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  1. #1

    Default "Est Sularus....

    .....Oth Mithas"

    I have about a dozen of these books. It all started in highschool for me, when I was looking around the titles in the library for a good fantasy to read. Dragons of a Fallen Star, book two of the War of Souls, caught my eye and I got hooked. Mina, Takhisis, Marshall Medan, Laurana, Raistlin's nephew (whose name I have forgotten), Tas, Goldmoon, and so many other characters have made this one of my favorite series. I have read as far as the Minotaur Wars, backtracking to include earlier works. I don't know where the series is today, but it was a fun read.

    One of the things I have always wondered is if there's a series describing the first war with the dragons, where Huma and Magus(?) fought the Dark Queen and threw her out. Help?

    I know there's fans here, and I think there's threads about this some where, too, but I didn't found any.

    Anyways, I wanted to hear your thoughts about this series. How did you get started in the series? Who's your favorite character? Who were you most sad to see die from the original gang?


  2. #2
    Shlup's Retired Pimp Recognized Member Raistlin's Avatar
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    Warning: major DragonLance nerding out ahead.

    Take a wild guess who my favorite character is.

    I actually used to make a DragonLance thread every year or two here, but haven't for the last... 7 or 8 years probably (god I've been here way too smurfing long). I first got started with DragonLance when I was about 11 or 12. I literally was just browsing the fantasy/sci-fi section and the couple of shelves devoted to DL caught my eye, despite the fact that I had never even heard of the series before. It took a minute or two of browsing to settle on Dragons of Autumn Twilight (book 1 of the Chronicles trilogy) as the appropriate starting point -- and I was lucky enough to get that one right. I since quickly absorbed the main Weis/Hickman series (multiple times) and branched out to the non-Weis/Hickman DL books -- most of which are just meh, but some are good (I view them as basically polished fanfiction about the "real" canon series, written by Weis and Hickman).

    I could still recite the story of the main series pretty much by heart, despite the fact that I haven't read the books in many years now. (btw, you mixed up the titles of Dragons of a Fallen Sun and Dragons of a Lost Star). And the Legends trilogy (Time of the Twins, War of the Twins, Test of the Twins) remains what I consider to be some of the best writing in the fantasy genre. Test of the Twins hit me right in the feels every time, no matter how many times I read it.

    As for where the series is today, Weis/Hickman went on to write a companion trilogy to Chronicles which was pretty meh. I consider the series to be over and done with at the conclusion of the War of the Souls (Dragons of a Vanished Moon). But you should definitely go back and read the rest of the full "main" series, which I consider to be:

    Chronicles (Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night, Dragons of Spring Dawning)
    Legends (Time, War, and Test of the Twins)
    Raistlin Chronicles (Soulforge, Brothers in Arms)
    Second Generation
    Dragons of Summer Flame

    To answer your question, yes, there is a Huma-based book. It's one of the non-Weis/Hickman novels, but probably one of the better ones. I think it's just called The Legend of Huma.

    Also, if you like DragonLance, you should definitely read the Death Gate Cycle series, a Weis/Hickman series that's outside the DL universe (though contains some amusing DL references, like Zifnab). I consider it overall better than DL, and it is my all-time favorite fantasy series. The first book is Dragon Wing.
    Last edited by Raistlin; 08-02-2013 at 06:56 PM.

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    The Bearded One Tasura's Avatar
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    I've known about the DL series for awhile, but I've only really gotten into the series recently. I only own Chronicles and the first Preludes trilogy (there aren't many good bookstores near me sadly). However I've 'acquired' a few of the others. According to the DL wikipedia page there's around 200 books based in the universe. And, so far I am quite enjoying the series, I'm on Dragons of Spring Dawning now.

  4. #4

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    @Tasura: It's a fantastic series. The Chronicles series is one of my favorites and there's just no better way to start out on the series than the beginning. I wish I had that chance.

    @Raist: I didn't get titles confused; I did start the series with Dragons of a Fallen Star. It was as confusing as you can imagine it to jump right in the middle of a trilogy in a series so rich, but I got through it and since my library had like only two DL books at the time I quickly looked around at Borders store and found Dragons of a Fallen Sun and later Dragons of a Vanished Moon.

    So I just looked at my DL stock. I have 21 titles in my drawer. The original Chronicles trilogy, the companion Lost Chronicles, Legends, War of Souls, Minotaur Wars, the first two volumes of The Rise of Solamnia, volume one of The Dark Disciple, volume of the Tales series, as well as Second Generation and Dragons of Summer Flame.

    I wish there was a more in-depth or extended series about the Chaos War, which to the best of my knowlege right now is only covered in Dragons of Summer Flame, and about the Dragon Purge; I've always wanted to know more about the coming of Malystrix, Beryl, and Skie to Krynn.

    I think I'll be looking at the Raistlin chronicles you mentioned, next time I have the time for a good read.


