How Dragonlance changed my life

In this video, I share the story of how the Dragonlance series transformed my life and ignited my passion for reading.
#booktube #reading #books #dragonlance #MargaretWeis #TracyHickman
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[@DLSaga]

Great job on the video! I love hearing about others' experience with Dragonlance.

[@RazuTales]

Thank you so much for your kind words! I'm glad you enjoyed the video.

[@MrHighlander666]

Along with The Hobbit and Terry Brooks original Shannara trilogy, Dragonlance was also my gateway to fantasy fiction and RPG's. As you said every character in the group develops as the books progress and probably my favourite is Flint (yes I'm biased, I love dwarves!). He is the perfect comedy foil for Tasslehoff, pretty much always falling foul of the Kenders mischief. However I always read him as the original leader of the group and his travels with Tanis are all about preparing him to become leader of their group. Flints development is different from the others in the group and probably the most tragic, he is old and his body and mind just don't work as quickly or efficiently as he wants. This is what gives him his gruffness and at times rudeness. Tasslehoffs optimism and childish nature however almost act as an antidote to this and help Flint deal with his aging body and mind. It's almost as if Tasslehoff knows what Flint is going through but would never approach the subject with the grumpy dwarf. Their friendship really hit a note with me and without spoilers I'm not afraid to say it made me shed a tear or two.

[@RazuTales]

Totally get what you mean about Flint and Tasslehoff, they are such a unique duo that adds so much depth to the story!

[@Whylde-Tech]

Like you, this world is what got me into reading and fantasy in general.

[@RazuTales]

That's awesome to hear! It's amazing how books and fantasy worlds can have such a profound impact on our lives.

[@Red-Dragon96]

Nice video. Keep up the good work 👍

[@RazuTales]

Thank you so much for your kind words! I really appreciate your support.

[@pjmisley]

I was in 7th grade, helping my dad run a xnas tree stand in Graham, WA. We went to the nearby Safeway and he told me i could get a book to read while i sat in the trailer waiting for customers to come buy trees. Now that i think about it, i doubt anyone would leave a 7th grader in charge of a business these days. Lol.. but the book i found was Dragons of Winter Night.... i didnt know it was the second book in a trilogy! Even though i couldnt fully grasp the story i knew i had found something special.

[@travisdonaldstanley6420]

Goblins? In Solace? My gateway into DragonLance was the SNES game Legendary of Zelda 3, A Link to the Past. I borrowed from a neighbor. Then later at K-Mart around 1992 or so was Dragons of Autumn Twilight. The first fantasy book I read. The covers were amazing. I liked Sturm the most, which makes sense. I'm a Cancer Sun, Virgo Moon, and Scorpio rising. Or an INFJ-T. Which basically boils down to Paladin, Oath of the Ancients.

[@RazuTales]

Thanks for sharing your journey into the world of DragonLance. It's always fascinating to hear how people discover new interests.

[@grimdm]

Dragonlance absolutely has been a huge part of my life and I always love to revisit Krynn

[@RazuTales]

Krynn is like a second home to us Dragonlance fans, right?

[@mercycunningham2813]

Those books saved me from the boredom of my live as a country girl. Had to travel an hour to get English books back then. Those and Elfquest comics were all my heart could ever want. I heard someone reading the first book on KZbin (not an official audio book) and I swear I now can hear the dice roll when something good or bad happend. It was still a fun story to experience again and well told but as a player and GM it's obvious this was a campaign the authors played.

[@RazuTales]

Thank you for sharing your experience with those books and comics. I also read a bit of Elfquest back then, but my local library didn't have that many. It's great to see how they made a difference in your life.

[@webvudu6998]

For me this was David Eddings "The Belgariad" and "The Mallorean". Full of the standard tropes, a nobody boy becomes Wizard and king. None of the cultures were unique, all based on real world ancient cultures. There was a pilgrim country, a Roman country, a viking country, etc. But there's something comforting and enjoyable about the common tropes when they're well done, especially when you enjoy the characters that are moving through them.

[@RazuTales]

So, Eddings basically took a tour around the ancient world and turned it into a fantasy setting - creative recycling!

[@webvudu6998]

Yes exactly. And I guess for a younger YA audience it made it easier to conceptualize the environment. I didn't realize the extent of the "recycling" till I reread the series in my twenties. Didn't bother me any though

[@greygryphon6881]

My teenaged heart adored these books and characters!

[@RazuTales]

Totally get you! Those characters were everything back in the day, right?

[@greygryphon6881]

@@RazuTales Yes, I even did some sort of project in my lit class on one of them! And I gave a "presentation" in our sci-fi/fantasy club about Raistlin

[@geotag1272]

i dont know why yt recommended me this but now in interested with dragonlance - never heard of it before

[@RazuTales]

That's awesome to hear! Dragonlance is a fantastic series to dive into if you enjoy fantasy. There's A LOT of books. But it all starts with The Chronicles. The writing has gotten a lot better over the years as well, with multiple authors contributing. Hope you enjoy exploring the world of Krynn!

