Middle earth its not but its still decent (Dragonlance Series in general)

Member Name: darren55

Product:	Dragonlance Series in general
Date:	17/10/09 (12 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: classic fantasy fare

Disadvantages: quality in the spin off novels is very varied

The Dragonlance series are a compendium of the three Dragons of... books, they cover the dragons of autumn twilight, winter night and spring dawning books along with the other major work in the series The War of the Twins they are written by two american authors Margeret Weis and Tracy Hickman. The two major trilogies have been franchised out so that there are now over 100 spin off novels using the characters found in the two main series.

The chronicles are a set of books which are similar in content to LOTR but the writing quality is of a a lesser standard compared with the great mans work. The stories are classic game play fantast fare, there is a group of adventurers who meet after a long period apart. The place they live in is a chaotic one with the planet being the play things of the Gods. The planet has three moons, three gods and three castes of wizards. There are evil, neutral good for all three.

The group are old friends who have journeyed together in the past but have been seperated for many years, they had agreed to meet at this village at this set date. The group are the classic fantasy group Elves, dwarves, wizards, knights, warriors and there as with all stories a character who is a catalysis for the tale, in this one the catalysis is a beautiful barbarian woman called Goldmoon. Goldmoon is owner of the sceptre which is sought by the gods on all sides.

So the group are engaged to take the sceptre bearer on a mission to discover its powers and in the course of it they set a motion a set of events which culminate in the events depicted in the novels.

So whats good and whats not? well the characters, stories and events are fun and enjoyale to read and it never pretends to be a competitor of Tolkein but is more of a road movie style novel with characters changing as the story unfolds. There are the pre-requisite satisyfying number of battles, dragons, spells, intrigues, fights, beautiful women, heroic knights and warring nations. There is corruption, decadence, evil, and beautifully written scenes which a reader remembers for years.

The main characters are well characterised and the set scenes flow well but some of characters are better than others, Raistlin is a first class troubled mage, his brother a worried barbarian and Tanis the leader a half elf-half human with character flaws.

I enjoy the novels and they are aimed at the young adult market but are syill enjoyable for anyone to read.

This is a compendium of the books and comes in at around 900 pages, the cover of the book has stayed the same since I bought it twenty years ago, a barbarian, a partially clothed woman and a man with a strange shaped helmet

The War of the Twins is the follow up series which continues the story of Rasitlin, Caramon and Tas the Kender. The previous series of novels left Raistlin as a troubled mage who at the start of the Chronicles series is a red or neutral wizard but by the end has taken black robes and is classified as an evil wizard. However, there are bigger edges to him and he doesn't fit comfortably in that clan either. Raislin has bigger plans and plans to challenge the gods themselves, however he is joined by his brother and they are sent back in time to when the cataclysm occurs but they escape and the story spins into the second novel in the trilogy.

You know that Raistlin can't manage his task but he does try and for the war of the twins is the better of the two trilogies its better written and has the advantage of being stripped back to just the brothers, their half sister and Tas the kender.

The war is a darker and more intense of the two and works well, it hasn't had as many spin off as the first trilogy and its all the better for it.

Dragonlance as I've mentioned has been franchised out and has over a hundred novels about the characters in the novels, sometimes the quality can be variable and the situations a little ridiculous. Personally I'd not bothered and concentrate on the books written by Weis and Hickman, whilst they aren't the best but they are a lot better than some of the dross which is associated with the series.

There have been a few post twins novels trying to extend the dragonlance novels but they feel like they are trying to ring a few more pounds out of the kitty and aren't the same quality as the earlier novels.

There has also been a straight to DVD cartoon release which I don't think anyone has ever watched.

Summary: Enjoyable if you like fantasy novels