Books like Dragonlance Chronicles

CONCEPT: A group of adventurers are chosen to help drive back the Evil from another world led by the Dark Queen.MARKETING APPEAL: The DRAGONLANCE chronicles had the whole AD&D industry behind them; TSR used this tale as a marketing ploy, using their fans and game designers (to set up the world); then, they took some above average writers to do the first trilogy; Set up in a typical AD&D adventure (rag tag group of mixed adventurers off to save the world with promise of great magic, great evil, great good and an epic scale) the series took off as a bestseller; royalties were probably astounding.SCORING: Superb (A), Excellent (A-), Very good (B+), Good (B) Fairly Good (B-) Above Average (C+), Mediocre (C ), Barely Passable (C-) Pretty Bad (D+), Dismal (D), Waste of Time (D-), Into the Trash (F)DIALOGUE: B/B-/C/D (C ) STRUCTURE: B+ HISTORY SETTING: B (A to game designers) CHARACTERS: B+/B/B-/C/C- (C+) EVIL SETUP/ANTAGONISTS: B- EMOTIONAL IMPACT: B SURPRISES: A- LITTLE THINGS: A- MONSTERS: B (A- to game designers) PACING: B+ OVERALL STYLE: B FLOW OF WORDS: B+/C+ CHOICE OF FOCUS: B+ TRANSITIONS/FLASHBACKS/POV: B COMPLEXITY OF WORDS/SYMBOLISM/THEMES: B-OVERALL GRADE: BHISTORY SETTING: Absolutely brilliant. Only problem is: the authors didn't do it. A host of game designers, who set it up for their RPG system, ran it countless times and then hired the writers to do it. So, the best I can give is a B to them.OPPOSITION/MONSTERS: Done very well. The Dragonlords are all formidable and the dragons seem nearly invincible. For the most part, the adventurers must flee from them and it is only through other means that the dragons are driven off or slain. The means of escaping from the dragons was done quite well, for the most part, except where (CENSORED)DIALOGUE: I have to say this is where the DRAGONLANCE TRILOGY is weak. Most of it is above average or even pretty good. But some of it is mediocre and a few parts are downright horrible. Too many 20th century phrases used like "sure" and some are overusedPACING: Done very well. These writers know their structure and keep a lot of surprises tossing about. For the most part, the story never lets up. Weis and Hickman are very good at being sure to constantly place lots of surprises, as well as wonders in this tantalizing world.EMOTIONAL IMPACT: I have to say that even though some of the characters were cheesy or stilted, the story made up for it with its structure, sense of wonder and pacing. As I said above, a richly textured tapestry.CHARACTERS: Okay, this is where the trilogy gets slammed and good. (CENSORED)CONCEPT: The concept was already marketed in DRAGON magazine a couple of years before the trilogy came out. So, in a sense, part of their customer basis was primmed up for this series. Book trilogy does an excellent job of incorporating the Krynn milieu into an AD&D world. Characters are not complex and some of them are stilted or stodgy. However, most of the latter are typical stereotypes that we are sometimes willing to accept. Also, this writing style seems to have been centered on high school ages; fairly simple with some complexities. Simple humor that sometimes got a chuckle out of me. Overall, this series did very well. Main reasons I can see for this is: (1) DRAGON, DUNGEON and TSR fanbase; (2) a superb design of the setting and History by the game creators; (3) lots of surprises and twists; (4) a well encompassed adventuring group (quite a challenge for any writer and I believe these two were just starting out) in which there were at least a few who any reader would love; (5) big epic scale with wonder and magic; (6) focused marketing by TSR (in other words, they did the marketing, not some other publisher who wouldn't have been as passionate).GRADE REASON: Mostly shown above. But to reiterate, the story did a very good to great job on its History, pacing, surprises and narrative structure. Story was lacking in character and dialogue, as well as with the emotional feeling of the antagonists, so that brought it down to a B grade at the cusp. Overall, I'd recommend this book but warn that it's written at a sophomoric level.