Why Adult D&D Novels Have Disappeared and Were They Any Good?

What happened to D&D novels? Were they any good? As someone who read a lot of them as a kid, and with the game booming right now, I decided to re-visit and find out. Let's briefly go over the history to provide some perspective.

For decades TSR (and then WotC) published novels as part of the D&D IP (producing 623 before licensing them out to HarperCollins in 2017). In the early days some of these became very successful, but Hasbro (who own WotC) has given up on it (assuredly because it had ceased being profitable). Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, who had taken Dragonlance independent early on, also stopped publishing five years earlier (clearly for similar reasons). To touch on the article cited above, the author (Adam Whitehead of The Wertzone) did not dive into the declining sales numbers like I did researching my article last summer and so he doesn't draw the obvious conclusion that you don't slow down or stop publishing if it's making you money (the numbers he does cite are gross totals, which were mostly made in D&D's publishing heyday of the 80s and early 90s). I am not, below, including the Endless Quest novels, as they aren't novels but Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books (I did read some back in the day, like Pillars of Pentegarn, but have never felt an itch to revisit them).

There are spoilers below. The list of books is in chronological order of when they were published rather than when I read them.

What has happened to the IP is that HarperCollins is aiming for the Harry Potter age group. The books have an aesthetic that's not dissimilar to the flop Honor Among Thieves (as well as other generic fantasy aimed at kids), but when I was in that age group something aimed at kids wouldn't interest me. Do they sell well? No, but they are on shelves. The principal author used (Madeleine Roux) is prolific, but her only top-seller was her debut novel in 2015 in what was a small category at the time (young adult ebooks). No one is picking up a book simply because Roux wrote it and that's evident from the limited impact of the imprint.

What drew me to reading these books at the time was quite simple: 1) I loved fantasy, 2) I loved D&D. You couldn't ask for better synergy. What holds up and how do I feel about it now? IO9's Rob Bricken (who?) apparently did a review of sorts in 2021 (which I'm only aware of because Wikipedia uses his article for reviews). Bricken's primary concern is how well they reflect his sociopolitical beliefs, which is a terrible way to review anything, so that's not my approach. What I'm interested in is narrative and entertainment value.

The process of re-visiting these novels was borne of a desire to find some fun fantasy that wasn't weighted in the (misplaced) self-importance of a Patrick Rothfuss or Scott Lynch. Having re-read many of them now, what strikes me is their similarity to 80s comicbooks--not so much in the storytelling, but in echoing attempts at empowering (and making participatory) female characters, having at least a token minority, and including the wish fulfilment I associate with modern teen novels. For books aimed at an audience that was 95% male at the time, there's not much effort to echo the popular sword and sorcery stories of Howard, Leiber, Moorcock, etc, which had defined the 1970s and were being imitated by 80s schlock fantasy films. What follows has (broadly) limited action, simple plots, and simple characters.

Dragons of Autumn Twilight - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (1983)

Worth Re-reading: Yes

The authors: Weis & Hickman are prolific and while their sales have cratered (and they've jumped onto the identity politics bandwagon), they still publish regularly. Outside of Dragonlance I also read their Death Gate Cycle series (1990-94), which despite an interesting concept had an atrocious conclusion.

My background with it: I last re-read portions of this book in 2022, but the last time I fully re-read it was in 2008. This was not the first ever D&D-based novel, but it's what launched the brand. As such, particularly as a 'first', the novel gets a pass on what are now cliches in RPG-based books.

Concept: Dragons are iconic and serve as the ultimate villains early on in the series; the idea of the gods having abandoned the people is a good one (with Goldmoon serving as the vehicle to changing that in the future); the classic 'end of the world' scenario seems tired in retrospect, but I think it's fine here.

Thoughts: What I noted 15-years ago and recently: "The death of the dragon [in Xak Tsaroth] is disappointing—it’s a bit too deus ex machina, especially since Goldmoon’s sacrifice is nixed by divine intervention on top of it (divine intervention for Riverwind made sense in the story, but the kill and Goldmoon’s survival-by-goddess removes a lot of dramatic tension). Otherwise the plunge into the ruin is great fun." And "Having Eben as the traitor of the mission to cause a revolt in Verminaard’s fortress is weakly done--it’s obviously him and it would be much more shocking if it had been a character better known and liked by the reader. All the romances are clumsily handled, except perhaps for Tika’s crush on Caramon. Flint as comic relief is somewhat disappointing. Fizban is funny in the book, but not as funny as when he's Zifnab [in The Death Gate Cycle]."

