Dargonlance - Gaming Fiction Pt 1
April 26th 2008 12:12
The first Fantasy Book I ever finished was Dragonlance - Dragons of Autumn Twilight. I read the book in 1988. I had been introduced to Dungeons and Dragons the year before and I was in Vanuatu, a country which at that time had no TV station and One radio station.
To my 14 year old mind it was amazing, the novel had all the trappings of the game that I had fallen in love with and as I did not own any of the rule books and had no one to play with, this was the closest I would get to playing a game of Dungeons and Dragons (Beside my Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks - Still Lurking in my library to this day)
In 1989 we moved from Vanuatu to Cairns in Queensland and I read the other two Dragonlance Chronicles and was hooked on Fantasy Fiction.
I still treasure these books today and am tempted to go revisit the books that I love and spend time with Tanis , Tasselhoff and the gang.
My only reluctance has to do with, the whole concept that you cant go home again. I mean what if I read them and I discover that they are garbage. Will that affect my experience of the books and my memories of what I read.
But then maybe I can look at them in the context that they were created. (The same way we can watch silent movies and appreciate the work not so much for the work's sake but for the world in which it came from.
Dragonlance is arguably not the first Gaming Tie in Novel series the Gord the Rogue novels by Gary Gygax predate these by a couple of years but this really is where it all began.
Dragons of Autumn Twilight was a novel that caught the imagination of a generation of gamers many of who are still fans of the series to this day.
My research shows that there are well over 100 dragonlance novels written by several authors but the spine of the series and those that have the greatest relevance (arguably) are those by Margret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
The story starts with the reunion of a group of friends who have spent the last few years apart on various personal quests. It also tells the story of a world abandoned by the gods and the return of Dragons (in the chronicles) these follow the tales of some of the most iconic characters in modern fantasy.
Tasselhoff Burfoot and Raistlin Majere. (I will probably return to these guys later) but in brief Raistlin is one of the best concepts for a mage in fiction and Tasselhoff creates a heroic thief character and great comic relief.
This marked the birth of one of the most popular writing duo's in modern fiction and both have gone on to write both individually and with other partners.
With the animated movie recently released on DVD Dragonlance has reached a bit of a critical mass and regained my attention. I think that nostalga is hitting my on the head a bit. ( I hear the film is really bad so it is a strange experience, I want to see the film but then I dont want to see it at the same time so I really dont know if I will cave and buy it or not)
But all this attention to Dragonlance has made me want to grab a copy of Dragons of Autumn Twilight and get lost in the world I fell in love with all those years ago.
I don't know what I will decide but no matter what I will always have those days of my youth when I got lost in the adventures of a party questing for the magical dragonlances.
To my 14 year old mind it was amazing, the novel had all the trappings of the game that I had fallen in love with and as I did not own any of the rule books and had no one to play with, this was the closest I would get to playing a game of Dungeons and Dragons (Beside my Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks - Still Lurking in my library to this day)
In 1989 we moved from Vanuatu to Cairns in Queensland and I read the other two Dragonlance Chronicles and was hooked on Fantasy Fiction.
I still treasure these books today and am tempted to go revisit the books that I love and spend time with Tanis , Tasselhoff and the gang.
My only reluctance has to do with, the whole concept that you cant go home again. I mean what if I read them and I discover that they are garbage. Will that affect my experience of the books and my memories of what I read.
But then maybe I can look at them in the context that they were created. (The same way we can watch silent movies and appreciate the work not so much for the work's sake but for the world in which it came from.
Dragonlance is arguably not the first Gaming Tie in Novel series the Gord the Rogue novels by Gary Gygax predate these by a couple of years but this really is where it all began.
Dragons of Autumn Twilight was a novel that caught the imagination of a generation of gamers many of who are still fans of the series to this day.
My research shows that there are well over 100 dragonlance novels written by several authors but the spine of the series and those that have the greatest relevance (arguably) are those by Margret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
The story starts with the reunion of a group of friends who have spent the last few years apart on various personal quests. It also tells the story of a world abandoned by the gods and the return of Dragons (in the chronicles) these follow the tales of some of the most iconic characters in modern fantasy.
Tasselhoff Burfoot and Raistlin Majere. (I will probably return to these guys later) but in brief Raistlin is one of the best concepts for a mage in fiction and Tasselhoff creates a heroic thief character and great comic relief.
This marked the birth of one of the most popular writing duo's in modern fiction and both have gone on to write both individually and with other partners.
With the animated movie recently released on DVD Dragonlance has reached a bit of a critical mass and regained my attention. I think that nostalga is hitting my on the head a bit. ( I hear the film is really bad so it is a strange experience, I want to see the film but then I dont want to see it at the same time so I really dont know if I will cave and buy it or not)
But all this attention to Dragonlance has made me want to grab a copy of Dragons of Autumn Twilight and get lost in the world I fell in love with all those years ago.
I don't know what I will decide but no matter what I will always have those days of my youth when I got lost in the adventures of a party questing for the magical dragonlances.
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