Dragonlance is
one of the series that made me a fantasy reader for life. Sure, it seems like
an underwhelming series to help turn somebody onto an entire genre but at the
time I believed Dragonlance to be
some of the best books I ever read. I discovered them at around the age of 10
when Dragons of a Fallen Sun was
recently released. I finished that trilogy and curious about the War of the
Lance and all the characters the series referenced I bought Dragons of Autumn Twillight and all the
other Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman co-written books I could get my greedy
little hands on. As I’ve grown as a reader and explored many other fantasy
series but I still rather enjoy reading a Dragonlance
novel from time to time and having recently gotten a few of my books back
from my brother, I decided to read one I hadn’t read before. Since this is a
short story anthology, I decided to do a mini-review for each story in the
collection.
Seven Hymns of the Dragon by Michael Williams:
The first story is a poem. I have very little
appreciation for poems and maybe that's my bad but this is a rather forgettable
story.
The Final Touch by Michael and Teri Williams:
The same can be said for the second story. It's about a
young druidess who finds a dragon egg. Despite the wise council of her former
mentor she brings the egg to her cavern and raises the dragon. It was a
disadvantage for the dragon to be raised in this way because it didn't learn
the lessons a dragon should learn in the wild. There is a sad and pathetic
quality to the dragon which it developed through no fault of its own. It reminded
me of real life animals who are born and raised in zoos. Eventually the dragon
leaves but all ends well for the bronze dragon after all. Overall the story is
cute. There are a few saccharine moments but it’s not something I would
recommend to a friend unless they like somewhat cute stories about dragons.
Night of Falling Stars by Nancy Varian Berberick:
This story is about a dwarf, Tarran Ironwood, who lives
in fear. He chooses to put an end to his fears by seeking revenge on a dragon
that killed many of his friends several years ago. He hires a young swordsman
who also has fears of his own that he needs to vanquish in order to be of any
real aid to the dwarf during his quest. Both characters travel to the mountain
lair of the dragon which used to be a dwarven mine. Berberick convincingly writes about the dangers,
sense of claustrophobia and the ever present echoes of the mine.
Berberik’s plot is rather cliché; a small group of
individuals (not even a group, a pair) set out to slay a dragon. It’s been seen
countless times before but Berberick makes it her own. In the dwarven mines,
the characters are surrounded by the echoes of the sleeping dragon, Claw, the
quest becomes a meditation on painful memories and the fears that can haunt an
individual. It’s a pretty powerful story and I was pleasantly surprised to see
this type of thing in a short story collection. There’s definitively potential
for a larger narrative but maybe its short length contributes to its success.
Honor is All by Mickey Zucker Reichert:
A knight of Solamnia heads out to battle a dragon in
order to protect a village that the dragon has been terrorizing. Not all is as it
seems in this story, however. The knight is obsessed about honour like many
other knights of Solamnia. He lives his life in a way to tip the balance in the
favour of good but through the events detailed in this story, he ends up tipping
the balances the other way. The story ends with the knight realizing what he's
just done and choosing to rethink he's life of blind devotion to the cause of
the Solamnic Knights. There's also a small section about nature vs. nurture in
relation to dragons and I would have preferred if the story had followed that
idea to its conclusion rather than the cheap twist. I think it would have made
for a better ending because of the nature of the knight and what his oath
represents.
Easy Pickings by Douglas Niles:
Douglas Niles starts his short story, which takes place
during the time of Huma Dragonbane, with a battle between ogres and Knights of
Solamnia. What begins as a sure victory for the ogres changes with the arrival
of Knights wielding lances atop the back of dragons and the tides quickly turn.
The second half of the story echoes the first. A surviving ogre, Chaltiford,
finds a deceased dragon near its lair and decides to steal the dragons gold.
Things are not as easy as it seems and once again the tides turn for the
unlucky ogre. The whole thing is predictable but it didn't impede on my
enjoyment of this little story. It was nice to have an ogre as the main
character since I’ve never read any ogre-centric Dragonlance stories before.
A Dragon to the Core by Roger E. Moore:
This is a fun story that tried really, really hard to be
funny. It somewhat succeeded. It doesn't really work overall because the story
is easily twice as long as necessary. Like a decent comedy movie that kept on
playing well last the acceptable 90 minutes. A total length of 20 pages of a gnome
mining and draconians scheming would have been plenty for me. I was very glad
when the Iron Dragon blew up because I knew it was announcing the end of the
story.
Dragon's Breath by Nick O'Donohoe:
“Dragon’s Breath” is yet another forgettable story. A
group of five men set out to fight and kill a dragon that has been terrorizing
the surrounding area. A gnome gets involved and a dragon is found and
eventually chased away. The five men return home no more famous or rich for
their trouble and continue living their peaceful lives in their quiet village.
Fool's Gold by Jeff Grubb:
This story resembles “A Dragon to the Core” only it's
shorter, isn't annoying (probably due to the absence of a gully dwarf) and the
events happened in reverse order. The story begins with the tale of an encounter
with a golden dragon which put a curse on our former-warrior, now the story’s
hero. The story then ends with a gnome creating a mechanical sea dragon which
helps him put an end to the town’s bullying baron once and for all. There isn't
any depth of storytelling but it's a brisk and enjoyable read even if nothing
spectacular happens. I think I just liked it because it wasn't self-indulging
like Roger E. Moore's story earlier in this collection.
