Customer Reviews

Dragons of a Vanished Moon (Dragonlance: War of Souls, Book 3)

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(20)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

This is it: the book that is supposed to bring the Fourth Age back to devotees of classic Dragonlance while at the same time maintaining the fans of Fifth Age. Since Dragons of Summer Flame, Weis and Hickman have left the world of Dragonlance to the less-than-capable hands of other authors and creators. This, then, is their attempt to right the wrongs perpetrated by those authors and return the world to the way it was...or rather, the way it was supposed to be.

Without giving too much away, I think the authors succeeded in bringing back the flavor of the setting, and an appendix in the back explains the various timelines visited by Krynn. In addition to being a knock on the direction TSR took with the world, by implying that the Fifth Age was the result of a skew in the timeline, this book, and this series, rewrites history, so to speak. Dragons of Summer Flame was a conclusion of a sort, that in a way, ended the opportunity for the parent company to create a gaming world set after its events. TSR did so anyway and the result was the loss of many fans.

Dragons of a Vanished Moon promises a beginning, and indeed, this novel, as well as a line of game products to be published by Sovereign Press, seem to show that the authors wish this world to be viable once again for adventures and gaming.

However, this novel is good enough on its own merit, even to the non-roleplaying reader. Though the "big" mystery as to the identity of the One God was revealed in Lost Star, nevertheless, there are questions to be answered as to what exactly happened, and what can be and will be done to fix it. In this regard, however, the mysteries are not as deep, or maintained as long. The reader is not left hanging after every chapter, wishing to devour the next, but rather, they have a vague idea about what will happen, and are anticipating a grand climax. As a result, they must toil through the first 400 pages or so, of which, there were some moments, but overall, the storytelling is good, but not gripping.

The conclusion may be worth it. That would, really, depend on the reader and how he feels about the direction taken by the author. This book was written seeking the approval of fans. It ties up several loose ends but remains open enough to allow possibilities to remain. It is not a book that stands on its own so much as it stands on the opinion of the public. That, I fear, will remain as divided as ever.

But Krynn...Krynn is whole once more.

Weis and Hickman fail to fix the world of Krynn that was totally screwed up in their own Dragons of Summer Flame and numerous other forgettable books written by...authors riding on Weis/Hickman coattails. An optimist may finish this book and say "Well, it's half-fixed", but I prefer to consider it "still broken". I won't drop any spoilers but lets just say, Weis and Hickman leave more than enough dangling plot lines to enable Wizards of the Coast to flood the market with more Dragonlance books written by the above mentioned...authors such as Jean Rabe. So, if its quantity over quality you want, your world is gonna be a whole lot brighter soon. However, if you yearn for well written, satisfying stories such as the DL Chronicles, DL Legends, & the Legend of Huma, your hunger will go unsated. I hope Wizards of the Coast proves me wrong. We shall see.

When I first picked up and started to read the chronicles trilogy a couple of years ago, I immediately fell in love with the world that Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman portrayed, the battles between good and evil that were done in not just a political sense but also in a personal one connected with me emotionally, and was something I'll never forget. I found all the old heroes of the story to be extremely interesting and as I read on I began to like each and every one of them in their own way. I then proceeded to read Legends, and I immediately recognized that these authors had one of the best story writing skills I have ever read or heard of. At the end of the trilogy when my favorite character, Raistlin, was about to sacrifice himself to the dark queen I nearly cried, that was when I knew that these authors would be forever etched into my mind and heart as one of my favorites.

So natuarally I was extremely anxious to read the newest "true" Dragonlance novels, and as such I wasn't dissapointed with its third and final novel, Dragons of a Vanished Moon. As many other reviewers have stated, I also was not a fan of the conclusion to Dragons of a Summer Flame, I felt that the gods leaving Krynn was an event so drastic that it resulted in creating a new world that old Dragonlace readers could barely even recognize, and in turn I beleive that the War of Souls trilogy as a whole was an apology to the readers for that catastrophe. Before I continue though I do wish to make a point known, I am not one of those people who live their lives in the past and wish for nothing more but fairy tale endings to everything they read, the unexpected and monumental finishes that these authors created in the past is the very same thing that caused me to both admire and appreciate their writing in the first place, I just simply believe that Dragons of a Summer Flame went in the wrong direction to the required change that Krynn needed so badly.

