Hiya!

I'm still pretty new to dnd but I've heard about the novels for the game and I was wondering if there were any that really stood out as a really good read. I don't know much about official dnd lore, only the Critical Role lore (which is totally different lore obvi) nd the bits of official lore I've picked up from Dungeons and Daddies (which if  you've listen to the show, you know nothing is sacred lmao) so I'm still kind of lost on things that seem to be common knowledge for players. Like I just found out that drow are technically evil and live underground because all I knew about drow came from cr.

Would any of the books help with any of that? And even if they don't, are there any that are just really good reads? I'm always looking for something new to read tbh. (also do you need to read them in any order or are they mainly standalone stories?)

(sorry for all of the questions but thanks for the help in advance! :3 )

That depends on what campaign setting you are interested in. There are books for most of the big settings: Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Greyhawk and Dragonlance.

Forgotten Realms probably has the most books followed by Dragonlance. R.A Salvatore writes the Drizzt books which are the most popular. I personally find they range from okay to pretty good but I know some people really like them. They are pretty comprehensive as far as the Sword Coast goes. They span 2nd through 5th edition so you get the Spellplague and the Second Sundering. The latest books deal with the idea that not all drow are evil or worship Lolth. None of them stood out as particularly good reads to me except for Companions the first book in the Sundering trilogy. There are books written by other authors that deal with other parts of the Realms. You can pick up a lot of the books at used book stores and sometimes Humble Bundle has deals on them. 

Reading the books can be an easy to digest  the lore and I have done so on several occasions. Keep in mind that sometimes they are as much a slog as reading through a source book. An even easier way to get caught up on the lore is wiki pages for the setting you are planning to run. They aren't complete but can get you started down the rabbit hole. 

I've only read the first few books of Dragonlance and let me tell you... it's ... really D&D. I don't mean that as a criticism. We clearly all love the game, otherwise we wouldn't be here. If you are looking for a D&D novel, go with Dragons of Autumn Twilight. It's a really distinct piece of literature. You don't really need to go in knowing "the lore", because that was the book that, more or less, launched the world of Dragonlance (technically, the modules came first but...)  so you're really getting in on the ground floor in that regard. It is a series, but if you're just looking for something to read and want to give a D&D book series a go, start with Dragons of Autumn Twilight and go from there. There are so many classic characters that came out of that series.

Quote from MorriganMacha >>

Forgotten Realms probably has the most books followed by Dragonlance. R.A Salvatore writes the Drizzt books which are the most popular. I personally find they range from okay to pretty good but I know some people really like them. They are pretty comprehensive as far as the Sword Coast goes. They span 2nd through 5th edition so you get the Spellplague and the Second Sundering. The latest books deal with the idea that not all drow are evil or worship Lolth. None of them stood out as particularly good reads to me except for Companions the first book in the Sundering trilogy. There are books written by other authors that deal with other parts of the Realms. You can pick up a lot of the books at used book stores and sometimes Humble Bundle has deals on them. 

Thanks! I guess maybe they might be a library read rather than a buy it from a book store kinda read if they're not the best reads out there. I just kept hearing like older players talk about reading them and I didn't know if I was missing out on anything special. I'll try and find Companions and give it a look since you recced it!

Quote from Verenti >>

I've only read the first few books of Dragonlance and let me tell you... it's ... really D&D. I don't mean that as a criticism. We clearly all love the game, otherwise we wouldn't be here. If you are looking for a D&D novel, go with Dragons of Autumn Twilight. It's a really distinct piece of literature. You don't really need to go in knowing "the lore", because that was the book that, more or less, launched the world of Dragonlance (technically, the modules came first but...)  so you're really getting in on the ground floor in that regard. It is a series, but if you're just looking for something to read and want to give a D&D book series a go, start with Dragons of Autumn Twilight and go from there. There are so many classic characters that came out of that series.

