Forgotten Realms - I need advice

[Zidane]

Hi all

I have just discovered a DnD book and game shop five minutes from where I work.

As I have never bought a fantasy book until I discovered this shop, (apart from a few Terry Pratchett, which aren't the same) I felt a little bit lost and foolish when I went in and looked around. Sorry. They are great guys and gals by the way.

Anyway I bought "The Dark Elf Trilogy" by R A Salvatore, read these from cover to cover and I am hooked. I have just bought "The Cleric Quintet" again by Salvatore and have just started to read it.

I have also bought a couple of Troy Dennings, but I am finding it harder to get into the style of writing. I will give it time.

But, and a bit BUT, now I am into these books I need advice on the order of how I read them.

I plan on buying as many as I can over the next few months, so I can learn a lot more about the games I am playing on my PC.

What is the best order to read them in. This shop has lots of Forgotten Realms Stuff, but I want to do this properly, not jump backwards and forwards.

They also have masses of Dragonlance stuff, but as I don't know the first thing about this I think I will stick to Forgotten Realms for the time being. I need your input. They have got a massive tome that I am tempted by.

When was the first FR book published, and from what? The original PnP games people made up? Please excuse the ignorance as I am very new to the topic of DnD. And I know all my friends on this board will help me out.

Thanks for all your help.

Lady Zidane (a newbie to the fantasy books)

[Jorath Calar]

Well I havn't read much but The Icewind Dale, The Silent Blade, Spine of the world and servants of the shard are follow up to The Dak Elf Trilogy (I don't remember the order though...

You could search for FR on Amazon as they probably have all the FR books ever Published, good luck [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Azred]

<font color = lightgreen>Earlier books include Spellfire, Curse of the Azure Bonds, The Wyvern's Spur, The Moonshae Trilogy (Blackwell, and the other two names escape me), the Time of Troubles Trilogy (Shadowdale, Tantras, and Waterdeep), Prince of Lies, and Crucible. Those are all the titles I can remember; there are some books set in Maztica and Kara-Tur, but I've never looked at them. There is no specific order in which you have to read them, of course. [img]graemlins/petard.gif[/img] </font>

[Memnoch]

A couple of things might help you, Lady Zidane. The first one is a list of all the Forgotten Realms novels in chronological order, so you know what happened when, and it's useful in keeping perspective on background events (the Time of Troubles, etc). Just be aware that some books are better than others. Rob Salvatore, Elaine Cunningham, Troy Denning and Jim Lowder are names you want to look out for.

Another useful link is the Forgotten Realms Novel Guide, which you might find useful as well.

Have fun. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Rimjaw]

There's also the Elminster series by Edwin Greenwood. But I'm not really into it, Elminster is just too Godlike IMHO.

[ 07-17-2002, 09:05 AM: Message edited by: Rimjaw ]

[Zidane]

Thanks everyone, especially Memnoch for the links, I am going to be busy methinks. I will have to take a list every so often to my new found shop and get them to order for me if they have not got them in stock.

Once again thank you

I have always been an avid book reader, and an avid gamer and now that I can read about the characters I meet in games, even better.

I wonder when I get time to go to work.......

Lady Zidane

[Morgeruat]

try to avoid books by Ed Greenwood (some people like them, can't imagine who, they're total crap, useful only as toilet paper) Waterdeep (by troy denning in disguise left me with a bitter taste for forgotten realms book, my friend convinced me to read it and it took 3 years and ALOT of recommendatiosn from cousins and friends before I picked up another book, and that one was given to me, they were the dark elf trilogy by bob salvatore). My advice is check out a few diferent authors and if you like their work read what they have written, one of teh biggest problems is that almost anyone can get published (or so it seems) with a shared world series like forgoten realms, or dragonlance, and so there is alot of crap floating around the pond.

oh yeah, Elayne Cunningham is good too

Dragonlance books are good, but there are alot of diferent authors writing about the same characters, so continuity suffers, my recomendations for that are Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickmen (stuff co-written by them) and Richard Knaack, one or two others, but mostly those two.

oh, a random thought, a cheap way to read the diferent authors work and develope opinions is to get the short story compendiums and read them.

[ 07-21-2002, 08:02 PM: Message edited by: Morgeruat ]

[Rimjaw]

Douglas Niles is a pretty good Dragonlance writer as well. And yes, I agree, don't read anything by Ed Greenwood.

[ 07-21-2002, 10:32 PM: Message edited by: Rimjaw ]

[Luvian]

I read most Forgotten Realms book in french, and all of them have been given a number for easy reference. I can't understand why they don't do that in English also.

[Morgeruat]

usually the books in a series are given a number, like the harpers seires, and you can just track the series back to book one