I don't know why this is more and more turning into my personal blog, but just yesterday I started reading the Dragonlance series.
From what I've read so far, I really want to preserve my judgement. I've only read the first two books which are only around 300 pages long. There's only one thing I hate with fantasy (and frankly art in general) and that's innocence. I'm not going into detail but there's one thing that's clear in Dragonlance. It lacks innocence. Even our protagonists have flaws that make them colorful like Sturm's constant quest for glory for example or Caramon's unfaltering loyalty towards his brother. The Dragonlance isn't horror fantasy but it depicts a slightly more darker fantasy than Lord of the Rings or even perhaps Discworld (but that's "satire").
Much unlike Terry Pratchett the writers of the Dragonlance series show good skills in their writing. A few confused moments are to be had in situations which are difficult to describe, but aside from that the writer manages to provide excellent plot which surprisingly keeps consistent across the series (no doubt thanks to the D&D sessions that inspired the series), but between the series - the decisions of the adventurers aren't always clear to me as it's not developed on enough. The read isn't entirely relaxing and I needed to take a couple of breaks from reading every 30 - 50 pages or so, while reading Harry Potter I could read about three times more before needing to take a break.
I'm not a huge pretentious literature dweeb but I enjoy a really good read. The main reason I have for not reading so much is because the world literature is cluttered with trash and there's far more relaxing things to do instead of reading trashy novels but believe me: Dragonlance isn't trash. It's not a "timeless classic" and nor is it even great art but it's an enjoyable read with interesting characters and great fantasy - and while that may not make every person go out of their way to pick these books up, any fantasy fan definitely should!
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