"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.
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