Customer Reviews

Dragons of Summer Flame

5 star:		(110)
4 star:		(50)
3 star:		(25)
2 star:		(29)
1 star:		(37)

 

 

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!

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.

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.

I had loved Weis and Hickman's Dragonlance stories and had been impressed by the depth of character development and plot. This book, however is incomprehensible to me as the writing style, characters and plots are but a mere shadow of previous publications. It seemed the authors had tired of the series and wanted to wash their hands of it in a sloppy way. If they had not been who they were, this would never have gotten past the high-school student interning at the publisher's office.

Keep the beauty of their other publications pristine. Don't ever read this book.

Just found out (belatedly) Weis and Hickman are starting up with the Dragonlance world again -- which compelled me to write this review.

Dragonlance fans, if you are lucky enough to have not read this book, skip it, read this review and others, then move on to the new books. You'll save time and money.

I was a huge fan of W&H's Dragonlance work. I fondly remember the Chronicles and Legends series as some of the best books of my childhood. After Legends, I read all of W&H's work in the subsequent Tales series eagerly. I was a bit disappointed with them unraveling the magic of the fabled Dragonlance, but I could live with it.

Enter Second Generation. This turned up the heat on my anticipation for their next work. Interesting storylines were seeded using new characters that were carefully developed. All was good... then Dragons of Summer Flame came crashing through the window. Remember those carefully developed characters? They were either relegated to the background (Tanis' son) or discarded uncermoniously offscreen (Caramon's sons). Tanis, is quickly offed in the most off-hand manner. One thing about W&H's prior Dragonlance work, when a major character died, you really FELT the death. When Tanis died it was like, don't let the door hit you on the way out. He was not my favorite character, but dude, the entire Chronicles series revolved around him. Axing characters like cheap plywood would have been forgiveable if the replacements were at all memorable. Not the case. Palin isn't fit to carry Raistlin's jock strap. Steel gets it in the end -- see ya, nice knowing ya. I won't even mention Palin's girlfriend. The story seemed to have been slapped together in record time -- "Let's create a big boogie man that burns the whole mess down! Never mind about logic or development!"

Other reviewers have speculated as to why this volume was so horrid, but all I know is that it put me off of Dragonlance forever. I just tried to pretend that it never happened (someone fittingly suggested they make a recall). It left a bad taste in my mouth. W&H should be ashamed. They created a masterpiece and then pissed all over it. Can they redeem themselves with these new books? I won't bother to find out.

Well, maybe there's an outside chance.

I've long loved the Dragonlance books. Legends in particular is one of my favorite fantasy trilogies of all time.
But I cannot understand just what compelled the authors to write this.
There are many additions to keep things interesting of course: most of the readers who stuck to the 2 trilogies will find a lot of new and strange characters in this book. (I for one, was compltely stumped by Steel Brightblade's history.)
In the beginning, the book starts off well, the creation of Krynn in particular was interesting. But by the time we get to the pre-requisite love story, things start going out of whack.
The introduction of the Knights of Takhsis, while initially seems like a good idea, conflicts greatly with the old Dragonlance adage 'Evil turns in on itself.' While explained away in the beginning, this idea of honor and (for lack of a better word) goodness in men that venerate evil seems absurd, for evil stands completely against such values. This theme was repeated earlier in their Rose of the Prophet trilogy.
Some of the new characters are fine, but others I dont care for, especially Usha.
But all that are minor niggles compared to the catastrophe that is the ending of the book.
Time and again, the authors have in other books have drawn parallels from our world to theirs. This is a very, very ambitious aim, and in one trilogy, they almost succeeded (The Darksword Series). While most people disagree with me, they nearly pulled it off in that one, despite the 'parallel' being more akin to a magic mirror.
In Summer Flame, they fail, completely and utterly.
Of course it was on the last page of the book, but that 'Krynn turns to Earth' ending was so disappointing and stupid that it has severely limited my enjoyment of the book.
Other readers lament the deaths of Tanis, Tasselhoff, et all but what the authors really killed off was the spirit of an entire world. And that is something I can never accept.
One of the factors that make this book almost worth reading is the reappearence of Raistlin. The portrayal of the dark mage without his power, his visit to his brother, and his subsequent departure is excellent. Also, Tasselhoff is as amusing as ever.
So in other words, this book is for hardcore fans only. And even to them, I'd advise ripping out the last few pages of the book.

This book has nothing that made Chronicles the excellent series it was. Characters are dull and lifeless, plot is juvenille, and the writing style is amateurish. I don't know how Weis & Hickman could have wanted their name on it. It looks like a book written by two angry authors. I hear they're writing another series. Why? Did they miss destroying something?

I have to qualify the summary by stating that I loved the original Dragonlance Trilogy. I have read and reread the books and have never tired of wandering the realm of Krynn.

The ho-hum efforts of the legions of well meaning authors of the spin-off novels were bearable. This effort by the trilogy's original authors is not. Yes, the Dragonlance series has spun on too long, but it surely the world of Krynn we know and love did not deserve to be destroyed so callously.

I found myself grimacing at some of the hackeyed plots involving the gods of Krynn and despairing as one hero after another is killed off in uninspiring, unheroic fashion. The truly sickening end to many well-loved characters made my stomach turn.

Do yourself a favour, throw this book into the Abyss. Then re-read the original Dragonlance Trilogy and revel in the magic and spendour on Krynn as we know and love.

I enjoyed reading most of this book. I burned through it in three or four days, and I'm not a very fast reader. The deaths of major characters were actually a plus for me. I thought they died heroically well, and each instance added to the drama. The central character tensions involving Steel and Palin hold up as well, or better, as that which we've read before involving all the old favorites.
It took a very demoralizing ending to pull my rating down as low as it is. "The Age of Mortals" does the trick. My experience of reading this book was like being at a nice party with old and new friends; and then, at the end of the night, getting punched in the gut, kicked out of the house, and told to "never come back!!". The authors might just as well have added a postscript saying "Dear fantasy junkies, The fun is over. Go get a life."
I am a believer that all good things come to an end. But, in my opinion, reducing Krynn to Mundania was a poor way to go about it.

Why or why did they have to destroy what so many of us hold so dear? Dragonlance and the world of Krynn meant more to me than a story. It influenced my life and helped me grow as a person. I was so captivated and enthralled by the mystical world full of legendary dragons and other mythical creatures. I can't help but detest all those responsible for taking this away from me.