Pros: Raistlin, whose concept as an edgy antihero had not yet been beaten to death, has a good arc in the early series; locations like Xak-Tsaroth are dynamic and interesting, doing a good job at hinting at the larger world while keeping the present front and center. The authors also understood (as they don't in modern day) how to insert politics--if you want to address sexism, rather than having characters scream about it in the story or reverse the prejudice, simply have competent female characters that are accepted by their peers and leave it at that--that's the effective way to change perspectives.

Cons: The cast is overly large, such that many get no meaningful development (and what we do get is very simplistic); the villains, for the most part, aren't imposing or terrifying (Verminaard is probably the best).

Saga of the Old City - Gary Gygax (1985)

Worth Re-reading: No.
The author: The inventor of D&D was a game designer and had limited abilities as an author; his publications largely halting in the mid-90s.

Concept: Stolen from Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series (1939-88), but it comes nowhere near the quality of the source.

My background with it: I re-read the book in 2002.

Concept: The dynamic duo of Chert and Gord go on a series of adventures.

Thoughts: "It's an episodic volume whose beginning couple of chapters are the only ones with some tension. The titular character (Gord) and his friend Chert are a clear nod to Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd/Grey Mouser characters, but Gygax isn't a good enough writer to do more than a pale pastiche of them. The book itself is an excuse to tour the World of Greyhawk and lacks substance or tension (I never feared for Gord’s life). The female characters are awful and the romances poorly constructed. The only semi-substantive text comes late in the fray (279-280 in my copy), & are on par with what Gygax expressed in gaming as well."

Pros: The interior illustrations by Clyde Caldwell.

Cons: Terrible writing, meandering plot, thin and uninteresting characters, plus it's a poorly executed pastiche of someone else's work.

Darkwalker on Moonshae - Douglas Niles (1987)

Worth Re-reading: No.

The author: Niles was once prolific, with most of his work IP-derivative (I haven't read any of it). His last book was published in 2012.

Concept: Evil god arises and the local goddess opposes it, while Hero McHunky Dumb is lead around by his magical love interest.

My background with it: I tried re-reading the book this year, but it's so painfully dull I had to stop.

Thoughts: I remembered nothing about the story prior to picking it up again (which is a bad sign--even with marginal books I tend to remember something). Re-reading it I only recalled one small moment (unrelated to the protagonists--the calling of the Leviathan). Everything about it was irritating and dumb.

Pros: The villain could have been delightfully fun, but Niles stops himself from truly indulging in the simple concept.

Cons: The story is painfully lazy, but bears remarkable similarities to modern fantasy novels (sigh)--the Super Awesome Fantastic female character keeps the Big Dumb Male Hero in line while a POC sidekick is a Super Awesome and part of the love triangle.

Spellfire - Ed Greenwood (1987)
Worth Re-reading: No.

The author: A game designer with no apparent talent as an author, Greenwood has published prolifically, with his last book appearing in 2019.
Concept: The lead finds power and love through her adventures.

My background with it: I re-read the book in 2017.

Thoughts: Prior to re-reading I remembered one specific scene which, as it turns out, was early and did not involve the main characters (Delg empowering his weapon, along with Elminster & Co idly wandering through the fight). My comments then: "It has an over reliance on dues ex machine (Shandril is saved repeatedly and Narm as well), and the story devolves into absolute shit once both leads lose their initial parties (however amusing it is for Narm’s master to die). I find Myth Drannor impossible to picture and the entire book is horribly written. The YA-style romance between the two leads is gag-worthy." I could not push my way through to finishing the book. It reminds me of teen novels.
Pros: The cover art is nice and the aforementioned battle scene and Marimar's death were reasonably entertaining.

Cons: The writing is awful, the characters are flimsy, the romance is hackneyed, and the pacing is atrocious.

Azure Bonds - Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb (1988)

Worth Re-reading: Maybe.

The author: Almost all of Novak's novels have been written with husband Grubb, but she hasn't had a novel in print since 1997. Grubb remained much more active, although all his work is IP-derivative. Like Niles above, his last novel was published in 2012 (Star Wars). 

Concept: The lead has a set of false memories and a mysterious magical tattoo. This is a great idea, although the authors do almost nothing interesting with it.

My background with it: I re-read most of the book this year.

Thoughts: Going in I recalled exactly one thing about the novel, which was about a third of the way through it (her fake past with the Swanmays). I was able to drag myself through more than half the novel, despite boring and poorly developed sidekicks and weak villains (Mist might be the worst written dragon I've ever seen). Alias' herself has the tools to be interesting, but never gets there (it seems like all the heroes are painfully dumb to service the plot).

Pros: Alias works as a protagonist, as you want to solve the mystery with her. She doesn't have the Mary Sue elements that plague virtually every modern female lead.

