I'm not very experienced with D&D at all, but the settings and what not intrigue me and might make for some worthwhile reading. Are any of the D&D novels (or series of novels) especially good? I'm looking for an unbiased opinion, and a view on how these books compare to other fantasy novels that I could read instead.

The art on the front is sometimes cool. . .that's all I know about it.

When compared against the excellent authors, R.A Salvatore isn't particularly impressive, but his stories are.

He wrote all the Drizzt Do'Urden books, and they're almost all fantastic reads (if a little over-dramatic in places). He doesn't paint anywhere near as vibrant a world as Tolkien but his characters are fantastic, Artemis Entreri is an awesome bad guy.

If you want to read his Forgotten Realms books i'd do it in the following order (because it's chronological):

The Dark Elf Trilogy
- Homeland
- Exile
- Sojourn

The Icewind Dale Trilogy
- The Crystal Shard
- Streams of Silver
- The Halfling's Gem

Legacy of the Drow (first 3 books)
- The Legacy
- Starless Night
- Siege of Darkness

The Cleric Quintet
- Canticle
- In Sylvan Shadows
- Night Masks
- The Fallen Fortess
- The Chaos Curse

Legacy of the Drow (last book)
- Passage to Dawn

Paths of Darkness
- The Silent Blade
- The Spine of the World
- Servant of the Shard (also first book of The Sellswords)
- Sea of Swords

The Hunter's Blades Trilogy (this is basically one big war)
- The Thousand Orcs
- The Lone Drow
- The Two Swords

The Sellswords
- Servant of the Shard
- Promise of the Witch-King

Everything up to the end of Paths of Darkness i'd rate as excellent, Hunter's Blades Trilogy is more of a transitional set of books, they're all about characterisation rather than lots of things happening.

Basically, if you read them it's subjective whether you'll be impressed by the writing but you certainly won't be bored.

The Elminster series was good from Forgotten Realms

The cleric quintet was good. It starts off with The Canticle.

I've heard great things about the Dragonlance novels, but I have not read them yet.

It's not D&D, but the Dragonlance "War of Souls" trilogy is omgroxorz. Bits and peices are a bit confusing if it's your introduction to the Dragonlance Universe (as it was mine), but you figure it out pretty quick.

Dude. they were good

Dragonlance : The Doom Brigade was amazing.
Dark Sun series was brilliant, its a great setting
Forgotten Realms : Red Magic was also excellent

I personally dislike the Eberon setting (D&D) because its got too much mechanical crap (steel golems, etc.) and I'm not a fan of the technology/medieval mix (whther the technology is powered by magic or not.