On 26 Jun, 06:44, Matthew Amsel <matthew.am...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Oh, one more thing. There's a lot of talk about core vs non-core books.
> It's a myth. Krynn was built organically, by ancient history as well as
> by WotC decreed plotline progression. Not all "core" books are worth
> reading, and many "noncore" books are absolutely essential to the
> setting (elven nations, legend of huma, several others). There's little
> or no quality correlation either. I've watched it grow over the years (I
> started reading it back in 1991-ish), and was struck by how much some of
> the so called extraneous stories truly helped shape the world.
You have a point, however, I do not fully agree, things are more
nuanced that. Certainly, it is true that Elven Nations is better than
War of Souls, and you can find many other examples. But there are also
way too many of the noncore books that are both poor and fail to be
"essential to the setting" simply because they contradict it instead.
You could, of course, have the same objections about many of the later
core books as well, such as DoaNA and WoS. Call me cynical, but when I
am asked about Dragonlance from fantasy fans who are interested, I
recommend the Chronicles and Legends and say that unless you really
fall in love the setting, you should leave it at that. I must admit
that when I had the library at the school where I worked the last few
years buy DL books, I only had them buy Chronicles and Legends.
(Which, to my pleasure, were and are widely read and enjoyed by the
students there. Several copies were bought to meet the demand.)
I don't know, I guess I have changed over the years as well. Earlier,
I got involved a franchise and became a completist, Dragonlance being
the most extreme example of course, it's been 18 years now. Now I have
more diverse taste, and tend not to fall into the same trap that I did
with DL, Elfquest and a few others. Both of these had carefully
planned, good stories, before dissolving into "make-it-up-as-you-go-
along" series, whose directions were not well planned and were often
at the whim of individual authors and marketing direction, lacking the
sense of unity that Chronicles and Legends had, even though the
original world-building was a team effort. That is why, today, I can
read "Rendevouz with Rama" but, because of suggestions by Clarke fans,
ignore the sequels in favor of another good book, or book series
instead. This mindset has probably caused me to recommend Chronicles
and Legends only. I think they have been called the "Holy Six" for a
reason.
But of course, that is not to say that I don't appreciate reading and
having read Elven Nations or Time of the Dragon. Heck, even looking at
the cover and leafing through Riverwind the Plainsman and Wanderlust
invokes a strong sense of nastalgia from the bygone days of High
School and summer vacations at the cabin. (Even more so, actually,
since I haven't re-read those since then.) *sniff*
Morten
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