Re: What is the Fifth Age?

John Salerno wrote:
> Sorry for bombarding the newsgroup with questions! Last one for now!
> 
> I've been reading DL books for a while and I recently re-read the 
> Chronicles for old times sake (and they are still as good as they were 
> when I was little!). I decided not to re-read Legends because I remember

> not enjoying them as much as the Chronicles, probably because the story 
> is much more singular and doesn't involve all the Companions. At any 
> rate, I know the overall story of what happened with Raistlin so I moved

> on to The Second Generation (then I plan to do DoSF and the War of Souls

> Trilogy).
> 
> But my question now is, what exactly is the Fifth Age and why do so many

> people hate it? Does it involve the War of Souls or can it be something 
> completely ignored?

Essentially, Dragons of a Summer Flame nuked the setting. 5th age was 
*very* different in flavour from everything before it, with many of the 
elements that made Krynn, well, Krynn, removed or altered beyond 
recognition. To compound matters, a great deal of it was poorly written, 
and the basic setting used plot devices which were both ridiculous and 
absolutely unnecessary. War of Souls ended the 5th age, but the damage 
was already done, and there was enough ridiculousness and continuity 
disruption (ie. Weis/Hickman not even bothering to find out what other 
authors had done, as well as bringing in a distinct monotheistic element 
in both the main text and the appendix) in that trilogy to give me a 
*very* sour taste in my mouth.

-- 
"Forget the Force. Trust in the spread of the gauge."

"If knowledge creates problems, ignorance will not solve them"
-Isaac Asimov.

I try not to repeat my mistakes. That way, I can invent exciting new 
ones to make.

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-Esther Freisner

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