Thoughts on DragonLance

[Durinax]

I am curious what you gentlemen and ladies thought about DragonLance, and the world it is in.

 

Mostly I am wondering about people takes on a open world concept

 

About the theme of balance.

 

and finally most importantly of the cultures within the books

[Whizbang]

I haven't read all of the Dragonlance novels, mostly just the Weis/Hickman stuff.

 

The first three (Autumn's Twilight, Winters Night, and Spring Dawning) were only ok to me.  There were entertaining enough on the first read, I suppose, but not much depth, I feel.  The depth came as the worl grew.  The Legends trilogy is my favorite, maybe because Raistlin is just such a badass (and Caramon became a much cooler character and one of my favorites too).  Second Generation was a'ight.  Nothing all that spectacular to me.  Summer flame was pretty great.  The Dragons of a New Age was neat, simply because Dragons.  Kitiara's dragon (Khellandros or something) was the best of that trilogy.  The Raistlin Chronicles, of course, was a great couple of books for me.  And of course the War of Souls was rich.  Weis and Hickman really got better and better as the books came out.

 

The cultures were alright, I suppose.  The Gnomes and Mages is what I paid most attention to.  The Elves I just glossed over and didn't care much for.  The Plains Barbarians too.  Solomnic Knights just got old, harping over and over about honor and right.  Blah.  give me a twisted amoral arch-mage any day.

 

Like I said, I mostly only read the Weis/Hickman stuff.  the open concept is neat, and I like to see different authors explore and open up ares of the world that only had vague outlines in the main series.  It's nice that you can pick and choose what you want to read.

[Suttree]

Never was able to make it through more than a couple of them. Think this would have to fall under books that were decent when you were a kid but in retrospect are just plain bad. Just my opinion but terrible prose, zero depth, and fantasy cliches abound. It is literally these type of marketing materials.....err fantasy novels(along with Forgotten Realms) that gives the genre a bad name.

[Lenlo]

My favorite of all the books has to be the Legends Trilogy. As he said, Raistlin is an amazing  character. He has to be my favorite. I also found the story's and history behind the Mages the most interesting. The Elves felt generic/not very interesting, The Knights only interested me because of Sturm and he doesnt stay around very long. Gnomes were very nice but we didnt see much of them. Same for the Barbarians.

 

I plan to read the Raistlin Chronicles soon along with Second Generation. Any scene with him in it is better than most scenes without him. He makes things interesting.

 

Its been awhile since I have read War of Souls but from what I can remember it was also amazing. They really did get better at the end though thats not to say there werent some amazing moments in the earlier books. The world itself I liked because it was interesting and it felt different from the regular ADnD world.

 

Watch out for Tasslehoff though. He will mess up everything.

[John E. Kelley]

I only ever read Chronicles and Legends, they were actually the first fantasy novels I ever read back in middles school when they were first released. Of the two, I definitely liked Legends the best, Raistlin is easily one of the most complex and interesting fantasy characters ever written. His turmoil and angusih, followed by his eventual sacrifice and death, locked him in as a fantasy icon for me.

 

That being said, the whole concept of balance was a terrible one imo. As a long time DnD role player, the idea of a Chaotic Evil mage training in the same school as a Lawful Good one was laughable. And evil deities working hand in hand with good ones was equally lame. Give me a good old fashioned good vs. evil conflict any day. Astinius was an interesting character however.

 

The races were terrible, the elves were a mockery, halflings > kenders, the gully dwarves were atrocious. But the main characters were interesting enough to overcome this mostly. Sturm and Raistlin were easily my favorites. And unlike the previous posters, I loved the Knights of Solomnia. But then again, paladins and Lawful Good characters were always my favorite to play.

[John E. Kelley]

How that turned into one mega-paragraph is beyond me. Formatting isn't working for me today for some reason. My apologies.

[Durinax]

for me the two most interesting books/trilogies where the Minotaur Trilogy, Ogre Titans, and the Draconian books (although I wish they would have gotten more)

[Kamin_Majere]

I like the "core" books a lot and they are about the only series that I have read more than twice (though still not reaching the WoT levels, but I think I have read them about 5 or 6 times)

 

 

I mean look at my name :)

 

 

I first read then many many many years ago so a lot of the things that Suttree said was wrong with them was about as good as it got in the late 80's and early 90's. They are not "good" books by any stretch of the imagination. But they are enjoyable because the characters and the high fantasy swords and sorcery that I love reading when i'm not looking for something to heavy.

 

 

As to the parts of the book... races were pretty bad, I mean nearly everyone of them was a cardboard cut out of a racial archtype unless something different was needed for the story and then it was not very much of a shift from cardboard. But Still they have a special place in my heart because it was the first series i ever read seriously and that was like in 88 i think.

[michellem]

I love them (mostly read Weiss/Hickman), they are not great prose, but they have a lot of sentimental value for me.

[Lenlo]

I thought the Balance concept was alright and I rather liked how the Mages were organized. The art before anything else you know? I agree Astinus was amazing though. The idea of a man who writes down all of history and the way he was portrayed was very great.

 

Dont worry Ishy your not the only one who likes Sturm!

 

Another thing I like about the Legends Trilogy though was Caramons inner strife. For once we got to see the other side of the Raist/Caramon relationship where before we mostly saw it from Raistlins perspective. Him depending on Caramon. It was only near the end of the first set of books that we got to see Caramons and it wasnt as fleshed out then as it was in Legends imo. All around I love their dynamic.

 

And again, Raistlin is best.

[michellem]

And Tasslehoff

[Nyanna al'Meara]

Oo it's been pretty long since I read any. We have a few books, but they're pretty scrambled so it didn't make much sense - but the little adventures and short stories were good entertainment.

I had a bit of a crush on Tanis and Sturm :P Raistlin is a good character but annoyed me with his arrogance.. Laurana and TASSLEHOFF are other favourites.

I agree, they can't keep up with other epic fantasy tales, no way, but are fun to read!

[Nyanna al'Meara]

And Tasslehoff

Agreed!

[Kamin_Majere]

I still like Raistlin to this day, he was a jerk but knew he was a jerk and was completely unapologetic about it.

 

 

The world gave him a crap hand and so he bend it to his own will with the magic.

 

 

 

"I smile because one day fat inn keepers like you will bow before me"

Awesome

[Veracohr]

Dragonlance was my first fantasy books I think. I started reading them as a teenager, and I used to have a ton of them. Just now I went through a list of them on Wikipedia and counted 58 that I'm positive I've read, plus another 11 that I may have. Many of those I don't even remember the stories, I just remembered the covers enough to know I had them at some point.

 

As I got older they started feeling more immature, so I got rid of all the books except the Chronicles and Legends.