Forgotten Realms

[Ice'Lord]

I'm a long time D&D fan (and a role-player) but I haven't read any of the books. Are they any good? Do you have anything to recommend?
Also which is better: Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms?

[Matthew E]

Both lines have some readable novels.

For Dragonlance, try the ones by Weis and Hickman, writing together. Order is important. The only other one I'd single out for you is Stormblade, by Nancy Varian Berberick.

Forgotten Realms: The ones by Novak and Grubb are good. Salvatore's first Drizzt series is good. Avoid Greenwood. Elaine Cunningham's not bad. 'The Ring of Winter' is good in an H. Rider Haggard kind of way.

[Blueferret]

Both lines have some readable novels.

For Dragonlance, try the ones by Weis and Hickman, writing together. Order is important. The only other one I'd single out for you is Stormblade, by Nancy Varian Berberick.

Forgotten Realms: The ones by Novak and Grubb are good. Salvatore's first Drizzt series is good. Avoid Greenwood. Elaine Cunningham's not bad. 'The Ring of Winter' is good in an H. Rider Haggard kind of way.

Agreed. The Legends and Chronicles are personal favorites in the Dragonlance line. Also, try the Avatar trilogy by Troy Denning for Forgotten Realms.

[Gezora]

I dunno. Greenwood's Spellfire novels were good.

But that could just be me.

[Ice'Lord]

How about books with Raistlin (I forgot the names)?

[Matthew E]

How about books with Raistlin (I forgot the names)?

The Weis-Hickman Dragonlance books cover all the Raistlin stuff you'd want to read.

[Ice'Lord]

How about Greyhawk? How does it compare to Dl and FR?

[Matthew E]

I've only read a few of the Greyhawk books, so I can only recommend a couple.

But this is as good a place as any to speak up for my man Paul Kidd, one of the more entertaining authors to write for TSR. He did one Forgotten Realms book (Council of Blades, which wasn't bad), one book that's independent of any of TSR's lines (Mus of Kerbridge, which was based on Kidd's own Lace and Steel game, and which is quite good), and a trilogy in the Greyhawk line (White Plume Mountain, Descent into the Depths of the Earth and Queen of the Demonweb Pits), which was very good, and which introduced the world to Escalla the faerie, one of my favourite characters in all of fiction.

[Subotai]

Hey, that's cool. Those were pretty solid books. Would've liked to have seen more.

Also Greenwood's FR stuff. Fashionable to knock Salvatore, and he was pretty raw to begin with, but his passion was evident and he worked to improve his craft as he kept writing.

[Orc Breath]

I've only read Salvatore's The Thousand Orcs and it was pretty good.

[Arvandor]

I've just read The Orc King. Enjoyed it, because I like Salvatore and I like Drizzt.

Anyway, it makes reference to a "spellplague" and "the coming of the aboleth." What is that referring to? Is it something that's happening in the rpgs (that I don't play), or is ita future event that hasn't been written yet?