Reviews

Dragons of Fate by Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman

dragonwriter's review against another edition

adventurous funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Destina has made the worst mistake of her life, and it may cause the whole of Krynn to suffer. Her grief and desperation at the loss of her father sent her on a quest for time travel, and sent her, the kender Tasselhoff, and the (formerly) dead heroes of the Lance, Raistlin and Sturm, back to the third dragon war. Now, she must hide the Greygem from Takhises, while not altering events and changing the history of the world. Meanwhile, Sturm and Raistlin are trapped in their War of the Lance bodies with memories of how they died, facing life once again with new choices and possibly a new life ahead.

Destina was fairly useless in this book, but I really didn't care because RAISTLIN. Being dead has separated the liche, Fistandatilus, from him, freeing him from the evil wizard's influence, and I love seeing how the knowledge of his possession and the path his previous life took affects his choices in this book. I love seeing him entertaining the idea of dying a hero, wondering if it's possible to gain redemption, or if he must resign himself to his cursed path to godhood. Him and Magius teaming up was my absolute favorite. They were so SASSY together! And Raistlin was SO happy having a wizard friend who understood him. I was so worried that Sturm would be a walking invitation to punch him in the face, but he wasn't as pigheaded or as present as I worried. Gwyneth and Huma were ADORABLE, as were Kairn and Destina, and Tasselhoff was an utter delight. But as always, RAISTLIN STOLE THE SHOW!
I really hope he gets his redemption arc in book 3. HE DESERVES REDEMPTION!!!!  

joshort's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

ireitlitam's review

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

pr10n's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

tbart1126's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

kathmhughes's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Some loveable characters, some well hated characters, some flat characters. This is better than the first in this trilogy, but still has really clunky juvenile writing, but that can be forgiven because the adventures are awesome.

shawntowner's review

fast-paced

3.0

Raistlin is too normie for my liking.

tilly_wizard's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.0

Some scattered thoughts from a shameless Age of Mortals enjoyer:

W&H in Dragons of a Vanished Moon:

"All his life, Galdar had heard legends of a famous minotaur hero known as Kaz, who had been a friend of the famous Solamnic hero, Huma. Kaz had ridden with Huma in his battle against Queen Takhisis. The minotaur had risked his life for Huma many times, and Kaz's grief at Huma's death had been lifelong."

W&H in Dragons of Fate: Kaz who?

I wonder what Richard Knaak thinks about this book, lol

Weis & Hickman are rather infamously poor team players, and since this book basically disregards every trace of Dragonlance history which wasn't written by one or both of them (of all the books, it's the most closely tied to Brothers In Arms), and the "References" bibliography at the end is significantly reduced from that included in the previous book, and lists exclusively novels and sourcebooks written by Weis and/or Hickman (with the sole exception of Karen Wynn Fonstad's superb Atlas, which only covers Chronicles and Legends), I assume this is an attempt to establish "Classic Dragonlance" as a new canon timeline that "Holy Six" purists can accept without needing to be constantly vigilant against the possibility that someone might introduce an actually interesting idea to the setting.

In essence, this book is to The Legend of Huma what The Soulforge was to Preludes and Meetings, with the difference being that The Soulforge remains within, say, the top 10 of all Dragonlance novels in terms of prose, narrative voice and literary technique (regardless of whatever one's feelings about its treatment of the previous shared-world canon may be), whereas Dragons of Fate is...very far below that top 10 threshold.

Strangely enough, the 1st edition hardback Dragonlance Adventures is listed here, but not the 3rd edition Sovereign Press/Margaret Weis Productions sourcebooks, which this book occasionally nods towards. 

"Who knows? With Sturm Brightblade here to influence me for good, I might even take the White Robes."

The idea of an AU with Raistlin in White Robes has been kicked around since Legends of the Twins (2005). C'mon Margaret, give the people what they want.

___

The new characters from Dragons of Deceit are barely in this book. Despite being front and centre on the (hideous) cover art, Destina's sole purpose is to be a vehicle to move around the Graygem, and Kairn is even less than that. This is not necessarily a bad thing, since Destina was...not well received as the new protagonist, however it does make the first book seem largely pointless in retrospect. 

