How canon are the Legends books?

Holmes

Mongoose
Quick question for everybody? How canon are you considering Dever's "Legends of Lone Wolf" series of novels in your games?

I know that they were written by the author of the gamebook series themselves but to me they seem contradictory to some of the material described in the gamebook series. That, and they seem to have more of a metaphysical bent. More of an exercise in philosophical extrapolation/tangential to the Lone Wolf story series...

At the moment, I'm approaching them from the standpoint that they're apocryphal, an interesting read in their own right, but I'm not using them as source material for my campaign.

Your thoughts?
 
There's a lot I'm not enjoying about the first novel, Eclipse of the Kai, mostly centering around Alyss and her "I could change history but I'm not bothered" attitude which frequently contradicts itself, and the whole thing about simply looking at Zagarna makes you go insane. I don't like those kinds of villains, they make no sense to me. Why would Naar create terrifying demonic creatures if everyone who saw them went mad and died? There's no-one to spread the fear.

Plus the multi-coloured Kai seem a bit silly to me.
 
There's some good to be found there, but in the end John Grant's Lone Wolf is not Joe Dever's Lone Wolf. Think of them as cousins that see each other three or four times a year; they have a lot in common, but they're really two different people.
 
I've just finished reading 'Eclipse...' and there are parts that are good, parts that are indifferent and plenty of detailed history.

It was interesting to note that Lone Wolf was a commoner.

The death of the two children really drove home the brutality of the Darklord invasion

I liked the way Banedon was written.

Vonotar's journey to the Darklands and his meeting with the Darklord were the weakest part, and tended to drag, IMHO.

The history was well told, although somewhat incongruous in its placement.

Alyss? I need to read more to decide about her/it?

I only spotted a couple of places where it contradicted the LW game books as far as I can recall.
 
I didn't like the whole "half a million each of kraan and giaks" mentioned by Zagarna. There was no way such a force could ever be repelled by any nation in Magnamund.

Then there was Alyss thinking about how she could kill "a million or so giaks" but apparently it wouldn't make a difference. At certain points it is mentioned that the future is unchangeable by the gods, except for small pieces which allow mortals to change it, yet Alyss could wipe out more giaks in an instant than Zagarna has, or even Zagarna himself. How can she be capable of one and not the other?
 
Holmes said:
I know that they were written by the author of the gamebook series themselves but to me they seem contradictory to some of the material described in the gamebook series.

Actually, they were not written by Joe Dever. They were written by only John Grant. Personally, I don't consider them canon.
 
I really liked some parts and disliked others. Anything with Alyss/Quinefer/Rhola Rhada was interesting, but I think these characters and the novellisation(?) of the gamebooks themselves would have been better served if John Grant had not used Dever's world as a backdrop for his oh so superior characters. Dumb male Lone Wolf turned me off big time too.

As far as I'm concerned they are absolutely not canon.
 
The Lone Wolf Novels...

Hmmm...

We've been using the bits we like and ignoring the bits we don't, which is what I recommend everyone does.

-A
 
I'm happy to learn that you (August) have not used too much of the Legends in the RPG (I just got my copy, at last !)

To clarify things : John Grant himself explained that he never cared for Lone Wolf and even that he does not especially like LW's universe. The Legends were only for him a mean to write about his own creations like Alyss and Qinefer who, initially, were intended to be heroes of others of his own stories. He integrated Magnamund in his own multiverse a la Moorcock to put his irritating invincible super-heroes in it.

If you've read book #1 and if Alyss bothers you, prepare yourself to throw the next books through the windows. It will be worse and worse.

See the forum section of the Project Aon website for loads of details. Or simply read the books and you will realize this : The Legend of Lone Wolf are not the Legends of "Lone Wolf". They're the Legends of Alyss, Qinefer and other characters created by John Grant. Lone Wolf is only a second hand characters in most of the books.
 
Nyxator said:
Holmes said:
I know that they were written by the author of the gamebook series themselves but to me they seem contradictory to some of the material described in the gamebook series.

Actually, they were not written by Joe Dever. They were written by only John Grant. Personally, I don't consider them canon.

My bad...I guess I saw the names on there and assumed he had a direct hand in writing 'em.
 
i have to confess i really liked the novels

first it gives you a little more infos about the darklords, about banedon about giaks and about "the love life" of lone wolf

second it was fun the read the novels and say: no don´t go there, there will be a vordak waiting for you (knowing what will happen from the gamebooks)

it might not be so well written but the infos you get ( although some are well lets say not so official) are still worth reading the books
 
As long as you read them as a story in it's own right, with only minimal influence from Joe Dever's True Magnamund then yes it is a good read.

But these can't be taken as canon.
 
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