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.

Book Review: Dragons of Deceit: Dragonlance Destinies: Volume 1

 

+++Warning, this review contains spoilers from the Chronicles and Legends series of novels. If you have not read those books yet, proceed at your own risk.+++

Dragons of Deceit is the latest novel that Weiss and Hickman have written in the Dragonlance universe and the first since 2009 with the final entry of the Lost Chronicles trilogy. Of course, the Dragonlance universe started with their first novel published in 1984, Dragons of the Autumn Twilight, the events of which tie heavily into this book, which was a part of the Chronicles trilogy of novels and then followed up with the Legends trilogy. From there, a couple hundred or so novels set in the Dragonlance universe have been written over the years with Weiss and Hickman returning every so often to pen new novels and/or trilogies.

This book spans multiple years, with the story beginning during the War of the Lance, and the bulk of it happening after the events of the Legends Trilogy. The main crux of the story is that the daughter of a Solmanic knight named Destina Rosethorn loses everything when her father is killed in the battle of the High Clerist Tower. She is desperate for a way to prevent his death and finds a magic user who convinces her that there is a way she can save her father. She first has to find two artifacts, one that will require her to travel to the dwarven kingdom of Thorbidan, and one that will require her to track down a Kender named Taselhoff Burrfoot. I will not spoil the exact plot, but there are ties into the other novels, especially Dragons of the Autumn Twilight and Dragons of the Winter Night, as well as loose tie-ins to the Chaos War novels. Several characters from the original Dragonlance novels appear in this book to varying degrees. Obviously, Taselhoff is one of the main characters, but Tika and Carmen are prominently featured, as is Dalamar. There is a larger end-of-the-world threat that only some of the characters are aware of, and it is fairly clear that more characters from the original series of books will be appearing in the later novels, including those who died during the Chronicles and Legends books. The book does end on somewhat of a cliffhanger that points to where the story is going.

If you are a fan of Dragonlance, this is a must-read (as I would classify all of the Weiss-Hickman novels). They do a great job returning to the beloved characters without missing a beat. They also do a great job developing Destina as a character and providing her motivation before leaning heavily on the legacy characters. Therefore, it does not feel like she was just shoehorned into an existing story. Hers is an extension of the prior stories. The authors do a great job of setting up the larger story that will be told in the two remaining books of the new trilogy without giving too much away. It is a moderate length (just under 400 pages) but reads fairly quickly. So, if you are a fan of the Dragonlance universe of novels, definitely pick this one up.

Book Review: DragonLance Chronicles Volume 1: Dragons of the Autumn Twilight

 

Dragons of the Autumn Twilight is the start of a trilogy (Chronicles) of fantasy novels authored by Margret Weiss and Tracy Hickman based on a series of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) game modules. This is the first novel released in 1984 and would eventually spawn two more novels released in 1985 and a follow-up trilogy (legends) in 1986, and then a ton of spin-off novels. If you walked into any bookstore in the 1980s through to probably the late 1990s, you would see an entire section in the Sci-Fi fantasy section devoted to Dragonlance. Weiss and Hickman have come back over the years to pen novels in the series (sometimes together, sometimes on their own, or with different co-authors). The ones they write together are generally considered to be the "main" novels in the Dragonlance saga.

This book introduces readers to the world of Krynn which inhabits humans, dwarves, elves, kender, goblins, and other races of creatures. A group of friends had separated five years earlier and made a pact to return to their hometown (Solace) after five years. They discover that the world is on the brink of war and find that Solace has been taken over by a religious cult (called seekers) who are in league with an autocratic group known as dragon highlords who are preparing to unleash their might on the world of Krynn. The members of the group get in the middle of a skirmish that leads them to discover that the war is between the gods of good versus the gods of evil being fought by proxy on Kryn by the followers of each.

The Dragonlance series of novels were to those of us who were kids (or young adults) in the 1980s our generation's Lord of The Rings (which D&D and Dragonlance were clearly inspired by) and served as a bridge to series like Game of Thrones. It has a similar quest/adventure theme that Tolkien's novels had, but (at least for me) had a lot more action and less period of inactivity than Hobbit and LOTR had. And, there were far fewer "core" characters so it was easier to keep all the characters straight (something that plagued both Tolkien's novels and GoT). This is also something that, unlike GoT, kids can read without it being too adult. There are some violent action sequences, death, and some sexual content (mostly innuendo, not the graphic detail that GoT gets into).

Overall, I would say this is somewhere in between what you get in the later Harry Potter novels (Books 4-7) and what you would see in the more adult series. I first read this when I was in middle school (when I was about 12 or 13) and I think that the book (and the series overall) is fine for someone that age. It is also something that adults can easily enjoy. The storyline does have themes like gods and magic, but the gods are more like those from Greek mythology and are not heavily modeled after any contemporary religion. So, if you are a fan of the sci-fi/fantasy genre, and have not yet read these novels, this is definitely something you should check out.

Book Review: Dragonlance: The Annotated Chronicles

 

Chances are, if you were even slightly interested in Dungeons and Dragons back in the mid-1980s to early 1990s, you probably read these series of books. Back in the day, the sci-fi and fantasy section of the book stores had a massive Dragonlance Section. This is actually a set of novels that introduced the world of Krynn, and basically revolves around a fight between good and evil. The basic premise is that there are gods of good, evil, and neutrality. The "people" of Krynn are sometimes just regular people, and other times they have power (like magic-users and clerics). And, in addition to humans, there are other species like dwarves, elves, half-elves, trolls, and even dragons. The characters were based on a D&D campaign that one of the authors was playing, and it spawned multiple novels by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman involving the main characters, and a ton of ancillary novels that either augmented or expanded the storylines in the main novels.

Chances are anyone looking to buy this has already read the books multiple times, however, if you have not, a couple of provisos. First, this set is annotated, as the title suggests. The authors insert comments throughout the book that discuss specific events and even spoil things that happen in the later parts of the story. So, if you are reading this for the first time, and you care about spoilers, I would advise you to get the mass-market paperback versions of the novels and read those first, then read this to get additional insight into the story and the characters. Or, just do not read the annotations before you read the story. Second, the annotated version is probably overkill for anyone who is not a die-hard fan of the series. It provides a lot of extra detail that someone who is just casually reading the books is not likely to care about. But, if you are someone who really loves the characters and the story, this is definitely worth reading.