The Legend of Huma was the first Dragonlance novel I ever read, at about age 12. I remember sitting on my Grandma's patio in a deck chair and reading it for hours, stopping only to lament that I was getting closer to the end...ah, the halcyon days of a pre-internet attention span! I loved it, and I spent the next couple years devouring everything from the 'classic' era of Dragonlance. I was loyal, however, to the original Companions and did not venture beyond their generation (although read the villains books, etc. - anything from that era) but never read Chaos/War of Souls etc. I stopped reading them at 14, but at 45, I feel I'm old enough to take a nostalgic trip down memory lane and have been collecting old copies from eBay, striving to find copies with the original artwork. It's turned into a rather nice hobby.
I have pretty much the same experience, and now at 55+yrs old I was so happy to find this breakdown of all the things I have missed... I wonder if I have enough time left to enjoy it all :) Very nice video, thank you
Came here to say the same but you nailed. I absolutely loved the Elven Nations Trilogy. Really left a lasting impression on me. Never before has a first page drawn me so thoroughly.
I read Dragonlance in my early teens too and collected quite a few of them. I have to admit, I had no idea that there was a direct connection between them and Dungeons and Dragon as I’ve never played the game ever. I loved these. I used to visit the Walden bookstore and hangout in the back reviewing which books I’d buy whether Dragonlance or Baby Sitters Club or more. I miss those days.
WOW!!!!! This is AMAZING!!!!! Thank you so much for putting this together! Considering the excellent quality of this video, I can't believe it's the only thing on your channel. I hope you do more!
Thank you for this video, as a collector I've got about 95% of Dragonlance books. This showed one's I've never seen so thank you so much. Loved the video.
I started reading this series as soon as it came out. I was in high school at the time. I had to wait for the books to come out. I can say this is one of the best series out there.
I began reading Chronicles and then Legends while sleeping next to a Hummer while waiting for Desert Storm to begin. I was actually able to read by moonlight on some nights because the moon is really bright in the middle of the desert with no other lights around.
I read so many Dragonlance books in high school (late 00's), but they were all over the place in continuity, etc. I would basically work my way through all my local libraries' stock. I still have the Excel spreadsheet I created to track which books I had read.
Fantastric job with this video and the pressentation. Had to give you kudos for your work here. I bounced out before Summer Flame. I couldn't commit to the Second Generation and all characters Dragonalnce was putting forth at that time. But having watched this, and not read Dragonlance in about 15 years, I am absolutely going to get the Lost Chronicles and rekindle one of my old passions.
Thanks for this! My brother read most of these growing up. It's amazing to see the scope of it. And I'm happy that I'm here because I'm prepping for a brand new DragonLance campaign starting in the new year. DL is back!
Got some nostalgia for going to the used book store as a kid and trading in two trilogies for whatever trilogy they had in stock that looked cool and started reading Dragonlance again - good video
This is absolutely phenomenal! Thank you so much for doing this! After leaving the Dragonlance world and then coming back I was overwhelmed with the number of books and where to start. You have helped me immensely.
WOW. This was the most amazing depiction of Dragonlance novels history ever! I didn’t think I was going to watch the video all in one go. I really enjoyed not just the information on the novels and how they are all related but also the history of Dragonlance development. Dragonlance was my first foray into Fantasy reading. Thanks to Dragonlance I acquired the habit of reading just for pleasures sake. Thank you for making this content. Now, how about making a video with regards to Forgotten Realms novels!
This is excellent, thank you. After years of reading these in high school I have come back to it as an adult and have been steadily building up a collection again.
Thanks for doing this video! The first DL novel I ever read was Stormblade. I found it as a young teen in the mid-80s while exploring the bookcase in a middle school classroom. I loved it, and it led me to seek out the Chronicles. The rest is history! Every few years, I go back and reread the books. Your video has reminded me it's time again!
Thank you for this! I have read a ton of the series books but was not sure which order they went in. Fortunately I did start out with the first three correctly. Thank you again, I was unaware of the Anthologies too.
Thanks for the work and time you put into this, as a new reader of these I was lost as to where to start and continue. This has been a big help. I have finished the "holy six" and I'm hooked.
This video was excellent! I loved seeing the history of DL, and I had NO IDEA the setting/franchise was SO expansive. As I re-read the core books, I may have to check out some of these other books when I have time Thank you for all this hard work!
I would like to propose a different entry point. In high school I read the Legand of Huma. Then as I started reading the first trilogy, I was surprised how much discussion there was about Huma and his adventures. Having read the Legand of Huma, I already understood what they make so much reference to. And it doesn't give any spoilers, due to it being only legand by the time of the first trilogy.
Tremendous video. I grew up reading the Classic Era books but had switched to other series when the Fifth Age and Age of Mortals books were coming out. I re-read most of my collection of Classic Era books as an adult and still loved them. For me, this was a nostalgia trip and also a great way to get back into the continuation of the main story line with the books released after 1995/6 and some of the interesting spin off trilogies. I already added some books to my wishlist and am sure I'll be rewatching this video to plan future book purchases. Thank you for running through all these books and how they tie together. Super useful.
Kaz and Huma are a great entrance to the series. I recently reread their storyline, up through the Ogre Titans trilogy and it was interesting to see how Knaak wove through a lot of common threads throughout this multi-decade effort.
@@mrXOwarrior There was only the novel and an unrelated short story which read more like an anime fanfic. Other than that, the story sort of continued spiritually with Kaz's saga.
@@jikosaucea new book came out just last year, and since they launched a new campaign book for D&D I wouldn't be surprised to see more coming out. It's still a lot of material out there tho.
