dark sun novels: where should i start?

[messy]

allo

i'd like to start reading the dark sun novels. where should i start?

here's what wiki has:

* Prism Pentad - Troy Denning
1. The Verdant Passage (October 1991), (ISBN 1-56076-121-0)
2. The Crimson Legion (April 1992), (ISBN 1-56076-260-8)
3. The Amber Enchantress (October 1992), (ISBN 1-56076-236-5)
4. The Obsidian Oracle (June 1993), (ISBN 1-56076-603-4)
5. The Cerulean Storm (September 1993), (ISBN 1-56076-642-5)

* Tribe of One - Simon Hawke
1. The Outcast (November 1993), (ISBN 1-56076-676-X)
2. The Seeker (April 1994), (ISBN 1-56076-701-4)
3. The Nomad (October 1994), (ISBN 1-56076-702-2)

* Chronicles of Athas - Various Authors
1. The Brazen Gambit (July 1994), by Lynn Abbey (ISBN 1-56076-872-X)
2. The Darkness Before the Dawn (February 1995), by Ryan Hughes (ISBN 0-7869-0104-7)
3. The Broken Blade (May 1995), by Simon Hawke (ISBN 0-7869-0137-3)
4. Cinnabar Shadows (July 1995), by Lynn Abbey (ISBN 0-7869-0181-0)
5. The Rise & Fall of a Dragon King (April 1996), by Lynn Abbey (ISBN 0-7869-0476-3)

thanx

messy

 

[Wik]

Start with the same place you finish: Tribe of One. Everything else is Rubbish.

 

[humble minion]

It's hard to recommend it, to be honest.

The Prism Pentad books are terribly written and the series makes a horrible mess of the established setting in an extremely implausible way - lousy characterisation, poor plotting, no respect paid to the world, you name a reason for sucking, and these books have it. The Tribe of One books are hindered by a horrendous Mary-Sue of a main character. If you didn't like Drizzt, you'll HATE this guy (I was a 16-year-old Drizzt fan when this series was released, and Sorak was too much even for me).

Lynn Abbey's books are by FAR the best-written of all the DS fiction. Brazen Gambit and Cinnabar Shadows stand alone passably well, and Rise and Fall of a Dragon King is probably the best Dark Sun book and is pretty solid fantasy fiction in its own right, though it's very heavily entwined with the events and history of the Prism Pentad and you won't understand what's going on without reading all the way through that mess.

If Lynn Abbey had been the one to plot and write the original Prism Pentad books, then the Dark Sun novel line may well have been the best of TSR/WotCs fiction work, period. Unfortunately, Dennings' Pentad cast a long and cruddy shadow over everything that came later, fiction and game line equally...

EDIT: but ranting aside, the best order to read them in (ignoring their quality for the moment) is the order you've got them listed in the original post. Prism Pentad first, followed by Tribe of One, followed by Chronicles of Athas in order of publication. Broken Blade comes after Tribe of One. Brazen Gambit, Cinnabar Shadows, Dragon King form an unofficial trilogy, with Dragon King finishing up the whole line.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I concur with humble minion. I read the Prism Pentad purely for Dark Sun setting research purposes, hoping to delve into the thoughts of one of the settings co-creators. It IS good for that at least. Lynn Abbey's stuff is very well written fiction. Though her stuff departs from setting canon in areas, it does so in some ways I wish were canon . . .

 

[messy]

It's hard to recommend it, to be honest.

cripes. that's depressing, but i appreciate your reply.

is there any fiction geared toward gamers that's actually worthwhile??

(maybe that's a question for a different thread )

messy

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

is there any fiction geared toward gamers that's actually worthwhile??

This could be a good thread. IMO, a higher percentage of the Warhammer lines are worthwhile than in the D&D world's affiliated novel lines. But that all comes down to whether the Warhammer settings (40K and Fantasy) are palatable to your tastes, I think.