Overall, I believe that Dragons of a Vanished Moon seemed to pick up the plot of the previous two books well enough, and though it seemed to me that the pace was quickened overall, I rather enjoyed the sense of urgency it produced. Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman did an excellent job of producing a sense of doom that is engulfing the world and especially the Elf nations as they fight for their very existance in a land that is ruled by a god that hates and despises them. I found the whole chromatic dragon neutrality thing to be rather dissapointing and the abrupt turn of events at the end which resulted in the evil side being despearete and the good side being strong and on the point of winning to be rather anticlimatic, but the conclusion is more than worth it as we see the end of several eras and the beginning of a new era.

I believe that Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman did as best of a job as they could to correct the mistakes that they made in Summer Flame, though certain characters never end up reaching the pinnacle point we all expected of them, for example Palin, Silvinoeshei, Alhana, and Odila and while other characters, especially Dalamar who betrayed all that we know him for, seemingly go against their own personalities to do something shockingly unexpected, I still believe the book was very entertaining from cover to cover, as it still has its own proof of quality writing that we expect from MW and TH, especially with Galdar and Gilthas's character develepment and the particular sadness that was beutifully orchestrated by Weis and Hickman and which is felt at the end by, in particular, the readers and fans that started from page 1 of the Chronicals trilogy. In the end the greatest quality, in my opinion, that these novels have brought back to the dragonlace world is the apparant rekindling of the passion and ambition that we all knew and loved back in the Fourth Age but was somehow missing in the grim and depressing Fifth Age of Krynn.

This is a readable fantasy story. I will not praise it more.

"Vanished Moon" is the conclusion of the "War of Souls" trilogy, but the "souls" have very little to do with the story. They are there, of course, but the story really isn't about them.

The central character (Mina) loses her interesting complexity (as someone capable of both great good and great evil, she is the one interesting character in the trilogy) and becomes quite ridiculous by the end. Then the story leaves unsaid what happens to her! What kind of an ending does not explain what happens to the major character?

The final fight, where the elf-king Silvanoshei does his thing, is absolutely unbelievable even by fantasy standards.

The characters, except for Mina, are uninteresting. Tasselhoff is beloved by many for his character as established back in "Chronicles," but in this story he is a bore, no fun at all. Conundrum the Gnome is such a bore that the authors leave him off to complete his "life quest" and write him out of the story. Other characters invented for this trilogy, for example, Gerard and Odila, are boring. I cannot make myself care about them.

The book goes out of its way to provide "redemption" for several unimportant characters. So evil characters like Raistlin and even Lord Soth find "redemption" of a sort, though why this is necessary or even desirable in this story is beyond me.

The final ending for Paladine and Takhisis is something that appears to be invented on the spot. If the "agreement in the book" that leads to this end for them was prefigured earlier in Dragonlance, that is news to me. Something this important has to be hinted at and led up to, not just thrown up in the reader's face. Bad writing -- bad, bad, bad.

The battles that appear are glossed over quickly without much description. Maybe there are too many battles, or maybe Weis and Hickman don't know how to describe battles. But if you compare the graphic and passionate description of battles in some fantasy works (think, for example, of Tolkien's description of Helm's Deep or the Pelennor Fields) with the quick and cursory descriptions in this book, it becomes easy to see that this book was rushed through. This is a major criticism because to a large extent this book is about battles. They are poorly described.

The cover art basically stinks, and the book really misses the ink drawings that appeared with each new chapter in the original "Chronicles." For example, when draconians show up, if the reader was not familiar with draconians, he would have no understanding of what they are or what they look like, except that they have wings. Bozaks and Sivaks appear, but a reader unfamiliar with Dragonlance would have no idea what they are. This is poor writing. Drawings would help, but hey are not there.