Thank you so much for an amazing video! I discovered the Chronicles/Legends back when I was at school - and fell in love with the series. Since then I have maybe read it through 5 or 6 times. I read through the Raistlin Chronicles and some of the other background novels... and then lost track of where things went. I started watching this from a Nostalgia perspective... and got drawn back into the Universe again. I watched it through - found all the novels on Amazon and bookmarked them haha. It's fantastic to see - a year on from when you made this video - that Dragons of Deceit is now on its way!!! Thanks again!!!
I am So late to the party here, but I have just started reading Dragonlance, starting with Chronicles. ... and just wanted to thank you so much for this amazing piece of work. THANKS !!!
Thank you so much for taking the time to make this! This has helped me in getting back into the Dragonlance novels, since I read Dragons of Autumn Twilight when I was a kid but never read any others. Having a visual guide for the different trilogies/ series is super useful.
Fantastic Video!! and a good reading guide, I didn't realise how many titles I had missed. I actually liked Jean Rabe's books the best, they were the intro for me into the series when I was 10 years old. I did a lot of checking while went through the video and for those who like audio books most titles are actually available on audible, though sadly not all, but I'd say 90% are.
Rabe's books are controversial. I've found that people that got into the series with her generally like them a lot. I think many people that don't like her work were into the series from an earlier date and feel she changed things up too much.
Great video! Thank you so much for including the pdf of your map! Your collection of HD cover art is very satisfying to look through. I have I'd say about 30% of all of the books physically and it's always fun diving into used bookstores to find more. It's interesting to see the scope of the entire Dragonlance novelscape, it seems I have a pretty decent chunk of the books. With the Classic Era collections, I have a few collections with 1 or 2 missing volumes. My Preludes collection was actually inherited from my aunt who read them on release, but I was able to complete it by finding Kendermore and Flint the King, very fun. I will be bookmarking this and sending it to any of my friends who will suddenly get into Dragonlance because the new trilogy is going to be big.
I read Dragonlance in my early teens, the original Chronicles. It was great reading for me then. The writing style of the first few books might be kind of simplistic for adults, and I think that's why a lot of people preferred the Legends trilogy, where the writing really matured. But, even with the more simple writing, it's a very compelling story, just as far as adventure goes. This guide will be great for anyone who wants to either get into Dragonlance, or get further into it.
Thank you so much for this video. I've been a DragonLance fan for a long time but have only read maybe 9 or 10 of the books, and getting a complete collection is a personal goal!
@@zivilynsnavel572 No doubt, especially since I've been only at local thrift stores. Do you happen to know which of the books are some of the hardest to find?
Just watched your video. It was awesome. You should consider making a series of videos reviewing each book. That would give you so much material for an ongoing channel and I would certainly watch it.
What a great and comprehensive video. Long time classic era reader, dropped out for a good long bit, very recently came back with Dragons of a New Age (hated) and War of the Souls (indifferent at first but it got better, much better), and was wondering: "well, what do I do now?" You answered that quite succinctly, kudos!
Wow, you really went all out in creating this overview. My mind is blown! I'm currently in Dragons of Summer Flame. Looks like there's a LOT MORE to read after that! 😲
Thank you, good sir! You did a fantastic job here! Back in the 90's - 00's I read a couple dozen of these and was lately toying with the idea of going back and listening to the audio books on my daily commute, but wasn't sure where to start and which ones to emphasize. This is very helpful! In my opinion, a novice reader should start with the original trilogy, but since I more-or-less remember what happens in that world, I think I'll restart with Legend of Huma and build my way up chronologically through my favorite books back to the War of Souls.
Huma was my introduction to DL, it was the newest release & I was looking for a new universe to be immersed in. Then I immediately followed it up with Chronicles & Legends. It was a great flow, to me, at the time, everything was an expansion on the foundation Legend of Huma had laid. Watching a new generation of heroes rediscover the lost & forgotten knowledge of the first DL story I'd read, created a really great redemption arc for the races of Krynn.
The Dark Disciple books continue directly from where the War of Souls left off, so I would (personally) consider them the next 'Core' trilogy, as they follow Mina and introduce two wonderful new characters in Rhys and Nightshade.
This is a good point. Thinking about this more, I think I should've put them in a Quasi Core status like the Raistlin Chronicles or Lost Chronicles. The reason I wouldn't make them Core books is because they aren't truly foundational for other books. Maybe if the series had continued on then the events in Dark Disciple could've become more important.
this was AWESOME! I grew up on the Dragonlance Chronicles and Legends and red them so much they literally disintegrated . They have been replaced and are sitting on my bookshelf staring at me. Huma was awesome, one of my favorites. War of Souls really surprised me and rekindled my interest. Based on what you covered, I will be checking out Lost Chronicles, Raistlin Chronicles, Kingpriest and Defender of Magic. That should keep me busy end the next thrilogy comes out. You really should review the new books!
I suggest Legend of Huma first then the original chronicles. Its the best book of Dragon lance ive ever read and sets up why dragons are such a big part of this story and the importance of the lance.
As I write this, Dragons of Deceit was released and we still have two more books in Dragonlance Destinies to be published. I look forward to when you can update this video and charts w/ these books.
Thanks for that, very concise for a 2 hour video lol I must take the opportunity to suggest to any readers brought here by Weis and Hickman: Their Death gate Cycle is awesome.
Well done on putting this together, im only about halfway through your video. I started off reading The Legend of Huma, then Kaz the Minotaur, when I was 6 years old and kept up with all novels as they were released in the 80s and 90s. One caveat id like to inject: Soulforge was a complete money grab at the time and most fans were extremely disappointed with its reproduction of basically the same story already told from the Test of the Twins and references from other books. Everyone I knew shared the same disappointing sentiments regarding Soulforge, and we began to have concerns in the direction Dragonlance was heading.
WOW! This helps me sooo much! Thanks a lot. Unfortunately some of those books tend to get more and more expensive and not all of them became readable as an ebook.
