With the release of Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition at the end of this month I have been trying to get back into the 90s D&D role-playing spirit and I thought the best way to do that would be to read a few good books. I remembered reading RA Salvatore (the Drizzt sage) when I was a young adventurer and I decided that would be a good place to start. After reading the first trilogy I honestly couldn't read another chapter and figuartively put my book (iPad) down in disgust. I feel as though I've been spoiled with such excellent fantasy titles such as the Witcher, Lord of the Rings, and A Song of Ice and Fire and am having trouble bringing myself down to the level of shallow characters and outlandish plots that is my current experience with D&D writing.

So, are there any diamonds in the mine of D&D fantasy writing? I would like to get as many opinions and as much advice as possible so I can get proper reading list.

I never read one, to be honest, but many people have recommended that I read The Dragonlance Chronicles Trilogy , which are suppose to be very entertaining.

Ditto

they are all good!

I'm currently reading Wheel of time by Robert Jordan, I don't think its as good as dragonlance chronicles, buts its better then most of the drivel you find out there.

I played a Dark Elf campaign 2 weeks ago with a group that didn't know who Drizzzt was (or R.A. Salvatore), I felt really old and really sad...

Dragonlance Chronicles is great, and it is in fact one of the few good things about the entire Dragonlance setting. The books led to an unfortunate increase in the number of people who wanted to play kender in their games, but the books themselves are quite good. The Twins trilogy is also pretty good, and I would recommend it to folks who enjoyed Chronicles, but the rest of the Dragonlance books are best avoided.

Other than that, you just get Salvatore's stuff, which is generally mediocre at best, and the various Elminster books, which are borderline terrible at first and become genuinely awful later. Forgotten Realms as a whole is kind of a dull setting, and these dull books don't help matters. The novelization of BG is an atrocity, and reading that book to an unwilling person is considered a war crime in several countries. Most of the other settings have a couple of novels each, but for the most part they are all forgettable at best.
 No, this is amazingly good news. It has restored my faith in humanity. Perhaps one day players will be able to make drow characters unburdened by Salvatore's "legacy."

You think that, but try explaining the Drow to people who don't know the first thing about them. You see, if you try and explain elves or dwarves, people have movies, lots of books, and all kinds of art from which to draw... the Drow not so much. You can get a group that won't all name their characters Drizzzt or Zakneifan, after all, explaining to a bunch of casual D&Ders who and what the Drow/Dark Elves are sucks balls.

The appropriately labeled Dungeons & Dragons books by T.H. Lain - City of Fire, The Bloody Eye, Oath of Neruil, and Plague of Ice, to name a few. You can go here to check them out:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/t-h-lain?store=ALLPRODUCTS&keyword=t.h.+lain

edit: david farland, lynn flewelling, dennis l. mckiernan, michael moorcock, joel rosenberg, any warhammer book, robert asprin, raymond e. feist, to name a few more.

edit: I'm not saying it was aliens... but it was aliens.

Through the 3rd book, it's pretty good, after that you'll want to claw your eyes out.

Also, since we're mentioning Margaret Weiss and Tracey Hickman for obvious reasons, everyone who read the Deathgate Cycle by those two, holy hell is that good!

The Avatar trilogy (Waterdeep, Tantras, Shadowdale) seemed pretty good when I last read it years ago, unsure if it holds up to the classics though. It's also backstory for the Bhaalspawn stuff from BG.

I don't know if I'd call them "diamonds," but the early Weiss and Hickman Dragonlance books are probably the best of the lot. Actually, maybe you should just read their Death Gate Cycle, and forget about D&D books.

Road of the Patriarch, by R.A. Salvatore

snort

Not books, but may be worth mentioning that there's a Kickstarter for a D&D documentary currently running.

I'd actually go as far as to say that the Legends trilogy (Twins series) was a lot better than the Chronicles. But you really need to read the Chronicles first (as I'm doing for the umpteenth time at the moment) to appreciate the Legends trilogy properly.
Yes yes yes. Forgot about them. Crucial reading for BG enthusiasts!

The "good" Drizzt books are in the Dark Elf Trilogy, telling the story of his youth and exile from underdark. Icewind Dale books, the first trilogy and the followups, are really pretty bad in comparison, or just written with young teens in mind.

Dragonlance chronicles are the classics, the best D&D stuff I've come across. They're not high literature either, but very entertaining nonetheless. Harry Potters of the day.

But even the best ones are not adult books. No dark realism, the closest they get is teen angst.