| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Genis |
Posted - 25 Nov 2008 : 07:48:17
Any suggestions on books or series in which I can learn a large amount of the history and backstory that is Forgotten Realms, just stuff that will make me more capable at keeping up with you people. I'm lost 90% of the time considering I have read was less books, the ones I have read are mostly newer/less historical as far as that goes, AND I don't D&D which gives you fine people an advantage over me. SO again to sum it up, just some good novels rich in history and back story of FR and its peoples and what have you...thanks  |
| 11 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Genis |
Posted - 28 Nov 2008 : 00:56:26
Thanks all for your recommendations and suggestions, I will consider and read most of the presummably great ideas of yours |
| Lord Karsus |
Posted - 26 Nov 2008 : 23:53:40
-Can't believe I didn't include my typical response:
Pick a short story anthology that deals with a topic you find interesting: Elves, Dragons, Magic, War, Mystery, whatever. There's a whole bunch of them. Realms of X anthologies have numerous short stories by numerous authors, taking place all across Faerūn, in the past, and present. The common factor between them all is whatever X is. By virtue of reading various stories, you'll pick up information pertaining to various locales, during different time periods. It also helps to become acclimated to the styles individual authors have, as well as their characters and so on. |
| The Sage |
Posted - 26 Nov 2008 : 23:25:19
Additionally, each of the novels in "The Cities" series offer some historical perspectives on the various locations that serve as the settings for each novel.
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| Fillow |
Posted - 26 Nov 2008 : 19:34:27
its depends of the era, or of the area(s) you first want to learn about !
I suppose you write about the Pre-spellplague era so I would say that the Harpers sequence helps to discover several aspects of the Realms. But it's not a single novel, it's a whole sequence |
| The Sage |
Posted - 25 Nov 2008 : 23:09:38
Most of Ed Greenwood's early "Elminster" novels feature sections on Realms history, most notably, Elminster: The Making of a Mage, Elminster in Myth Drannor, and The Temptation of Elminster. |
| Lord Karsus |
Posted - 25 Nov 2008 : 17:08:09
-A Grand History of the Realms is not a novel, but it is a (somewhat mostly) complete chronology, from the beginning, to the (recent) end, and then some. Again, it's not a novel, but it has all of the information that you want. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 25 Nov 2008 : 16:41:37
The thing to remember about the Realms is that it is a tapestry. It's been woven by many hands, in many styles, and done so over a course of many years. It's hard to make any suggestions to give one more lore, because that's like trying to pick out a handful of threads and from them see the whole.
Yeah, there are books that provide more lore than others. But almost all of them focus on smaller areas, and not the whole. To get the whole picture, you've simply got to keep reading everything. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 25 Nov 2008 : 16:37:45
quote:
Originally posted by Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
BTW, there is a stickied thread about novel recommendations.
Indeed. Experienced help for recommending FR Novels |
| Rinonalyrna Fathomlin |
Posted - 25 Nov 2008 : 15:58:02
BTW, there is a stickied thread about novel recommendations. |
| Alisttair |
Posted - 25 Nov 2008 : 11:09:18
The Avatar Trilogy (Shadowdale, Tantras, Waterdeep) could help IMO. |
| Thauramarth |
Posted - 25 Nov 2008 : 08:22:15
quote:
Originally posted by Genis
Any suggestions on books or series in which I can learn a large amount of the history and backstory that is Forgotten Realms, just stuff that will make me more capable at keeping up with you people. I'm lost 90% of the time considering I have read was less books, the ones I have read are mostly newer/less historical as far as that goes, AND I don't D&D which gives you fine people an advantage over me. SO again to sum it up, just some good novels rich in history and back story of FR and its peoples and what have you...thanks
There's no single novel (or even series of novels) that gives an all-compassing overview of the history of the Realms (the only novels which are very historical, but which are limited to one particular topic would be Evermeet and Cormyr, a Novel.
Since you're not a gamer, you may want to check out the Grand History of the Realms, which started life as a PDF by our own Brian R. James, and was the last sourcebook published before the advent of 4th Edition. It was part of the gaming line, but it's just a chronology of the Realms' history, which non-gamers can easily enjoy. |
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