This is not the rating this book deserves, but I suppose it is the one it needs right now.All evidence suggests that the old gods are finally returning to Krynn after centuries of exile. The Dragon Highlords and their armies of darkness are marching all over the world, conquering everything in their way. Meanwhile, our band of heroes is split apart in a search for the lost dragon orbs, which may be the key to turning the tide in the war…Imagine reading a version of The Lord of the Rings where Elrond turns away the hobbits because they’re inferior to the proud elves; where the Council of Rivendell is on the verge of becoming a massacre when every single nation and people claims possession of the One Ring; where Gondor and Rohan go to full-scale war over a petty grievance while the armies of Mordor invade from the east; where the Fellowship is broken apart by constant quarrelling between everyone and everything. Then you can probably understand how frustrating this book was to read.This second volume of the Dragonlance Chronicles was in many ways a disaster. Almost the entirety of the book was one-star material. There was a huge amount of repetition (with this book repeating both the first book and itself), most of the characters were frustrating on a throw-book-in-wall level (including fan favourites and some of my own favourite characters), and last but not least it was really, really, really, really boring.And all that leads to even more problems. Even the first book had plenty of weak points. But because of the fascinating parts of that one, I was perfectly willing to ignore them. Unfortunately, those parts are all gone in this book, which in turn makes it virtually impossible to overlook the flaws. Dragonlance is at best mindless entertainment, and when the entertainment is gone, it is, logically, just mindless.Luckily the book did improve in the end. Weis & Hickman managed to introduce a great character and re-introduce an amazing character. And there is actually a character dying! So far, “death” in this series has been a minor setback where a character is removed from the plot for a short period of time only to return heroically later on. So this was actually a welcome addition to the plot, even though I rather liked said character. These reasons are what made me give the book two stars instead of one, and they also made me quite a bit more hopeful for reading the last book in the trilogy.
This will be my same review for all 7 books in the original double-trilogy (plus the 7th add on years later).There are few D&D novelizations out there that are really worth reading. Only two series have I loved, and the original 6 (became 7) "Dragonlance" novels are one of those great series. (Gord the Rogue is the other).At first when I read this, I was a bit put off because the "Krynn" world did not "agree" with D&D. The gods had different names (Bahamut = Paladine, Tiamut = Takhesis) and the race of Halflings were known as "Kender". But getting past these small issues, the story eventually became *exactly* what a good D&D story should be -- a *PARTY* of mixed races and classes, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, on an adventure where each party member has a time to shine. This is gaming-turned-novel at its best.All in all, the world was large and diverse and engaging. There was adventure, love stories, human frailty, power struggles, etc. I eventually played a Necromancer in D&D and patterned a number of his character traits (physical frailty, lust for power) after Raistlin. That was my way of showing how much I loved these novels.I gave some of the other "Dragonlance" novels a shot, but quickly lost interest. They just didn't have the draw that the original series did.Read them and enjoy.
Do You like book Dragons Of Winter Night (2007)?
Dwarves, elves, wizards, war, the kitchen sink...Great balls of dragon fire, this has it all!The heroes we met and fell in love with continue their adventure. Evil is on the rise and war is on the way. The action excellerates and the tension tightens...so why only three stars? The writing, man, she stinks. Okay, it's not all bad. Let's call it serviceable. Weis churned out the three books in this popular series within two years. She was writing so fast and the publishers were pushing them out the doors and into the stores so quickly that they neglected to stop and do so thoughtful editing. This second volume is rife with repetitious phrasings. But never you mind! The story's still intriguing, so let's push on!.... http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
—Jason Koivu
Never have I encountered such a pronounced instance of- and this is symptomatic of an 'in-universe'-derived immunity on the part of the authors against technical fault- dialogue and descriptive passage providing a vision of plot events and character natures that is not borne out in the course of the novel as a whole- at all. Maybe X and Y are contrasting sets of values- Charles was raised X to the point of apparent racial hardwiring, is dedicated to them in spirit and reportedly in action- all this assured us by the authors in omniscient inserts, in dialogue, etc- but Charles seems oblivious to all this, and despite the superlatives applied to him, is really more inclined to Y. None of this is done to evoke irony- and none of it is even written with either taste or technical skill. The only thing that matters is that the contents of the novel are representative of the atmosphere and details pertaining to a specific facet of the D&D universe. For D&D's sake, I hope the pastime is neither as crude or technically stunted as its literary emission.
—Dan Parrington
To anybody interested in the Dragonlance Saga, this trilogy is definitely the place to start and an essential read. To others, it may not stand out too much. There is one thing you cannot deny: they are fun. Autumn Twilight will always be a favorite of mine and getting to know the characters and the setting has a feeling reminiscent of (but not overly derivitive of) Tolkein's Fellowship. It is, however, a D&D book and if you are not a fanboy/girl then you won't get quite the same rush I think. Winter Night slows down quite a bit and can actually get tedious. Spring Dawning finally brings things to a head later in the book, but again is a very slow starter. These are instant classics in any nerd's shelves, just don't go looking for anything mind-blowing.
—Brian
