I picked up the big annotated version of the chronicles a week or so ago after I decided that I wanted to read through it again to see if I really liked it or just had that vague sense of liking that I sometimes would get as a child when things were interesting. I thought the stories wouldn’t be very complex and geared more towards elementary/junior high schoolkids which is when I read them all.
The stories weren’t overly complicated but they had enough twists in them that they were interesting. It was very testosterone laden typical of fantasy schlock. This isn’t to say that it was unenjoyable, it was a fun, easy read. It is saying that it was fairly predictable (HA! I had read them before but not for over 10 years).
I would not suggest anyone buy the annotated version though because it sucked. Every few pages when a new character was mentioned, the annotations would give a commercial on what other book they can be found in complete with author. I am surprised that the capitalistic enterprise didn’t put on ISDN (OR is that ISBN?) numbers and prices along with it.
That wasn’t the most infuriating part. Some background: I like poetry. I really like poetry. Rhymed verse, free form, whatever, it almost always appeals to me. I also like poetry in books. It breaks the pace up and helps ingrain me into the world more. I used to like Michael Williams’s poetry. He was the author of most of the poems within the DragonLance Chronicles, if not all of them. However, every time he wrote about his poems in the annotations (the reason for annotations are not commercials but to talk about what the author was thinking at the time…) he would say how much it sucked and how he was trying for it to be like poet X when he just managed to come off as a highly below average knockoff.
ARG! This infuriates me to no end and now I hate all of his poetry. If he wants to insult my taste and say that the poem I formerly liked is total crap then I will thoroughly agree with him. After the third or fourth poem in the book, and three or four writings about his failure as a poet, I learned to agree with him and completely skip over his negativism completely. I may have missed something completely because I couldn’t stand to read his poems knowing that they are subaverage. Get a clue, accept compliments graciously and never talk about your work in a completely negative light. You can be constructive while not being negative. Blech Blech Blech. If you believe what you do is crap other people will surely rally to your defense and tell you that you are correct. I know I do. Learn some grace man.
Anyway, other than that I really enjoyed the books. They were a fairly light read and had a lot of fun things to turn to. It definately had elemants of all the popular fantasy out there from before it was published and one can see its aftereffects in the genre. I believe it further entrenched the idea of a fantasy trilogy. Lord of the Rings was the first, Dragon Lance Chronicles second on the scale of popularity in my opinion. There are better and worse but these are the works that I judge epic fantasy off probably because they were among the first that I read and also because they were fairly cohesive in their own rights.
I can’t remember if I read through all the books or if I just read one of them, I sort of have them confused with the Forgotten Realms books (Time of Troubles thing) which I remember in more detail. I’ll re-read them and get back to you.
Thank you for mentioning that the annotated version is not good. You (probably) saved me a couple of bucks!
How very odd. This is the TSR series of books, then?
That sounds just goofy enough to be worth looking into. All I remember about the series of books was that they instilled in me a passionate hatred of kender, and for the life of me I can’t even remember what kender even are.
Honestly, though, annotating Dragonlance sounds a little like putting a spoiler on an AMC Pacer-- you’re just fooling yourself and others. I have to admit that an intimate, blow-by-blow account of creating gamer fiction does sound bizarrely interesting-- “This concept was lifted directly from Tolkien, while the rest of the chapter had to be modified heavily to correspond with previously published D&D source material…” But, as you pointed out, sometimes it’s a good idea not to pull back the vinyl siding, as it were. If you enjoyed the books, sometimes that’s enough.
I’ve read the dragonlance chronicles and legends, I like them both a lot. The annotated version sounds a little bizarre. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t really feel like reading the side adventures of the main characters in those books. To me it’s a bit of overkill, and inevitably new authors generally equate to different characters in my opinion.
I have this version, and it’s not as bad as it sounds - obviously you buy it if you’re fascinated by the creation process of the novel.
I’m sorry you suddenly hate Michael Williams’s poetry just because he isn’t an angst-ridden genius desperately trying to express his deepest emotions in vers, but in fact is an ordinary guy trying to write an entertaining and plausible diversion in a teen-aimed fantasy adventure.
I think you’ll find most ‘art’ is made by people with the same less-than-noble motivations.
Meatros, they are not side adventures of the main characters. They are side adventures of minor passing characters. Want to read about Maquesta and that minotaur that she has working for her? Go to XXXX book by Somedumb Author and find out more. IRK! The books themselves are good. Most of the commentary is actually interesting save the commercials for other books and anything Michael Williams has to say.
I’ve got a copy of the Annotated Chronicles as well. Yes, it is TSR (well now WotC), and I found it to be very enjoyable and informative. It’s a lot like VH1’s Pop-Up Video. I honestly didn’t think the selling of the other books in the series to be heavy handed or obtrusive, unlike the OP. Also, it’s not what I would call a “blow by blow” annotation. A page may have 1-3 margin notes, and many pages have none. All and all, I reccomend it if you’re a fan of the series.
Actually Guano, he is completely angst ridden. He seems to loathe his work which actually seems fine to me and is enjoyable but after reading him talk about it one would think it is the most purile dribble ever written.
Hmm…That might be interesting. I thought you were referring to the side adventures of the main characters that came out a year or three after “Legends” came out. It’s not my cup of tea when another author writes adventures for flint, caramon, etc. I’m not saying they are necessarily bad-I just don’t perfer them.
I read the first three Drangonlance books and thought they were tripe. It’s as if someone read J. R. R. Tolkien’s books, said to himself “These are the rules by which all fantasies must be written.” Then proceded to write a book based on those rules. Oh and he had to include a Cleric because all D & D Adventures have a Cleric. :rolleyes:
The side adventures were advertised as well though they weren’t pushed as much as the other novels based off of the minor characters. It could be interesting, true, however it is real annoying to see it every 5 pages or so.
Heh. When I was re-reading Dragonlance last year (usual motive - after being all grown up, is this actually tripe, or is there any strange depth to it?), I discovered that almost everything is a Tolkien rip-off. The story of Luthien and Beren, for example? Remove the burden of checking the appendices, and take the meaning out of the Silmarillion, and you get Berem the green gemstone man. In fact, where they aren’t ripping off Tolkien it’s at its worst - there’s no antecedant of kender in Tolkien. Perhaps they had some preliminary info on Jar Jar Binks.
The annotated version sounds more like a hypertext document trapped between the covers of the book. Waste of paper if you ask me.
To be fair, the novels (especially the first one) followed the AD&D Dragonlance modules very closely. The characters, villians, places, etc were all packaged by TSR, and I never saw a module of that time that didn’t (hmm, steal? plagerize? borrow? Aha!) “use Tolkien as inspiration”.
Hey! Tasslehoff is my second-favorite all-time character from any of the Dragonlance novels (after Raistlin, of course). Besides, Weis and Hickman created kender because they didn’t like the standard D&D Halflings (based on Hobbits, of course). See, there is some useful info in the annotations.
Since they’re unlikely to release Chronicles as a web site, I guess this was the best they could do :).
Seriously, if you like the original novels and are interested in “behind-the-scenes” information, I think the annotated version is worth getting.
