"Favorite D&D novel?" Topic

I've read a lot of D&D novels since I was a teenager. Admittedly, I read most of those while I still was a teenager, but there are a few favorites that I've revisited from time to time.

Recently, I've been cleaning out my storage unit and sorting through my old boxes of books, and I've come across some of those old D&D novels – the Dragonlance Chronicles, Kaz the Minotaur, Pool of Radiance, Azure Bonds, The Wyverns Spur, the Gord the Rogue books. I don't think that any of them are really "good" books, but a lot of them are fun brain candy. What's your favorite D&D novel or novels?

Mine are:

Saga of Old City – (a Gord the Rogue book, about his childhood)

Pool of Radiance – (an absolutely cheezy story of how three adventurers come together to stop a posessed dragon)

the Doom Brigade – (about a legion of Draconians who are steering away from Evil towards Neutrality)

If I was to include the "Choose Your Own Adventure" style Endless Quest books, then I'd add

Mountain of Mirrors

and

Blade of the Young Samurai

to the list.

I enjoyed the Dark Sun series, even though they were more of a tie-in to the product line than most of their novels.

Clerics Quintet for the Forgoten Relams. Pretty predictable but fun to watch the characters go from level 1s upto arse kicking hero status. kind of a sad ending though.

There was a series that had a mean ranger with a sentient hell hound cape and a smart mouthed pixie companion which were great! I think they were based on actual D&D modules…

Doom Brigade was awesome…

As well as I, Strahd…

Never really cared for any of the "official" D&D novels. I read the first Dragonlance novel, which was okay; I really don't remember much of it. I also read Andre Norton's Quag Keep, which was sort of "official." Don't remember much of it, either, aside from there being dice on the characters' bracelets that whirled whenever something happened (lame idea).

Other than that, I enjoyed the early books in Joel Rosenberg's Guardians of the Flame series, which were clearly based on D&D, and Elizabeth Moon's Paksennarion novels, which started out as generic (if well written) D&D character story and then morphed into something much deeper.

TSR's attempt at CYOA books never struck me as particularly good. But Steve Jackson's Warlock of Firetop Mountain was well done as a solo adventure, and even used dice and character stats you generated yourself.

The only ones I ever read were the original Drizzzzt books. Not completely horrible, but they certainly did not inspire me to try others.

Parzival: "Elizabeth Moon's Paksennarion novels, which started out as generic (if well written) D&D character story and then morphed into something much deeper."

Weird. I thought the first one was good, the second was a poorly disguised D&D campaign, and the third recovered a bit from the second but was still too "game-y"… which appears to be the opposite of how you reacted to them!

Brust's Vlad Taltos series grew out of a D&D campaign, if I remember correctly, and they weren't too horrible.

Dark Sun for me, too. I don't remember which of them was my favorite, though.

The Vlad Taltos and Guardians of the Flame books were better, but not official D&D.

Really hated everything Dragonlance, as well as Quag Keep. Still have them in my collection, though.

The Vlad Taltos and Guardians of the Flame books were better, but not official D&D.

Which is the crux of the matter. The "official" books are mediocre at best precisely because they are strongly D&D. The books that are based on a looser interpretation of the D&D experience average a bit higher. That includes Vlad Taltos, Guardians of the Flame, Cats Have No Lord, Liavek, Thieves World, and the elephant in the room: Midkemia.

Ah, yes, the Guardians of the Flame series, and the Midkemia books. Both highly enjoyable, both very obviously D&D-inspired.

I haven't found any to be "readable". The "Crystal Shard" was actually good enough to actually finish…The rest… yuck!

Give my Gotrek and Felix anyday…

Joe Collins

The Dark Sun novels were pretty good. I could never get into the Dragon Lance series for some reason.

I still enjoy reading the Ravenloft series. I have all of them but the Knight Of The Black Rose. I think my ex stole it after she read Vampire Of The Mist but moved out before finishing KOTBR.

Also I liked the Gord books too. The first one was better then the second one.

I, Strahd and the Doom Brigade both had their moments.

I read the early Dragonlance stuff. I was into it at the time. Not sure how it would read now.

Tbh, I enjoyed the Choose Your Own Adventure books.

Wooww brings back memories

let us see

Drizzt series: Spine of the World (everybody hated it, I loved it)

Daughter of the Drow

The later Dragonlance series (Min I think).

Found the ones with the ranger.
It was the Paul Kidd Novels.

White Plume Mountain (1999)

Descent into the Depths of the Earth (1999)
Queen of the Demonweb Pits (2001)

Loved them all.

Hey, thanks for the book suggestions guys. I just started Markus Heitz 's The Dwarves and have been looking around for some good fantasy books.

Seconding richarDISNEY.

'Beauty's Punishment' by A.N. Roquelaure.

(Whadya Mean? It had Dungeons in, and probably Dragons too?)

Pat

I started reading the Conan novels in Nam simply for something to do.

Saga of Old City – still read it periodically. My copy has fallen apart.

Crystal Shard/Streams of Silver – see above

Never got into the D&D books. Say what you want about Games Workshop but I always enjoyed the stuff from the Black Library like the Gotrek and Felix novels. Of course in my book nothing beats good ol' Conan (the ones written by Robert E Howard not the pastiche stuff).

I just started Markus Heitz 's The Dwarves and have been looking around for some good fantasy books.

It's a fun read. I'm about to start the sequel, War of the Dwarves.

Dark Elf trilogy wasn't half bad, but it's the only D&D series I managed to get through.