10. 1987 (Apr.) - Dragonlance (D&D) - Various - The Magic of Krynn (Dragonlance #7)

Series: Dragonlance Tales Volume 1

At the end of the Legends trilogy, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman told us that this was it for those characters, and if anyone else wanted to pick it up they'd be welcome to. A few months later we get a new Dragonlance book and we learn that Weis and Hickman are liars. Not that I'm complaining.

Here we get a mix of short stories and one novella, near the end. Many of the stories return us to familiar characters like Tas, Laurana and Tanis but the real highlight here is the final novella by the creators of the Dragonlance series. 

It's no surprise that this is the most enjoyable story, Weis and Hickman know these characters inside-out, particularly seeing as it is a story based on Caramon and Raistlin. We see what happens some years after the events of the Legends series, and start seeing a new generation growing up to take the place of their parents. In this case we get Caramon's son, Palin, who follows in the footsteps of his uncle as a spellcaster. 

It's fun to dip back into the universe through these short stories, with the big pay off that is the novella at the end.

TL;DR: 6/10 A bit hit and miss, but a fun read.

9. 1987 (Mar.) - Greyhawk (D&D) - Rose Estes - Master Wolf (Greyhawk #4)

Series: Greyhawk Adventures Volume 3

This book has a kind of bad reputation, but I wasn't minding it at all for at least the first three quarters of it. It is a pretty standard Outcast Barbarian story, but there are elements which add some interest to it. The main character is a likeable rogue, the fact that he was trained as a magic user, but really just wants to netflix and chill, the fact that he is a great fighter but dislikes fighting and is actually a bit cowardly, as well as his close relationship to his wolf. These elements make the book quite likeable, the writing itself is nothing to write home about, but it isn't bad, not in a way which distracts from the plot at least.

However it feels like this was a kind of rushed book, by the time it ends it feels like there is a lot to go still, and the ending just feels rushed and tacked on, leaving all the questions unanswered and feeling very cheap. This involves a cheap death, a too quick resolution and what actually ends up being a bittersweet mix of comedy with tragedy which actually feels kind of jarring. It's like what a highschooler would write during an exam if he realised that there were 5 minutes to go on the clock. Still I actually want to read more about Mika, the main character. 

TL;DR: 5/10 Ok book, crappy ending.

Coming up in 1987

Mar. - Greyhawk (D&D) - Rose Estes - Master Wolf
Apr. -  Dragonlance (D&D) - Various - The Magic of Krynn
May - Forgotten Realms (D&D) - Douglas Niles - Darkwalker on Moonshae
Jun. - Greyhawk (Gygax) - Gary Gygax - Sea of Death
Aug. - Dragonlance (D&D) - Various - Kender, Gully Dwarves, and Gnomes
Aug. - Greyhawk (D&D) - Rose Estes - The Price of Power
Sep.- Greyhawk (Gygax) - Gary Gygax - Night Arrant
Nov. - Dragonlance (D&D) - Various - Love and War
Nov.- Greyhawk (Gygax) - Gary Gygax - City of Hawks

8. 1986 (Aug.) - Dragonlance (D&D) - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - Test of the Twins (Dragonlance #6)

Series: Dragonlance Legends Vol. 3

So we come to the end of the Legends series in Dragonlance. Actually it is more of a landmark than that, the plot-line concluded here is a direct continuation of the Chronicles, so it is easy to see this as a 6 book series, rather than a 3 book one. 

This is not to say that you can't read Legends if you didn't read Chronicles, you can, but it will not have the impact that the 6 books do. In fact it would be a much inferior experience, because the empathy and knowledge of the characters you create in the first trilogy enrich Legends a lot. You might actually be a bit lost with all the references to events and characters from the first books.

When it comes to this conclusion, though, it is a pretty satisfying one, neatly wrapping up a lot of plots while keeping the door open to future adventures. As the titles indicate, the story is mainly about the twins Caramon and Raistlin, with Tas and Crysania thrown in. In this last volume Crysania is pretty absent, except for the ending, but the story of the twins is engaging enough to keep you excited throughout. It's the tale of how Caramon becomes a complete person, and Raistlin manages to kind of redeem himself. It's about accepting one's self, and accepting death as part of the whole process. It ends up being a more profound, less "actiony" series than Chronicles, and probably better for it. 

