I am almost done with my Forgotten Realms Novels (nearly every one ever released) and I started reading the Dragons of Autumn/Winter/Spring books. I am in the middle of Winter, and it is AWESOME! I'm glad I read the "Legend of Huma" before these. [img]smile.gif[/img] BTW, How do you say Huma? "Whooo-Ma" or "Hue-ma" ? Just wondering...

If you are looking for a GREAT series of fantasy, these are great, and I shit when I saw the published date--1984/1986. Wow... I never got into DL until I read 'The Legend of Huma', and I KNEW those "DRAGONS OF" books were the major popular DL novels like Drizzt is to FR.

Awesome stuff. Ordered Spring yesterday.. What should I read after these three? The 3 Twins series then the War of Souls? in that order?

"The Dragons of" books were published to coincide with the modules released (several of the characters are straight out of the Roleplaying playtests they did (most of the heroes for example, and Raistlin with his hourglass eyes)) Some events were actually put in the book that weren't in the plan, but due to the nature of Roleplayers, got thrown in, the Wicker Dragon and Tasselhoff being prime examples, kender in general being so diferent from halflings is mostly from RP (if you want to read more about the draconians Tass tricked read Draconian Measures (it's the second in that series, can't recall the first, but both are excellent, and IIRC there's a 3rd that takes place during dragons of summer flame) by Weis and Perrin

Richard Knaak is one of my favourite game book authors (arguably my fav) for his portayal of minotaurs, (read Kas the Minotaur if you haven't already, as it follows the adventures of Kas throughout Solamnia after Huma (Hyu-ma) dies, and Land of the Minotaurs takes him back to his homeland, his axe gets a bit uber, but other than that it's a great read, and shows their societies very well) He also has a few short stories with Kas, or Solamnic Knights and minotaurs, and I love the way he shows them having more in common than either one would normally assume.

After the "dragons of fall/winter/spring" there is the Twins Trilogy, which is also excellent, focussing primarily on Caramon, Tas, Raistlin and a cleric of Paladine named Crysania (I think), very well written books. then there are several other books that take place between that series and "Dragons of Summer Flame" most are short stories compilations, and a few deal with Caramon's kids, who are the primary stars of Dragons of Summer Flame, which attempted to destroy Krynn as a writing enterprise by getting rid of magic and merging the three moons into one, and make it "a fantasy version of our earth"

I never liked the preludes books, they rewrote too much of what the first trilogy established (there are at least 5 accounts of how Raistlin went through his test in various books, I mean Geez, get a clue and stick to one story)

Lord Toede I've heard is one of the funniest dragonlance books out there (he was the one who burned Sancrist(?) to the ground at the beginning of Dragons of fall, as is tales of uncle trapspringer.

After Dragons of Summer Flame there is a new series of books, that rewrites that war, and essentially writes it out of existence, dragons come back, and the setting changes to 3E D&D, Can't recall what it's called off the top of my head but I've heard good things about it, and it paves the way for the 3E campaign setting in dragonlance.

Oh, and if you want to read more about Lord Soth, I think there's a book about him, as well as two books in the Ravenloft book line (Knight of the Black Rose, and When Black Roses Bloom) both are very well done, in keeping the spirit of both Lord Soth, and Ravenloft.

They take place after the Twins trilogy, but before dragons of summer flame, and Weis and Hickman were so upset about Soth being placed in Ravenloft that they gave him a cameo in Summer flame (according to TSR he is officially in both places at the time)

I did indeed read the Lord Soth Novel, and I liked him in the Goldbox Games in the early 1990's (So I know the DL world a bit from those) and know all about the Draconians and how some turn to stone some explode and stuff [img]smile.gif[/img] Neat stuff.

Yeah, I thought it was sad the way Lord Soth became evil. Kinda sad novel..

BTW, I do plan to grab the Kaz novel, as I thought he was cool. [img]smile.gif[/img] BTW, if you like thieve novels, there is a DL novel called "City of Thieves" I think--Great book as well. (Crossroads series)

It's been a long time since I read them, but I loved those books as well. In my opinion, go for the twins trilogy after reading the first three. It's just as good a read. I could never get into the prelude books as much - they just didn't seem as well written.

