Dragons Of Summer Flame (Dragonlance Chronicles, Volume 4) [Hardcover]

Margaret Weis (Author), Tracy Hickman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 1995

Primed for a battle between good and evil, Raistlin, the corrupted mage, returns to the Dragonlance series along with a new generation of characters, the inheritors of the fabled Heroes of the Lance. 175,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The war of the Lance is long over. The seasons come and go. The pendulum of the world swings. Now is is a hot parched summer such as no one on Krynn had ever known before. The uneasy balance starts to shift. Distraught by a grievous loss, the young mage Palin Majere seeks to enter the Abyss in search of his lost uncle, the infamous archmage Raistlin. The Dark Queen has found new champions. Devoted followers, loyal to the death, the Knights of Takhisis follow the Vision to victory. A dark paladin, Steel Brightblade, rides to attack the High Clerist's Tower, the fortress his father died defending. On a small island, the mysterious Irda captures as ancient artifact and use it to ensure their own safety. Usha, child of the Irda, arrives in Pananthas claiming that she is Raistlin's daughter. The summer will be deadly. Perhaps it will be the last summer Ansalon will ever know. Dragons Of Summer Flame is action-packed heroic fantasy at its best! -- Midwest Book Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

MARGARET WEIS and TRACY HICKMAN began their collaboration on the Dragonlance series more than 15 years ago. They are coauthors of the recent New York Times bestseller Dragons of a Lost Star. Weis lives in Wisconsin, and Hickman lives in Utah. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 552 pages
• Publisher: TSR, Inc.; 1ST edition (October 31, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786901896
• ISBN-13: 978-0786901890
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 2 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (251 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #305,042 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Wow... so MW and TH are fallible after all..., September 30, 2001

By 

Impetigo (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dragons of Summer Flame (Dragonlance Chronicles, Volume 4) (Mass Market Paperback)

I read this book over 2 years ago and had been a big fan of the Chronicles and Legends trilogies which I read back in the late 80s. But what can I say? This book is full of annoying, stupid characters, unnecessary and aggravating cameo appearances and deaths of characters from the war of the lance, and a lame plot with an even lamer ending to this once fine trilogy. If you still insist on wasting precious time and money on this horrible book... don't say I didn't warn you!

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A travesty, November 14, 2002

By 

kallan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dragons of Summer Flame (Mass Market Paperback)

Yes, this book truly is a travesty of all that once made Dragonlance great. Weis and Hickman seem to have caught the latest disease to hit fantasy author circles: I'll destroy the world I've created because it's mine, and because it's mine I have to control it all and once I'm done with it no-one will ever be able to play with it again,ahaha!!
Whatever happened to leaving things at a certain point, and then allowing readers to imagine for themselves what comes next? Don't such authors feel any duty towards, or sympthay for, their readers these days, let alone their own literary works (yes, I do think Dragonlance Legends were that good)? Can't publishing companies allow a series to stand as a good piece of writing, complete within itself, rather than wrecking it for the sake of trying to sell yet another spin-off novel or game module/handbook/accessory?
I frankly don't care whether Weis and Hickman were driven to produce "Dragons of Summer Flame" by contractual obligations. It is an abysmal book, and the authors' own lack of interest shines out clearly on every page. All the characters are treated perfunctorily, there is no emotional depth to them, and there is one dire cameo after another, simply for the sake of bringing back some familiar faces. The plot is hopelessly bad and jumps around all over the place; it's like the book suddenly began in the middle, and there are still huge chunks missing. People who were in one place are suddenly in another, with no indication of how they got there; there is no real indication of how much time is passing. Even worse, the book reads like a game module, with slabs of pointless history (Who cares what happened to the other Towers of High Sorcery within the context of this story?), features of cities (Who knew that Palanthas has a Thieves Guild? Who cares?), gods I've never heard of suddenly appearing, and events from past books (Many of which I've never read) all jammed in, to what end I cannot imagine.
But worst of all is the tone of "Dragons of Summer Flame". The earlier books had real emotional power, and a feeling of being very human, despite the epic events they narrated. This book is totally, horribly flat. In contrast to the way characters' wishes and feelings drove the earlier books, this time we have the pathetically weak, lowest-grade fantasy spectacle of a god seeking revenge for his imprisonment in a magical gem which has been shattered by some weaklings hoping to feel safe. All sorts of cosmological concepts and new races seem to have been created simply so the plot could follow this path. From that point on, everyone just reacts to the coming end of the world in a variety of stereotypical ways.
Dragonlance Legends brought everything to a fitting end. Weis and Hickman should have left their world alone from that point onwards. The rot set in with the story of Palin receiving the Staff of Magius (Can't we put a stop to "son of" stories in the fantasy genre?), and has only continued. "Dragons of Summer Flame" should never have been written. If you loved the original books, as I do, do yourself a favour and never read this book.

32 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Bad End to a Great Series, February 25, 2001

By 

Tuor (Bellevue, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dragons of Summer Flame (Dragonlance Chronicles, Volume 4) (Mass Market Paperback)

Once upon a time, there was a great trilogy of books called the Dragonlance Chronicles. They were a bit simplistic, it is true, but they were a great deal of fun to read and the characters were all particularly captivating. In spite of its flaws, I came to love both DL Chronicles and Legends.

Dragons of Summer Flame (DoSF) is *not* a book that compares well to the rest of the Chronicles. Weis and Hickman start killing main characters from previous books in the Dragonlance universe right off the bat and they continue throughout the book, progressing from relatively minor characters to major ones. Nor are they content to stop there, but in the end alter the fundamental fabric of Krynn, turning it into an early edition of Earth.

The Plot is also weak, with a rather flat and predictable villian, with Paladine and Takhsis acting like scared children instead of major gods, with Raistlin brought back for a cameo role when his death was so well done -- it undid all the closure of the end of DL Legends.

I have often wondered at the reasons behind the way DoSF was written, and my conclusion is that Weis and Hickman were impelled by contract obligations to 'usher in the 5th Age' so that TSR could sell a bunch of new products. I believe they resented it and the story they wrote reflected that fact. I simply cannot believe they wrote such a horrid story by accident.

Unless you have a desire to read books about the Fifth Age of Krynn, I do not recommend this book. Stop after Chronicles and Legends. Do yourself a favor and avoid the pain of this book.