The Rose and The Skull was my first novel and then the Meeting Sextet Volume 1 They're just the first books I got my hands on :) and it they were really enjoyable even without background knowledge
I'd say it'd go in this order - The Soulforge - Chronicles - Lost Chronicles - Preludes (personally outside Brothers Majere, they aren't the best though) + Brothers in Arms (Raistlin Chronicle vol. 2) + Dalamar the Dark - Legends trilogy - War of Souls or Chaos (I'm forgetting which came first. Chaos right?) - Legend of Huma, Fistandantilus Reborn and other ones that happen way after/before the main storyline - War of Souls (pretty sure it is the latter - Dark Disciples - Tales, Lost Histories, and other non-chronological/vital reading order stories. Most of what is in Lost Chronicles is actually based on Legends. Legends is purely about Raistlin's continued Journey (and Caramon's). The Soulforge is a great start point because it actually explains thoroughly HOW the Core group met. While other Heroes may be featured heavily in stories, in fact ALL of the core characters are from 'that town'. As such I see it as vital to read at minimum Raistlin Chronicles/Hourglass Mage BEFORE Legends; otherwise the reader has an incomplete understanding why the hell Raistlin is what he is/what he does.
Yeah it's always kind of tough to figure out when to read any of the prequel books. You could read them before getting to Chronicles or Legends because chronologically they take place earlier. But they were all published later, so aren't really necessary to understand Chronicles & Legends. And like you said, not all of those prequel books were the best. Raistlin Chronicles are pretty good, so I could see them coming first. The chronological order vs publish date tension is one reason why there will never be a single best reading order for everyone.
Awesome work!! I never really got past the Holy six (plus Tales) as Darkness and Light felt like a real disappointment. I've just reread Chronicles for the first time in 30 years and I'm going to try a few of your other recommendations.
Thanks for putting the list together! Got about 70 of them read and this is making me want to try and read some more. After reading Douglas Niles, Richard knack, and Chris Pierson, and reading a few DL books that I had a hard time getting through its been hard to try to get back in for the others to be completely honest o.o
Dragons of a new age series were my first dragon lance books they were great and kept the world to a realistic standard. Characters got hurt even in victory. Dhamons struggles Palin trying to live up to raistlin in a world with dwindling magic. The obstacles were great and the dragons were like gods.
Absolutely fantastic video, thank you. I've never gotten past the Chronicles as something has often took my attention to something else. I'm determined this time to read as many as I can in the order you've recommended.
Taladas... I was trying to remember this so damn hard.. ty.. I was hoping to find something more from this series.. I have all of these with the exception of the elf exile trilogy.. I will have to pick them up thanks again
Lost Chronicles offers a really fun trip back down memory lane where you get to see the War of the Lance from a new perspective. It can change how you perceive certain events and characters.
I read the original trilogy back in the 80's then went to Huma and Kaz the Minatour. I loved the Damon saga and linesha Trilogy. I went back about 12 years ago and bought the original Trilogy and Twins Trilogy in Hardback then did the same with Damon saga and war of souls. They need to do a movie trilogy off these.
I’ve got close to 80 DL books. The “holy six” are the best, of course, but I like pretty much all of the classic era 1984-1995) and the series which continued on into 1996. I’m not much of a fan of the books after that. There are a few gems though. Great video here and an excellent guide to reading the books. I started in June 1984 with Autumn Twilight and was hooked. I still have all of my DL books and enjoy reading them again. Also, from the AD&D perspective The Atlas of Krynn, The Artwork of Krynn as well as Leaves from The Inn of The Last Home are very handy to have. The original AD&D DL hardback players guide is very good.
Wished you touched more on the new adverntures series. I started reading those young adult novels in middle school and they were my introduction to dragonlance. I liked quite a few of them despite the overall saga being hit or miss in places mostly due to having different authors for each book. Trying to get into the classics although it's been hard for me to get too invested.
First: thank you for this explanation, is very very helpful because i cant read all the books (most are very difficult to get) and now i can choose those i may want to try and get. Second: please can you (or someone else really) do something like this for forgotten realms novels not from R A Salvatore? it is easy to understand the Drizzt sequence/line but there are so many other books in FR and i'm completely lost. Thank you.
Darkness and Light was the first dragonlance book I read. Sturm and Kitiara travelling to the moon with a group of gnomes lol. After that I jumped around like crazy with whatever I could find at the library. Read everything out of order, but it all kinda came together regardless. I did manage to at least read the core trilogies together, as by then I had enough money to buy the books.
Starting reading dragonlance as a kid. I read everything written up to 96, and some of the books written up to 2000. It was one of my favorite series. Dragons of summer flame was the first major disappointment and beginning of the end of my love for the series. I would recommend reading chronicles, legends, elves, dwarves, lost histories, heroes, soul forge, and brothers in arms. I did like second generation but it doesn’t feel like a satisfying place to end, and neither did Dragons of summer flame. Then I would suggest moving on to a different book series. Not because all of the others are bad. There are just plenty of other books and series that are much better.
I definitely felt a lot of disappointment reading the Dragons of a New Age trilogy following Summer Flame, but a lot of the stuff after War of Souls is actually really good. I really enjoyed the Linsha storyline. Some of those later books are great. You may want to skip ahead past the 5th age storyline.
I was really hoping that I would be able to get to know how many books I missed about Kang's Regiment. Sadly, it seems that Doom Brigade, Draconian Measures, and the FIVE short story books that have the plight of the Regiment between the two books are all that have been published. I would have really enjoyed picking everything up again if that had been the case. I've read the greater majority of the books listed here from the Classic era, along with the short stories and Kang's Regiment from the Fifth Age, but the only books I recall ever reading from the Age Of Mortals is the War Of Souls trilogy. I do recall buying the minotaur trilogy, but my sister is the one who read them. She had a rather UNhealthy fixation with Kaz and, by extension, the Kaziganthi Minotaurs as a whole.
