Craig J. Ries wrote:
> > They do matter to me, actually. But what I'm saying here is that the
> > overall combined effect presented DRAGONLANCE: FIFTH AGE as a totally
> > separate brand.
>
> Well, in a sense, it was. DoSF forced change upon the world, whether it
> was wanted or not.
Heh! So, is the Fiffth Age DRAGONLANCEY or not? :-)
Hey, Chronicles forced change upon the world, too, and we didn't see
Legends
under a different logo. ;-)
> Well, we don't know the reasoning behind that. For all we know, Elmore
> didn't want to work on DL at that point, or he didn't have the time...
> And no, I didn't like any of Easley's art for that stuff either; I don't
know
> why he changed styles, but it wasn't for the better.
I would guess from the DoSF and Doom Brigade covers that Elmore was
willing to work. But, you're right, I don't know, and there could have
been
other factors. However, it's but one part of an overall trend which
points
to a conscious effort to distance the new line from the old, and to
"start
fresh" as much as possible. I wonder if "they" asked Easley for a
"grittier" look that they (quite reasonably) considered Elmore
incapable
of.
> As a side note: when did FR 'update' their logo? Anybody know when or
> why? I'm guessing it was a 3E thing, off the top of my head. Logos tend
> to change when editions change, which is when DL changed theirs.
Yeah, the new FR logo was for 3.0e. Which is why I'm hoping DL is in
for
one next--hoping WotC makes DL a fully-sup****ted setting.
BTW, for the DL logo, for a few years they used the new logo in Fifth
Age
products, and kept the old logo for new novels set in the Fourth Age.
Then
they dropped the "Fifth Age" from the new logo, and began to use if
for all
books.
> But now everybody is writing in the present, with Niles having jumped us
> ahead another decade or so, so that took away much of the impact of the
> Minotaur trilogy would've had.
Other than Weis, the authors seem to have strictly proscribed limits
with
regard to characters and regions that their books can affect. The evil
gods
are very carefully ****tioned out, because naturally most books rely on
the
machinations of one of them (Weis gets three). Solamnia is a pretty
large
****tion of the Ansalon map, but despite all its bluster, the effect of
Niles's
trilogy is purely local to core Solamnia, not even affecting Sanction
and
Sancrist, currently the real bastions of the Knighthood of Solamnia
itself.
He mentions Lord Tasgall as still running the KoS but he's apparently
off-
limits to the trilogy.
Similarly, Knaak's trilogy deals with the Minotaur lands, Silvanesti,
and
the neighboring Ogres, but that's about it. Galdar is off-limits,
though
according to WoS and DD he's of key im****tance to the Minotaur Wars.
> Of course, we've been begging for years to have more stuff in the
> present, so we've gotten exactly what we wanted. So, I see no reason to
> complain if Knaak's stuff wasn't quite as perhaps we first thought.
Not complaining. :-)
> Perhaps another problem with 'core' novels is that they tend to be
> earth-shattering. And in the end, the Minotaur Trilogy wasn't.
Legends wasn't earth-shattering either. I'm hoping DD will be a
"Legends"
to WoS's "Chronicles." Incidentally, the first half of the first book
of
DoaNA was earth-shattering in its own right, though not much
noteworthy happened in the rest of the trilogy.
> I'm not sure the Rise of Solamnia trilogy is either (I haven't read it
> yet). It too has advanced the timeline forward a bit, and that seems to
> be a big qualifier of 'core' as well - the only reason many would say
> DoaNA even counts as 'core'.
I think core can now be defined as:
1. Advancing the timeline, AND
2. Affecting much or all of Ansalon (if not all of Krynn); not just of
local im****tance.
But, by the latter part of this definition, it fails again upon
consideration
of Legends. I don't think we can retroactively decide what is and
isn't
core. Basically, it's core if it was core at the time. DoaNA is core
because its audience at that time waited with baited breath for the
next
book to see what the fallout is, and their view of the world situation
changed when that book came out. Same with Legends--in the end,
the only thing that really happened was Kitiara's attack on Palanthas.
But we weren't sure that would be the case until the end of the third
book.
And right now, in the post-WoS world, the only series that all of DL
fandom is waiting upon with baited breath and excitement/trepidation
and spoiler warnings is DD. That doesn't mean it's well-liked; though
of
course the general sentiment on this forum decried DoaNA and WoS
both. Personally, the first book of DD I really hated, and the second
book began to include more interesting characters and topics for me. I
still had serious problems with it, but I admit being caught up in the
story. Regards.
--Falconer
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