What is the best Dungeons and Dragons series of novels?

theJoshFrost

I want to read a D&D based novel series, but I'm unsure of which route to go. And getting opinions on a lot of them is difficult due to some fanboyism.

So, what series is your favorite/best? There's the obvious Drizzt and Eliminster novels, both of which I've heard decline in the recent ones, but there's also the Dragonlance books, and I'd assume there's ones for Ravenloft and what not as well.

Kurumi

If you want some background on the "Time of Troubles" then I can recommend the Avatar series!!!

Howie

Dragonlance is a good starter. Then anything Ravenloft. And what does fanboyism has to do with anything on what you want to read?

Michail

Kurumi said:

If you want some background on the "Time of Troubles" then I can recommend the Avatar series!!!

Interesting.. while reading the Drizzt books i was amazed by how fast the writer went through the time of troubles, without giving enough details. I felt like i was missing some of the points. I might take your advice myself. Could you specify the writer? I have trouble finding info about the books on the net.

EDIT: I think i got it. Different writers. This one here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Avatar_Series
right?

@theJoshFrost
I do recommend the Drizzt books. If you don't like the idea of starting a series of "too many to remember how many there are" books, then try the dragonlance books.

If you choose Dragonlance, start with the chronicles trilogy (Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winters Night, and Dragons of Spring Dawning). The dragonlance books are not one endless saga with the same heroes, so you should start with these (they are arguably the best books), and you can stop there if you don't like them.

If you do take the plunge and start the Drizzt books, you'll need a quide as to the chronological order, as this IS a seemingly endless saga. I recommend this one: http://rasalvatoreforums.yuku.com/topic/4372
Mind you, there is a debate as to whether to read them in chronological order or read the Icewind Dale Trilogy (first written) and then go back. You might want to do that in case you don't like the series. I started at the beginning though.

I haven't read any Ravenloft books. Which one is the best starting point?

Sily

Even after reading all the Drizzt novels, I would kind of point you towards "The Cleric Quintet". I've only read the first two books (the series consists of Five total), but they were both quite pleasant - I should really get the rest and read them all, but that would mean giving up my precious BG:EE time!

PS. The Cleric Quintet is also done by Salvatore, but has quite a different feeling to it than the Drizzt books. Almost felt like a different author had done them, well especially the -first- book that is.

I remember reading Dragonlance books in my teens, and would warmly suggest the books with Raistlin in them, but can't look up their names right now, so yeah.. I'd actually suggest them more than The Cleric Quintet.

Kurumi

Michail said:

Kurumi said:

If you want some background on the "Time of Troubles" then I can recommend the Avatar series!!!

Interesting.. while reading the Drizzt books i was amazed by how fast the writer went through the time of troubles, without giving enough details. I felt like i was missing some of the points. I might take your advice myself. Could you specify the writer? I have trouble finding info about the books on the net.

EDIT: I think i got it. Different writers. This one here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Avatar_Series
right?

Yes.. that's the series I meant.. it's really great and full of infos about the time of troubles.. meet "future" gods such as Cyric and Kelemvor before they even became gods etc. - I'd even go so far as to call it "required reading".. especially for BG-players !!!

Michail

@Sily
The cleric quintet features characters later featured in Drizzt books. So one should pause after "siege of Darkness", read the cleric quintet, and then move on (see the chronology). Later Drizzt books contain a lot of spoilers.
The books with Raistlin are the chronicles trilogy i mentioned and the legends trilogy (haven't read it).

alannahsmith

I am also a noob to all the forgotten realms books. I have read the Drizzt books 1 to 10 and now I don't know where to go from there. I love the Drizzt series but they are starting to get stale and I don't want to read a bad one and have the series ruined for me. When I go into the fantasy section of my local book store I just get overwhelmed and leave to play BGEE :P

Night_Watch

Though not DnD or Forgotten Realms, I would definitely recommend in terms of the fantasy genre Glen Cook's Black Company series. Another great collection is Terry Pratchett's Discworld books. I haven't read many DnD based books in a long time (or at all) now that I think about it. Mostly Forgotten Realms and a handful of Magic the Gathering. Those were good times though, won't ever forget them

CoM_Solaufein

This. I also like the Daughter of the Drow series and the older Drizzt series books.

Kurumi said:

If you want some background on the "Time of Troubles" then I can recommend the Avatar series!!!

