Customer Reviews

Darkness & Light: Preludes, Volume One

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I tried to like this book, really I did. I went into it expecting a light read, not Shakespeare mind you. But light reads are supposed to be LIGHT! This book was either too conspicuously trying to take itself seriously or too conciously trying to be funny.

The main gist is that Sturm and Kitiara accidentally end up on another planet when the flying machine they are riding in with a band of gnomes breaks. Once on the planet it's a series of misadventures trying to get supplies to leave which eventually leads them to a brass dragon in an obelisk. When they finally get back to Krynn, Sturm inexplicably joins a group of herders to find his father, barely being saved by Kitiara before being done in by a magician warrior. Did I mention the deadend plot about a pirate ship? I won't even try to go into that.

The characters were strikingly bland. Sturm is such an over-pious, stuffy character it's hard to sympathize with him and Kitiara is just obnoxious, bemoaning how the world doesn't work out perfectly for her. The gnomes are interchangable and so annoying one wants to put them all in a box and sink them to the bottom of the ocean. The one chapter featuring Raistlin and Caramon was better than most of the other characterization put together. Raistlin is such a magnetic character it's hard to write him poorly.

Initially, if the authors had stuck to the later plot of the book, with Sturm looking for his father, this thing might have been a good read. But in the end, too much is attempted to be done and the book just runs out of gas. Oh, and where was the promised romance? I found none.

In the end, too many plot twists make an admirable rope to hang this story on.

This story, is indeed one of the more interesting works in the Saga. As stated above, it entales the story of Sturm and Kitiara five years before the War of the Lance. Traveling to his home land, in an effort to find his lost father, Sturm finds on the way, how very different he is from Kitiara, both in principle and action. Along the way, they meet with a group of gnomes, travel to the Red Moon, and engage a very real dragon. While this forshadows a part of Kitiara seen in the Chronicles, I find it hard to believe that Sturm would fail to mention to his companions that he had seen a dragon, even if the two had agreed to not speak of it. His honor as a knight, I guess. The story seemed detached from the rest of the Dragonlance plethora, and in doing so, left it somewhat unbelieveable (even for a fantasy world). Overall,however, it was well written, and very entertaining, thus making its good sides greatly outweigh the bad.

I picked this one up at a second hand book store for 2 reasons. 1) It was a Dragonlance book 2) It was cheap. I read it and at one point I thought, " Hey this is pretty good so far" Then the part of draconians came up and that ruined it for me. I couldn't help but think the author was winging this one. I sat there thinking," Didn't the companions first run into the draconians in the chronicles books?" as in the first books of the Dragonlance series??? Hey if you love Dragonlance read it, but only if you can't find a better book in the series first.

As time on the world of Krynn passes, two people travel on adventures that they'll never forget. Kitiara Uth Matar, a young warrior woman who doesn't let anybody control her, and Sturm Brightblade, a Solamnic Knight who believes in the ancient laws of Huma, go on a quest to find Sturm's heritage. As they travel along in their fantasy world full of mysterious creatures and dark or light magic, they meet a group of gnomes who are known for their mysterious inventions and five hour long names. The gnomes agree to take Sturm and Kitiara anywhere on their newest attraction, a flying ship. The companions agree. They are surprised when it takes off the continent of Anaslon into the freezing temperatures of the highest skies. Then the contraption breaks, so it is unable to land. Sturm, Kitiara, and the gnomes are forced to continue flying up. Days pass, and their supplies are becoming limited, when something begins to fill their view. One of Krynn's three moons, Lunitari, is straight up. As they get closer to the red moon, they are blessed with unusual powers that only grow larger as they crash land. Unable to fix their ship, they are forced to scrounge all over the sandy terrain, where they face many unusual characters and unknown living species. An army of living trees guard their holy, insane king. They hear rumors about a giant beast living in an evil obelisk, and are destined to find it. After all, it could be their only hope. They reach it and find a creature that was believed to have perished years ago, along with the legendary Huma. It was a huge brass dragon, guarding a sacred treasure, with the help of unnatural crystallized ants. The dragon could be their only hope to get off of the desolate moon. Without a ship, it seems impossible. A life on Lunitari couldn't be that bad, could it?

A very good story. Any true Dragonlance fan would enjoy reading about the trip of Sturm and Kit on their journey. The only problem that I had with the book, and for that matter any of the preludes that I have read, is that the book contradicts the actual storyline of the chronicles. Sturm had never seen a dragon before the first Chronicles book nor had he heard of Draconians. Yet they are both in this book. Other than that though a very good book.

I was a somewhat disapointed that you did not find out how Sturm and Kit fall in love. The trip they take is an amazing jurney that takes them out of this world. The gnomes were very amusing to read about. There isn't much more to say except that I would have to say reea this book.

I read this book when it first came out, when I was 15, and it's still prominent in my mind. Not, however, because it was good. It doesn't fit in at all with the Dragonlance universe, and is in fact completely ludicrous. The characterizations are off, the plot is laughable, and the writing style is poor. There are so many wonderful books out there; it would be a shame to spend your time reading this one.

This is about a mercenary named Kitiara and Sturm, a knight of Solamnia. They are going to Solamnia to find Sturm's father, when they lose their horses and come across gnomes with a flying machine. The gnomes promise the humans that if they get them unstuck, they with fly them anywhere they want to go. Sturm, being a knight, is all honorable etc., but Kitiara is quite the opposite. Gnomes are known for being inventors - although about only 10% of their inventions actually work. Kitiara is doubtful that the machine will fly, but they help the gnomes anyway. And the ship, the Cloudmaster, proves to work. All is going well, until something goes wrong, and they crash-land on the moon Lunitari. All red sand and rocks, as far as the eye can see. It's not that bad at first, but when they meet walking, talking (but not so intelligent), tree's, a crazy survivor from a strange incident, giant crystal ants, and when Kitiara grows as strong as ten men, Sturm has visions, and all the gnomes get better at what they were already good at (though they couldn't make it rain before...), they decided that they had better get off the moon - quickly.
Although Kitiara is not a character that I really like, I found the book funny and entertaining.

Well, I won't say that this is a bad book, but is was definately not the best. While it was an interesting story, it relly didn't fit in with to rest of the series. I like how Sturm and Kit are portrayed, but I found the whole idea of landing on Lunitari a little out of it. The gnomes are really cute, and the ending is actually pretty good, so I guess it's not that bad!

I had a great deal of trouble even finishing this book due to its glaring inconsistencies with the DL storyline. First-off, we know that Draconians were created from the good dragon eggs that Kitiara finds in Brothers at Arms, which takes place AFTER Darkness & Light. And yet right off the bat in Darkness & Light, we encounter "lizard men" - later in the book termed Draconians. Then I spent most of the book screaming "How are you breathing?! Has anyone heard of gravity????" I consoled myself and convinced myself to finish the book with the knowledge that the, ahem, climax, would be the conception of Steel Brightblade. WTH?! There wasn't a single moment that could even be loosely interpreted as the big event. I eventually assumed that we would discover before the end of the story that the entire trip to the moon had been a dream - a spell put on them by the weird elf captain (what was his deal?). But alas no - this actually happened to the characters and yet nothing in their later story even hints at any of this. This story is sorely out of place and a disappointment. They could have done so much with such a mismatched pair. I am still shaking my head.