An old love re-discovered

I’ve loved many things over the course of my life – people (of course), books, music, movies, different places, just to name a few. But over the course of the years many of these things have proven to be short-lived affairs. Not the people of course, who I’m still blessed to have in my life, but material things I thought I’d love forever but have faded and disappeared as the years passed and new levels of maturity finally began taking hold.

There are the obvious examples of childhood obsessions finally going away like G.I. Joes or My Little Pony. I’m still a kid though when it comes to Star Wars and Carebears (which are making a comeback, yippee!). Then there are those high school addictions that faded away like Christopher Pike books and Color Me Bad. Even some college favorites have gone the way of the dodo such as instant pansit canton dinners every day and talking on the phone for more than five hours.

Indeed, it’s a natural evolution for anyone to grow up and discard things they feel they no longer like or no longer apply to their lives. Lord knows I’ve changed over the years in many different ways and I’m still changing to this day. It’s part of life to constantly evolve and improve as the years continue to pass. Yet, at the same time, there are many things about us that remain the same. As I thought about all the different things I’ve loved over the course of my life I’ve realized that all the things that have changed about me are the superficial ones. Deep down, I’m actually still inherently the same person I always was – only wiser and more mature.

These musings were actually brought on by a recent spring-cleaning my room underwent on an O.C. night not too long ago. I found so many things buried deep within the crevasses of my bedroom that I hadn’t thought about in years and it was nice re-discovering all the old things I used to love so much. It made me realize which ones I still cherish to this day.

Take my bookshelves, for instance. Age has not determined which books remained there and which went to the donation boxes. I’ve discarded all the Nancy Drew books of my past but still kept my childhood favorites like Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little. While my shelves have held many, many books that have come and gone, there are those that have never moved since the day I bought them like my all-time favorites C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time series, and, of course, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. I guess I’m a sucker for classics I know I’ll never outgrow.

It was nice to see all the novels that kept me company over the years and I completely went down memory lane when I re-visited Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman’s Dragonlance series as I dusted them off on my first shelf. I’ve loved these books from the moment I first picked them up over 10 years ago. I think it’s possibly because these fantasy book classics struck that nerve in me that loved knights and dragons and princesses. The love for a fantastical world that Tolkien instilled in my Weis and Hickman took to another level in their bold series, which I know has captured the hearts of millions of readers worldwide.

It was nice going through these classic novels again and I highly recommend them to anyone who has a thirst for adventure but is stuck in the realities of a nine-to-five life. They’re great at bringing you to places you can only imagine and you’ll find yourself surprised at how quickly you’ll immerse yourself in their world and how fast you’ll start feeling for the characters. Trust me, when the story ends you’ll find yourself feeling sad, as if you’re saying goodbye to actual friends.

That’s how I felt the first time I picked up book one in the Chronicles series, Dragons of Autumn Twilight. I was glued from page one and as the story progressed I found myself easily getting attached to the colorful and quirky characters. I couldn’t wait to see what would happen to Tanis, the brave but conflicted Half-Elf, or to Sturm, the courageous and troubled knight, or enjoy more adventures with the hilarious duo of Flint the dwarf and Tasslehoff the irrepressible kender. The story was intoxicating and what I think I liked about it the most was that Weis and Hickman, much like their predecessor Tolkien, created a full and vibrant world for their story to take place in. The books give you a glimpse into a world that you feel might actually exist somewhere beyond the pages of a storybook and the more you get to know the land of Krynn the more you wish you were actually a part of it.

Additionally, the authors’ characters are highly developed and three-dimensional. They feel like actual real people. I think this is because the novels began through the Dragonlance role-playing game. Each of the two authors had their own characters in the RPG and their friends played the others. I think playing the game allowed them to fully develop their characters and when it came time to write them in the book it was easy because the RPG helped them know them so well that they let them lead the story. This is extremely important because, after all, it’s the characters that tell the story and readers are more likely to enjoy a book whose people they can identify with and relate to and this is something Weis and Hickman accomplished easily. There was a time when these characters were as real to me as actual people I knew in my life. As cheesy as it sounds, I could feel with them. I laughed along with Tasslehoff, worried with Tanis, plotted with Raistlin, and cried for Sturm with tragedy struck in Dragons of Winter Night.

Weis and Hickman truly hit gold when they finally published their first series. The books hit stands over a decade ago and have not lost any popularity since continuing to touch readers both young and old alike. Recently, they came up with the new printing of all the first three novels together entitled The Annotated Chronicles (or the Dragonlance Bible as I like to call it.), which not only combines the three classic novels but also includes interesting and informative anecdotes about the characters, story, and places written by the authors along with the many friends who helped them bring the world of Krynn to life. It’s even more interesting to read than the originals as you get a glimpse of how the authors felt when penning certain parts and how they evolved to reach their conclusions. They even admit how difficult it was for them to write certain scenes because they had grown so attached to their characters.

I ended my spring-cleaning (which is still ongoing) by re-reading an old favorite and reminding myself of how much I loved it. For anyone with a love for books and a passion for adventure let Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman take you on an adventure you’ll never forget.