top 3 ravenloft novels and why

[Brandi]

I was most kindly given Tales of Ravenloft by Catman Jim, and I quite like it-- but then I'm a sucker for anthologies.

I have read Heart of Midnight and Mordenheim at my local used bookstore, and while they were okay, to be honest apart from the bits of the books that got introduced into game history/canon, I prefer to read the books Ravenloft novels frequently draw on: Dracula, Frankenstein, the classics (oh, and I really recommend Vathek).

But that's all IMHO, of course, and YMMV.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

I agree with most of these choices, and would also toss in "Enemy Within" as a decent story that really drives home the cross-psyche feud between Malken and Tristen ... even if it *does* fly in the face of 'canon'.

BTW, if you're reading "I, Strahd", keep in mind that an awful lot of the events presented in that novel didn't really happen the way Strahd claims they did (e.g. he *did* personally slaughter those wedding guests in the chapel himself, even if Dilisnya's men killed the guests elsewhere in his castle; we SAW them fall prey to his attacks first-hand, in the fifth Grand Conjunction module!). For a *true* record of the events that made him into a vampire, check out the third-person accounting in VotM; for insight into Strahd's larger personality, as he plays at historical revisionism to vindicate his past misdeeds and rationalize his decisions -- not to mention puff his own ego; c'mon, does anyone *really* doubt he included that bit with the lady tax-collector for anything other than to boast his continued post-mortem virility...? -- read between the lines of Elrond's text.

[Charlatan]

My favorites are VotM, KotBS, and TEW, but I would only recommend the first two to a newcomer to Ravenloft, and sub in Tales, KotD, or I, Strahd in its place.

I have the entire run of RL novels, but I've never reread Baroness of Blood or To Sleep with Evil after the intial reading. Didn't like'em. The protaganists were either too coldly evil or helpless to make me care about them. Can't quite bring myself to either throw them out due to my sense of 'having the complete collection', but prehaps I might give them away to someone who does appreicate them.