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autistic_dragon 's review for:
Dragons of Summer Flame
by Margaret Weis
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I knew going into this novel, at the time intended as the conclusion to Dragonlance by its authors (but not its publisher—keep reading!), that it was controversial.
The pop culture wiki TVTropes holds Dragons of Summer Flame as a prime example of Torch the Franchise and Run, the trope wherein the non-owning writers of a work wreak havoc on a setting because of real-world issues, such as the impending loss of the license, getting tired of an IP, or, in the case of Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, leaving the company that owned the IP rights, TSR*.
And oh boy do they deliver. Several beloved characters from the original trilogy are killed off, most notablyTanis Half-Elven and Tasslehoff Burrfoot, the former dying rather anticlimactically , and the happy endings of the Chronicles and Legends trilogies are largely overridden only 25 in-universe years later.
There are outside-context antagonists with implausible strength and little to no foreshadowing to give our new generation of heroes and one antihero opponents, the Knights of Takhisis technically being foreshadowed in The Second Generation, butChaos, the Father of All and Nothing only receives minimal hints of sentience prior to this novel.
The deneoument I’ll also admit left a bitter taste in my mouth, both in its original intent and context of later Dragonlance novels for which I have been spoiled about the big twist.
And yet… most of this novel is surprisingly well-written, and once you accept the premise, the plot is riveting. I haven’t finished a 500+ page novel in less than a month (for fun) in a long time, but I did it here. The characters leap to life once more, there’s a surprising amount of humor despite the darkness, and the ending does have some bittersweet optimism. Most importantly, I had immense amounts of fun.
*TSR soon went bankrupt and was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, who in turn were bought by Hasbro, the current holder of the Dungeons & Dragons brand.
The pop culture wiki TVTropes holds Dragons of Summer Flame as a prime example of Torch the Franchise and Run, the trope wherein the non-owning writers of a work wreak havoc on a setting because of real-world issues, such as the impending loss of the license, getting tired of an IP, or, in the case of Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, leaving the company that owned the IP rights, TSR*.
And oh boy do they deliver. Several beloved characters from the original trilogy are killed off, most notably
There are outside-context antagonists with implausible strength and little to no foreshadowing to give our new generation of heroes and one antihero opponents, the Knights of Takhisis technically being foreshadowed in The Second Generation, but
The deneoument I’ll also admit left a bitter taste in my mouth, both in its original intent and context of later Dragonlance novels for which I have been spoiled about the big twist.
And yet… most of this novel is surprisingly well-written, and once you accept the premise, the plot is riveting. I haven’t finished a 500+ page novel in less than a month (for fun) in a long time, but I did it here. The characters leap to life once more, there’s a surprising amount of humor despite the darkness, and the ending does have some bittersweet optimism. Most importantly, I had immense amounts of fun.
*TSR soon went bankrupt and was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, who in turn were bought by Hasbro, the current holder of the Dungeons & Dragons brand.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Minor: Alcoholism