The Elven Nation Trilogy was my first time reading the DragonLance books been trying to catch up ever since 😆 and recently found the Forgotten Realms books so many books so little time 😢
Great job. I haven’t read these in a couple years and am going to start reading them again. I have 20 or 30 I’ve yet to read. Made my son’s middle name Solace
This is such a beautiful story etc , this and lord of the rings are hands down the archetype for every fantasy world.after . I used to live the novels , never got into D&D but used to love reading the books . Very close parallels to lord of the rings like the kinder (hobbits lol) but still stood on its own with the story and the draconian race being basically the orcs and foot soldiers of evil . I really wish the would do a live version adaptation or at least a series . There's so much great source material and as long as they don't take to many liberties it would be epic .
this is my favourite fantasy series of all time. and i truly truly hope that it doesn't get found by some TV executive or movie producer who will simply take the story, simplify it, and proceed to ruin it as it gets more and more popular because they put needless gore and sex into it, and have that amalgamation be what people think of when they think Dragonlance
Pleases Steven Spielberg and George Lucas could work wonders with this franchise , just imagine George Clooney as "Vinus Soloumnus "? .If this was done properly and kept the core fans happy , this franchise has limitless potential . Movies would help sell games the books, bring dungeons and dragons out of the basment and finally into the mainstream. Why we could take all of the original campaigns and turn them into Video games or people could sit in game layers sipping coffee and playing the table top games with out pocket protectors , an over bite and broken glasses mended by tape . Look at lord of the rings, Game of thrones and age of Conan . If this franchise was properly developed , it could make dungeons & dragons a Billion dollar industry . Just look at Jurassic park , its never ending and so is Star Wars. Imagine sitting in an Imax 3d and watching gold and silver metallic dragons with their riders with lances vs red and Black dragons with their riders and lances , what a trip that would be ? like a brave heart battle on dragon wings.I smell money and money talks . Action figures , memorabilia, tee shirts , scores and sound tracks , who knows maybe fashion spin offs . its like that Rush song "Big Money ".
I read a lot of the books growing up. Started with Dragons of Summers Flame, and went backwards. Legend of Huma, I second, as one that stands out among the others. One of the better books that I remember well. I also read Weis' and Hickman's other series which were pretty good. I would have liked more of their Science Fiction trilogy.
My guess is that Chronicles was meant to be a trilogy from the start. And that naming the books after seasons kind of left the door open to continuation later. I kind of wish Dragons of Summer Flame had been made into another trilogy though, there was so much going on during that story and you can tell a lot was left out.
This is exactly what I was looking for you did a fantastic job with this the only thing Is is the reading order the way you put them on the screen Because sometimes you will mention a series that actually was released after the one you spoke of before and it is actually a prequel I’m still a little foggy on reading order thank you great job!!!
So, I am old school, Chronicles and Legends only, with a few other of the older 1 off books read. Can I just skip 5th age and go to war of souls? Or will I have no idea what's going on by skipping Jean's trilogy? I'm getting back into DL with audiobooks.
You can skip to War of Souls after reading 2nd Gen and Summer Flame. There's a lot of world changes that occur in the Dragons of a New Age trilogy though. Especially the first book. War of Souls tries to get you caught up with that stuff; it can be a bit jarring if you skip forwards, but it's doable.
![[5th Ed] Fixing the Holes in the Dragonlance Adventure Book](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/M8A1jn_BKbw/mqdefault.jpg)
The Legend of Huma was the first Dragonlance novel I ever read, at about age 12. I remember sitting on my Grandma's patio in a deck chair and reading it for hours, stopping only to lament that I was getting closer to the end...ah, the halcyon days of a pre-internet attention span! I loved it, and I spent the next couple years devouring everything from the 'classic' era of Dragonlance. I was loyal, however, to the original Companions and did not venture beyond their generation (although read the villains books, etc. - anything from that era) but never read Chaos/War of Souls etc. I stopped reading them at 14, but at 45, I feel I'm old enough to take a nostalgic trip down memory lane and have been collecting old copies from eBay, striving to find copies with the original artwork. It's turned into a rather nice hobby.
The Legend of Huma is my favorite book I have ever read, just re read it to get back into dragonlance after multiple years!
I have pretty much the same experience, and now at 55+yrs old I was so happy to find this breakdown of all the things I have missed... I wonder if I have enough time left to enjoy it all :) Very nice video, thank you
This video...wow. This is the most amazing way to showcase such a complex saga of books. Congratulations, you should do this for a living.
Thanks so much!
This video was a trip down memory lane. I read almost all of these when I was a kid, they made me a lifelong reader. Thank you!
Came here to say the same but you nailed. I absolutely loved the Elven Nations Trilogy. Really left a lasting impression on me. Never before has a first page drawn me so thoroughly.
I read Dragonlance in my early teens too and collected quite a few of them. I have to admit, I had no idea that there was a direct connection between them and Dungeons and Dragon as I’ve never played the game ever. I loved these. I used to visit the Walden bookstore and hangout in the back reviewing which books I’d buy whether Dragonlance or Baby Sitters Club or more. I miss those days.
Yah . I did the AD&D thing. Pre computer days. So Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms just fell into place for me.
WOW!!!!! This is AMAZING!!!!! Thank you so much for putting this together! Considering the excellent quality of this video, I can't believe it's the only thing on your channel. I hope you do more!
Thank you for this video, as a collector I've got about 95% of Dragonlance books. This showed one's I've never seen so thank you so much. Loved the video.
As someone who has always loved D&D but never dipped into Dragonlance, this is an incredibly helpful summary/chronology - thank you SO MUCH.
Glad it was helpful!