Sturm is also not much of a presence, which feels like a missed opportunity since (for obvious reasons) he has had far less page time than Raistlin and Tas over the previous run of the series. Rotating POV chapters between the three of them would have been appreciated. The main theme is a subversion of the adage "never meet your heroes", where Raistlin and Sturm's personal heroes/historical foils do in fact live up to and surpass their expectations, which suits the intended "traditional" romantic high fantasy tone of Dragonlance very well. With that being the case, it would have been more effective to hear Sturm reflect on Huma from in his own POV throughout the book, rather than mostly sidelining Sturm and Huma in favour of Raistlin and Magius, and then having Raistlin put the question to Sturm at the end, and having Sturm agree based on only a couple of interactions. 

"By the way, I have been meaning to ask you. They say we should never meet our heroes, for they will be sure to disappoint us. You have met and fought alongside Huma, a man you long revered. What has that been like? Are you disappointed?"
...
"Huma makes light of honor and appears to regard the Measure more as guidelines than as laws by which one must live. But he does believe in the oath. 'My honor is my life.' In fact, I would say that one sentence defines him."
"So are you disappointed?" Raistlin asked.
"No," Sturm replied. "I may have lost a hero, but I have found a friend."

Speaking of which, Raistlin is so soft in this book, lmao. I'm not complaining, exactly, since this is the far better alternative than for him to be completely villainised and written as the "sociopath" that Hickman has always asserted he is (even Weis isn't particularly sympathetic towards him most of the time, despite what the fans like to delude themselves into believing), but since this book is (in terms of the psychological state of the characters) taking place after Legends but long before Tales I/Dragons of Summer Flame, it is somewhat jarring to have Raistlin give his heartfelt confessions/almost-apologies in this book, long before his return in the Chaos War (at which time he knows in his heart of hearts that he regrets everything, but isn't ready to admit it out loud yet - that's what the end of DoaVM is for).

The only reason this convoluted character development/regression is slightly excusable is because of the time-travel shenanigans ensuring that he won't remember this in the future (except, the book suggests that the characters will, in fact, subconsciously remember these events and emotions in the future).

Despite the fact that a big chunk of the plot is based on Brothers in Arms, the book is strangely reticent about referring to other, more recent novels, particularly Dragons of the Hourglass Mage. 

“Raistlin looked at the road stretching on before him. He walked alone. He could no longer hear the voice of Fistandantilus. 

“I have a chance to live life without him,” Raistlin reflected. “At least for a short time."

Those with better memories than Weis & Hickman will recall that Raistlin already had this in DotHM, but in the end he lets old man Fisto possess him again anyway.

Basically, the character development in this book would have been a lot more impactful if Raistlin had been allowed to do some real on-page reflection about this, but it’s never mentioned.


___

 

At this point, I have as much (possibly more) emotional investment in the constant slapfighting between Dragonlance authors, editors, game designers and WotC executives as I do in the actual narrative. 

Thanks to the lawsuit, we know the broad strokes of the editorial drama over the first book (the love potion plot, etc), and it’s too bad that we’ll probably never know what kind of radical revisions this one went through, but I have a few guesses.

The end of Dragons of Deceit introduced a new entity called the “Keeper of Souls”, who is responsible for keeping track of all the souls that depart to the afterlife. 

After the kerfuffle with the DoaVM appendix (and the long-running feuds over whether the Dragonlance cosmology is part of the standard D&D Great Wheel, and whether Paladine and Takhisis are/are not Bahamut and Tiamat), I was disappointed but not surprised when Hickman decided to change the workings of the afterlife again. Conversely, I was surprised but not disappointed when the Keeper of Souls is not mentioned at all in this book, and hopefully we’ll never have to hear about it again. 

If I could erase only one line from Dragons of Deceit, it would be that mention of the Hand of Vecna. Thankfully, 5E Multiverse Bullshit is non-existent in this book, although the number of inconsequential mentions of named artifacts still feels intrusive. Maybe there’s a “minimum number of game-able items/locations/NPCs” clause in the license. In particular, Dalamar and Justarius’ little sidequest to find the one NPC who can rebuild the Device of Time Journeying (which is accomplished with ridiculous ease) feels like it could have been salvaged from a discarded draft adventure module. 

---

Predictions for Book 3:

- We get a brief tour of Ansalon under the rule of Takhisis, and meet AU versions of all the characters, but in the end the One True Timeline must be restored

- Kang's Regiment will make an appearance

- Something about Soth, because this decades-long pissing contest over the least interesting character in the main storyline will never end

- Crysania will continue to be never mentioned again, except in the most oblique ways (a mixed blessing, honestly)