I hadn't read the Legends series before, they don't have the nostalgic feeling I get from Chronicles, so these are probably, objectively, better than the first series. Raistlin is such an engaging, evil yet sympathetic character, that you really want to always see what he does next. Caramon, who was a dead weight for most of the time, has an arc through this trilogy that make his progress from drunk wreck to full balanced person believable. If you liked Chronicles there's really no reason to skip this, read it.

TL;DR: 8/10 Great ending to what really amounts to a 6 book series.

8. 1986 (Jun.) - Dragonlance (D&D) - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - War of the Twins (Dragonlance #5)

Series: Dragonlance Legends Vol. 2

On we go with the Legends series, this time the twins and Crysania travel to the future... well future in relation to the Cataclysm at the end of the first book of the series, but it's still the past in relation to what happened in Chronicles and their own original time. I think one of the interesting things they do with this series is precisely the exploration of important events in the world of Krynn through time travel, with familiar characters.

This is kind of a less interesting read than the first chapter, focused as it is almost exclusively on the 3 main characters, with Tas only coming in at the end. Raistlin continues to be one of the most interesting characters in the universe, being at the same time evil, a really evil at that, while being basically the hero and having some moments of humanity which are really quite touching. This is also a sign, however, that he is by far the most complex character in the series, Caramon isn't that developed, he's stopped being a drunk, and towards the end of this there seems to be real growth as he realizes what Raistlin actually is. However, this has seemed to happen before without much coming from it. 

Where we face problems is with the only female character here, Crysania. I don't know if she's just naive, but if she is that, she is it to the point of absolute stupidity. I know love makes people do silly things and look at their beloved through rose-tinted glasses, but this is really too much. Come on, Raistlin is literally wearing black robes, how she never seems to see through him, or to dismiss anything negative she finds about him, makes her kind of a weak character defined by "her man"... which is pretty bad when she's the only female character here. I hope the third volume will turn her character around, really. Also, again this is an all white novel, which is only to be expected, unfortunately. 

All this being said, I'm looking forward to the third volume, the story is compelling, and I want to see if they fix the problems present in this volume, also after a while you spend so much time with these characters that they become part of the family, which is cool.

TL;DR: 6/10 Not a bad read, but can really improve, looking forward to the third volume.

7. 1986 (Feb.) - Greyhawk (D&D) - Gary Gygax - Artifact of Evil (Greyhawk #3)

Series: Gord, the Rogue #2

The second volume of Gord, the Rogue is a considerable improvement over the first one, it is also the last volume published officially by TSR, before Gary Gygax leaves the company. When he does he will take Gord with him, but this doesn't mean we won't have more stories, seeing as Gygax will keep writing them independently.I will be covering these as they come along. 

As I was saying, this is a substantial improvement over the previous installment, the story feels more focused and purposeful, there are more good characters, I particularly liked the Catlord and his world, and Gord develops in interesting ways with his new powerful ring. This ring allows Gord to transform into cats, from house-cats to panthers and it adds quite a lot to the story and the possibilities. The enemy is also better defined here as Iuz and his henchmen. However, it's not in this volume that we get any kind of diversity of characters. Despite having a lady in revealing clothes on the cover (Deidre, I think), she has a tiny part to play, nor are there any people of color in the book, at least not that I noticed and not with prominent roles. Unless you consider goblins, gnolls, elves and orcs to be PoC, which I don't.

This series is nowhere as compelling as the Dragonlance books have been, at least not yet, but this is a substantial improvement on the previous installments, and as such I want to see where this is going, even if Greyhawk stories will no longer be based on Gord. However a cool thing here is that you get to meet people that I only knew by name such as Melf (of Acid Arrow fame) or Mordenkainen (of Sword fame, among others). I have actually never played in the setting of Greyhawk (just Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms) so it's cool to get these weird names present in the spell titles into context as characters.

TL;DR: 6/10 Quite a bit better than the previous one, not amazing.

6. 1986 (Feb.) - Dragonlance (D&D) - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - Time of the Twins (Dragonlance #4)

Series: Dragonlance Legends Vol. 1

We go on with the Dragonlance series, and this is quite a nifty start to a new trilogy. It starts a few years after the end of the Chronicles and we get to catch up with the characters from the previous books and we get to know what they have been doing in the interim, until we get started on the adventure proper.

