I began with Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance Chronicles long after their glory had been established. The original series, Chronicles, was published in 1986, the year I graduated high school. At the time, although I was an avid Dungeons & Dragons fan, I was more interested in the Forgotten Realms and had been playing that and reading those books instead. Thus the world of Dragonlance did not come to me until 20 years later.

I devoured the first three books in the series, Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night and Dragons of Spring Dawning. I was immediately drawn into the fascinating world of Krynn and compelled by the richly crafted characters and the swiftly moving story line.

It was not the best writing in the fantasy fiction world, but it was highly addictive and the entire series was a masterful page-turner.

I was loathe to finish the series, sad to let go of characters I had grown to love and adore. I was thrilled to discover then that there was a second trilogy, called Legends (Time of the Twins, War of the Twins and Test of the Twins) that focused entirely on my favorite characters, Raistlin Majere, the dark mage and his warrior twin brother Caramon.

This series outclassed the first in its focused depth. There was real human anguish here and so much of it was about love and the pain that it can bring. While it dealt with some larger themes, in the end it was the story of twin brothers; one fighting to become something he could never be and the other fighting to save him from himself.

I loved the characters and read every word, hating that it would soon end.

In 2001, Weis & Hickman came back to Dragonlance and began a new series that takes place 50 years after the end of Test of the Twins finale.

I was immediately confused. Although I had stuck to the Weis & Hickman novels, there had apparently been many written in between by other authors that had taken the saga in unheard-of directions. I began this new series as a stranger to Krynn even though there was prodigious use of characters from the previous series.

The new characters were flat and lifeless, with no spark in them, no dimension whatsoever. They were all one-note wonders and the now ancient characters from the previous series were used primarily as window dressing. They too became sad paeans to their former glory.