Oh I've actually never heard of Dragonlance! I always thought it was either Forgotten Relms or whatever unofficial thing your dm found/came up with! I didn't know there were other official stuff lmao. I'll have to see if I can find Dragons of Autumn Twilight somewhere I generally love dragons (and maybe even dungeons lmao) so it sounds like fun! I also love a good series so fingers crossed I can find it at my library! Thanks :D

Dragonlance was actually what got me into DnD. I have read Dragon's of an Autumn Twilight, Time of the Twins, and Dragons of a Fallen Sun. All of them are really good! If you plan on reading them i would read them in that order (along with the other books in the series). I accidentally started with Dragons of a Fallen Sun which comes way after the other two.

So, if you're trying to get general D&D lore, all the novels are a little setting specific and the "canon" is shakey, and doesn't exactly occupy a reverential regard from the current design studio.  I read some Forgotten Realms stuff and the first Dragonlance trilogy as a teen ... they haven't held up in my view, but some folks like them.

Unless you just like reading novels, I wouldn't really recommend that as the best way to get "general D&D lore" down.  Again, the novels are written in specific settings, and the history of those settings are decades long.  

What I'd recommend is just reading the source books.  Read Mordenkanium (can never spell that) Tome of Foes, and the Volo's books.  Flip through the monster manual (what you missed on the Drow is right there).  There's this new Dragon book that just came out....  There's plenty of lore, I'd even say all you need.

If you want an additional source, I'll sometimes listen/watch this guy's videos, I think his stuff is mostly Forgotten Realms based, but the creature specific stuff does tend to cover in a way speaks to the creature through multiple editions and appearances in other settings, etc.  Tooling around the Forgotten Realms wiki takes you through a resource that's digested a lot of the novels for you.

And don't bother with Drizzt, he's over rated.  If you want a tortured hero, just find anything with Jander Sunstar in it.  I'm sorta kidding, but only sorta.

I've only really dead the Drizzt books, up through The Companions, and they're generally good reads. I wouldn't call them masterpieces of literature but they're fun and well written for what they are. You get a mix of friendly banter between characters, ominous villains, and plenty of generally well written action scenes. There are times where I've thought the author gets a bit bogged down in Drizzt being an angsty and melodramatic "I'm so uniquely tragic and alone in the world, woe is me" weenie but eventually one or more of the other characters yells at him to get his head out of his arse and the butt kicking action scenes return to the forefront. Not long ago I heard a great description of the Drizzt books in a podcast comparing them to B fantasy action movies of the 80s; Lord of the Rings they are not, but if you want to see an edgy hero tear into an army of orcs with glowing magic swords like a nightmarish humanoid blender alongside a snarling six hundred pound magical panther then you won't be disappointed.

Kinda following up on what Flushmaster just wrote, if the OP is asking if the novels are a good way to grab a grasp of "D&D lore", I'm even more mixed.  I think it's actually a sort of chicken and egg reversal.  That is, the more lore you already got in ya head, the better appreciation you'd have for the novels.

At the end of the day lore is best not studies but absorbed alongside whatever you do for fun.  So if novels are big pasttime, it might work.  I think keeping YouTube on as a background while engaged with another task, like washing dishes, actually makes for a more efficient soak on a number of levels.  And again, don't discount the actual game books.  Yes, they are to a degree mechanical manuals, but there's a lot of background lore presented in places like the Monster Manual and the Mord and Volos books that are meant to inspire DMs ... and that's what lore should do, inspire the DMs and players imagination, not set parameters.  And I'd say YouTube and wikis do a better job currating those germs for world building than any set of novels (and I say this as someone who invests a lot more time and energy in reading fiction than I do on TTRPGs, so I'm not just being "anti books" because I'm not a fan of novels, I'm actually quite the opposite).

Because D&D is a rules system with numerous settings, there are just as many different versions of lore which sometimes bear similarities to one another while sometimes being entirely different worlds. Add in the fact that many group play in custom homebrew worlds that range from tweaked versions of official settings to entirely original creations, the total possible unique lines/versions/settings of "D&D lore" are endless. 

