I always had a fondness for Dragonlance. It was the first Fantasy series I fell in love with. I had borrowed Test of the Twins from a friend (which is actually the first book of the second Trilogy) and was hooked form the first page. I remember I couldn’t find the second book of that series anywhere so I bought the third and the first who had loaned me the first book gave me a synopsis of book two piece meal at school over a few days. Eventually I was able to get that Trilogy (known as Legends) and the original Trilogy (known as Chronicles). I didn’t enjoy Chronicles quite as much as Legends but I loved all six. Other than maybe The Stand they are probably the books I have read the most because I would reread them every year for several years in a row and Test of the Twins still has the record of being the book I have read the fastest where I finished one of my rereads in one 24 hour period (I am usually a pretty slow reader).
Dragonlance grew as a Franchise and many of the later books were not good (even some by the original two authors Weis and Hickman) but as I said it was special to me so I was excited to hear a new trilogy was coming and I was very surprised to see it in my Kindle this morning since I thought t released next week. Anyone else fans of Dragonlance and excited for the new book? Please mask any spoilers of the new one but think it’s safe to talk about the originals seeing as they are like 30+ years old.
I kinda stopped reading them after Legends, but yeah, I loved the original two trilogies. I did read Summer Flame. The first anthology book was good, too (Tales, I believe).
Let us know how awesome the new one is. I might pick it up.
I read the Chronicles and the Legends back around the time they came out. At the time, I realized how derivative they were of both (A)D&D and Tolkien, but I quite liked those kinds of things and so was probably pretty much in the target audience for the Dragonlance books, although maybe a bit too old and too well-read.
I enjoyed them, but they weren’t at the top of my favorites list. I suspect that if I went back and tried to reread them now, they might not hold up. I recently tried to read another Weis & Hickman novel (the first volume of their Death Gate cycle) but wasn’t enjoying it enough to finish it.
Considering the Hickman’s we’re driving to TSR when they thought up the setting, and Weiss was already working there, and the first book was printed by TSR - I get the sense that AD&D probably had a big influence. I knew it became a setting for D&D, but wasn’t sure which came first (and the idea came first but the first campaign was out before the first book)
I fondly remeber the first two cycles, everything else, not so much. They came in the heyday of our RPG time, and we had more than one character inspired and/or directly named after them.
We still have Gully dwarves in our homebrew campaign, and one fighter named Sturm is one of the best remembered character deaths for me.
Probably not going to touch the new stuff, as I am a bit anxious about retroactively spoiling my nostalgia.
The Chronicles were a novelization of a series of AD&D Modules and the story was based on the authors’ roleplaying sessions of them. It was always meant to be an adaptation of D&D in book form.
So I finished it (vague minor spoilers ahead) and it was…okay. It was very nice revisiting Krynn and I especially liked the first third of the book that kind of retells the events of the Chronicles and Legends but from the point of view of a people just living through the events.
The writing style had a real…childlike quality that I think was by design but made it sound amateurish. I also felt a certain plot point made Tas seem supremely dumb to the point where it was distracting. In addition, it sets up a future story line that feels a little fan service-y. I will read the next one and I think fans of the series will like it but I think it shows you sometimes can’t go home again.
I re-read the first book (Dragons of Autumn Twilight) as an adult and I was amazed by how amateurish it was. There’s a scene where they’re fighting a giant slug and they go on at length about how the party is missing their attacks or doing no damage. Not exactly gripping stuff!