So, in this Dragonlance universe....is there something I should be reading prior to Time of the Twins to make some of this make more sense? Or is Time of the Twins a good place to start..?
You should read the AD&D handbook first.
The initial Dragons series. Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night, and Dragons of Spring Dawning, aka The Chronicles Series. Definitely start there. My personal favorites and readable early on are The Legend of Huma and Kaz the Minotaur.
So, will I be completely confused if I read these books first?
Not completely, but it'd be a heck of a lot better to start with the Dragons books. They introduce the twins and the key players in their lives. It'd vaguely be like just watching The Empire Strikes Back instead of Star Wars first. You'll get the story, but you'll not know the backstory or understand the characters as well.
lol, Dragonlance. Welcome to junior high.
Legends are the only books really worth reading. BUt the Chronicles trilogy setz it up.
I remember reading the Chronicles books when I was in high school and it felt like reading a D&D session transcript. One could even pinpoint the moments they were rolling dice.
Quote from: CountDeMoney on March 30, 2010, 05:14:42 AM
lol, Dragonlance. Welcome to junior high.
LOL no kidding. Next: Andre Norton. :bleeding:
Quote from: Judas Iscariot on March 30, 2010, 01:30:58 AM
The initial Dragons series. Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night, and Dragons of Spring Dawning, aka The Chronicles Series. Definitely start there. My personal favorites and readable early on are The Legend of Huma and Kaz the Minotaur.
Personally, I'd advise that the only books she reads are those written by Weis, Hickman, Niles, Knaak and Williams (I really enjoyed the "Weasel" books.)
Quote from: CountDeMoney on March 30, 2010, 05:14:42 AM
lol, Dragonlance. Welcome to junior high.
I had a few friends who read them around that time. But even then, when I would eagerly read Harry Turtledove novels, I could still recognize D&D novels as dreck.
Quote from: CountDeMoney on March 30, 2010, 05:14:42 AM
lol, Dragonlance. Welcome to junior high.
Next up: Elric.
Quote from: Agelastus on March 30, 2010, 07:51:34 AM
Personally, I'd advise that the only books she reads are those written by Weis, Hickman, Niles, Knaak and Williams (I really enjoyed the "Weasel" books.)
FYP. K should read the first six books then stop and never pick up another Dragonlance book.
Quote from: Barrister on March 30, 2010, 10:59:52 AM
Quote from: Agelastus on March 30, 2010, 07:51:34 AM
Personally, I'd advise that the only books she reads are those written by Weis, Hickman, Niles, Knaak and Williams (I really enjoyed the "Weasel" books.)
FYP. K should read the first six books then stop and never pick up another Dragonlance book.
Yeah, that's along the lines of what I've heard.
Quote from: CountDeMoney on March 30, 2010, 05:14:42 AM
lol, Dragonlance. Welcome to junior high.
I like to read Harry Potter too. ;)
Quote from: Barrister on March 30, 2010, 10:59:52 AM
FYP. K should read the first six books then stop and never pick up another Dragonlance book.
FYP
Quote from: grumbler on March 30, 2010, 11:39:49 AM
Quote from: Barrister on March 30, 2010, 10:59:52 AM
FYP. K should read the first six books then stop and never pick up another Dragonlance book.
FYP
30 or so authors to 5 to 2 to none, and all in the space of three posts. Must be a new record! :lol:
Anyway, I'd recommend she reads "Summer Flame" as well, at least. That's not too bad, and if she stops there she doesn't have to watch the hasty backpedalling ("no more gods? Age of Mortals? No, we didn't really say that. no sir, now way!")
Quote from: Korea on March 30, 2010, 11:29:14 AM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on March 30, 2010, 05:14:42 AM
lol, Dragonlance. Welcome to junior high.
I like to read Harry Potter too. ;)
I'd like to spank you with a harry potter book.
Quote from: CountDeMoney on March 30, 2010, 05:14:42 AM
lol, Dragonlance. Welcome to junior high.
Had a sergeant at the military ca. 1995 who read the books obsessively. Though he was surprised when I asked him if he had played any of the RPGs in p&p or on computer, not knowing what it was based on.
Then again that was also the guy who gripped razor wire with his bare hand and wore bandages for the next weeks.
Quote from: Razgovory on March 30, 2010, 08:08:13 AM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on March 30, 2010, 05:14:42 AM
lol, Dragonlance. Welcome to junior high.
I had a few friends who read them around that time. But even then, when I would eagerly read Harry Turtledove novels, I could still recognize D&D novels as dreck.
Obviously you couldn't recognize all dreck.
How's this for a necro-bump? :yeah:
I wanted some easy summer reading, and wound up picking up: Dragons of Autumn Twilight.
It's probably been 25 years (if not more!) since I read this book. I remembered parts of it, completely blanked on others.
13 year old me remembered it as being really good. Adult me expected it to be terrible. Upon reading - it was ok? Kind of like reading a Dan Brown book or something. The pace and action is pretty constant - it's good at being a page turner. You can definitely feel that it's based on a D&D Module. Characters are pretty two-dimensional, but fun enough to root for.