[@whatsupdate]

I need to read these books, thanks for sharing them

[@CliffsDarkGems]

Wonderful video! Dragonlance was a massive part of my childhood and I would love to give The Chronicles and Twins Trilogies a re-read one day. Tas is one of my favorite characters in all fiction. 😀 I also really loved the wizard.. Fizball...I think? I have to say I think the Twins Trilogy is my favorite in the entire series in terms of the writing, mature themes, originality, character arcs and storytelling. Magnificent! Let me know if you would like to have a live chat sometime.

[@travisdonaldstanley6420]

Fizban. I agree that Legends was the best Trilogy. Granted, Chronicles was excellent.

[@RazuTales]

Tas and Fizban are truly unforgettable characters, adding so much charm and magic to the series. Thank you for watching!

[@travisdonaldstanley6420]

@@CliffsDarkGems Kender are really really hard to make a race stat block for. I think they are very different from Halflings.

[@CliffsDarkGems]

@@travisdonaldstanley6420 True!

[@CANDROU1]

Great video! Huge DL fan myself. The authors' skill level has increased exponentially since Chronicles, though I still love those books! I recommend the Lost Chronicles Trilogy if you haven't read it yet. That's the perfect combination of nostalgia and expert storytelling and fills in the gaps of events that took place during the Chronicles with most of the same characters. Cheers!

[@RazuTales]

I'm glad you enjoyed the video and share the same passion for Dragonlance! I have read the Lost Chronicles trilogy and I completely agree that their writing has gotten better over the years. Thank you very much for watching and supporting the channel! :-)

[@mrlovanhey]

I remember the Chronicles quite fondly as they were my gateway into fantasy when I was a kid. And of course I also have to mention the "Twins" trilogy which was excellent too. Do you know if we can get it as a board game?

[@RazuTales]

You can check out the boardgame "Warriors of Krynn". There's also a bunch of D&D expansions I know you will love.

[@Aletheahthomas]

Dragonlance was the best in my early teens. Raistlin Majere was my first book boyfriend 😂

[@RazuTales]

Raistlin is awesome. He was my favourite and probably still is one of my favourite characters :-)

[@mercycunningham2813]

Mine too. My best friend and I would nagg the owner of the only shop that had US DnD stuff to order more Dragonlance books. One girl in a game store was an uncommon sight. Two was a menace. 😂 There was no Amazon to order English books back then and bookstores charged an arm and a leg for imported books.

[@travisdonaldstanley6420]

I'm in the extreme minority. Never was much of a fan of Raist. He was a villain in the Legends Books. He was a paradox. He had amazing Fortitude and Will Power, yet was jealous of his Brother who really loved him, which denotes an insecure person who dislikes themselves. Charismatic people like themselves. Ultimately, once Cam stopped giving unconditional love, Raist respected his brother the most! Truly powerful writing. The build up to the confrontation at the portal was amazing. I really respected Raist for his decision at the end of Legends. Even though he lost his identity after the test, he still had compassion and empathy (Bupa)😉 Additionally, I'm in the minority with understanding the hard decision that Par-Salian had to make when Raist took the test. All in all the Archmage got the job done. Lastly, Par-Salian was sending back Cam to be saved, but not Raist. And it happened! Cam finally was his own person when Legends ended. Thanks to Tas. It's safe to text I liked Cam way more than his Twin. 😊

[@iraclements3671]

Old? These came out when I was a freshman in high school.

[@RazuTales]

Haha, crazy how time flies, right?

[@Estupendomagnifico1]

I only discovered Dragonlance after having read modern authors like Sanderson, Hobb, Gwynne, Rothfuss, etcetera. And I fell in love with it. I thought: THIS is fantasy. This is what fantasy should be. Modern fantasy is dull in my opinion. It lacks the real heart of the genre, its childlike spontaneity, its sense of wonder.... it's all too overexplained, too technical, too "constructed". Entire chapters are spent on characters sitting around in meetings, political debates or explaining the science behind the magic. Characters are used to explore modern-day psychological issues such as depression, rather than being larger-than-life classic archetypes. That's not fantasy. Classic fantasy like Dragonlance was written from a simple love for the genre. Tropes are good. And I mean that as an unqualified statement. Tropes make me feel at home, they tell me "this author gets it". Good fantasy storytelling is not about pursuing originality for its own sake, it's about transporting the reader to a realm of magic and adventure. And Dragonlance does that exceptionally well. Also, the character work gets quite deep. The Raistlin-Caramon dynamic in these books is really quite wonderful. I struggle to find that same kind of warmth and insight in recent fantasy novels. Or maybe I just haven't been looking in the right places.