Cons: The secondary characters (with the exception of Dragonbait, at least as far as I got in my re-read) are all horribly written and the limited attempts at romance come across as creepy and confused (I have no idea what they thought they were doing with Akabar, our unintentionally creepy token POC).

Drizzt Drizzt Drizzt (unofficial title by me) - R. A. Salvatore

Worth Re-reading: Dark Elf Maybe. Icewind Dale No. Subsequent novels No.

The author: Drizzt is the gift that keeps on giving and Salvatore continues to churn out books based on him while also putting out other work that doesn't sell as well. The tallies have been shrinking over time, but not to the point where Salvatore has to worry about getting books into print.

-The Crystal Shard 1988

Re-read in 2016. My thoughts then: "The entire novel is basically a series of fight sequences, with none of the character development necessary to make them engaging (reminds me of Glen Cook's The Black Company). Wulgar is meant to be the hero of the book--it's his hero's journey--but Book One is used to show Drizzt’s value despite being a drow (as well as provide Wulfgar’s origins). We are stuck with the annoying Dwarves-speak-with-a-bad-Scottish-accent cliché. Salvatore also borrows quite a bit from JRRT: the One Ring concept with his crystal shard (he even takes the name “Tirith” from “Minas Tirith” for the crystal tower); Bruenor's Gimli-esque desire to see a lost Dwarven home (Mithril Hall instead of Moria). Regis is boring--oh so boring. There's a small chunk of decent writing when Bruenor crafts the magic hammer he gives to Wulfgar (everything is couched in pseudo-Tolkien). I’m not a fan of Salvatore’s notion of docile barbarian women (something that is inconsistent in the narrative), although it’s meant to 1) make Wulfgar’s barbarian heritage awful in comparison to living with the Dwarves, 2) make Cattie-brie seem remarkable in comparison. It's inexplicable that Cattie-brie doesn’t speak with the ridiculous fake-Scottish of her father (although I believe she does in the prequel Sojourn), but it’s a welcome relief. Wulgar's training with Drizzt is perfunctory and ineffective. We have an out of character moment, as Bruenor is eager to torture a captive (I feel like this might be channeling Flint from Dragonlance). It’s a huge failing of the plot that Regis’ magic ring solves so many major problems—the initial conflict between the townsfolk, getting information out of the captured Orc, and fooling the evil wizard Kessel himself. Kemp, as a foil for unity, is ridiculous, but it's in line with The Dark Elf Trilogy where natural allies are at loggerheads for no reason. The demon Errtu, who is the only semi-interesting villain, simply tells Drizzt everything he needs to know without much of a reason. The scene of Kessel being killed by a mountain is amusing, which isn't the tone Salvatore was going for. I noted some retconning in prequel--Drizzt is said to have spent 200 years in the Underdark here, but it’s a shorter passage of time there (along with the Cattie-brie accent mentioned above). As an action-adventure it fails in all respects. I think Wulgar was envisioned as a Conan-type character, but if so Salvatore has none of the writing verve of Robert E. Howard (or even his imitators)."

-Streams of Silver 1989

Read c.1991. The pain of re-reading The Crystal Shard made me skip re-reading this.

-The Halfling's Gem 1990

Read c.1991. The pain of re-reading The Crystal Shard made me skip re-reading this.

-Homeland 1990

Re-read in 2016. My thoughts then: "Homeland is an inglorious prologue to who Drizzt is. The pace is slow and a lot of the narrative rests on the shoulders of secondary characters (the plot happens to Drizzt, rather than Drizzt driving the plot). Unfortunately, no one has depth in the book (there's a missed opportunity to make Alton DeVir more nuanced). On the positive side Salvatore does a good job describing Drow society and powers, although there's a complete absence of redeemable female characters in the matriarchy (something we wouldn't see if Salvatore was writing the series today). Drizzt himself is a touch Rothfussian (a negative: he's hyper-competent and his only drawbacks are external--this echoes teen novel heroes). There's only one other "good" character in the book, but he's simply a plot device and his conflict with Drizzt falls into the old cliché of “if they talked to each other, there wouldn’t be conflict.” Drizzt’s ignorance of his own society is stretched beyond the bounds of reason—he surely would have heard and learned the basics in the beginning, but that ignorance is the foundation for all of the conflict he experiences. With all that said, I did want to read more about his adventures, so there's enough narrative energy and enough built into Drizzt for me to continue."

