Customer Reviews

Amber and Ashes, Vol. 1: The Dark Disciple (Dragonlance) (v. 1)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

To be perfectly honest, I have mixed feelings about this book and if I were able would have given it 2 ½ stars. It is by no means a bad book. Then again, it isn't exactly a good book either. I'll try to explain.

I've read all of Weis and Hickman's Dragonlance books, as well as Weis' independent Soulforge and Brothers in Arms and thoroughly enjoyed them all. I made the decision early on not to read the Dragonlance novels published by other authors and frankly my hip pocket thanks me (I believe bookstores ought to instigate a breeding program to put a stop to the uncontrolled proliferation of these books). Yet I've always been excited when Weis and Hickman collaborated on a Dragonlance novel and Krynn is a wonderful place that I've always loved to return to.

Apart from cameos by Gerard and Mina's minotaur friend, this book does not make use of any of the characters from the War of Souls trilogy except for Mina and this was initially disappointing. While I never grew attached to them as I did the Heroes of the Lance, I did become fond of the characters from the War of Souls and had hoped to see more of them (those that survived anyway) in this book. And I suppose we may yet, this being the first in a trilogy and all. But this series is a continuation of Mina's story only and it appears a number of the heroes from the War of Souls have simply retired (is Solace a registered retirement village now?).

The second thing I found jarring about this book was the nature of the monks of Majere who I'm guessing were modelled on the Shaolin monks. I'm not sure I ever grew comfortable with the introduction of this new culture into the fantasy/medieval world of Krynn. It just never seemed to fit in this well-established setting.

Thirdly I found the characters spoke very colloquially at times which dragged me out of the story, and a good deal of the humour was inappropriate in its fantasy/medieval context. I haven't noticed it before in Weis' work, but I noticed it here. It's a minor thing, but it did get to me after a while.

And finally, I'm not sure I ever really understood where the story was going. Don't get me wrong, it is fairly clear by the end of the book what the protagonists are seeking to accomplish... it's just that there isn't any real structure to the novel. Some might find this refreshing. I just found it a little distracting.

I don't mean to sound entirely negative. This is not a bad book. Certainly Weis tells a good story and it's not that I didn't enjoy the book. It's good. It's just unfortunately not great. It lacks the high drama and perilous stakes of past Dragonlance novels. While the threat to the peoples of Krynn is great and seems insurmountable by the conclusion, I never really experienced it through the principle characters. I don't believe Weis succeeds in engaging us to the depth she has in her past works. Ultimately it is clear that Weis and Hickman are greater than the sum of their parts.

Amber and Ashes is entertaining but not engrossing. Read it and enjoy returning to Krynn.

Just don't expect it to be as satisfying a visit as last time.

Firstly I must say I'm not an native English Speaker. I enjoy reading Fantasy Literature and read almost every book by MW and TH in the Dragonlance Setting (also some other books from the same setting). I enjoy the writing style of Margaret Weis because it is fluent and let you immerse yourself in the story.

I must say, I agree with the "Sex Zombies" review. This book is clearly not about the stories of heroism, valor, sacrifice and magic. It has more an Forgotten Realms feeling and the frequent interaction between characters and gods make the appereance of the gods an usual event.

Still I can recommend this a book as an nice Summer reading. You won't regret reading this book, if you don't expect much from it.

In response to the mixed reviews this book has received. I will capitulate that nothing, I mean nothing (except Tolkien, whose books are much heavier) can compare to the Legends and Chronicles series, nor can anything compare to such an intriguing character as Raistlin, whom in my opinion is the greatest character ever created and the Chronicles/Legends are the greatest books ever written. So, on that note, Amber and Ashes falls a little short, but in a different respect than what you have read in reviews thus far. First of all and most importantly, there's not enough magic. Where's Dalamar? Even Palin? Weis unfortunately does not bring in Valthonis/Paladine either, a grave mistake in my opinion. Otherwise the book is a good start and the trilogy has sirious potential.
To respond to those who think that the War of Souls should never have been written - I disagree. I loved the old characters, but how long can you write about the same people; things HAD to change, even if that change was contoversial. I thought the War of Souls was very good, and that its main flaw was Palin giving up the magic - too wishy washy that he did it for his wife. Not enough Raistlin in the kid if you ask me.
Anyway, any Dragonlance fan has to read the first installment of the Dark Disciple trilogy, Amber and Ashes. Newcomers to dragonlance, start at the begginning with the unbelievable Chronicles and Legends.

