Hardy and Shakespeare... Dragonlance ain't it.

But it's damn fine "fun" fantasy, with an amazingly gameable world behind it. I love it.

The plus side is, there's three Dragonlance Setting books (I think) compared to the eight million other campaign settings deem almost absolutely necessary before you start playing.

All you really need are the three core D&D books plus the Dragonlance Campaign Setting. However, the fine people at Sovereign Press/Margaret Weis Productions have published a wonderful array of additional sourcebooks for those who want a bit of extra material. Dragons of Autumn and Knightly Orders of Ansalon are, hands down, the finest roleplaying supplements ever conceived by the mind of man. No contest. That is a completely objective assessment, and I have no ulterior motive in saying so whatsoever. Nope. :smallwink:
See http://www.dragonlance.com/products/ .

- Clark

Jester42

2007-01-29, 11:28 PM

I agree the 3 that started it all are the best way to dive into the series. There are literally dozen of books written about the world for people who become obsesive like me. However, I recently got some audio books of some of the prequil and legends books. I am no longer as impressed with the non weis and hickman books. But the origonals are awsome.

As a side note I went to a gen con event Breakfast with Margret Weis and Tracy Hickman. I was sitting with my girlfriend at the time listening to some people talk about Dragonlance. My girlfriend tells me we should go talk to the authors not this guy.... Tracy Hickman is a man... I was amused.

longtooth878

2007-01-30, 05:06 PM

I liked The Legend of Huma by Richard A. Knaak. No reason why, I just did...

Pyre

2007-02-02, 03:37 AM

I also liked "Behind the Mask". Least I think that was the name of it. Man, after the new books came out I stopped reading. Been ages. Maybe I should catch-up on some of the newer stuff.

Matthew

2007-02-02, 07:50 AM

Yeah, Legend of Huma was good, from what I recall. Whatever you do, don't read Kendermore, though; it is just bad.

EmptyH

2007-02-02, 09:26 AM

The first three books were definately the best. After that it looks like they were trying to hard to turn it into a "franchise" and I think the quality suffered.

Sylian

2007-02-02, 09:36 AM

Chronicles and Legends are must reads. The two Raistlin books by Margaret Weis are truly great, and so are the two Draconian books. Chris Pierson and Richard A. Knaak are great authors. Also, Dragons of Summer Flame and War of the Lance isn't as great as the four first series I mentioned, but they're good for moving the plot forward, and they aren't bad.

FdL

2007-02-02, 05:44 PM

I read the first trilogy and loved it. But then I got into Drizzt books and as I like FR best as a setting to play, I get more out of those novels. I might get the second DL trilogy soon.

But really, why are all halfling/kender characters the same in all novels? Talk about stereotypes!

Sylian

2007-02-02, 07:54 PM

Kender characters are hardly the same in all novels. Check out Spirit of the Wind by Chris Pierson.

Old One

2007-02-03, 01:42 PM

Read the Chronicles trilogy and the Legends thrilogy (The first 6 books) by Margret Weis and Tracy Hickman! Don't read Dragons of Summer Flame... Just a warning... it kills the magic of the books a bit. I keep pretending I never read it! Makes me happier! The DeathGate Cycles (also by Weis & Hickman) are really good too... not like the first books but good... and Fizban is in them too! Hehe! The Meeting Sextet is okay too... oh and do read anything by Richard A. Knaak! Kaz the Minotaur and Knight of the Black Rose and such! Legend of Huma... really good! As long as it's Dragonlance and not made up by himself that is!

FdL

2007-02-04, 01:55 AM

Kender characters are hardly the same in all novels. Check out Spirit of the Wind by Chris Pierson.

I've just recently began reading D&D novels, and after reading some other than DL Chronicles, so my hipothesys could be proven wrong.

But for what I've seen, they rarely deviate from the playful rogue comic-relief stereotype. I'm going to start reading the Icewind Dale Trilogy. I think there's a halfling character there. Let's see if that's any different.

JadedDM

2007-02-04, 03:10 AM

Quite different. Halflings and kender are as different as...dwarves and gnomes.

Matthew

2007-02-04, 07:51 AM

But for what I've seen, they rarely deviate from the playful rogue comic-relief stereotype. I'm going to start reading the Icewind Dale Trilogy. I think there's a halfling character there. Let's see if that's any different.

Actually, Regis is spookily similar to a Kender. He's more straight laced, serious and morally ambiguous, but I was definitely more than a little reminded of Tasselhoff. It's worth remembering that the Icewind Dale trilogy was written in the wake of the success of Dragonlance and that the tagline was 'from the publishers of the Dragonlance saga'.

Yeah, I remember Kaz the Minotaur being quite good as well. Not sure about Knight of the Black Rose.

Idris

2007-02-05, 03:24 AM

If you're up for yet more RPG related reading, there are loads of Earthdawn and Shadowrun novels (not great literature but good for light reading)

Idris

FdL

2007-02-05, 02:16 PM

I take this as light reading, that's right. I actually find myself enjoying it a lot. But for now I prefer D&D related stuff, which is more interesting and familiar to me.

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but what about the Finder's Stone Trilogy (can't remember if that's the title for the trilogy, it's the one that begins in Curse of the Azure Bonds)? Is it any good?

Ego Slayer

2007-02-05, 03:49 PM

The only DragonLance I've read was the Icewall Trilogy. It's got a very mysterious kender. I really liked it.

The J Pizzel

2007-02-05, 04:36 PM

I've read all the RA Salvatore books with Regis and I am currently reading Dragons of Winter Night. I haven't once thought of Regis while reading about Tas. I think of Tas as more of a playfull, annoying child. Regis is more of a lazy, overweight waste of good oxygen. OK, admittedly he does get better during the Drow/Mithral Hall wars but I still wouldn't put him in the same category as Tas. Personally, I like Tas a lot better.

JadedDM

2007-02-05, 05:32 PM

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but what about the Finder's Stone Trilogy (can't remember if that's the title for the trilogy, it's the one that begins in Curse of the Azure Bonds)? Is it any good?

It's been awhile since I read the Finder's Stone Trilogy, but from what I remember, it was most enjoyable. I was particularly fond of Dragonbait, the saurial paladin. In fact, that trilogy is among the few FR books I actually like. No offense to FR, but I'm not the biggest fan in general.