Michail

@Kurumi and @CoM_Solaufein
Looking for details on the avatar series I always run into this standard description "The first three works center around the remaining members of the Company of the Lynx" or something. Does this mean that there is some other book featuring the same cast, a "prequel" so to speak?

Also, conserning the Daughter of the Drow series, it's three books called the Starlight & Shadows Trilogy, right? Does it end there, or are more books to be expected?

CoM_Solaufein

I haven't heard much from Elaine Cunningham and D&D books in a while. The last of DotD series was Windwalker and that was released in 2004.

Metal_Hurlant

I've read quite a few series back in the 90s and still have them on my bookshelf. I recommend:

- Finder's Stone Trilogy: Azure Bonds, The Wyvern's Spur, Song of the Saurials
- Pools Trilogy: Pool of Radiance, Pools of Darkness, Pool of Twilight
- The Avatar Series: Shadowdale, Tantras, Waterdeep, Prince of Lies, Crucible: The Trial of Cyric the Mad

- Moonshae Trilogy: Darkwalker on Moonshae, Black Wizards, Darkwell
- Druidhome Trilogy: Prophet of Moonshae, The Coral Kingdom, The Druid Queen

- Icewind Trilogy: The Crystal Shard, Streams of Silver, The Halfling's Gem

- Spellfire (the two books after Spellfire are in the Harper Series)

- The Harpers Series: 16 Books in the Series

- Ravenloft Series: 20 Books in the Series

There are others like Maztica Trilogy that I enjoyed, but the above series are the ones that stand out for me.

Metal_Hurlant

Michail said:

Looking for details on the avatar series I always run into this standard description "The first three works center around the remaining members of the Company of the Lynx" or something. Does this mean that there is some other book featuring the same cast, a "prequel" so to speak?

I've been reading the avatar series again and just finished the second book. What that quote means is without giving away too much, it's the remaining members of party being Kelemvor, Adon, Cyric and Midnight. The rest of Kelemvor's party died in a previous adventure which is only briefly mentioned in the first book. There's no prequel stories though.

Shadowdale, Tantras and Waterdeep is one complete story in itself. You don't need to read the 4th or 5th book. It's also a low level party similar to playing BG1. Kelemvor is a level 5 Fighter and Midnight is a level 7 Mage. There's no reference to what level Cyric and Adon is but if I had to guess, Cyric would be around level 6 or 7 Thief and Adon not sure as he has no cleric spell abilities.

Kurumi

@Michail .. nay.. there is no prequel. Well, you could call "The Ring of Winter" some kind of background for Cyric and Kelemvor, but this book is not exactly "their" story.. that said, I liked this book, too and if you ever played SoZ and enjoyed the setting (Chult), you probably could give it a try, too

LadyRhian

They did a series of novels themed around other things, too. There's "The Halls of Stormweather" series about a family where the matriarch was an adventurer called on to take the place of her granddaughter after a journey through time to the future and the death of the granddaughter- she ends up marrying in the granddaughter's place and becomes matriarch of this huge family. One of the books was written by Dave Gross, who is working on BG:EE. Two of the characters from this series get their own books, one about the Butler, Erevis Cale, who is a priest of Mask, and one about the Daughter, who is a thief (her book was part of the Rogues series).

There's also the Double Diamond Triangle Saga which was 9 small novelettes telling one huge story, and Artemis Entreri shows up in that one. I also like the series about Shandril Shessair, the Spellfire series (although the last one, Crown of Fire, wasn't very good). The "Moonshae" books were good, and I enjoyed them.

More Recently, the Knights of Myth Drannor series was excellent, a throwback to 2e AD&D in novel form. You can find a list of the series here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Forgotten_Realms_novels

lunar

I loved Finder's Stone series. Really flowing style and likeable characters. I really felt for the good guys and cheered for them as I read.

I read Knights of Myth Drannor. They have a very different style. A lot of things happen at once and you can get confused easily, but characters are quite fleshed out and likeable. There is good humour there too. Pacing is fast and it cuts from one scene to another a lot. But you get to enjoy quite a lot of lore and meet famous people of the Realms. And yeah, the slang. I love the slang terms of Forgotten Realms. ^^

Avoid Baldur's Gate series though. I had to read them all just for the sake of it, and while they had a few neat ideas, they had lots of terrible ideas and tons of angst as well so they were quite bad books IMHO.

Calmar

I might be alone with this feeling, but I found the Icewind Dale Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore somewhat bland; I was hoping they would surpass the IWD games in wonderfulness.