The adventure proper focuses on three characters that we already know, Raistlin, Caramon and Tas, and there is quite a bit of character development for them happening here, particularly Caramon, who ends this book a transformed man. Actually Caramon starts this book transformed as well, as a disappointed man, who has gone fat and alcoholic making life hell for poor Tika. By the end of the novel, he is angry, determined and finally seems to stop being the puppet in Raistlin's hands that he has been for most of his life. 

Another character that is introduced here is Crysania, and while it is always good to have new female characters in these books, she seems a bit silly to be honest, she falls in love with Raistlin for no particularly believable reason, she seems to be obsessed with him above all else, and again we get a female character that is more defined by the man she loves than by herself. Which is kind of a lost opportunity, however there are still two books to fix this, so we'll see. Also this is a pretty white book, there is one character of colour who commits a self-less act of sacrifice, but really doesn't show up that much in the book. Oh well.

On the other hand this feels like a third of a story, it ends in a cliffhanger and everything, so we have to wait for the next chapters to see if it redeems itself. Nonetheless it is a fun read, and you get back to characters you already know, which makes it familiar while throwing them into a different time and place.

TL;DR: 7/10 Nice, but not without its problems 

Coming up in 1986

Feb. -  Dragonlance (D&D) - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - Time of the Twins
Feb. - Greyhawk (D&D) - Gary Gygax - Artifact of Evil
Jun. - Dragonlance (D&D) - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - War of the Twins
Aug. - Dragonlance (D&D) - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - Test of the Twins

5. 1985 (Oct.) - Dragonlance (D&D) - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - Dragons of Spring Dawning (Dragonlance #3)

Series: Dragonlance Chronicles Vol. 3

So we come to the end of the Dragonclance Chronicles trilogy, I have to admit that I am reading this series with some rose-tinted glasses, as they have nostalgic value for me. I remember them being some of the first fantasy books I ever read, the first being Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber. Frankly, when you are 12 years old, Dragonlance is an easier and more exciting read. Having read both Zelazny and this recently, and not being 12 anymore, it is easy to dismiss this as "easy-reading". And so it is, but that isn't necessarily bad. 

This third volume suffers slightly from the problems that plague the last book in a series, it is not as focused as the previous one, tries to tie up too many loose ends and at times feels a bit rushed. This is not helped by the fact that the heroes are kind of scattered all around the place, so there are something like 4 different story-lines going on at the same time. You would think that they would come together at the end, but not even that, although this is slightly frustrating, it does seem to be on purpose, in order to keep the series open for further stories. The finale with Raistlin is particularly intriguing and I sure want to know more about him (I know we will). 

So a competent third installment but probably the worse of the series, there is not the world-building of the first volume or the adventure of the second, it just takes a turn for the dark and leaves loads of questions. Again, these questions are part and parcel of what will be a vast universe of novels, that's how they make you buy the next volume.

TL;DR: 6/10 Competent, but the worst of the series.

4. 1985 (Oct.) - Greyhawk (D&D) - Gary Gygax - Saga of Old City (Greyhawk #2)

Series: Gord, the Rogue #1

So we get the first official Greyahwk novel, after the quite experimental novel that was Quag Keep. This is also the first novel by the creator of D&D, Gary Gygax... and it is kind of a mixed bag. It starts well, with Gord, the rogue being a nicely developed character, rising through the ranks of the Beggar's Guild and so on. But soon enough it starts showing some problems, such as the lack of any significant female characters, there's this half-elven lady that he saves (again not the most original thing) but what you might have thought would become and interesting relationship where the female character had some agency, just disappears, he goes to jail, she marries someone else, done. 

Actually this is in the tradition of plenty of sword and sorcery style writing, you know, from like the 30s, even Robert E. Howard had stronger women in Conan stories. So yeah, in this volume at least women are just things for Gord to save or feel bad when they die or marry someone else. This isn't what happens with other male characters, who become his actual companions. I am sure this will change in further installments of the series, at least I hope so. Oh yeah, and everybody's white, 

Another gripe I have with it is the fact that after Gord leaves the city of Greyhawk the story gets a bit too dispersed. It just feels like an adaptation of a gaming module, which it is. 