A lot of the story is driven by various deus ex machina, but does that count when the book is literally about the Gods meddling with mortals?
It was fun enough I'll be picking up Dragons of Winter Night. GRR Martin though is certainly a fantasy writer on a whole different level though.
As an aside though - I remember in the 80s/90s (and beyond) that books based on existing IPs like D&D, or Star Trek, had a massive section in the book store. Dragonlance novels alone had dozens of books. When I went looking for Autumn Twilight there was maybe half a shelf of such books.
Lots more IPs have been created since. It's tantamount to their staying power that you can still find Dragonlance & Star Trek books.
I think that of all of the Weis/Hickman book series', my all-time favorite is the Death Gate cycle. I think it is the most original, and most interesting of their works.
Quote from: Grey Fox on August 22, 2023, 01:02:26 PMLots more IPs have been created since. It's tantamount to their staying power that you can still find Dragonlance & Star Trek books.
You are not allowed to diss the Dragonlance trilogy. :mad: Not everything has to be an 18+ rapefest.
I wasn't.
I don't know what the Dragonlance series is.
Quote from: Agelastus on March 30, 2010, 07:51:34 AMQuote from: Judas Iscariot on March 30, 2010, 01:30:58 AMThe initial Dragons series. Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night, and Dragons of Spring Dawning, aka The Chronicles Series. Definitely start there. My personal favorites and readable early on are The Legend of Huma and Kaz the Minotaur.
Personally, I'd advise that the only books she reads are those written by Weis, Hickman, Niles, Knaak and Williams (I really enjoyed the "Weasel" books.)
I concur. The rest aren't wholly bad, but are kind of not great.
Wonder how their latest one is. It has more time travel.
I actually considered re-reading the Chronicles books recently, myself. I even ordered a copy online of the trilogy in a boxset for like $6. Alas, they sent the wrong books (Icewind Dale instead) and the urge has passed for the most part. Reading through synopses of the various books reminded me how much I didn't care for a majority of them and their characters. In particular, Kender always annoyed me and their continued Deus ex machina prior theft of/retrieval of all important objects was just eyeroll inducing. The Twins never appealed either and I never cared for Raistlin in particular. The fact that they eventually did away with the gods, one of the interesting aspects of the setting for me, makes it even more of a "no thanks". I presume Huma, and to a lesser extent Kaz (one somewhat atypical kender only), might still appeal to me. We shall see when the next urge hits... :lol:
Yeah, the need for ever more apocalyptic world changing events left me a bit cold. The gods are gone, the gods are back, magic is gone, magic is back, magic is maybe. Blahblah. I think the latest one is set in the War of the Lance, which was interesting at least. I loved the video game War of the Lance, a strategy game. I also loved the SSI Gold Box games though.
Though the 'ever more apocalyptic world changing events' is hardly just a problem for Dragonlance. The Forgotten realms has been torn apart repeatedly, even Ravenloft. Comic books do it every year.
The Ravenloft cataclysm at least made the setting better. I just ignore the fact there ever was a world before it was broken apart. Oh and the stupid thing about how the Lawbringer might have been killed or not. So dumb.
With every edition the FR gets worse and I don't really understand why. Was it really necessary to kill off Bane, Bhaal, and Myrkul...and a few others like Mystra and replace them with lamer Gods just to explain why the FR now follows 2nd Edition rules? The thing about how ALL the assassins got killed so that is why 2nd Edition doesn't have the assassin class anymore was especially idiotic. And we don't need some weird lore explanation as to why Dwarves can now be wizards in 3rd Edition. Just let the rule set change and let's pretend it was always 5th edition and half the world was Tieflings from the beginning. It's alright. We don't need another Spell plague or Time of Troubles or some other stupid ass thing.
Word.
Stop killing off all the gods and/or having them be 'aspects' of others and leave things be a while. Stop blowing up Zhentil Keep or trashing whole regions just to remake them later.
Humblebundle has a bundle of 26 Dragonlance books for ca. 18 bucks: https://www.humblebundle.com/books/world-dragonlance-wizards-coast-books
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I just found out Richard A. Knaak has a new Kaz the Minotaur short story out as part of a Dragonlance minotaur campaign book. Apparently a Huma short story with Rennard is also in the works as part of another such campaign book. I am super excited and might splurge on both with physical copies. They remain two of my all-time favorite comfort reads. :wub:
New Weis Hickman books any good?
Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on March 16, 2025, 07:43:33 PMNew Weis Hickman books any good?
Having read a few different reviews, it sounds like it was a bit of a mess with a ton of lore breaking changes or confusion, not overly likeable characters, and a ton of fan service. Ultimately, it seems to have kind of reset the timeline to some degree, though, in terms of making the War of the Lance the current timeline and removing all of the 5th Age and onward shenanigans.
...that being said, looking on Amazon and the books all have good numbers, so... who knows? I'm tempted to give them a read sometime just for the parts that touch on Huma, Gwyneth, and Magius (yes, there is a lot of time travel in the books).
I wasn't a fan of the Fifth Age so I might check it out when its at the library. But the retconning and stuff I don't like etiher.