-Exile 1990

Re-read in 2016. My thoughts then: "The best book of the Dark Elf Trilogy. It's light on plot, as it simply follows Drizzt's gradual escape from Underdark, but the story is entertaining and unlike its predecessor (Homeland) contains a touch of pathos. Drizzt himself doesn't evolve, but character development isn't something Salvatore seems interested in. In terms of the plot, we have Drizzt being driven by loneliness into the hands of the Deep Gnomes, one of his people's many enemies (I still feel badly for his myconid roommates who die at the hands of his undead father). Here his act of kindness to Belwar in book one pays off and the two become friends (the gnome is written like a typical D&D dwarf--reminding me of Flint Fireforge from Dragonlance; his artificial pick/hammer hands remind me of the engineer from The Colour of Magic; his hand-banging ritual of Delg Hammerhand from Spellfire--given Salvatore's gratuitous borrowing in the Icewind Dale Trilogy, it wouldn't surprise me if all these borrowings were direct). Drizzt's family's pursuit drives him out of the gnome city (with Belwar) where he befriends Clacker, the Pech who has been polymorphed into a Hook Horror. The three are captured by Illithids, accidentally freed by the pursuant undead father, and arrive at the climax where Clacker dies (something I really didn't expect) and Drizzt's father has a moment of control over himself and tosses himself into oblivion (a vague echo of Return of the Jedi). In the midst of this we get brief moments in Menzoberranzan to witness the downfall of his house, but this suffers the same flaws from Homeland and other than the mercenary Jarlaxle there's nothing interesting about it. I remembered the novel quite well and despite its lack of depth it was fun to re-read."

-Sojourn 1991

Re-read in 2016. My thoughts after re-reading: "By far the worst of The Dark Elf Trilogy. The book is dominated by action sequences and while the initial set (Drizzt against the barghasts) has some tension to it, afterwards it's simply a grind. The narrative strains to explain how hard it is for Drizzt to befriend people, but when Salvatore gives in we’re stuck with the incredibly dull Montolio in an Obi-Wan Kenobi role. I have no idea why “Roddy McGristle” was deemed a good name for a villain (and what a petulant one he is--a hillbilly with dogs as the through-line for the entire narrative--reminds me of Angel season three). Salvatore wastes a lot of time with the Kellindell character only to have him killed abruptly by Roddy (he does the same with Tephanis). It's the most episodic of the three books and while the series doesn't have much depth Sojourn has none at all. I wonder if some of the book's flaws are due to the restrictions imposed by Salvatore’s initial trilogy. Regardless, reading it was a slog and outside the opening it’s a very weak book."

-The Legacy 1992

Read once in 1994 and I recall nothing about it other than having been disappointed at the time. The horror of The Crystal Shard kept me from picking it up again.

-Starless Night 1993

Read once in 1994 and I recall nothing about it other than having been disappointed at the time (my copy has disappeared--likely to a Book Market eons ago).

The Avatar Series

-Shadowdale (Scott Ciencin, 1989)

Re-read this year. While I liked the premise (gods stripped of power/immortality and banished down to earth), ultimately it's bafflingly dumb other than some brief, fun moments from villains. The only thing I recalled while reading the book (nothing prior too) was the character Midnight (her name, primarily), whose description is not matched in the cover art for some reason.

-Tantras (Scott Ciencin, 1989)

Read once c.1990

-Waterdeep (Troy Denning, 1989)

Read once c.1990

Worth Re-reading: No.

The authors: Ciencin was a prolific author until his untimely death in 2014; that work was all IP-derivative. Denning transitioned out of D&D novels to Star Wars and then Halo.

My background with it: Read once c.1990, besides the attempted re-read this year.

Pros: The concept is good and there's some fun with the villains (however needlessly stupid they ultimately are).
Cons: The heroes are ferociously unlikeable and profoundly stupid; the pacing is awful.

The Tainted Sword - Dori Watry and Kevin Stein (1992)

Worth Re-reading: No.

The author: From what I can find, Stein wrote a number of Dragonlance novels, while Watry was primarily a game designer. The duo wrote this series under a pen name. This Stein is not the professor/poet of the same name.

My background with it: Read once in 2006.

Thoughts: I did not make salient comments about it at the time and can only recall finding it a disappointing grind, self-consciously written for children (in the pejorative sense).

Carnival of Fear - J. Robert King (1993)

Worth Re-reading: No.

The author: A game designer first, King has won awards for children's books, but all his adult writing has all been game-related and he's had nothing published since 2011.

My background with it: I read it once in 1993 and was so disappointed by it I re-sold it immediately.

Thoughts: It's difficult to express how dull and uninspired the novel is, with only the loosest connection to its supposed Ravenloft inspiration. As a pseudo-horror novel, nothing about it was scary.

