Book Review: Dragonlance - Dragons of Fate: Dragonlance Destinies: Volume 2

 

Dragons of Fate is, as of this writing, the newest novel in the latest Dragonlance series of novels. The book was written by the authors of the original Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy (which started the entire Dragonlance universe and includes over 200 books) as well as the Legends and Chaos trilogies, Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman. This is the second novel of what is likely to be a trilogy of novels (subtitled Dragons of Destinies) that are a continuation of the novels set around the legacy characters created by Weiss and Hickman back in the 1980s. As most fans of the Dragonlance series know, Weiss and Hickman have returned to the series every so often over the years to pen new novels. Theirs are, in my opinion anyway, the best of the Dragonlance novels.

I will not go into too much detail about the plot to avoid spoiling it, but some details of the first book, Dragons of Deceit, will follow. About half of this book is set in the past, during the Third Dragon War, where Raistlin, Sturm, Destina, and Tasslehoff are stranded after the time device and the Graygem transported them farther back in time than Destina intended. The book starts by giving more detail about what happened when the group was initially sent back in time, and how they came to meet Huma and Magius. Then, they have to figure out how to get back to their time, without changing the past. In the present, Dalamar and Justarius are seeking a way to fix the time device so those trapped in the past can be rescued.

The hardcover version of the book is about 365 pages and reads very quickly. Those who are fans of the series are going to find it hard to put down. Fast readers will easily be able to finish it in a day or two. The story flows very well, and as the authors did at the end of the first book, they tease and set up how the third book is going to begin without giving away anything about how the third book will play out. This is a great return to the Dragonlance universe, the world of Krynn, and the characters that many of us who were kids in the 1980s came to love. Weiss and Hickman do a great job balancing the use of established, legacy characters with new characters. It is absolutely worth reading.