[allanon]

I'll got them tomorrow. What do you think of this series? Are they better than the Chronicles?

[perfume]

Like a Chinese proverb, they're spring and fall, both have special beauty of it own.

[Belderan]

ooh! i've just bought te first dragonlance chronicle book, what are they like?

[Qin]

Dragonlance: Chronicles is Lord of the Rings Lite. There's the troubled half-elf, the bumbling comedian, the bi-polar dwarf, the evil wizard, etc. It's all in good fun if you're capable of enjoying cliche literature.

The writing itself isn't stunning in any shape or form. It's rather straightforward and matter-of-fact. The story itself involves a quest with an item everyone wants and the good guys have. And there're 'EEEVVVILLL' bad guys dressed in black, as the Evil Overlord Guide demands they be.

And it's a trilogy of course, and channeling the spirit of Tolkien the whole time. Or trying to, at least. It's derivative, it's easy to read, and it's frivolous.

The Legends trilogy, on the other hand, is a bit less interesting, and the writing is questionable. Fat knights, time traveling, and more eeeevvviiiilll wizards. For whatever reason, the writing suffered a decrease in quality, and plot, while interesting, didn't seem as world spanning and interesting as Chronicles.

[Crysania]

Qin,

I disagree COMPLETELY. I thought Chronicles was flat with boring characters, trite dialogue, and a predictable storyline. I really didn't enjoy it at ALL. Legends is NIGHT and DAY with Chronicles. I LOVE it. It's MUCH deeper in scope and the relationship between Crysania and Raistlin is what I like to say the Wuthering Heights of fantasy. It's dark, twisted, and just sad as hell. I have to say Legends is an awesome piece of fantasy while Chronicles is light pulp-fantasy.

READ THEM

[Qin]

I'd rather read Mary Daly than read Legends ;P

[allanon]

Hey, be nice! I love the Chronicles! http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Bond]

I loved Legends but only liked Chronicles. Perhaps it was because I'm interested in magicians more than fighters, maybe Chronicles being about a band of fighters on a quest struck me as too generic, maybe Tanis and Sturm were less interesting than Raistlin and Crysania--maybe Chronicles was too much like Tolkien. In any event Legends was more epic and impressed me more.

[Warewolf]

I thoroughly enjoyed both series for one main reason: the characters. Weis and Hickman have a knack for character interaction. All of the characters are different, too. A lot of times in fantasy, you'll get characters that seem to be really similar to each other. Not in this case. Now, while I enjoyed Chronicles more than Legends, I think that was just personal taste as far as the storyline went. The writing, however, was equally good in both. I am looking forward to reading their War of Souls trilogy once it's completed.

[allanon]

I started "Time of the Twins" and they are great after 100 pages. Looks super so far...