Keep on the Borderlands - Ru Emerson (2001)

Worth Re-reading: No.

The author: Most of her writing has been either game or TV show derived, with publications falling off in the early 2000s (her last book was in 2002).

My background with it: I read the book once in 2002 and found it infuriatingly awful.

Thoughts: An utterly boring mess with only a superficial connection to the (admittedly ridiculous) B2 module (1979). The only specific comments I made at the time is that the entire book was a slog of repeated military expeditions out to the caves (in a sense echoing Glen Cooks The Black Company but without the creepy guy in a van elements). Whether it's worse than Carnival of Fear or not is hard to say, but both are so hideously bad picking one over the other seems pointless (I sold this one off immediately after reading).

The Queen of Stone - Keith Baker (2008)

Worth Re-reading: No.

The author: Baker is a game designer first and his only novels are a few Eberron-based books over a short period of time (2005-10). Undoubtedly books like that stopped because WotC stopped paying for them and they weren't successful enough for Baker to self-publish anything else.

Concept: Exploring the monster-ruled realm of Droaam, which is an excellent idea.

My background with it: Attempted to read once in 2011 (I could not finish and no longer own it).

Thoughts: My impressions then: "It's full of lifeless, one-dimensional characters with a simplistic plot and just not worth reading."
Pros: None.

Cons: Much like Markus Heitz's The Dwarves, Baker takes the possibilities of a non-human culture and fritters it away to natter on about humans and their human-like allies.

The Doom of Kings - Don Bassingthwaite (2008)

Worth Re-reading: Maybe.
The author: Bassingthwaite graduated from writing MAGIC-based novels to produce a slew of D&D books (the IP both being owned by WotC). Since WotC stopped working with him (2012) he's published just one book (in 2016).

My background with it: I attempted to read this in 2016, but didn't get very far.

Review: I was drawn to it for the exact same reason I tried the Queen of Stone above, but I didn't get very far. The book wasn't offensive by any means, although Bassingthwaite struggled to mesh the omnipresent magic in Eberron with standard storytelling tropes. Key characters early are all women, which fits the modern fantasy vibe.

Pros: Wasn't as offensively terrible as Baker's book above, with an effort to explore Darguun's culture.

Cons: Did not maintain my interest.

Summation

I think Hasbro is missing out on an opportunity to publish D&D novels for adults. The adolescent effort is fine, but ignoring a large part of the playerbase is pointless. While the vast majority of these books are awful, they are a good way of spreading the brand and occasionally you get lucky and someone puts out something you can churn out as a series long term (Salvatore's crap has been ongoing since 1988). The bar for popularity is astoundingly low when you look at teen novels--just sprinkle in a love triangle and you are good to go (I feel like that's the direction WotC was headed with the Erin M. Evans Brimstone Angels series, but wanted to keep things too PG to really hit the sweet spot).

In some ways we can look at the death of this type of novel and see something similar in the action/adventure books that proliferated in the 70s that have almost completely disappeared. Fantasy shelves are still full, but much of that is just teen novels with more sex scenes inserted. Authors are either trying to imitate Game of Thrones or have no apparent awareness/interest in fantasy classics (I was shocked to see no familiarity from Sarah Maas or Leigh Bardugo (see below)--both authors may have seen Lord of the Rings as a film, but beyond that show no meaningful exposure to anything outside romance and other teen novels). There's a massive appetite waiting for something good (or even average), but either no one is trying to do it or no one is publishing it (Brandon Sanderson is as close as you can get).

I think I mentioned I was working on this back in March, and the long gestation is in part trying to re-visit enough of these books to provide cogent comments for them. I should point out that almost none of these books is as incoherent as the contemporary (1999) The Black Queen (by Kristine Kathryn Rusch), which I attempted to read this year, or the aforementioned teen novels (Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo or A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas)--all three books suffer from plot holes and horrific characterization (along with pacing problems). The latter two survive (presumably) on their heavy romantic elements, but I have no idea how Rusch maintained her career.

So what's the final answer for why the adult books disappeared? Profit. The line was cancelled before the D&D boom was in full flight and I'm not sure Hasbro is willing to go the route that would succeed (to me that's a mix of teen-style fantasy running in parallel with action/adventure--appeal to both sides of your demographic). Instead I think we'll get more generic pap from HarperCollins until they lose the license and then we'll see where WotC/Hasbro are at in terms of how they want to promote the IP.

Were they any good? For the most part, no. They are fairly generic, repetitive, and often not even that synergized with the IP itself. That said, some of them are at least entertaining and nothing has really filled the niche since they disappeared.

This article was written by Peter Levi