I started reading this series as soon as it came out. I was in high school at the time. I had to wait for the books to come out. I can say this is one of the best series out there.
I began reading Chronicles and then Legends while sleeping next to a Hummer while waiting for Desert Storm to begin.
I was actually able to read by moonlight on some nights because the moon is really bright in the middle of the desert with no other lights around.
I read so many Dragonlance books in high school (late 00's), but they were all over the place in continuity, etc. I would basically work my way through all my local libraries' stock. I still have the Excel spreadsheet I created to track which books I had read.
The Shoikan Grove is all that remains..
They were beautiful in the libraries. They would take up a whole row. Colorful Dragonlance spines.
This was not only informative but also oddly calming and chill, cheers!
Fantastric job with this video and the pressentation. Had to give you kudos for your work here.
I bounced out before Summer Flame. I couldn't commit to the Second Generation and all characters Dragonalnce was putting forth at that time.
But having watched this, and not read Dragonlance in about 15 years, I am absolutely going to get the Lost Chronicles and rekindle one of my old passions.
Glad to hear it and welcome back to Krynn!
Thanks for this! My brother read most of these growing up. It's amazing to see the scope of it. And I'm happy that I'm here because I'm prepping for a brand new DragonLance campaign starting in the new year. DL is back!
Got some nostalgia for going to the used book store as a kid and trading in two trilogies for whatever trilogy they had in stock that looked cool and started reading Dragonlance again - good video
When I was a kid waiting for the next book to come out for whatever series I was reading was maddening
This is absolutely phenomenal! Thank you so much for doing this! After leaving the Dragonlance world and then coming back I was overwhelmed with the number of books and where to start. You have helped me immensely.
WOW. This was the most amazing depiction of Dragonlance novels history ever! I didn’t think I was going to watch the video all in one go. I really enjoyed not just the information on the novels and how they are all related but also the history of Dragonlance development. Dragonlance was my first foray into Fantasy reading. Thanks to Dragonlance I acquired the habit of reading just for pleasures sake. Thank you for making this content. Now, how about making a video with regards to Forgotten Realms novels!
Thanks for the kind words!
This is excellent, thank you. After years of reading these in high school I have come back to it as an adult and have been steadily building up a collection again.
They're a lot of fun, good luck rebuilding the collection!
Thanks for doing this video! The first DL novel I ever read was Stormblade. I found it as a young teen in the mid-80s while exploring the bookcase in a middle school classroom. I loved it, and it led me to seek out the Chronicles. The rest is history! Every few years, I go back and reread the books. Your video has reminded me it's time again!
Thank you for this! I have read a ton of the series books but was not sure which order they went in. Fortunately I did start out with the first three correctly. Thank you again, I was unaware of the Anthologies too.
The best video about Dragonlance on RUclips. Thanks!
Thanks for the work and time you put into this, as a new reader of these I was lost as to where to start and continue. This has been a big help. I have finished the "holy six" and I'm hooked.
This video was excellent!
I loved seeing the history of DL, and I had NO IDEA the setting/franchise was SO expansive.
As I re-read the core books, I may have to check out some of these other books when I have time
Thank you for all this hard work!
I would like to propose a different entry point. In high school I read the Legand of Huma. Then as I started reading the first trilogy, I was surprised how much discussion there was about Huma and his adventures. Having read the Legand of Huma, I already understood what they make so much reference to. And it doesn't give any spoilers, due to it being only legand by the time of the first trilogy.
Same thing happened to me.
Have you read Kaz the Minotaur?
@@abigailslade3824 That's Kaz, loved that book ;-)
@@boom2278 damn spell wrecker didn’t realise it had changed the spelling I know it’s Kaz, it’s one of my favourites.
Legend of Huma makes one of the better entry points for sure. Knaak's entire storyline from Huma > Kaz > Minotaurs > Ogre titans is a worthy read.
Tremendous video. I grew up reading the Classic Era books but had switched to other series when the Fifth Age and Age of Mortals books were coming out. I re-read most of my collection of Classic Era books as an adult and still loved them. For me, this was a nostalgia trip and also a great way to get back into the continuation of the main story line with the books released after 1995/6 and some of the interesting spin off trilogies. I already added some books to my wishlist and am sure I'll be rewatching this video to plan future book purchases. Thank you for running through all these books and how they tie together. Super useful.
Kaz and Huma were my gateway into Dragonlance, after them I just couldn't help myself and obtained just about every book in the series.
Kaz and Huma are a great entrance to the series. I recently reread their storyline, up through the Ogre Titans trilogy and it was interesting to see how Knaak wove through a lot of common threads throughout this multi-decade effort.
Was there ever more to Huma’s story?
@@mrXOwarrior There was only the novel and an unrelated short story which read more like an anime fanfic. Other than that, the story sort of continued spiritually with Kaz's saga.
Thats where im at, currently have to finish Huma, then starting from the beginning. Are these still being made?
@@jikosaucea new book came out just last year, and since they launched a new campaign book for D&D I wouldn't be surprised to see more coming out. It's still a lot of material out there tho.
Thank you so much for an amazing video! I discovered the Chronicles/Legends back when I was at school - and fell in love with the series. Since then I have maybe read it through 5 or 6 times. I read through the Raistlin Chronicles and some of the other background novels... and then lost track of where things went. I started watching this from a Nostalgia perspective... and got drawn back into the Universe again. I watched it through - found all the novels on Amazon and bookmarked them haha. It's fantastic to see - a year on from when you made this video - that Dragons of Deceit is now on its way!!! Thanks again!!!
It's definitely exciting to see that Dragonlance still has some life left in it.
I am So late to the party here, but I have just started reading Dragonlance, starting with Chronicles.
... and just wanted to thank you so much for this amazing piece of work. THANKS !!!