Then in the end all kinds of questions are deliberately left unanswered: Where did those draconians come from? What happened to Mina? What about all those minotaurs? What is going to happen to the elven nations? We are left less with the proper conclusion of a trilogy than with the kind of "cliff-hanger" that TV series like to use at the end of a season so that interest can be generated over the summer. Undoubtedly Weis and Hickman are leaving things open so that they can come out with another trilogy in a year or two, perhaps with titles such as "Dragons of Endless Royalties." Some may really get excited as they anticipate yet another Dragonlance series. I would point out that both "Chronicles" and "Legends" had much more definite endings, and that did not present any difficulties in producing more Dragonlance material. The way this book ends I judge to be poor writing, pure and simple.

If you read the first two books of this series, you will of course read this one, to see how everything turns out. But as fantasy literature, "Vanished Moon" is basically readable and nothing more.

I didn't have high hopes for the conclusion to this trilogy, given the shaky second book. Gotta hand it to W&H, though--whatever expectations I did have, they handily passed under them. I'm not kidding, dudes and dudesses--this may in fact be the worst book I've ever read. And given the number of truly bad fantasy novels I read in my younger days (to say nothing of Like Water for Chocolate), that's saying something.

It's hard to know where to begin in talking about so appalling a train wreck of a novel. I expect the massive, ludicrous plot holes are an issue. It quickly became clear to me, as I read, that the authors had, in fact, not plotted out this entire trilogy from the beginning, and thus were utterly unable to conclude it in a graceful--or even coherent--fashion. Thus, they make an utter hash out of continuity, both of the Dragonlance world as a whole and of the trilogy on an individual level Minotaurs just sort of appear, with no rational explanation provided, just to make things harder for the elves (and, most egregiously, they don't actually have any baring on the book's plot--their purpose is, transparently, to serve as the basis for further [] books--I know I'LL be looking forward to the Minotaur Wars trilogy with bated breath!). It is revealed that the tough dragons ACTUALLY come from Sooper Dooper Dragon Dimension X! Odilia is inexplicably required to worship Takhisis because she believes that T exists (there might have originally been some idea of making some sort of deeper religious/philosophical point, but if so, that fell by the wayside)! The day is saved when our heroes are teleported to the previously-unalluded-to Secret Dragon Prison to rescue the good dragons, which for some reason--which, naturally is never explained--is accomplished by Tas just sort of crashing through the ice barrier)! It's all very surreal, and not in a good way. What were they THINKING? How stupid do they think we are?

Then we have the characters, of course. To put it bluntly, all of the new characters have the depth of a mud puddle in a dry September. Even ones that had the potential to be interesting in the previous books are here little more than undifferentiated, brown sludge. And the old characters aren't much better, even when they aren't given motivations that are wildly different than anything they would ever have displayed in the previous, good books. And let's not forget the wholly gratuitious single-scene, non-plot-developing appearances of a number of old characters in a time traveling bit (Huma, Lord Soth, Ariakan)!

I could go on--but what would be the point? It is painfully obvious that, at this point, W&H take zero pride in their work, and have absolutely no respect for the intelligence of their readers (in all fairness, I suppose it's possible that TSR made some unreasonable demands, but that's an explanation rather than an excuse--it doesn't make it any better). I cannot help but feel angry that they would so willingly desecrate my childhood memories, and, I don't doubt, those of many others. If there's one positive thing I can say about this, it's that the whole affair is so outlandish [] that it's easy to disassociate it in my mind from the Chronicles/Legends. I didn't want to believe it at first, but now there's no way for me to deny it: there will never be another good Dragonlance book. It's clear that TSR is going to keep beating this dead horse for a while yet, what with an insulting (and oh-so-ludicrous) ending that serves as little more than a 'too be continued' sign. No thanks, guys. You've shafted me enough. I'm getting off this train, and I would advise all readers with a scintilla of good taste and critical thinking skill to do the same.

