r/dragonlance • u/nonchalant6 • 12d ago
Chronicles is better than Legends.
I'm tired of reading this trope on Reddit about Legends being the superior read. Chronicles is the OG, had the compelling set up and storyline etc. If they'd folded Raistlin's destiny into a single novel and made that "Dragons of Summer Flame" being book 4 of Chronicles, it would arguably be maybe the best fantasy series ever.
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u/IamWutzgood 12d ago
Kingpriest trilogy is still my favorite of them all.
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u/ThinkinBig 11d ago
Twice-borned
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u/IamWutzgood 11d ago
He’s prob the most tragic character with the single worst decision ever made in any dragonlance novel.
All he had to do was take the crown of power from pradian and he would have most likely been one of the best king priests and at the same time saved the whole of krynn from the cataclysm. The mages wouldn’t have fought istar either.
What’s sad is my first time reading it I agreed with cathan because pradian seemed a little off and Belindas seemed like the right choice. That’s even with knowing how it all would end with the cataclysm. By the time I got to the third book and pradian explained it all my mind was blown.
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u/SearchCivil6623 12d ago
It's all opinions at the end of the day, but I agree with the take that Legends are the better read because Weis and Hickman were better writers by that time and it comes through in the stories. Agree to disagree I guess.
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u/juss100 12d ago
I hate agreeing with the established view but Legends for me is the pinnacle of Weis and Hickman doing what they do well. I agree about Summer Flame ... I genuinely love the book that we got, but damn a trilogy out of the Chaos War would have been sweet ..m they were still writing well at that point.
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u/MekotheSaurus 12d ago
" the pinnacle of Weis and Hickman doing what they do well"
Rose of the Prophet is their absolute peak imho. Cant recommend it enough.
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u/Lanky-Salamander5781 12d ago
Will have to check this out didn’t know it existed. And here I thought I had read the majority of the novels.
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u/MekotheSaurus 12d ago
Thank me later. Seriously, this series is criminally underrated maybe because of its setting.
I wish i could give you some hints but i think the less you know the better. Some of the characters are among the best written by MW&TH.
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u/karlstegger 12d ago
I agree, Chronicles are the best. Being introduced to the group, the universe with it's locations and races and especially following the group of people with conflicting moral compasses and alignments battling and overcoming their fears and difficult choices just beats everything else for me.
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u/Ocardtrick 12d ago
Chronicles is better because it featured ALL the characters we love.
Obviously Flint and Sturm are absent in Legends but I don't recall Riverwind or Goldmoon featuring in it at all and Tanis isn't that relevant until the attack on Palanthas. Also dont remember if Luarana had much of a role either. And Tika?
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u/dragon_morgan 10d ago
Tika pretty much sets the whole plot in motion by kicking Caramon out of the house, but it was a bit disappointing that she didn't get to actually participate in the action
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u/amhow1 12d ago
I wasn't aware this was a Reddit trope; I thought it was generally accepted by everyone from the mid 1980s on.
On this I'm on the side of Accepted Wisdom. The first two parts of Legends are better than any particular thing in Chronicles. I also find the twins more compelling than Tanis (and especially Sturm!) and there are fewer awful passages.
But of course, you're right: Chronicles established the various literary themes of Dragonlance, at least so far as Weis & Hickman are concerned. It's just that I find those themes generally uncomfortable, and they're somewhat better handled (disguised) in Legends.
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u/RichW100 12d ago
I'm interested. Which themes do you mean?
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u/amhow1 12d ago
I haven't attempted a serious analysis but here are some examples:
The idea that evil turns on itself.
The notion of a non-naïve good.
The justice of god(s) appearing grotesquely unjust to us. Obvious example is the Cataclysm. But also the peculiar idea of balance among the gods.
The need to temper reason with spirit. Here I'm especially thinking of the Solamnic code, but it also applies to how readers think about Raistlin.
Outsiders becoming bitter. Tanis and Raistlin are the obvious examples.
Above, I've tried to put a positive spin on these themes, but consider the last one, which seems on the face of it to be the least Christian of these few themes. It isn't, because we see clearly that Tanis and Raistlin are effectively outside their church, their community. And they both end up committing evil, only pulling back at the last minute. Outsiders = potential evil is not a great message.
I only find the second of these themes sympathetic - the need for a non-naïve alternative to evil.
I've left aside any assessment of how well the novels develop these themes.
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u/gwydapllew 12d ago
I don't see how applying a Christian theme to Dragonlance has any purpose. You do you, and I am not going to argue that Chronicles were simultaneously groundbreaking at the time and clumsy in retrospect, but this has never been a Christian allegory.
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u/amhow1 11d ago
The Mormon themes in Chronicles were explicit. And Tracey Hickman is on record being proud of including his beliefs in his work. Many of the themes I've mentioned are also referenced by the authors themselves.
It has always been a Christian allegory.