TL;DR: 4/10 Below average.

3. 1985 (Jul.) - Dragonlance (D&D) - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - Dragons of Winter Night (Dragonlance #2)

Series: Dragonlance Chronicles Vol. 2

This is quite a good sequel to the first book in the series, and it actually addresses some of the problems I pointed out in my review for Dragons of Autumn Twilight. Not in a completely satisfactory way but at least we have a secondary character which is not white, and is a good guy: the blacksmith who creates the dragonlances Theros. The part of the women here is also enhanced, Laurana comes into her own as a warrior and a leader of people and we finally get the very foreshadowed Kitiara who is very much in control of her situation. 

Kitiara is an interesting character and even if she is in the part of a villain she comes across as a woman who is sexually liberated, who get what she wants when she wants it, and who is the equal or superior to any man she meets. Her story will surely be more developed in the conclusion to this, but she is a three-dimensional female villain, which is actually a rare thing in any kind of fiction. She is working for the wrong side but it is hard to tell if she is truly evil, she comes across as self-serving but not unnecessarily cruel, and unlike most other female villains in fiction none of her evil comes from being too emotional or hysterical, and that is actually quite refreshing. That being said there was little of Kitiara in this volume, but it bodes well for the series as a whole.

In terms of the more general story, now that the characters have mostly been introduced in the first volume we can get down to brass-tacks and into the action, and this volume is packed with it, leading to a final confrontation with a real emotional punch when one of the leading characters bites it. In the long tradition of second installments in a trilogy, it ends in a downbeat, everyone is sad, things look bleak and the third volume will have to solve that, very much an Empire Strikes Back ending here. 

TL;DR: 8/10 Really Fun

Coming up in 1985

So as every year starts I'll do a little rundown of the books that will be read that year:

Jul. -  Dragonlance (D&D) - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - Dragons of Winter Night
Oct. - Greyhawk (D&D) - Gary Gygax - Saga of Old City
Oct. - Dragonlance (D&D) - Dragons of Spring Dawning

And that's it for 1985

Housekeeping/Timeline of RPG book series

So this is just a post that is as much for myself as for any readers out there. I am doing this project in a real-world chronological order and so I think it would be helpful for me to have set out when each new universe starts and ends so I won't miss their start up point as I go through this.

Dungeons and Dragons:

                                      Greyhawk: 1979 (unofficially), Feb. 1986 (officially) - Feb. 2002 (officially)                                                           Jan.2006 (unofficially)
                                                         (Splits in 1987-1988 as Gary Gygax produces his own Greyhawk                                                            Novels)

                                       Dragonlance: Nov. 1984 - Jul. 2010

                                       Forgotten Realms: May 1987 - ongoing

                                       Kara-Tur: Aug. 1990 (1 book)

                                       Spelljammer: Jul. 1991 - Sep. 1993

                                       Ravenloft: Sep. 1991 - Nov. 2008

                                       Dark Sun: Oct. 1991 - Dec. 2011
 
                                       Mystara: Oct. 1992 - Aug. 1996

                                       Birthright: Nov. 1995 - May 2000

                                       Planescape: Jan. 1996 - Dec. 1997
             
                                       Eberron: Feb. 2005 - Feb. 2012

World Of Darkness:

1993 - ongoing

Shadowrun:

Feb. 1990 - ongoing

Pathfinder: 

May 2011 - ongoing

Warhammer:

                                     Fantasy: 1989 - ongoing
 
                                     40K: Nov. 1990 - ongoing

So in order of appearance we will have the following timeline of Universes:

Greyhawk (D&D) - 1979

Dragonlance (D&D)- Nov. 1984

Forgotten Realms (D&D) - May 1987

Warhammer Fantasy: 1989

Shadowrun: Feb. 1990

Kara-Tur (D&D): Aug. 1990

Warhammer 40K: Nov. 1990

Spelljammer (D&D): Jul. 1991

Ravenloft (D&D): Sep. 1991

Dark Sun (D&D): Oct. 1991

Mystara (D&D): Oct. 1992

World of Darkness: 1993

Birthright (D&D): Nov. 1995

Eberron (D&D): Feb. 2005

Pathfinder: May. 2011
                                     

2. 1984 (Nov.) - Dragonlance (D&D) - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - Dragons of Autumn Twilight (Dragonlance #1)

