Collecting Elven Exiles

IMG_20160609_154444The Dragonlance Canticle inspired me to read the Elven Exiles trilogy. Since this is out of print it is really difficult to get this series, however, that will not stop me from trying.

Today I received the second book in the series, so I can’t start reading just yet. Good thing I am still  reading the Taladas trilogy.

Now reading: Taladas trilogy

461b610e65dbbb2a14b4fabc0f245d30One of the really sad things about the death of Dragonlance in my opinion, is the fact that wew ill never see any real meaningful development of the continent of Talads. I have started reading Chris Pierson’s excellent trilogy, and the more I read the more I want to explore this continent.

I was never a bg fan of the Time of the Dragon boxed set, simply because it lacked some of the details I was interested in at the time. Especially NPC stats, organizations, cities etc. were never really fleshed out to the extent that I wanted to see. Now that all my game material is packed away I cannot revisit this set, but I wonder if I would see it differently today.

Adding insult to injury, I believe that Margaret Weis and her good people were working on a Taladas sourcebook when Wizards cancelled the licensing deal. Given the quality of the material Weis et al. released, I can only fantasize about what they could have accomplished with a Taladas sourcebook.

Star Wars Novels Canon

Release date in-universe timeline Title
July 2015 19 BBY Dark Disciple
April 2015 14 BBY Lords of the Sith
November 2014 14 BBY Tarkin
October 2015 14 BBY Rise of the Empire
September 2014 11 BBY A New Dawn
March 2015 0 ABY Heir to the Jedi
November 2015 1 ABY Battlefront: Twilight Company
September 2015 4 ABY Aftermath
May 2016 4 ABY Aftermath – Life Debt
March 2016 28 ABY Bloodline

Ever since I started reading Star Wars again, I have been trying to stick to the new canon books. It can be a little difficult to navigate if you have been reading all the EU books, so I managed to steal this list from Wikipedia.

I am not planning to keep this list updated, but I suspect the wiki page will be kept up-to-date.

Delivery

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Tomorow I will be receiving a small batch of Start Wars books from Amazon. It has been a very long time since I last purchased anyt´hing like this, except for that one Start Wars book I bought in Seattle around Christmas of course.

Last week, the wife and I have built a set of book cases in the living room, which allowed me to bring in my entire book collection. All my books and gamin materials have been stoved away in the shed after we had our third child two years ago, so it is really nice to have at least the books back in the house. In fact, it was so inspiring that I went to Amazon to exercise the credit card, but I also started looking at Blades of the Tiger, which is a part of one of the very best Dragonlance trilogies. Now, I will read my new Start Wars books first, but after that I will return to Krynn.

Up next: Not so sure

I have now re-read seven Dragonlance books, and it is time to dive into the box of books and find something new to read.

I have read a non-fiction book, which reminded me too much of my horrible bachelor’s degree, so it’s time to return to fiction big time. So far, I am thinking of putting Dragonlance on the back burner for a few weeks, so the choice now is between Forgotten Realms, the original Drizzt books, or Star Wars, the Thrawn trilogy.

Now reading: The Legend of Huma

legendofhumaHaving finished some of the “newer” Dragonlance novels, I have decided to return to one of the classics, The Legend of Huma. In the past I have always read this novel after Chronicles and Legends, but this time around I am avoiding the two original trilogies in order to focus on the “peripheral” stories. I have always found Richard A. Knaak to be one of the best Dragonlance writers and this one is in my opinion of the best ever written. I mean think about the characters: Huma, Magius, Kaz, Crynus and of course the renegade mastermage Galan Dracos. Furthermore we meet some ultimate dragons like Charr and Wyrmfather not to mention a young Cyan Bloodbane What’s not to like?

From a gaming perspective there’s a ton of material that can be turned into some really exciting content. Unfortunately no one ever did. So be it. We still have a really good novel, which I have read several times and probably will read several more times.

Dragons of a vanished moon

I finished Dragons of a vanished moon the other day. This is the second time I have read that book, and strangely enough, I liked much better the second time around. I think it’s because I rushed through the first time I read it. Back in the day, I just wanted to get through it and get to the part where the gods return. This time it was much more enjoyable to just enjoy the story and follow the progress.

Having finished the War of Souls trilogy, I am still left with a weird feeling. Call me old fashioned, but I never really understood the change that the Age of Mortals brought. The whole Chaos aspect of the pantheon always seemed very out of place or perhaps a bit rushed, and that makes the story a little abrupt for me. On the other hand one could argue that Dragonlance really had nowhere to go after the Legends since the stories were so powerful. However, I still think it was a good time to move the setting forward. Anyway, killing of some gods and changing pretty much everything about the setting certainly changed that. The Dragonlance we saw right before the setting died was much darker and grittier than we had ever seen.

In many ways, the setting was left much more interesting than before and from that perspective, the Age of Mortals was a good thing. It ensured that Dragonlance left a beautiful looking corpse.

Dragons of a Lost Star

In my quest to re-read the War of Souls trilogy I have now come to the second installment, Dragons of a Lost Star. Actually I am half way done with it but still. Anyway, as I updated the blog header it hit me that I should have started with Dragons of Summer Flame to get the whole back story again. However, Summer Flame always depresses me, which is probably the reason why I have never read it more than once.

I am really enjoying Lost Star, so perhaps my impression of the Age of Mortals clouded my judgment back in the day. It’s too bad we will never see another Dragonlance novel, but at least we have a lot old ones to read.

Reading again

Oh, how I have missed reading. It’s like massage for my brain.

So, I am reading the War of Souls trilogy again. While reading the Minotaur Wars I felt like reading War of Souls, to see if I still felt the same way about it as the last time. I was never a fan of what was done to Dragonlance setting during the 5th Age and Summer of Flame, but maybe the years away from Dragonlance would give a new appreciation of this age. Let’s see.

I have only read a couple of chapters and I already dislike Silvan, perhaps more than the first time I read Dragons of Summer Flame. But, it is still nice to be back on Krynn. 

Winter is almost over

And I have decided to stop whining. Well, it’s a little bit more complicated than that actually.

I was reading a thread on the Dragonlance Forum, where people were talking about how they’ve stopped reading. Either they didn’t have the time, or they were unable to stay focused because they had lost the ability to concentrate on reading. This was mostly due to the use of social networks.

So anyway, I have not read for a long time, and I was beginning to fear that I lost the ability to read anything that wasn’t work related. When reading the newspaper on my way to work, I found myself skipping through the articles, which seemed to support my suspicion.

Last weekend the wife and I talked about getting rid of the desk in our living room and instead make a reading corner with bookshelves, chairs etc. So, to check what damage the Internet had done to my brain I went to the shed and got out the first book in the pile: Night of Blood.

Well, a week later I have finished the book, and it turned out I had no problem whatsoever focusing on reading. I even shut off the phone and the PC and just read. That was freedom – complete freedom in my mind.

So, now I will bring in all my books and reread them like there is no tomorrow, because I just realized how much I miss reading and how much I detest constant notifications on my phone.