I have recently been revisiting an old favorite book series. The original
Dragonlance Chronicles by Margret Weis and Tracy Hickman. I read these rather obsessively in high school. (Me, obsessive? No!) In retrospect they are really just a rip-off of Lord of the Rings. Though they are a creative rip-off with good characters. But I equate them to old friends. You've changed, they haven't. You look at them with new eyes and while you may not feel the same affection you once did, you can appreciate them for what they are.
Even more interesting is the new Lost Chronicles series written by the same authors. These are stories that fill in the time jumps in the original tales. I have to say the plot line is expertly crafted and I have yet to find a discrepancy in that department. however the characters and their language is different. Significantly so in some cases. That being said I enjoyed both
Dragons of the Dwarven Depths and
Dragons of the Highlord Skies.
Dwarven Depths is the story between Autumn Twilight and Winter Night. The companions go on a quest for the mythical Hammer of Kharas while trying to protect the group of refugees from Pax Tharkas. Highlord Skies focuses on the events surrounding the recovery of the Dragon Orb. These events are counterpointed by Kitiara's quest for power amongst the Dragon Highlords and her journey to challenge the death knight Lord Soth. I found that these books gave two characters in particular a new amount of depth, Flint and Kitiara. I ended up liking both a lot more once I got some more background and traveled with them through a quest of sorts. All in all I could look past some of the clunkyness of the Lost Chronicles and enjoy these as much as the originals.
I have recently been revisiting an old favorite book series. The original Dragonlance Chronicles by Margret Weis and Tracy Hickman. I read these rather obsessively in high school. (Me, obsessive? No!) In retrospect they are really just a rip-off of Lord of the Rings. Though they are a creative rip-off with good characters. But I equate them to old friends. You've changed, they haven't. You look at them with new eyes and while you may not feel the same affection you once did, you can appreciate them for what they are.
Even more interesting is the new Lost Chronicles series written by the same authors. These are stories that fill in the time jumps in the original tales. I have to say the plot line is expertly crafted and I have yet to find a discrepancy in that department. however the characters and their language is different. Significantly so in some cases. That being said I enjoyed both Dragons of the Dwarven Depths and Dragons of the Highlord Skies.
Dwarven Depths is the story between Autumn Twilight and Winter Night. The companions go on a quest for the mythical Hammer of Kharas while trying to protect the group of refugees from Pax Tharkas. Highlord Skies focuses on the events surrounding the recovery of the Dragon Orb. These events are counterpointed by Kitiara's quest for power amongst the Dragon Highlords and her journey to challenge the death knight Lord Soth. I found that these books gave two characters in particular a new amount of depth, Flint and Kitiara. I ended up liking both a lot more once I got some more background and traveled with them through a quest of sorts. All in all I could look past some of the clunkyness of the Lost Chronicles and enjoy these as much as the originals.
