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A review by poisonenvy
Dalamar the Dark by Nancy Varian Berberick
3.0
I first read this book more than twenty years ago, and while I can't remember much of it from then, I DO remember coming way from the book disappointed even then.
Dalamar has the potential to be a great character. In a world where elves almost exclusively worship the gods of good, having one that worships the gods of evil is intriguing. Why did he turn from the light? Who would he choose to he exiled from his homeland for the sake of his magic?
Unfortunately, Dalamar the Dark falls flat. Maybe it's just bad timing -- I just finished several well-written books with magnificent negative character arcs, and while I generally don't hold Dragonlance books to an especially high standard (I'll be the first to admit that they're brain candy. Some of my favourite brain candy, but brain candy nevertheless), it was just a bad time to read... Well, a character that turns from the gods of good to the gods of evil for no particular reason that I could discern, other than the fact that they were there.
The writing was inconsistent, and I can't understand why the white robed mage decided to just... Pray to her god? Instead of actually casting spells? The spellcasting in this book was inconsistent with how magic works in the Dragonlance world too, and in general didn't seem to follow... any rules at all? It was vague in the "he waved his hand and people died" kind of way which was neither interesting nor accurate.
All that being said, the book is, more-or-less entertaining. A large portion of it is just recapping things that happened in other books, but it was nice to see the fall of Silvanost from the perspective of someone *in* Silvanost.
Dalamar has the potential to be a great character. In a world where elves almost exclusively worship the gods of good, having one that worships the gods of evil is intriguing. Why did he turn from the light? Who would he choose to he exiled from his homeland for the sake of his magic?
Unfortunately, Dalamar the Dark falls flat. Maybe it's just bad timing -- I just finished several well-written books with magnificent negative character arcs, and while I generally don't hold Dragonlance books to an especially high standard (I'll be the first to admit that they're brain candy. Some of my favourite brain candy, but brain candy nevertheless), it was just a bad time to read... Well, a character that turns from the gods of good to the gods of evil for no particular reason that I could discern, other than the fact that they were there.
The writing was inconsistent, and I can't understand why the white robed mage decided to just... Pray to her god? Instead of actually casting spells? The spellcasting in this book was inconsistent with how magic works in the Dragonlance world too, and in general didn't seem to follow... any rules at all? It was vague in the "he waved his hand and people died" kind of way which was neither interesting nor accurate.
All that being said, the book is, more-or-less entertaining. A large portion of it is just recapping things that happened in other books, but it was nice to see the fall of Silvanost from the perspective of someone *in* Silvanost.