But as to officially licensed and endorsed novels, yeah those are generally limited to the official settings. The Drizzt books are Forgotten Realms, which is the current flagship setting for officially published material, and are also set in the Sword Coast region which is also the main focus of most of that official material. Places like Neverwinter, Icewind Dale, and Waterdeep are all parts of the Sword Coast and Drizzt and his companions spend significant periods of time in such places. So as long as you don't mind immersing yourself in the material that has and continues to spawn countless obsessive fanboys who all want to make noting but dark, edgy badass Drizzt knockoff characters for their games then they're a good source for that sort of lore.  And they are enjoyable books even if you don't have an unhealthy fixation with 90s comic book style dark and edgy heroes going on hyperviolent rampages for the greater good. I recommend enjoying them for the storytelling and setting, and the "turn your brain off" cool fight sequences. 

I'm going to make "Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt" a thing ... even though he's equally if not moreso ridiculous.  Still, I love how VGtR sorta justifies his excesses and inconsistencies and ... everywhereness, I actually laughed at the write up, in a good way.

Have you tried reading the Legend of Drizzt books by R.A. Salvatore.

It would also depend on what you’re looking for, Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms were ok (The Knights of Myth Drannor, good read) but all aimed at the younger audience…….

There are a lot of fantasy writers out there. I grew up reading Michael Moorcock books….

 Bernard Cornwell    (The Arthur Books)

Tad Williams            (Memory, Sorrow, Thorn)

Are among my favourites.

I think the OP was looking for explicitly Dungeon and Dragons imprint titles pursuant to getting a handle of D&D lore.  As I noted earlier, there are less time consuming ways of getting that handle than novel reading.

That said, the so-called "Appendix N" of the AD&D DMG did start a tradition in D&D traditions of a sort of bibliography of the games fictional DNA really hasn't been discussed in this thread.  Not sure about Cornwell or Williams but Moorcock has always been on every editions iteration of Appendix N, most attribute D&D's use of Law and Chaos, and "balance" in the alignment system and cosmology as derived from Moorcock.  

Personally, I'm not convinced Moorcock is as good as those who've recruited him as the "anti Tolkien" hold him up to be, despite his cool soundbites in that regard to Tolkien's fictional conservatism.  But I've only read the earliest Elric books and I know he wrote them incredibly young and he revisits the characters and stories a number of times later in his life.  What would you say is the Elric book to read to see Moorcock at his best? 

yep i know, but did say  I'm always looking for something new to read tbh 

both Bernard Cornwell (better known for sharp)  (The Arthur Books) Tad Williams (Memory, Sorrow, Thorn) are good reads give them a try.

Elric book's there set in a muti-verse ,  and crosses over with the other hero's in the Eternal Champion range to get the full enjoyment you have best read them all . i was not an Elric big fan as story's seem all over the place ( that the muti-verse for you) but did like the idea of an anti hero type, 

as for his best that's a hard but probably go with  The End of Time  or  The History of the Runestaff .

but that the best things about us , everyone has different tastes . what would you recommend for me to read  whats your favourite .

Matt Colville sells two D&D novels he wrote: Cleric and Thief.  They are good books, and inexpensive at $5 each digital.

"I, Strahd" (P. N. Elrod) is a good read.

Dragonlance novels are good in general, but if you are looking for books set in the Forgotten Realms, anything from Elaine Cunningham is worth reading, that includes the Coucelors and Kings series, set in Halruaa, Elves of Evermeet, if you want to learn more about Faerunian elves, the Songs and Swords series, that features the Harpers and the Starlight and Shadows trilogy about a good drow, who is less of a Mary Sue than Drizzt.

The best novel to read in order to get the hang of what stories D&D can tell is The Worm Ouroborous by E. R. Eddison.

Support  Matunus in recommending Elaine Cunningham!