Dragons of Autumn Twilight

[philmophlegm]

I've just bought this http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0786915749/ref=s9_simz_gw_s0_p14_t1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1J1NHRTZBG02JZMZDYZ4&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128533&pf_rd_i=468294
on a whim (I was in the bookshop and it glinted at me) and because I remember seeing it on an Amazon list of the highest-rated fantasy books.

[Poll #1434399]

Comments

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

I meant 'beautiful', not 'beatiful'.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I've read it at some point but can't remember anything about it, so cannot complete your poll. I've read some other Weis and Hickman, and seem to remember that it wasn't anything like as bad as I was expecting. Though my tolerance is broad.

I would guess at 'better than David Eddings but that's not saying much'

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

It's always more fun taking part in your own RPG campaign than reading about someone else's.

[purplecat]

I'm not sure my response fits into the above but...

IIRC (remembering back about 25 years), it's well enough written as a piece of fantasy doorstop fare and the characters are mostly engaging, if a little two-dimensional. It is derivative of many other fantasy doorstop books (or possibly they are derivative of it - age blurs the memory) and comes with its own Hobbit analogue. This doesn't necessarily make it bad if you like doorstop fantasy novels. But I can't recall anything different, surprising or clever about it. However in my memory its a fairly good example of the genre but...

... it is very obviously a write up of someone's roleplaying campaign and, moreover, leaves specific gaps in the story in order to tempt you to go out and buy the D&D modules that will fill in that part of the story (Actually I recall this getting worse as the trilogy progresses - I forget how obvious this is in Autumn Twilight).

It's also too long - but I say that about nearly all fantasy trilogies and most people like them that way.

EDIT: I've checked "You might do. It's not bad" but that presupposes you can forgive the obviously a write up of someone's D&D campaign AND trying to sell you modules to fill in the gaps aspect.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Maybe I can forgive the campaign write-up (despite what Dave Langford wrote when he reviewed it) since I after all I like SF that feels like Traveller, so why shouldn't I like fantasy that actually is D&D? Joe Abercrombie's 'Book of the First Law' also reads something like a (good) D&D campaign and that was brill (and critically acclaimed).

The too longness is more worrying (although it looks a damn sight shorter than some fantasy series). I'm reading 'The Other Wind', Ursula le Guin's fifth 'Earthsea' book. It's actually refreshing to read fantasy novels that are short nowadays.

I'm in a mood to read some fantasy, and while I'm waiting for the next Song of Ice and Fire book, the next Thomas Covenant book, the next Abercrombie to come out in paperback and the George R.R. Martin edited tribute to Jack Vance's Dying Earth to come out in paperback over here, I need to find something to amuse me. I'm just not convinced that this is it. I do have the second of Andrzej Sapkowski's 'Witcher' books to be translated into English sitting in the library waiting for me, so maybe I'll reach for that first. (Yes, an "obscure Polish author".)

I have actually played in a Dragnolance campaign and liked the setting, so you never know, I might like it.

[purplecat]

I'm a bit wary of comparing books I read twenty years apart.

I would say it doesn't touch George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire in terms of quality of writing, depth of characterisation or thoughtful world-building. However at the same time I started reading George R. R. Martin, I also read Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy/quartet/whatever and I would say and that reminded me a lot of Dragonlance (though Tad Williams' is a lot longer and I recall the characters less clearly, despite having read it more recently, so make of that what you will). I gave up on the Dragonlance books, deciding they had become padded and repetitive, halfway through the second trilogy so it may be that the too longness is something that crept in as the series progressed. I'm working off quite hazy memories here (I can't recall who the villian is, for instance, though I think its a dark lord, nor can I recall how the whole thing is resolved, I think discovering dragons place some part somewhere but I could be getting confused with Pern).

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

You need a new category. "I haven't read it (or more than a few paragraphs anyway) but I know from those paragraphs, and from the blurb, that it isn't my thing. (I like better grammar.) Your experience may vary."

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

My vote would go for "I've never read it and have never heard of it before this moment, so have no opinion at all on the matter." :-)

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Have you seriously never heard of it?

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Yup. Seriously. Call me 'hignorant.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

It's the first in a series of "over 190 novels" according to Wikipedia. As a series, the Dragonlance books have sold in excess of 22million copies. (While not close to Harry Potter (250million and counting) or Lord of the Rings (100 million or 300million depending upon how you count), that's still quite a lot for a non-mainstream series. Thomas Covenant is about 6million.)

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Oh. I've heard of the Dragonlance series (though only in a vague sense: popular series that I've not read; have heard sneery things about it from others) I just didn't realise that this book was part of it.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Ahh ok. Thought it was a bit odd, but that explains it.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I had heard of the Dragonlance series (and can sort-of remember it starting). I had vaguely (very vaguely) heard of this book, but I certainly didn't know it was part of the series.

And - 190 books???

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

I know! I wonder how many people have read them all. People who read more books than me presumably. I gave up on Terry Pratchett because I couldn't keep up.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I'm beginning to feel the same way about Tolkien ...

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Far more prolific in death...

[clarienne.livejournal.com]

You left out:

1) Go on - I'd like to know what a grown up thinks of it. I loved it aged 13 and have not dared go back to it as an adult in case I found it really pants and ruined all my precious memories.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Does philmophlegm have grown-ups on his FList, then? News to me ... ;-)

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Are we talking about LiveJournal or facebook here...?

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Well I haven't really examined your FB list, so I can't tell you just how few of them are really grown ups.

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

Another (belated) answer that doesn't really fit into your poll. My response is closest to Clarienne's, I think, though I was a bit older than that and wouldn't go as far as loved it, but certainly enjoyed. Though enjoyed in a 'guilty pleasure' sort of way, as I was aware that it was 'supposed' to be very bad. I'd certainly agree with Bunn's "wasn't anything like as bad as I was expecting" though that isn't necessarily saying much. Also, I liked it because it catered to some of my tastes in fantasy that I'm inclined to suspect are probably not the same as yours. Having said that, I really liked Thomas Covenant too at around that time.

Shorter answer: I don't know! Did you try it?

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

I decided to read some Icelandic sagas instead ahead of our holiday to Iceland which starts later this month.

When I eventually do get around to reading it, I'll write a review.