When to stop reading a book | Dragonlance Chronicles review

[@rabidwallaby84]

I absolutely love that you went into this speaking off the cuff! It's a very refreshing change from the highly scripted and articulated videos we get. This format kept me engaged, as if I was involved in a real-life conversation, rather than listening to someone on a stage giving a Ted Talk.

[@Eternal_Fear]

Hi! Your video got recommended to me by KZbin. It's a nice video and you bring up valid points. Especially "don't read for fun something that isn't fun for you".

[@jaesw]

It was my favorite fantasy series when I was a kid. But the first trilogy does suffer from prose that's not amazing, however the second series, Legends, that focuses on the twins I thought was fantastic. They're later stuff I also enjoyed, Dark Sword, Rose of the Prophet and their great Death Gate Cycle. I do think the best standalone Dragonlance novel is The Legend of Huma by Richard A. Knaak.

[@saskiakamerling]

Woah, I actually DNF'd the Dragonlance series at the same point in the second book! If it's of any interest to you, I thought the Death Gate Cycle by Weis and Hickman was MUCH more creative, insightful, and well written- the first book in that series, Dragon Wing, is probably in my top 10 fantasy novels :)

[@NathanaelStottlemyer]

I already ordered Dragon Wing from the Library! I've heard a lot about the author and I want to give them another try. I might even make a video on it!

[@matthewconstantine5015]

I have a soft spot for this series. As a kid, I loved stories and the idea of reading, but I struggled with actually reading. I found these at just the right time (probably 1986 or 87). I was probably 10 or 11, and they captured me in a way other things hadn't. It took me a while, but I read through the first six books, and considering before that, I think the longest thing I'd managed to read was maybe 200 pages, that was a real achievement, and gave me the confidence to become the voracious reader I became. It also helped spark my interest in tabletop RPGs, which are still important to me almost 40 years later. That said, I decided to reread them a couple years ago and I barely got through the first book. I really hated it. I think I had a lower opinion of it than you did, as I don't remember liking any of the characters, even. It was one of the strongest feelings of "you can't go home again" I've had outside of the time I actually visited my home town after 8 years away. I still hold onto the fond memories of staying up super late, listening to The Pogues, eating wintergreen Tic Tacs while reading these. But I won't be picking them up again, that's for sure. They can stay in my memories of childhood.

[@samurguybriyongtan146]

Well said, my fellow gen-x’er. Similar experience. I still love the Pouges as well! RIP Shane McGowan.

[@XpVersusVista]

Haha nice. I had the same thing, but with Harry potter books. born in the 90s I got the first HP book when I was 9 and it almost took me half a year to read that book. But my reading improved so much with each book that I read the 4th book in just 4 days cover to cover. But I never stopped liking the harry potter books haha so I'm not all the same.

[@muppen74]

They started writing the Dragonlance Chronicles books based on how a group of people actually played the Dragonlance adventures. This is very clear in the first book and a couple of description of fight scenes are really not good, just as you mentioned. There are also other things happening that is clearly based on roleplaying actions, like when Fizban throws a fireball in a cage and Raistlin obviously made his intelligence check. However, I think that as the story progresses, they moved away from how the group played and wrote it more as a story. I would say that you stopped reading approximately where everything gets better, although there is some high level high fantasy in the last book that I still feel is a bit too much. As someone wrote earlier, the follow-up Legends series is much better and also the Legend of Huma novel is very good, but then Knaak is a writer of a different calibre. My fantasy DNF's are Steven Eriksson's Malazan series, mainly because the characters were utterly boring and I couldn't care less about their fates. Also Jordan's Wheel of Time I abandoned after the seventh book as it was obvious that he just wrote several hundreds pages with no substance just so that he could describe yet another boss-fight in the end.

[@NathanaelStottlemyer]

Maybe eventually I’ll pick up dragon lance again. I still have the books. I do see your point with Wheel of Time, there were several books in the middle that when I finished them I had to sit back and think “what actually happened in this 900-page tome?” But I got through it. It probably isn’t in my top 5, but it’s probably in my top 20. Towards the end, it started to pick up speed.

[@bwg4608]

Aww, I'm sorry you stopped where you did. The character of Laurana is my all time favorite fictional character, and her story gets so good in the second half of Dragons of Winter Night. But I fully agree that there's nothing wrong with stopping on a book you aren't enjoying.

[@NathanaelStottlemyer]

I might try it again eventually, though. Right now I’m working through the death gate cycle, but eventually I might sit down and read the chronicles not for fun but to read the other books in the series that everyone loves.

[@Slim3398]

Hey man. Idk how a KZbin channel with 17 subs got recommended to me. That being said keep making videos. I like the vid and I’m gonna sub. The more you make the better you get, the larger your audience grows.

[@NathanaelStottlemyer]

Thank you! I try to release a video every Wednesday, and I very excited with how the views are starting to climb.

[@daimonsage_1o818]

I’ve heard good things about death cycle. It’s certainly on the list. If u enjoy the dnd setting, I did enjoy reading and listening to the first 6 Drizzt books. The prequels if anything. Short n sweet and good to cleanse ur palate through tougher material. I enjoyed the vid, appreciate the insight 👍

[@NathanaelStottlemyer]

I have Drizzt in the boxes downstairs, I'll be sure to check them out !

[@Rich_H_1972]

I have a soft spot for Dragonlance but its definitely not well written and I agree with you that it just tries too hard to be like Tolkien. When it does that it fails. I would say try and get back into it because it is a decent story as a whole and the follow-up trilogy is better but it isn't anything ground-breaking so no issue if you don't. By the way, if you struggle with these books then DON'T read Sword of Shannara. That's worse than Dragonlance on every metric you cited in this video - eg, story, characters, quality of writing and copying Tolkien! If I had a recommendation for you, then take a look at Roger Zelazny's book "A Night in the Lonesome October" and his Amber series - especially the Corwin Chronicles. He was a really awesome writer and new how to engage his audience.

[@luckyowl6432]

This was a good video! One thing I would recommend is that these videos would benefit from a little bit more of a script, Just a personal opinion. Thanks for the upload 😊

[@NathanaelStottlemyer]

Thanks for watching! I try to have a rough outline when I sit down for a video. I think this video had a rougher outline than normal. I'm still experimenting with how much to plan and how much I want to make up on the cuff. I'll do a bit more outline next time and try to have it more concise!

[@samurguybriyongtan146]

I liked them as a young person (early teens) it’s pretty cheesy, now. The melodrama caught me at times and I got swept away. I liked the parts about Tanis half elven, It was really a good introduction to racism and sort of the immigrant experience for a young white kid in the 80’s. Yeah, pooping on books is no fun, like you say just quit.

[@Mae-hx2ml]

That's almost the exact spot I stopped reading

[@XpVersusVista]

Hey cool video, keep it up.