I finished this book yesterday and I found it one of the most enjoyable Dragonlance books since Soulforge. I must say I did not exactly enjoy War of the Souls, I found it lacking in pretty much everything. This however introduced the Age of Mortals as just that, an age where the gods of Krynn competed for mortal's support. Chemosh, Lord of Death, is one of my new favorite Dragonlance characters, rivaling even Raistlin. Mina was developed much more in this book, finally allowing us to understand the workings of her mind. I think more could have been done with Rhys and Nightshade which is my only complaint. Introducing the rest of the characters half way through the book, besides Mina and Chemosh, sort of didn't give alot of others time to be developed. Zebiom is deliciously evil, sarcastic, and highly amusing. Nightshade is quite the unusual kender, in a good way thankfully, and Rhys is an honorable character contrasting pretty much everyone else in this story. This book contained a shocking amount of romance, (Dare I say Ms. Weis has written some tasteful smut? hehe) It was still thoroughly enjoyable, and I think even the guys could appreciate it. Much darker, bolder, and sexier than the rest of Dragonlance, I am very interested to see where the rest of the trilogy will go and would highly recommend it.

Any dedicated DRAGONLANCE fan is probably going to buy this book regardless of the reviews written here. I started reading the Weis&Hickman books in March, and I loved every page of every book. Every three days I picked up a new one, having finished the one which came before it.

I finally reach the point where I have nothing left to read by the author except Amber and Ashes. I was a bit hesitant about buying the book, never to fond of Mina as a character concept. My hesitation was well placed so it seemed when I first opened the book. The typeface was horrible. Small and loopy, as if the whole book was written in itallic. The pages are wrought with typos and grammatical errors. The dialog is dull and does little to draw forth character personalities. I generally love the dialog in many of the other books, often finding myself laughing out loud at some of Tasslehoff's or Raistlin's interactions with their companions. In this book, the conversation leaves much to be desired. The conversation between Rhys and Nightshade or Mina and Chemosh does not lend itself well to anything other then predictableand hollow exchanges of dialog.

The characters are single-minded, especially Mina, who finds herself slave to a god yet again, though it is slightly different, in that she is more or less a sex slave, she is the same Mina, lacking always in the substance and personality department.

I cannot honestly say that I enjoyed this book. For all of you Chronicles and Chronicles related books fans, Amber and Ashes reads nothing like those novels. Perhaps the author should have thought twice before killing off all of her old characters or straying from spinoffs more closely related to the original group. It is dark and morbid, the first chapters reading like a soft core erotica novel.

I for one was disappointed.

As an avid Dragonlance fan, I was both excited and surprised to see Weis continue with the world of Krynn. She is a gifted writer, and tells the story of Mina with an expert flair. The story revolves around the displaced cleric, Mina, who mourns the loss of her now slain Goddess. For the first time ever, Weis explores the character of Mina as Mina...rather than Mina as the voice of the Dark Queen. Mina begins a journey worshipping the God of Death and bringing about his rise to power. The story itself is filled with new and exciting dark creatures (vampire-like cultists, kender who can communicate with the dead) and a glimpse into the lives of those dieties that are put to the side in the original books (e.g. Majere, Sargonnas, Zeboim, Nuitari, and Chemosh). I personally enjoyed reading about the gods' weaknesses and strengths.

That being said, this is a good read...one that I finished in a day. However, I felt rushed through the text. The developments are fast in this work, and I feel that Weis rushed through some of the rich descriptions that I'm used to whenever I read one of her books. I also think that this book lacked what I give Tracy Hickman credit for...humor. This book definetly has a certain flair for drama, but there is little to no comic relief with the exception of the Zeboim dialogue. I recommend the book thoroughly but I still think that the Dynamic Duo (Weis & Hickman)should stick together as they seem to compliment each other seamlessly. Hickman is just as guilty (Mystic Warrior for example isn't his best work). But read it...it's worth it.

