Wait, did you agree to read two trilogies and then base your review on the blurbs? What kind of grade would you give your students if you found out they did that?

No mock sonnet would be complete without one of those mis-stressed past participles. Good thinking.

Bravo! A true masterpiece!

I haven't read much of them, only a few Dragonlance books. I guess a lot of people like not going outside their comfort zone, and so they stick with what they know? The original Dragonlance trilogy wasn't exactly the pinnacle of fantasy writing, the amazing part is how they then added dozens of other books, most written by other and utterly unknown authors, and somehow kept managing to sell them. And as for Icewind Dale and the other Forgotten Realms books, I'm inclined to say they're much better as computer (or tabletop, of course) games than as books. Haven't played Icewind Dale itself, but I've played other games set in that world - it's an interesting enough world, and some of the games they made in it are masterpieces. But even in that genre of fantasy that relies heavily on worldbuilding and that you're not a fan of, worldbuilding is still only one element and it still takes good writing to make the novel more than fan fiction set in the universe in question.