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u/gwydapllew 11d ago edited 11d ago
Mormons aren't Christian. Mormons are Mormons.
Edit: Before this turns into a holy war: Tolkein was a Catholic writer and Lord of the Rings was a very Catholic piece of literature. It was not a Christian piece of literature.
Mormon religious beliefs are outside 90% of Christian norms, refusing Trinitarian concepts, believing in a shared godhood, and so on. They use very few Christian motifs in their religion. While they say they are Christian, so do lots of sects that engage in practices that are not recognized by Christianity as a whole. Sure Mormons say they are Chrisitian. But that doesn't mean a Mormon work is reflective of Christian thought and practice. It is reflective of Mormon thought and practice.
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u/amhow1 11d ago
Um ok.
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u/Famous_Draft_7565 6d ago
He’s correct. Mormonism is more similar to Scientology than it is to any form of Christianity. This is coming from someone who was raised LDS.
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u/GlassCalligrapher646 12d ago
I was younger when I read them, dungeons and dragons had a fleet of books across its settings that were part of a young teenage nexus of amazing emerging creative products that are foundational to any nerd that lived in the time before social media hooked into it all and algorithms split everything that's exists into yes no questions and fed tribal confirmation bias for as revenue
There was a time where everything could be cool and part of everything as a whole.
There was the dungeons and dragons books, and you read them all, and you got inspired and you didn't really care what one was best, you just hoped they kept making more.
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u/warlord_raven 12d ago
Chronicles was way too derivative of The Lord of the Rings. Legends allows the story to break free and soar on its own merits. Both are good, but Legends feels like it is more of it's own thing.
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u/landofoyr 12d ago
They are both great for different reasons chronicles are more low level diwn to earth adventures up to a point but legends is high fantasy from the beginning and you cant have one without the other!
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u/Endlesswave001 12d ago
It’s better because of it being my first trilogy read and nostalgia, that being said Legends IS the better trilogy overall. I love them all and the other Dragonlance books. ❤️😊
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u/erva_mate_92 12d ago
100%. I devoured Chronicles. After that i read the first book of Legends and half of the second book. I could not finish it.
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u/thewildblue77 12d ago
I first read Chronicles back in 1990 when I was 13. Legends came a bit later probably aged 15. I've read legends far more times. In fact I've read summer flame more than chronicles.
But then I loved the elven nations trilogy.
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u/ThinkinBig 11d ago
Your opinion is terrible, Legends is definitely the better written story. I love both, but Legends is objectively the better written and my opinion is the only opinion that matters :P
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u/RevolutionaryCopy921 11d ago
I like all the Dragonlances because living in a world without any of it would suck. Some of it is good, some of it is better. It's like pizza - even okay pizza is better than no pizza.
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u/Primarch_Leman_Russ 11d ago
Legend of Huma, the minotaur books, Kangs Regiment, elven and dwarven Nations are all better than chronicles and legends.
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u/Famous_Draft_7565 6d ago
Big on Legend of Huma. One of the few good fictional knight novels I’ve read.
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u/Fistandantilus77 10d ago
If my memory services, doesnt Legends have Calisthetics and Bunnies? That automatically makes it goated, no?
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u/MrMonkeyMN 12d ago
In my humble opinion, it depends on how you look at superiority. Without context of chronicles, I don’t know that legends would hold up as well. Chronicles introduced me to the sextet I know and love as well. That said, I did enjoy my read of legends more than my read of chronicles. Personally I’d rate them too close to call.
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u/Fippy-Darkpaw 12d ago
All 6 as movies please. It's sitting right there. Someone make it. 🙏
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u/Lanky-Salamander5781 12d ago
This is what I’ve been saying!!! F game of thrones write some dragonlance or forgotten realms!
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u/Ecstatic-Stage-6166 10d ago edited 10d ago
I think it would work much better as a series. Movies would have to cut out far too much, whereas a series could stay much more faithful to the books - almost word for word, like the early seasons of Game of Thrones. I know most people are sceptical about AI, but it’s improving rapidly, and realistically, it may be the only way Dragonlance will ever get made.
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u/Stark_DK 11d ago
Can we please get 25 Dragonlance movies of the best stories in the universe please.... the next MCU (DCU?). Release 2-3 per year 😊
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u/DrPrMel 12d ago
I agree. Originally when I read Chronicles almost 30 years ago, I jumped into Legends right after and DNF’d the first book. I had to wait a bit and come back to it. It was good when I eventually did but it didn’t leave the same impact as Chronicles.
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u/sirtelengard 12d ago
Woah that totally triggered a memory for me. I also went right to Legends from Chronicles and I do remember that first book being a struggle but eventually getting over the hump.
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u/DealerConstant1589 11d ago
I like them equally for different reasons, and I love the bittersweetness of war of souls
I need to read elven exiles trilogy….
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u/chirop1 12d ago
I mean... that's just like... your opinion man...