The major problem with the preludes books is that the original writers didn't write them, nor did the origninal players, if they had the books might have been bearable.


I may have to check that out, it's been ages since I read any dragonlance novels. the last series I wanted to check out was the one about Sturms great-great-great grandfather, I don't recal the name, but Weasel's luck was one of the ones following that character. it talks about how he went from a thief to a Solamnic Knight.

OH YEAH! I actually picked up 'Downfall' which is the first (well, Weasel's Luck is kinda book 1) and Downfall, Betrayal and the other.. I like Thieves, and decided to grab Downfall.

Have you ever read any novels from the Thieves World? I read a lot of those years ago, and a few Months ago, I picked up an anthology, with a few new stories in it.

I love the "seasons" books, they are great. The Dragonlance world is one of my favorite one. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Yes, heh, Hans Shadowspawn is one of my heroes, I read through a book that had collected the first three anthology novels, they were a great read.

Where does the dragonlance chronicles book fall into all of this? timeline wise?

Which is the book where they actually use the dragonlance? I haven't read these in so long and my memory is terrible. I may have to see if i still have them somewhere or pick one up. Where's a good place to hop into the series?

the Chronicals were written first, most of the other books are set in the past in a briefly mentioned areas from the other books, ie the cataclysm, the first war of the lance

The Irda is the first book I've read from a historical standpoint, then would probably be the legend of Huma, and it's sequels. Then the ones around the cataclysm era would fall next, several books, some great, some mediocre, some poor. the Twin's series jaunts in before during and after the cataclysm but begins and ends after the first Chronicles. Then there's the Preludes, which provides background on the main characters, including Kitiara, then Chronicles, then the twins trilogy, then the draconian books, then dragons of summer flame, then the new books (2000-present) that write the dragons of summer flame out of the setting, and I think there's been some new books in the new setting.

there are short story compilations that fall all over the place, and books that explore various characters, like the pirate and her minotaur henchman, lord toede, the draconians, etc it can be rather hard to gauge when things occur within the world except by reading them... come to think of it someone's probably written a web page with the chronology all figured out (it was either DL or FR that caused TSR to say "don't ask us, there's so many authors working on so many different timelines there's no way we could put things in order chronologically"


Legend of Huma contains the forging and use of the first dragonlances, IIRC they are first used by the Heroes of the Lance in Dragons of Winter Night, and again in Dragons of Spring Dawning

the best place to hop in is either with the legend of Huma, or with the Chronicles, Chronicles is where it started and IMO is where the official story for the background characters started (not preludes, re my post about them) after that try picking up the short stories novels, the stories by Wies and/or Hickman are usually gold, as is anything by Don Perrin (or perrin/weis) and Knaak

I read the Chronicles, legends and War of souls series. I really loved those stories. I read in the following order Chronicles (autumn, winter, spring) - legends - Chronicles (summer) - war of souls.

ah, yes war of souls, that's the one that takes the place of dragons of summer flame, couldn't recall it, and didn't feel like looking it up

Yes very good books. Read that series a few times. :D

<font color=lime>Oh man! I love DL! [img]graemlins/awesomework.gif[/img]
I dont even know where to begin...ok, I would just rant on anyway.
Krynn is a wonderfull world, my favorite. I would love to live in Solace, listening to Flints anvil ringing through the trees, and....crap, see, I tend to ramble on about DL. :D

Aside from the main story line, there is several books about the different race and such.
My favorite trilogy is, "The Dwarvin Nations" by Dan Parkinson. For an old western author, he writes some excellent fantasy. It is set in the days of Flints grandfathers, and the premise being the wars between tribes, and the actions leading up to the "Covonent of the Forge" era.

If you can find the trilogy, read it. You wont regret it! :D :D :D </font>

<font color=lime>Oh ya! After the first "Dragons of" series, there was "Dragons of Summer Flame".
Written by Wies and Hickman.
Great book! [img]graemlins/awesomework.gif[/img]


BTW, does anyone have any of the specialty books? Like the "Art of DragonLance", etc.?</font>

I loved the Dragonlance books and have almost all of them except the preludes.

The only thing I didn't like was the ending to the last book in the War of the Souls series. Sure I didn't see it comming but still didn't like how it ended.