Thank you so much for taking the time to make this! This has helped me in getting back into the Dragonlance novels, since I read Dragons of Autumn Twilight when I was a kid but never read any others. Having a visual guide for the different trilogies/ series is super useful.
Fantastic Video!! and a good reading guide, I didn't realise how many titles I had missed. I actually liked Jean Rabe's books the best, they were the intro for me into the series when I was 10 years old. I did a lot of checking while went through the video and for those who like audio books most titles are actually available on audible, though sadly not all, but I'd say 90% are.
Rabe's books are controversial. I've found that people that got into the series with her generally like them a lot. I think many people that don't like her work were into the series from an earlier date and feel she changed things up too much.
Great video! Thank you so much for including the pdf of your map! Your collection of HD cover art is very satisfying to look through.
I have I'd say about 30% of all of the books physically and it's always fun diving into used bookstores to find more. It's interesting to see the scope of the entire Dragonlance novelscape, it seems I have a pretty decent chunk of the books. With the Classic Era collections, I have a few collections with 1 or 2 missing volumes. My Preludes collection was actually inherited from my aunt who read them on release, but I was able to complete it by finding Kendermore and Flint the King, very fun.
I will be bookmarking this and sending it to any of my friends who will suddenly get into Dragonlance because the new trilogy is going to be big.
I read Dragonlance in my early teens, the original Chronicles. It was great reading for me then. The writing style of the first few books might be kind of simplistic for adults, and I think that's why a lot of people preferred the Legends trilogy, where the writing really matured.
But, even with the more simple writing, it's a very compelling story, just as far as adventure goes.
This guide will be great for anyone who wants to either get into Dragonlance, or get further into it.
Thank you so much for this video. I've been a DragonLance fan for a long time but have only read maybe 9 or 10 of the books, and getting a complete collection is a personal goal!
Going to be tough! So many books are out of print. Ebooks might be a bit easier
@@zivilynsnavel572 No doubt, especially since I've been only at local thrift stores. Do you happen to know which of the books are some of the hardest to find?
Just watched your video. It was awesome. You should consider making a series of videos reviewing each book. That would give you so much material for an ongoing channel and I would certainly watch it.
It's a goal of mine, but man... so much work.
What a great and comprehensive video. Long time classic era reader, dropped out for a good long bit, very recently came back with Dragons of a New Age (hated) and War of the Souls (indifferent at first but it got better, much better), and was wondering: "well, what do I do now?" You answered that quite succinctly, kudos!
As a relatively new but huge dragonlance fan I desperately needed this video thank u
Wow, you really went all out in creating this overview. My mind is blown! I'm currently in Dragons of Summer Flame. Looks like there's a LOT MORE to read after that! 😲
Thank you, good sir! You did a fantastic job here! Back in the 90's - 00's I read a couple dozen of these and was lately toying with the idea of going back and listening to the audio books on my daily commute, but wasn't sure where to start and which ones to emphasize. This is very helpful! In my opinion, a novice reader should start with the original trilogy, but since I more-or-less remember what happens in that world, I think I'll restart with Legend of Huma and build my way up chronologically through my favorite books back to the War of Souls.
I think I'm going to read all the books I have been saving this for a while, but I think it's time.
Huma was my introduction to DL, it was the newest release & I was looking for a new universe to be immersed in. Then I immediately followed it up with Chronicles & Legends. It was a great flow, to me, at the time, everything was an expansion on the foundation Legend of Huma had laid. Watching a new generation of heroes rediscover the lost & forgotten knowledge of the first DL story I'd read, created a really great redemption arc for the races of Krynn.
This is amazing!! I wish there was one for Forgotten Realms.
Loved the vid! Would love to see one on the other TSR/WOC book series such as: Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, Planescape, Eberron, ETC.
The Dark Disciple books continue directly from where the War of Souls left off, so I would (personally) consider them the next 'Core' trilogy, as they follow Mina and introduce two wonderful new characters in Rhys and Nightshade.
This is a good point. Thinking about this more, I think I should've put them in a Quasi Core status like the Raistlin Chronicles or Lost Chronicles.
The reason I wouldn't make them Core books is because they aren't truly foundational for other books. Maybe if the series had continued on then the events in Dark Disciple could've become more important.
this was AWESOME! I grew up on the Dragonlance Chronicles and Legends and red them so much they literally disintegrated . They have been replaced and are sitting on my bookshelf staring at me. Huma was awesome, one of my favorites. War of Souls really surprised me and rekindled my interest. Based on what you covered, I will be checking out Lost Chronicles, Raistlin Chronicles, Kingpriest and Defender of Magic. That should keep me busy end the next thrilogy comes out. You really should review the new books!
I suggest Legend of Huma first then the original chronicles. Its the best book of Dragon lance ive ever read and sets up why dragons are such a big part of this story and the importance of the lance.
Wish me luck ! I will begin reading my DragonLance books !! 😍
I've been needing this map for years to find out what books I missed!
As I write this, Dragons of Deceit was released and we still have two more books in Dragonlance Destinies to be published. I look forward to when you can update this video and charts w/ these books.
Yes I want to do an updated version when they are out.
Thanks for that, very concise for a 2 hour video lol I must take the opportunity to suggest to any readers brought here by Weis and Hickman: Their Death gate Cycle is awesome.
Well done on putting this together, im only about halfway through your video.
I started off reading The Legend of Huma, then Kaz the Minotaur, when I was 6 years old and kept up with all novels as they were released in the 80s and 90s.
One caveat id like to inject: Soulforge was a complete money grab at the time and most fans were extremely disappointed with its reproduction of basically the same story already told from the Test of the Twins and references from other books.
Everyone I knew shared the same disappointing sentiments regarding Soulforge, and we began to have concerns in the direction Dragonlance was heading.
