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.