 

[Caliber]

cripes. that's depressing, but i appreciate your reply.

is there any fiction geared toward gamers that's actually worthwhile??

(maybe that's a question for a different thread )

messy

My experience with gamer fiction (that is fiction written in the context of being from the game) is normally a step below standard fantasy. Perhaps the authors simply feel constrained writing within the framework of the game? I'm unsure.

In my experience, some of the best "fiction" found within the idea of DnD is found in the story hour section of these very boards. Check out PirateCat, Sagiro, Sepulchrave, and Destran off the top of my head.

As for the Dark Sun novels, I read them all and remember them fondly when I was younger. I'm not sure if I'd recommend them, but I don't think they're as bad as some claim.

 

[Alzrius]

I personally thought that the Prism Pentad books were great, because they really get into the heart of what the setting is about. They seriously delve into both what it's like to live on Athas, and deal with the history of the setting, as well as introducing a new time of change, upheaval, and possibility. They worked very well, and the characters were interesting and fairly well fleshed-out. I strongly recommend them as the best Dark Sun books out there.

The Tribe of One stuff wasn't bad, but I agree that the character was too overpowered, and occupied a fairly ridiculous (at best) moral high-ground that made him extremely difficult to like. In such a gritty setting, characters work best when they occupy a moral grey zone, not when they act like a paladin who's above it all.

Finally, I didn't like Lynn Abbey's works at all, simply because she kept deviating from the setting canon. I can't respect a book that does that, because if you can't keep straight basic facts about the setting, why are you writing a book in that setting in the first place? She's a great writer, and her books are good...they're just not Dark Sun, but rather, are a facsimile of the setting, which isn't what I wanted to read.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Finally, I didn't like Lynn Abbey's works at all, simply because she kept deviating from the setting canon. I can't respect a book that does that, because if you can't keep straight basic facts about the setting, why are you writing a book in that setting in the first place?

From an interview I read with her, she was asked about the deviation from setting canon. She replied that her connections at TSR gave her the barest, thinnest, of details on the setting beyond what was in the public sources at the time she was writing. So she made things up as she felt would suit her characters and story. By the time her books were published the setting shepherds at TSR had released products that would step on her books.

PLUS, in the era of Dark Sun's run, the TSR novel lines were separate from the TSR RPG lines. Getting the two departments to communicate with each other was a colossal undertaking. The novels line had deadlines to reach and so they told their authors only so much because the RPG guys didn't want to have their metastory all splashed all over the world by poorly restrained authors.

Having the novels line apart from the RPG line is also one of the reasons FR's authors so often seemed to come up with an apocalypse of the week as so many author's tried to make their story as epically important as everyone else's, then the RPG guys were left to pick up the pieces year after year.

Lynn Abbey's Dark Sun books canon deviation was a result of this environment, not her disregard for canon. She wasn't kept in the loop, and TSR's RPG department had no incentive for them to overcome departmental inertia and bring her in to the loop.

 

[catsclaw227]

I didn't even notice this thread when I posted my other one about the series reprint.

Were the Denning novels really that bad?

I personally thought that the Prism Pentad books were great, because they really get into the heart of what the setting is about. They seriously delve into both what it's like to live on Athas, and deal with the history of the setting, as well as introducing a new time of change, upheaval, and possibility. They worked very well, and the characters were interesting and fairly well fleshed-out. I strongly recommend them as the best Dark Sun books out there.

Does this mean they are good in general, or just the best of the Dark Sun novels? How well did they stay on canon or was there even much canon at the time they were being written?

Lynn Abbey's Dark Sun books canon deviation was a result of this environment, not her disregard for canon. She wasn't kept in the loop, and TSR's RPG department had no incentive for them to overcome departmental inertia and bring her in to the loop.

At this point in the whole thing, will current canon be that important if they will be renewing it as a 4e setting? Maybe, because they are reprinting the Denning books, they are setting up the foundation for the setting to match what is in his novels?

[just speculation]