Why only 3 stars, you might ask? My answer is that this is a comparative review, in particular compared to all the other novels in the Dragonlance series by Weis & Hickman, whom I still consider the "main authorities" when it comes to this world and its novels. However, characters in the new trilogy just don't seem to be so resonant and richly engaging as their predecessors, for reasons I can't put my finger on (Weis & Hickman have a pretty good track record for memorable characters). Galdar the Minotaur is richly realized, thankfully, as is Sir Gareth, the ugly but practical and wise Solamnic Night. But, besides another Dark Night, Marshal Medan, who is a support character through the second book, very few have the impact the original characters had. Most disappointing is Mina, who turns out a rather empty character by the end of the series. Perhaps this was the authors' point, to show her as a "glorious vessel of her One God" but at her core a hollow, desolate character. Still, I didn't feel too sympathetic with her by the book's end. Overall, the characters just didn't resonate with me as deeply or stick with me as long as earlier characters have.

The book's end. Herein lies the final problem. A lot of "deus ex machina" at the end, and unlikely fates for most of the characters. ... Silvanoshei's "purpose" was yet to even begin. ...Inexplicable deaths, and even more inexplicable restorations and resurrections, and separate departures of characters I thought were meant to be together (two Knights of Solamnia come immediately to mind)-and inexplicable returns. All those "evil dragons" are still around, and only Gold and Silver Dragons return? Where are the Bronze, Brass and Copper? Where's the Balance? ... Just as Summer Flame seemed to end badly, quite the bit of a jumbled mess, this one does as well.

Still, the trip to get there was worth reading, and there were some moving moments throughout ... The writing itself is fine, and the plot drove me pretty much right through to the end of the book, so no complaints there. But still, despite many good aspects to the trilogy, it just doesn't measure up to other fantasy novels and series I've read lately. Most telling, it is
3rd best as far as Dragonlance trilogies go, and I was hoping at least for a tie or near tie with the first series.

So, I recommend War of Souls to longtime Dragonlance fans and Weis & Hickman fans as an interesting trilogy and successful in general, if not in particular, epic fantasy. Some of the issues they raise are interesting, but somehow we never get to explore these issues as deeply and interestingly as we could have. If this turns out to be the authors' fond farewell to the world of Krynn, that's fine by me. All the wonderful work they have done for this world and its inhabitants, including in this trilogy, is irreplaceable and much appreciated by this fan, at least. So hardcore fans, read this book and trilogy and form your own opinions. To the more casual fan, I say pass on this trilogy and stick with the original two. They're worth it.

As an avid Dragonlance fan, I was considerably disappointed by the drastic changes created by Summer Flame. It completely transformed Krynn into a world that I really did not want to venture into. Then Fallen Sun was released and I became fascinated with Mina. Lost Star continued Weis and Hickman's exploration of the neo-Krynn with some old elements. Vanished Moon, the dramatic conclusion of this exceptional trilogy, brings closure and explanation to why the authors changed this world so drastically. The writing style, granted, is "more readable" than any other work by Weis and Hickman up to this point, yet I don't think that we should fault the authors for this. This book answers a lot of questions, and it provides solutions designed to usher in the new age of Dragonlance and the various other novels that accompany any of Weis and Hickman's works. The ending is incredibly surprising, in fact it left me awestruck. Truly, Dragons of a Vanished Moon is a must read for any Dragonlance fan, and those who are angry with the development of the work represent a stuffy circle of readers who have issues with changes in a world they are too familiar with.

If you're looking for a good book, this one is a must not read. Instead of the perfect mix of action and poignant power of the War of the Twins and the Chronicles, you get a story where things just happen without the characters don't do anything ie, 'Army of Elves went and fought. And they won." Absolute crud. Weis and Hickman have been fallling off for years, as was seen in the totally god awful Dragons of Summer Flame and this is just a final stake in the heart of their dying careers.

Their are some awesome parts, like the scenes with Raistlin and the Gods, but the rest of the characters are dealt with awfully. Palin and Dalamar are reduced to former shadows of themselves, impotent to stand up against the forces of evil. I didn't know or didn't care about the other characters so their life or death had no meaning to me whatsover. Mirror? Who was that? Who is ...? The fact of the matter is I don't even remember much of none of the character because none of them mattered enough to be remembered. And the resolution was resolved so cheaply and rediculously that it will be rememberd as one of the biggest let downs in the history of Fantasy.

And the history of Krynn as explained in the back of the book is merely Tolkien's Silmarillion badly and crudely rewritten.

