Before Harry Potter made middle-grade fantasy books “a thing”, there was a rich history of young adult fantasy books that were very middle-grade-adjacent. One of the standout series for me was the Dungeons and Dragons branded line of books in the Dragonlance setting. The initial trilogy follows a stereotypical fantasy gang of fighters, a thief, a healer, and a wizard as they go off to save the world from the machinations of the ultimate evil dragon god. Starting off as an inexperienced, eclectic group of semi-strangers, they bond together through six connected adventures becoming formidable heroes on their way to stopping the BBEG (big bad evil guy.) The first trilogy sold well and spawned many more novels in the same setting. Why am I mentioning it now? Well, the site Humble Bundle has a sale, The World of Dragonlance,  featuring many of the books in the Dragonlance setting. For a low price ($1 for just a few books, $18 for 25 books) one can check out a seminal series in the history of Dungeons and Dragons. Folks who have recently jumped on the Dungeons and Dragons bandwagon should enjoy a look back at some of its early beginnings. As will all things on the Humble Bundle site, it is linked in with a charity fundraising event, this time for Room to Read – a charity trying to improve literacy among primary and secondary students.

These novels are full of fantasy tropes, although they were less trope-ish when they were first published. The gods of Krynn have abandoned the world, as have all the dragons. However, the evil dragons have started to reappear along with the mysterious Draconians – humanoid dragon-like people comprising much of the evil armies. My favorite are the initial three novels of: Dragons of Autumn Twilight (the setup of the group as they hustle around trying to keep a low profile, Dragons of Winter Night (where the dragon war stars in earnest while the group is scattered around the continent), finishing with Dragons of Spring Dawning (where everything comes together to defeat the dragon armies and the evil dragon god.)

Other novels in the set that I enjoyed include books with the child-like kleptomaniac Tasselhoff (Kendermore) or the crazy gnome engineers (Darkness & Light.) There’s a nice series featuring the fighter/wizard twins of the group that digs into the more enigmatic of the characters, the wizard Raistlin. There’s also a trilogy of novels that are set “interspersed” within the basic trilogy that fills in some gaps not mentioned in the original books.

Verdict:
Looking at everything on offer, if you’re interested enough, I’d spring for the $18 level which is the only level that includes the very first three books (Dragons of Autumn/Winter/Spring.) The $1 level gets you a trilogy set some time later than the initial books, which is fine but you miss out on the seminal trilogy that kicked everything off. Along with that are some great books for light reading (anything with the goofy, childlike Kender Tassellhoff is worth a read.) 

Note! If you go in for the books, I highly recommend you go in and modify your donation amount. It is normally split three ways between the site, the charity, and the publishing company. I always go in and adjust my donation to the charity up and the money going to the site down. Humble Bundle always takes a minimum cut, but if you don’t actually adjust anything the default is only $.90 of your purchase actually going to charity.

Anyone interested in the history of Dungeons and Dragons owes the original trilogy a read. With all the folks just getting into the hobby nowadays this bundle is a great way to pick up some of the books and novels that shaped the early years. (*As a purely personal prediction, there seems to be rumblings of Dragonlance-related things possibly happening in the next few years so we may someday soon even be seeing the appearance of the Dragonlance setting in some sort of more traditional media.)

Kid Factor:
OK, so all this went down before middle-grade fantasy novels were the hotness. Thus, while almost everything in the book would appeal to a younger reader (action, epic adventure, magic, the growth in power of relatable characters) there is some sexual tension between characters that make an appearance. Nothing that would go beyond a PG rating (or descriptions of interactions), but there are repeating elements of physical attraction – primarily of angst-filled people dealing with unrequited or at least unconsummated love. As such, I wouldn’t go lower than middle-school, even for a precocious reader. Despite the war setting, violence isn’t a bit issue (it’s kept pretty abstract) and if the books were written today I can’t imagine they wouldn’t easily be able to be adjusted down to a middle-grade book with some tweaking of the love interests.

Disclaimer: I often get “free stuff” from the folks at Wizards of the Coast (the D&D folks) but did not get anything out of this sale. I just like the books a lot and thought I’d pass on the “deal” to folks who may not have read the books before…

Tags: My Books, Uncategorized, Unplugged