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    Quack Shlup's Avatar
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    I first read Chronicles in middle school. I don't remember how it caught my eye, but I got the big annotated hardcover. I read a lot of books, but this was the first time I encountered moral ambiguity, and I was intrigued as hell. I also have the annotated hardcover of Legends. I recommend these versions; the annotations are really interesting.

    I've only read the main series (the ones Raistlin mentioned) because I'm afraid of tainting my mind with non-Weis/Hickman books. I think... I may have read one or two more and don't remember; I haven't read a Dragonlance book in quite a few years. I've also never re-read a book in my life, apart from Chronicles and Legends. I've been thinking about reading them again lately, since I haven't really found any books that hold my attention since finishing A Dance with Dragons.

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    Shlup's Retired Pimp Recognized Member Raistlin's Avatar
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    I have both the annotated Chronicles and Legends. Shlup is right; they are very interesting. You find out very interesting tidbits, like one of the most emotional lines from the Legends trilogy being created as a joke during a D&D game.

    Quote Originally Posted by Tasura View Post
    I've known about the DL series for awhile, but I've only really gotten into the series recently. I only own Chronicles and the first Preludes trilogy (there aren't many good bookstores near me sadly). However I've 'acquired' a few of the others. According to the DL wikipedia page there's around 200 books based in the universe. And, so far I am quite enjoying the series, I'm on Dragons of Spring Dawning now.
    Preludes is a non-Weis/Hickman series, right? I would actually recommend avoiding those until you're through the main series. And yes, there are a ridiculous number of DL books. I've probably read 50 or so of them myself.

    Chronicles is very interesting, and I love it if only for the nostalgia, but it's obviously a first attempt at writing a book based on a D&D setup. They even have a typical D&D party: the knight, two rangers, thief, warrior, black mage, healer, etc. You learn in the annotated version that Weis/Hickman weren't sure there even was going to be a second book, so they had to find a decent resolution to the first book in case there was no more to the series (the defeat of Verminaard and the wedding). The writing became stronger as they broke free from the D&D mold and focused on certain characters at a time.

    Quote Originally Posted by LFC View Post
    @Raist: I didn't get titles confused; I did start the series with Dragons of a Fallen Star. It was as confusing as you can imagine it to jump right in the middle of a trilogy in a series so rich, but I got through it and since my library had like only two DL books at the time I quickly looked around at Borders store and found Dragons of a Fallen Sun and later Dragons of a Vanished Moon.
    Oh no, I knew what you meant. I was only pointing out that Book 2 of War of the Souls is Dragons of a Lost Star. But yes, I'm sure it was very confusing. You have no idea who Tas is at that time, and no reason to care about reveal of Takhisis at the end. I'm glad you were able to enjoy it, though, and get into the rest of the series.

    I wish there was a more in-depth or extended series about the Chaos War, which to the best of my knowlege right now is only covered in Dragons of Summer Flame, and about the Dragon Purge; I've always wanted to know more about the coming of Malystrix, Beryl, and Skie to Krynn.
    As to the former, there actually was a "non-canon," non-Weis/Hickman series about different races and people during the Chaos War (see here). I've actually read a couple of those, though I don't remember much about them, which isn't a great sign. There also definitely was a non-Weis/Hickman series covering the coming of the dragon overlords, but I'm blanking on the name of it.

    I think I'll be looking at the Raistlin chronicles you mentioned, next time I have the time for a good read.
    It's a prequel to Chronicles, but best read only after Legends. After the Legends trilogy, Soulforge is probably my favorite DL book.

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    Ghost of Christmas' past Recognized Member theundeadhero's Avatar
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    I started reading them years ago. There's 37 of them on my bookshelf right now. The Legend of Huma Raistlin mentioned is volume 1 in the Heroes series. It was also the first DL book I read. It mostly glosses over the first war but you get to see more about what was going on and learn a little more about it's important people like Huma, Kaz, and Magius. I actually reread it last week because I had to sit around waiting for things while at my mom's house for a couple days. Some of the other-author books are okay and some are pretty off but most of them don't really compare to the Weis/Hickman cannon stories. I would definitely read those all in order before picking up other works.
    ...

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    The Bearded One Tasura's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Raistlin View Post
    Preludes is a non-Weis/Hickman series, right? I would actually recommend avoiding those until you're through the main series.
    Yea, not only is it non-Weis/Hickman, each book is written by a different author. And yes, I had planned to read theirs before anything else, as I do have most of them, I'm just missing Brothers in Arms which I cannot find anywhere.

  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by Raistlin View Post
    Oh no, I knew what you meant. I was only pointing out that Book 2 of War of the Souls is Dragons of a Lost Star. But yes, I'm sure it was very confusing. You have no idea who Tas is at that time, and no reason to care about reveal of Takhisis at the end. I'm glad you were able to enjoy it, though, and get into the rest of the series.
    Oh, I see. I can't believe I got that little detail off.

    I'm off to finding these other works you guys mentioned. I have a lot of reading to get through!


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