This book is worse than Dragons of Summer Flame. Much worse.
Do yourself a favor and stay away from this one.

The War of Souls is not new, but it was new to me as i had sort of let Dragonlance slide by me as I pursued other authors as I got older. the world of Krynn was still something special to me, however as it was one of the fantasy worlds i cut my teeth on when I was younger. When i saw the new trilogy when flipping through the pages of a book club pamphlet, i decided to give it a try.

The first book sucked me in and really held my nose to the page. mina was wonderful and interesting and the ideas behind the 'One God' were fresh and well developed. I struggled to nail down what was happening. Were these the good guys or the bad guys? i wanted more.

Book 2 started to slip a bit. I was having a hard time liking any of the characters. The definition just wasn't there. they were flat and boring for the most part and their actions weren;t seeming to have an impact on the story - save for Mina. The few left over 'originals' Laurana and Goldmoon for instance. Were going an awful lot of talking and posturing, but they didn;t accomplish much through the majority of the book. This changed a bit near the end, but it made me wonder why i suffered through so much nonsense for such a small pay-off.

I was a bit trepidatious about Book 3 after 2 slowed down so much, and it turned out that my fears were justified. The story unraveled quickly, the few remaining 'good guys' cam eoff as impotent and clueless and the revelation of the one god's true identity made me sick with its lack of imgaination and originality.

Palin and Dalamar started to become a focus even more than before, and we are left wondering why. Neither of them takes any action that has much of a direct effect on the outcome of the book. Other, more porrly developed characters are there to carry the story and they are not strong enough to do so. instead, you are left on the edge of your seat waiting for Plain or Dalamar to do something - anything - to amaze and surprise you and turn the tide on the forces of evil. The problem is, they never do. Raistlin's introduction seems to set up an oustanding ending witht he man who dreamed of godhood standing up to defend mortals against the God that would enslave them You bite your lip, you shake in anticipation and then raistlin ultimately does absolutely nothing of importance.

In the end we see an evil force of all but unstoppable magnitude defeated by a force of good that has been too beaten and downtrodden for the past 1200 pages to be believeable in victory. The final defeat of the 'One god' is ridiculously contrived and complete unbelieveable. Paladine - the father of the good gods - and his reaction and ultimate decision in the face of this is absurd and completely pointless.

In the end, an excellent idea was ruined by depthless characters and pointless plot threads that dragged out the story to excessive boredoma nd apathy on the part of the reader only to finish off with a foolishly concieved climax that resolved very little int he way of the characters and came off as little more than a set up for the next series. While some will enjoy running arounf Kyrynn with a ressurected tasselhoff and visiting familiar places, you will do so without familiar characters. This wouldn't be so bad if the new characters gave you a reason to like them or the conflict of the story gave you any reason at all to care if they won or lost.

Ultimately, Dragonlance is showing its age and that of its author's dwindling imagination and committment to the material. Unfortunately, i cannot reccommend this book to anyone.

The first time I read this book was before I read the other two (Dragons of a Fallen Sun, Dragons of a Lost Star) so i'll admit I didn't really understand it. However after the other two books arrived, I read it again and all I could do was gape at the beauty and genius of the book. So, to start with the real review: this book is flawlessly built with no problems that I could see. The characters were perfect! they behaved like they should after what happened in the first two books. Tasslehoff is shown to be truly mature at the end with a full understanding of what a hero must do after behaving like an irresponsible kender for the pther two books. Dalamar behaves once again like the power hungry wizard who'll do anything do get the magic, Palin acts like a hero once again, fighting the One God to save Ansalon though it may cost him his life. Odila's not that much better but thts okay with me, as all she needed to do was stop laughing about everything and she does that in the book. I especially liked the change that came over Gerard. He learns to stop being so cynical and mean to people and becomes a true knight. I liked how an older character returned and had a major role in the book. I loved Lord Soth's return and repent, which shows he is human. The gods doing stuff in the book was also nice and contributed a lot to the plot. I liked the change that came over Gilthas in the end and how he also became a sort of a hero. The suprise ending was a great part. I loved it.
To conclude: this book is great, a must read for any Dragonlance fan.