Scourge of the Wicked Kendragon by Janet Pack:
By "borrowing" a jewelled figurine of a
dragon, a kender named Mapshaker Wanderfuss accidentally transforms himself
into a dragon. He gets into all sorts of troubles afterword such as scarring
villagers and various types of cattle, learning to fly, getting hounded by a
Knight of Solamnia whose honour was besmirched only to finally get transformed
back to his real self by the same mage from whom he stole the statue. It's a
delightful little story in which most of the characters are funny. Sir Aric is
particularly ridiculous in his hunt of the kendragon.
And Baby Makes Three by Amy Stout:
Stoic John, a mercenary who works with a dragon finds a
little child at the top of a mountain. The child, called Jax, is a gift of
revenge from a sorceress the mercenary used to date. John tries to puzzle out
why she sent him Jax. Jax might be a reincarnation of the sorceress or, most likely,
a love child. The story ends with Stoic John adopting Jax. It’s a boring story
because nothing happens. It’s all speculation with no resolution or interesting
plot elements. The plot ends after two pages when the discovery of the child is
made. The rest of the story is spent on the mountain revisiting past memories
and deciding what to do with Jax.
The First Dragonarmy Bridging Company by Don Perrin:
As the title says, it’s the story of a bridge building
company in the service of Dragon Highlord Ariakas. The whole operation is interesting
but it’s made even more fascinating by Perrin’s great understanding of
Draconians. I don’t recall a Dragonlance story in which Draconians are better
written. It’s a very welcome break from all the gnomes and dragons found in the
previous stories. Perrin’s military background also adds a considerable about a
credence and veracity to military engineers. That’s why this story works so
well because it’s very specific in the events taking place that it utterly charmed
me and I was able to completely immerse myself in their world.
You learn a great deal about Draconian physiology. They’re
cold blooded, have heat sensitive eyes and their scales tighten and loosen with
a clicking sound dependent on their mood and physical level of comfort. Some
Draconians can even use magic but it’s a different type of magic than what
humans learn. Human wizards have to memorize spells from books and once they’ve
cast a spell, it’s forgotten, that is until they memorize it once again.
Draconians like Kang, a Bozak and leader of the Bridging Company, enters a trans-like
state and is given spells by the goddess Takhisis. Once a spell is cast, they
also forget it until the next time they’re given one by their Dark Queen.
In what is my favourite short story of the entire collection,
Perrin writes an immersive story that provides readers with a different view of
Dragonlance than they’re used to. It focuses one staples of the series,
Draconians, but embellishes them like never before. He also creates two rather
interesting characters: Kang, a Bozak and Slith a slippery Syvak. Lucky for me
Perrin and Margaret Weis have written two novels that continue the stories of
Kang.
The Middle of Nowhere by Dan Harnden:
“The Middle of Nowhere” is an uninteresting story about
foolish villagers mixing it up with magic, dragons and precious treasures. A
boring story, bland execution and a twist ending that barely even qualifies as
one. It would be a waste of my time to continue writing about it.
Kaz and the Dragon's Children by Richard A. Knaak:
Richard A. Knaak’s contribution to The Dragons of Krynn is, of course, a story of Kaz the Minotaur. Set
after the events of The Legend of Huma
and Kaz the Minotaur, this story is
about the creation of the first Draconian. Kaz is captured by a Black Mage who
has also been able to capture a severely wounded silber dragon and her clutch.
By using dark magic to harness the dragon’s own source of magic, the Black Mage
is able to experiment on her eggs, twisting and tormenting the baby dragons
within.
It turns out that Kaz was captured in order to test the “dragon-man”.
The story ends with Kaz believing he ended the creation of a new evil on Krynn
but little does he know, centuries later, Draconians would rise again.
Into the Light by Linda P. Baker:
I didn't finish this story. I didn't even read half. I'm
not really sure I can accurately tell you what the story is about though I'm
sure there is a dragon in it. It's not often I don't bother to finish something
I started to read but after experiencing the quality of some of the longer
stories in this collection and adding to that Baker's excessive use of purple
prose, I really didn't think it was worth my time to finish "Into the
Light". If anyone has read it, please let me know if I was wrong.
The Best by Margaret Weis:
It's difficult to write about this story without ruining
it. It's a very enjoyable story, well-constructed and well told. The title
refers to the best dragon slayers in the land. They're hired to slay a dragon
and all accept because they've been robbed by the very dragon they're hired to
kill. It was nice to have Weis write a Dragonlance story that didn't focus on currently
established characters or the Companions and she did a very good job
establishing the personalities of the four dragon slayers. I can't voice my
main complaint without ruining the story but I do have minor complaints. I
didn't like how short the story was and how the ending wraps everything up so
neatly. I shouldn't be too critical though because it was better than a lot of
other stories in this collection.
The Hunt by Kevin Stein:
The final story in this collection is a mere 9 pages long
and is about a Knight of the Rose hunting a black dragon. He's been hunting the
beast for years and just before he begins his final assault the dragon speaks
to the knight. The dragon forces the knight to contemplate the price he paid,
the precious things he's lost by relentlessly pursuing the dragon. By doing this,
the dragon effectively robs the knight of any sense of victory he would have
had after slaying the beast. It's a bittersweet ending to a collection that has
a few good story and fewer very good ones with a lot of predictable and
uninteresting stories in between.
Top five stories:
5-The Best
4-Scourge of the Wicked Kendragon
3-Night of Falling Stars
2-Kaz and the Dragon’s Children
1-The First Dragonarmy Bridging Company – I guess I like draconians more than dragons!
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