Among the vast many Forgotten Realms paperback novels published by TSR/WotC, there were a few based on some of the gold box games and campaign modules. I sometimes see Pool of Radiance and Azure Bonds used on Amazon for pretty cheap. Has anyone read them, and if so, are they any good?

I personally owned the Curse of the Azure Bonds novel and the 2 other ones after it (wyvern spur and song of the saurials). It's been a very long time since I have read them so I'm not sure if I can give a solid review on it.

From what I recall, I believe I liked the first of the Curse of the Azure Bonds book (perhaps biased from the video game which I love), but rest of that trilogy -- not so much.

I've seen the Pool of Radiance books, but I don't believe I read them.

Azure Bonds is a fairly solid fantasy novel, fairly well written with decent characterization.

The Wyvern's Spur follows one of the companions of Alias (the main protagonist in Azure Bonds & Song of the Saurials) and delves into the family of a recurring side character in the first novel (which of course turns out to have connections to what happens in Azure Bonds). It's decently written, but more of a mystery novel than an adventure as opposed to the other two books.

Song of the Saurials brings the group together again to rescue the people of Dragonbait. It's as well written as the other two, the story flows nicely and is initially focused on some of the fallout of the first book. The background information discovered in the previous book is summarized to the characters that weren't present.

Also, beyond The Finder's Stone Trilogy there are three follow up books. The story in Masquerades is not very good IMO, Finder's Bane is decent (and has some Planescape crossover) and Tymora's Luck is decent as well (and full on Planescape).

All 6 books are written by the same two writers and the writing itself is consistently solid.

I don't think I've read the PoR books either.

I tried to read Pools of Darkness. Most banal drivel I've ever read.

I remember enjoying all the TSR novels back in the day (including the two series based on the games), and in fact I owned the entire Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, and Greyhawk collection up to about 1995.

However, I tried re-reading them all about 10 years or so ago and, well, let's just say I discovered that my pleasant memories are best left as memories and I don't own those books anymore :).

I guess they are good enough entry level fantasy books.
Dragonlance still has its charm though, IMO.

The first Pool of Radiance novel was good, it was the first D&D novel I read.... the following Pools of Twilight and Darkness not so much, as for the Curse of the Azure Bonds trilogy, only the first one was good, the second just focussed on the Halfling Ruskettle and the third was just about Finder and Moander and was ok... The AD&D module for Curse though was a great read and adventure.

Even back in the day, I believe I only mildly enjoyed one or two novels among the dozen I read and I really doubt I could stand them today. I guess they were kind of fun when I was only looking for prolonging the pleasure between two tabletop game sessions...

Its a mixed bag really, some are entertaining others are cringeworthy. The dragon lance novels (at least those written by Weis and Heickman) are a genuine good story that stands out for itself, even if you see they try to dump exposition a bit too much. For the forgotten realms, I'd recommend reading R.A. Salvatore and Curse of the Azure Bonds.

As a minor addendum, Azure Bonds novel isn't actually based on the game Curse of the Azure Bonds but the other way around. This is mentioned in the credits screen of COTAB and the events of the game take place after the original novel:
http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/265927-curse-of-the-azure-bonds-commodore-64-screenshot-credits.png

I read Azure Bonds in the late 90's and found it fairly entertaining with some interesting twists. It also explains the age of Alias in the game. ;)

Having read a lot of 80s and 90s tie-in novels, I think Azure Bonds and its follow-up comprise all of FR material that's worth reading.

Pool of Radiance is okay but passable.

Murder in Tarsis somehow got on Wikipedia's list of FR fiction but it's technically Dragonlance and practically generic fantasy; it's good and recommended. Back when it was released, I pirated it and read it in a sitting in glorious white-on-blue.

Other great tie-in fiction that can potentially go for cheap is Lynn Abbey's Dark Sun trilogy (vols 1, 2, 5 of the series - 3 and 4 are standalone vomit by other people, avoid) and Ian Watson's Inquisitor (Warhammer 40k tie-in).

I seem to recall it skipping a couple of maps altogether and they wound up on the final endgame map via a plot device.

Would be cool if the novels were downloadable bonuses.

They're owned by different companies now. The games are owned by GoG and the books are owned by Wizards.

To be honest, a quick google search should pull up epubs of them. :)

I liked Dark Sun, the Dragonlance Legends Trilogy and the early Salvatore stuff. Legends still holds up for me, I havent reread the other stuff. I tried reading Azure Bonds in the 90s but never finished it.