Like many of you I began to read fantasy novels around the same time the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy was first being published. They were then and remain today my measuring stick for all other fantasy stories. It is for this reason that I choose to ignore the stories told by the founders of this world, post Legends. The only way I can describe the War of Souls is as a betrayal, a betrayal of the characters to the corporate machine of cookie cutter fantasy. They paid Weis and Hickman to write another trilogy, for the sole purpose of legitimizing the new games rule system. This was in a sense, a return full circle for the Dragonlance game world. The Chronicles books were created soley to sell the game material, and now the War of Souls were created to legitimize the 5th age rule and world changes.

Its sad because the Characters of the Chronicles books seemed to grow out of the archtypes they were meant to represent, while the War of Souls characters seem to shrink into those very stereotypes.

I must note that Margret Weis does a good job making this book fun to read, well not fun, let's say easy to read. She proves yet again that given nothing to work with she can weave a pretty decent tale. Infact it's this very story telling that keeps the book in the average range. The wooden characters, the overall poor plot, and the sense that this is no longer the same Krynn, remain from the War of Souls. I couldn't help but think it was some kind of emergency patch job, as if she was trying to make up for all the mess created by the past few books. However, this book, much like the War of Souls, just does not "feel" like a Dragonlance book, and will in all probability be my last.

This book was pretty good. Original characters (except for the gods/goddesses of course) and more interaction with the lesser known gods such as Zeboim, Chemosh, and Nuitari. There's no mention of what happened to characters like Dalamar, but Palin gave up his magic, I guess, and became some political figure. I don't consider the side stories by other author's the main books, but consider them as supplements. Books that explain side events of secondary characters and such.
Although this is a great book my favorite books in Dragonlance will always be Time of the Twins, War of the Twins, Test of the Twins, The Second Generation, and Dragons of Summer Flame. I'm curious to see what Amber and Iron and Amber and Blood is all about.

The chronological order of books:

Dragons of Autumn Twilight
Dragons of Winter Night
Dragons of Spring Dawning
Time of the Twins
War of the Twins
Test of the Twins
The Second Generation
Dragons of Summer Flame
Dragons of a Fallen Sun
Dragons of a Lost Star
Dragons of a Vanished Moon
Amber and Ashes
Amber and Blood (coming soon)
Amber and Iron (coming soon)

Well after just reading this new piece of literature, and having drowned myself in many a cup of coffee, I disagree entirely with the negative comments cast on the book Amber and Ashes by Margaret Weis. I think it speaks volumes about the return of the gods and magic after the War of Souls trilogy, I also like the fact that the book even goes so far as to peel away the layer of secrecy to unravel the gods mysterious plans and thoughts in greater detail. Further exposing the more mysterious ones, most notably Zeboim and Chemosh. All of this I find compelling and captivating.

The characters in this book were interesting with Mina of course, Rhys hits one out of the park for a homer using emmide, Atta was cool, Nightshade was different as far as kenders go, Ausiras Krell, and so on. It also carries over all to briefly some of the other characters featured in the War of Souls. The only reason I dropped a star was the fact that they did not include the map of Ansalon in this copy. In summation a must read and a thumbs up from my end. Keep 'em coming Margaret!!

The book itself starts off slow and the main reasoning for that is because it must lay the foundation for the rest of the story arc which will take place in Amber and Iron as well as Amber and Blood. I found this book absolutely enthralling because it further expands on Mina as a character that you can loathe or love. After the defeat of Tahksis in the War of Souls, Mina turns to Chemosh. The main reasoning for this is because she wants to fill the void that has been left by Tahksis and we all know Chemosh as a tricky and capricious god. I find the active roles that the other gods are playing to be exciting as well as refreshing. In all previous books the gods never took a real active role in shaping the world, simply because there was no need to with mortals doing all the shaping for them. Because of Tahksis' betrayal, that has all been changed. Now they work together with mortals to rebuild their world that the Dragon Overlords ruined.