Series: Dragonlance Chronicles Vol. 1

And so we jump 5 years into the future into one of the most popular series of books in the history of RPG related fiction. The popularity of this book and its follow-ups is quite easy to understand. They are written in a clear and attractive style, managing to attract both young adults and adults (I first read them at about the age of 12), and they appear at a time when there was not much else in terms of popular high-fantasy fiction going on, with the exception of Tolkien and the Shannara series by Terry Brooks. This is an easier read than Tolkien and a better read than Brooks so... it's success is no surprise.

This is not to say that there are no issues with these books, and even though in my case they are  tainted with nostalgia, my older self can spot a lot of problems here. The first problem is related to diversity, there is no character here which isn't white, the majority of characters are either blond or red haired, and the excuse "oh but it's like medieval Europe, there were no black people there" doesn't fly. Not only is it untrue, there were indeed black and brown people in medieval Europe, but if you can have spells and dragons and gods walking among humans, you can also have people of a different color.  Well I'm not being fair here, Raistlin is golden-skinned, but that's due to a spell or curse, we'll find out later. Diversity problems also arise when we mention the female characters, yes there are 3 of them, Tika, Goldmoon and Laurana and they can defend themselves in a fight, but they are all connected, defined and protected by male characters (respectively Caramon, Riverwind and Tanis), they are not self-sufficient. There is a mention of a character which will appear later, Kitiara, who seems to be tough as nails, but is not in this book at all. All the characters are also straight as an arrow, of course.

That being said, and this is a problem that will appear in many other books in the following years, it is an enjoyable read, the heroes have well defined characters, more so than the villains who are a bit one-dimensional with the exception of Matafleur, and if you can turn off all the diversity problems which our 21st century brains are attuned to you will have a great time reading this. It's not a masterpiece but it's a rollicking adventure in high-fantasy style, and quite original in itself, unlike the Shannara books it's not openly stealing from Tolkien, although there are songs and meetings and a party of heroes in it of course. There are a few moments you can almost hear the dice rolling, but it's fun and that keeps an element of surprise in the story. It ends leaving itself open to the inevitable sequel, which is the next book on this list!

Tl;DR: 7/10 Marred by problems of lack of diversity which were common at the time, it's a fun adventure story for all ages.

1. 1979 - Greyhawk (D&D) - Andre Norton - Quag Keep (Greyhawk #1)

Here we have the first ever RPG tie-in novel, as would be natural it's a tie-in to the first and most popular of all pen and paper RPGs, Dungeons and Dragons. In fact it's set in Greyhawk, the universe of the first edition of D&D and predates oficial novels by about 6 years (Dragonlance novels will come along in 1985).

This is a weird beast. It's kind of a dreamlike exploration of the feeling of playing RPGs, there's people playing in a room and suddenly incarnating their characters in the game world, they have kind of split personalities where they don't quite know if they are the characters or the players, the characters have bracelets with dice in them which spin whenever an event happens, these are cursed and they go on a quest to solve the mystery... well, some kind of quest, the evil they are fighting is very ill defined, it's just "chaos" and an illusionist and so forth. In fact all the characters are very 2 dimensional, but this might be on purpose in order to reflect the gameplay.

An interesting experiment but not a very entertaining one at the end of the day. 

TL;DR: 5/10 Historically important and interesting, but kind of boring.

Introduction

So... here's a project, what about I get a number of shared gaming universe's fiction, like that of D&D, Shadowrun, World of Darkness, Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40k, Pathfinder etc. and go and read them all and review them year by year from the very first one in 1979 onwards.

Seems crazy and it probably is and I am most likely never to finish this. The plan consists on getting popular RPG based fiction from a variety of genres and review it. So we'll have loads of different genres like High Fantasy (Warhammer Fantasy, Pathfinder, Dragonlance, Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms from D&D), Horror (World of Darkness and Ravenloft), Science Fiction (Warhammer 40k) and even weird fantasy cyberpunk stuff (Shadowrun). So let's start in 1978 with the very first D&D tie-in novel ever! See you soon.