The Dragonlance Saga

[Plomeek Broth]

Any other Dragonlance fans on here? I read the Chronicles Trilogy as a preteen way back when and thought they were the best thing since sliced bread. I always pictured this trilogy in my mind as the Star Wars of the D&D tales and would be mindblowing as a live action trilogy. However, I know they made the first book Autumn Twilight into a horribly reviewed animated film which I never saw. Another big factor was Larry Elmore, the artist who brought these characters and Krynn visually to life. I remember gazing at the The Art of Dragonlance book many a times - the stoic heroes, hot babes , and wonderful scenery and villians like the draconians. I've read the trilogy a 2nd time as an adult and while good it is not as great as I remember. I've only read Chronicles and some of Legends and the first Tales book from my recollection. What are your thoughts on the saga and any other recs on what to read of the million other books? Thanks to Weis and Hickman.

 

[DonIago]

I tried reading Chronicles but was -really- annoyed by the sudden jumps/missing parts. The Lost Chronicles did a lot to help with that, and I read the Annotated Chronicles and Legends fairly recently (just wish there were more notes, hee), still need to pick up the last Lost Chronicles book. The other books are not quite up to the same standard IMNSHO, but the core novels...good stuff.

 

[Pauln6]

I loved the artwork more than the books, although I also played a couple of the modules. Some of the missing stuff in the book related to extra game modules. I think they felt that writing up every module would drag out the story too much.

Has anybody seen the animated versions? I don't even know if they ever came out?

 

[John Clark]

I read the Chronicles books (must be almost 20 years ago now) after picking them up at one of the thrift shops for 30p a go. I enjoyed them at the time but haven't thought about them in ages.

As for the animated version, I think the first one came out (there are a few familiar names cast) but I haven't seen it.

http://www.dragonlance-movie.com/

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

Gave up on it about ten years ago. It went all Star Wars NJO, got really dark and disappeared up it own arse. I loathe anything after Dragons of Summer Flame. The War of Souls and the Fifth Age just annoy me. On the other hand, the original Chronicles novels were great when I was teen, but haven't aged at all well. However, the Twins trilogy does still hold up extremely well.

 

[Lonemagpie]

The original trilogy's good harmless fun - quite the thing for the holidays

 

[Skywalker]

I used to be big into the Dragonlance books when I was a young teenager. The books by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman are basically the main storyline and are the only must-read DL novels, though there are some quality entries by other authors (most of which, unfortunately, are now out of print).

The Chronicles trilogy is good, but the Legends trilogy is fantastic. I don't remember much after those being quite as good, but they're still worthy entries for the most part. Keep in mind that the Lost Chronicles have only been written recently to fill in the blanks between (and during) the three original Chronicles, so you can either read them concurrently or afterward. I'd almost recommend reading them after so that you go through Chronicles without interruption, but I don't think it would make a huge difference. This is how the books go in chronological (relatively speaking) order:

Chronicles (and Lost Chronicles)
Dragons of Autumn Twilight
(Dragons of the Dwarven Depths)
Dragons of Winter Night/(Dragons of the Highlord Skies)
Dragons of Spring Dawning/(Dragons of the Hourglass Mage)

Legends
Time of the Twins
War of the Twins
Test of the Twins

The Second Generation
Dragons of Summer Flame

The War of Souls
Dragons of a Fallen Sun
Dragons of a Lost Star
Dragons of a Vanished Moon

There is another trilogy set between Summer Flame and War of Souls, called Dragons of a New Age and written by Jean Rabe, but I'm not including them because, frankly, those books sucked. And IIRC Weis and Hickman do a slight recap of the intervening years during War of Souls.

 

[stonester1]

Loved 'em. The original trillogy would make a GREAT movie(s).

 

[Nardpuncher]

Iremember seeing bits and pieces of the cartoon of the irst book on HBO or something and it looked like 1988.

 

[Othello]

I LOVE the Dragonlance series of books. Otheer than a few of the short story books I own them all. I would LOVE to see this series in a live action movie. I'd like to see the Chronicles trilogy as a three movie series. I also think that the Legends series would be great as well. Lots of the DL books would make good movies.

 

[The Evil Dead]

I'm a big fan of Chronicles-Legends, Summer Flame was okay... Never got into the War of Souls, it seemed really dark and lacked the fun vibe of the original books. Been thinking of reading the Lost Chronicles, specifically Dragons of the Highlord Skies, that in seems interesting to me.

 

[Base_Delta_Zero]

The first books were cool because they were fun and felt like an actual series of rpg sessions with good friends and a decent DM. I read Summer Flame then two of the three War of Souls and just gave up. Everything was so dark and depressing and shitty, like the players had all gone off to college and then come back one summer to pick up their campaign and just couldn't get things right anymore. As Vulcan pointed out, all NJO and shit. Big waste of time.

The Annotated version was a fun reread though, and then I sold it on ebay for three times what I paid for it, so bonus there.

 

[darkwing_duck1]

The books were good up until the Age of Mortals (or whatever it was called). The movie was financed through the MWP company and was pretty bad. They should have shopped it to the studioes as it could be the next LOTR epic!

 

[Skywalker]

I agree, the Age of Mortals was a big misstep for Dragonlance. Getting rid of the gods and standard magic system was a mistake.

 

[DigificWriter]

I got more than halfway through the second book of the Lost Chronicles (reading them as part of the Chronicles proper) before I ended up running out of time (the book was due back at the library, and would've been late had they not had a 'grace period' that I was able to take advantage of), and haven't had the opportunity to go back and resume reading the series, although I definitely want to, especially now that the Lost Chronicles are totally completed. I enjoyed what I read, although the one complaint I had is that I felt the writing wasn't as cohesive in some places as some of Weis and Hickman's other works (such as the Death Gate Cycle or the Sovereign Stone Trilogy, both of which I HIGHLY recommend, BTW).

 

[Kibbin]

I've seen the movie and strongly recomend against it, bad mix of cell shaded and cgi, for no real reason, v.a-ing is good though. As you would expect from having read the books they really struggle to fit the book into the run time.

As for reading the books, I've read the chronicles and enjoyed them mostly, I never went any further when I looked around, saw how many of them there were and read a few descriptions which really failed to pull me in. From what people have said above I was right to avoid them as everyone seems to be saying when I thought from reading the descriptions.

 

[Mistral]

I read the first nine books and gave up. Fantasy just aint my bag, man. My father owns them all, though. Literally. Might peruse one or two more some day...

 

[darkwing_duck1]

I've seen the movie and strongly recomend against it, bad mix of cell shaded and cgi, for no real reason, v.a-ing is good though. As you would expect from having read the books they really struggle to fit the book into the run time.

Agreed. Unfortunately, it's a fault all too many American animated films (other than those from big companies like Disney) share: the studio won't front the money for a true "feature length" film so the story feels "rushed" as they cut stuff (usually character moments) to make sure they get all their plot points and action beats in.

It didn't help that MWP couldn't get decent financing for the film so they had to cut even MORE corners than usual (like with the crappy CG).

It's a damn shame. If some studio could be persuaded to fund a TRUE feature-length (100 min or more) version with good animation, I think Dragonlance could have the legs of LOTR.

As for reading the books, I've read the chronicles and enjoyed them mostly, I never went any further when I looked around, saw how many of them there were and read a few descriptions which really failed to pull me in. From what people have said above I was right to avoid them as everyone seems to be saying when I thought from reading the descriptions.

Depends on which books, really. From what I remember, I liked a few of the tie-ins, but they REALLY over-exposed the Twins.