Hey man, thank you for the video! Great help!. Will be lovely see more Dragonlance of you!
I have a few of these but always wondered how to read them. Thanks for making this.
Thank you for this! This helps so much! Also, I AM SURPRISED that Dragonlance isn't very much talked about on RUclips. Weird.
Ah, I forgot to mention there are also several Dragonlance comic book series that exist. I don't talk about them in this video, only the books.
Did you happen to see my comment to you from a couple of days ago
Man this was really insightful. Gonna check out the holy 6.
WOW! This helps me sooo much! Thanks a lot. Unfortunately some of those books tend to get more and more expensive and not all of them became readable as an ebook.
The Rose and The Skull was my first novel
and then the Meeting Sextet Volume 1
They're just the first books I got my hands on :) and it they were really enjoyable even without background knowledge
I'd say it'd go in this order
- The Soulforge
- Chronicles
- Lost Chronicles
- Preludes (personally outside Brothers Majere, they aren't the best though) + Brothers in Arms (Raistlin Chronicle vol. 2) + Dalamar the Dark
- Legends trilogy
- War of Souls or Chaos (I'm forgetting which came first. Chaos right?)
- Legend of Huma, Fistandantilus Reborn and other ones that happen way after/before the main storyline
- War of Souls (pretty sure it is the latter
- Dark Disciples
- Tales, Lost Histories, and other non-chronological/vital reading order stories.
Most of what is in Lost Chronicles is actually based on Legends. Legends is purely about Raistlin's continued Journey (and Caramon's).
The Soulforge is a great start point because it actually explains thoroughly HOW the Core group met. While other Heroes may be featured heavily in stories, in fact ALL of the core characters are from 'that town'.
As such I see it as vital to read at minimum Raistlin Chronicles/Hourglass Mage BEFORE Legends; otherwise the reader has an incomplete understanding why the hell Raistlin is what he is/what he does.
Yeah it's always kind of tough to figure out when to read any of the prequel books. You could read them before getting to Chronicles or Legends because chronologically they take place earlier. But they were all published later, so aren't really necessary to understand Chronicles & Legends. And like you said, not all of those prequel books were the best. Raistlin Chronicles are pretty good, so I could see them coming first.
The chronological order vs publish date tension is one reason why there will never be a single best reading order for everyone.
As with many others the legend of Huma was my entry into Dragonlance and is still my most favourite book in the entire Bookline
Forgotten realms next?
Awesome work!!
I never really got past the Holy six (plus Tales) as Darkness and Light felt like a real disappointment. I've just reread Chronicles for the first time in 30 years and I'm going to try a few of your other recommendations.
Thanks for putting the list together! Got about 70 of them read and this is making me want to try and read some more. After reading Douglas Niles, Richard knack, and Chris Pierson, and reading a few DL books that I had a hard time getting through its been hard to try to get back in for the others to be completely honest o.o
You are a saint for putting this together. Are you planning to make a similar video about the Forgotten Realms novels too ?
You did an excellent job with this! Hats off to you!
Dragons of a new age series were my first dragon lance books they were great and kept the world to a realistic standard. Characters got hurt even in victory. Dhamons struggles Palin trying to live up to raistlin in a world with dwindling magic. The obstacles were great and the dragons were like gods.
Thanks for posting. I was just wondering about the series order earlier this week
Great video, keep them coming!
man, what a work, congrats and thanks
Absolutely fantastic video, thank you. I've never gotten past the Chronicles as something has often took my attention to something else. I'm determined this time to read as many as I can in the order you've recommended.
Best video!
Long time DL fan, though I missed out on most of the fifth age stuff, but I caught back on with War of Souls.
Taladas... I was trying to remember this so damn hard.. ty.. I was hoping to find something more from this series.. I have all of these with the exception of the elf exile trilogy.. I will have to pick them up thanks again
I read the original chronicles way back in high school, gonna have to go back and read the Lost Chronicles I'm thinking!
Lost Chronicles offers a really fun trip back down memory lane where you get to see the War of the Lance from a new perspective. It can change how you perceive certain events and characters.
Incredible video! New Dragonlance coming in August 2022!
What's the title!?
I read the original trilogy back in the 80's then went to Huma and Kaz the Minatour. I loved the Damon saga and linesha Trilogy. I went back about 12 years ago and bought the original Trilogy and Twins Trilogy in Hardback then did the same with Damon saga and war of souls. They need to do a movie trilogy off these.
I've thought I read everything in this universe until today. I had no idea there were this many books outside of the core series.
Great video, greetings from Poland.
I’ve got close to 80 DL books. The “holy six” are the best, of course, but I like pretty much all of the classic era 1984-1995) and the series which continued on into 1996. I’m not much of a fan of the books after that. There are a few gems though. Great video here and an excellent guide to reading the books. I started in June 1984 with Autumn Twilight and was hooked. I still have all of my DL books and enjoy reading them again. Also, from the AD&D perspective The Atlas of Krynn, The Artwork of Krynn as well as Leaves from The Inn of The Last Home are very handy to have. The original AD&D DL hardback players guide is very good.
Wished you touched more on the new adverntures series. I started reading those young adult novels in middle school and they were my introduction to dragonlance. I liked quite a few of them despite the overall saga being hit or miss in places mostly due to having different authors for each book. Trying to get into the classics although it's been hard for me to get too invested.
Unfortunately I was never able to acquire those books and haven't read them myself.
First: thank you for this explanation, is very very helpful because i cant read all the books (most are very difficult to get) and now i can choose those i may want to try and get.
Second: please can you (or someone else really) do something like this for forgotten realms novels not from R A Salvatore? it is easy to understand the Drizzt sequence/line but there are so many other books in FR and i'm completely lost.
Thank you.
This is just a great video. Thank you 🙏
The legend of HUMA started it all with me. I think it was huma.
Darkness and Light was the first dragonlance book I read. Sturm and Kitiara travelling to the moon with a group of gnomes lol. After that I jumped around like crazy with whatever I could find at the library. Read everything out of order, but it all kinda came together regardless. I did manage to at least read the core trilogies together, as by then I had enough money to buy the books.
Thanks for this, I just got into the series started with soulforge then brothers in arms and dragons of autumn twilight
New trilogy would be a amazing! Fingers crossed!
I totally agree with your assesment of the Core 8
Starting reading dragonlance as a kid. I read everything written up to 96, and some of the books written up to 2000. It was one of my favorite series. Dragons of summer flame was the first major disappointment and beginning of the end of my love for the series.
I would recommend reading chronicles, legends, elves, dwarves, lost histories, heroes, soul forge, and brothers in arms. I did like second generation but it doesn’t feel like a satisfying place to end, and neither did Dragons of summer flame.
Then I would suggest moving on to a different book series. Not because all of the others are bad. There are just plenty of other books and series that are much better.
I definitely felt a lot of disappointment reading the Dragons of a New Age trilogy following Summer Flame, but a lot of the stuff after War of Souls is actually really good. I really enjoyed the Linsha storyline. Some of those later books are great. You may want to skip ahead past the 5th age storyline.
I was really hoping that I would be able to get to know how many books I missed about Kang's Regiment. Sadly, it seems that Doom Brigade, Draconian Measures, and the FIVE short story books that have the plight of the Regiment between the two books are all that have been published. I would have really enjoyed picking everything up again if that had been the case.
I've read the greater majority of the books listed here from the Classic era, along with the short stories and Kang's Regiment from the Fifth Age, but the only books I recall ever reading from the Age Of Mortals is the War Of Souls trilogy. I do recall buying the minotaur trilogy, but my sister is the one who read them. She had a rather UNhealthy fixation with Kaz and, by extension, the Kaziganthi Minotaurs as a whole.
The Elven Nation Trilogy was my first time reading the DragonLance books been trying to catch up ever since 😆 and recently found the Forgotten Realms books so many books so little time 😢
Great job. I haven’t read these in a couple years and am going to start reading them again. I have 20 or 30 I’ve yet to read. Made my son’s middle name Solace
This is such a beautiful story etc , this and lord of the rings are hands down the archetype for every fantasy world.after . I used to live the novels , never got into D&D but used to love reading the books . Very close parallels to lord of the rings like the kinder (hobbits lol) but still stood on its own with the story and the draconian race being basically the orcs and foot soldiers of evil . I really wish the would do a live version adaptation or at least a series . There's so much great source material and as long as they don't take to many liberties it would be epic .
I would also like to hear your thoughts on the new series released Dragons of Deceit and Dragons of Fate
AWESOMENESS!!!
Thanks!!
this is my favourite fantasy series of all time. and i truly truly hope that it doesn't get found by some TV executive or movie producer who will simply take the story, simplify it, and proceed to ruin it as it gets more and more popular because they put needless gore and sex into it, and have that amalgamation be what people think of when they think Dragonlance
True, I often wished for a long episode style Dragonlance show, but it will probably never live up to expectations
Pleases Steven Spielberg and George Lucas could work wonders with this franchise , just imagine George Clooney as "Vinus Soloumnus "? .If this was done properly and kept the core fans happy , this franchise has limitless potential . Movies would help sell games the books, bring dungeons and dragons out of the basment and finally into the mainstream. Why we could take all of the original campaigns and turn them into Video games or people could sit in game layers sipping coffee and playing the table top games with out pocket protectors , an over bite and broken glasses mended by tape . Look at lord of the rings, Game of thrones and age of Conan . If this franchise was properly developed , it could make dungeons & dragons a Billion dollar industry . Just look at Jurassic park , its never ending and so is Star Wars. Imagine sitting in an Imax 3d and watching gold and silver metallic dragons with their riders with lances vs red and Black dragons with their riders and lances , what a trip that would be ? like a brave heart battle on dragon wings.I smell money and money talks . Action figures , memorabilia, tee shirts , scores and sound tracks , who knows maybe fashion spin offs . its like that
Rush song "Big Money ".
I read a lot of the books growing up. Started with Dragons of Summers Flame, and went backwards. Legend of Huma, I second, as one that stands out among the others. One of the better books that I remember well. I also read Weis' and Hickman's other series which were pretty good. I would have liked more of their Science Fiction trilogy.
Thank you thank you!
Great thoughts here.. you had me at Kendertales.. love it.. ❤
Excellent video... Great Job.
Why didn't we get a fourth chronicles book for summer Initially? Was it planned and canceled?
My guess is that Chronicles was meant to be a trilogy from the start. And that naming the books after seasons kind of left the door open to continuation later.
I kind of wish Dragons of Summer Flame had been made into another trilogy though, there was so much going on during that story and you can tell a lot was left out.
This is exactly what I was looking for you did a fantastic job with this the only thing Is is the reading order the way you put them on the screen Because sometimes you will mention a series that actually was released after the one you spoke of before and it is actually a prequel I’m still a little foggy on reading order thank you great job!!!
I found some of these books for sale at Barnes & Noble. The Margaret Weis Website also has a few. Where else can I look for these books?
So, I am old school, Chronicles and Legends only, with a few other of the older 1 off books read. Can I just skip 5th age and go to war of souls? Or will I have no idea what's going on by skipping Jean's trilogy? I'm getting back into DL with audiobooks.
You can skip to War of Souls after reading 2nd Gen and Summer Flame. There's a lot of world changes that occur in the Dragons of a New Age trilogy though. Especially the first book.
War of Souls tries to get you caught up with that stuff; it can be a bit jarring if you skip forwards, but it's doable.