The Puppet King (Dragonlance Chaos Wars, Vol. 3) [Mass Market Paperback]

Douglas Niles (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Chaos War Series | Publication Date: February 1, 1999

Treason within, war from without.

Torn asunder by the nightmares of a mad king, the elven realm of Silvanesti has nearly been restored to its former grandeur. But the elf Porthios, returning to his homeland, launches a rebellion against young Gilthas, his own nephew.

Gilthas's troubles are multiplied by threats from green dragons and from the Knights of Takhisis. Now, with Porthios at his throat, Gilthas must choose between blood and honor.

Douglas Nile's new Dragonlance novel is filled with treachery and intrigue among the elves during the Chaos War, the backdrop for The New York Times best-selling novel Dragons of Summer Flame.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast; First edition (February 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078691324X
• ISBN-13: 978-0786913244
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #766,811 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good plot, but what about the characters?, April 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Puppet King (Dragonlance Chaos Wars, Vol. 3) (Mass Market Paperback)

As a Dragonlance book, The Puppet King is one of the better ones. The story fits into the Dragonlance saga after "The Sacrifice" in the Second Generation, alongside Dragons of Summer Flame, and before the Fifth Age trilogy. Douglas Niles' strength seems to lie in planning involved and interesting military plots and tactics, and he continues that tradition here. The Puppet King reads like a chess game, with devious political plots being hatched left and right, and battles with smart manouevers lovingly described.

The drawback is that the characters become almost nothing more than chess pieces; two-dimensional figures who are armed only with enough characterization to carry out the plot. Douglas Niles was working with Dragonlance characters that Dragonlance fans have encountered elsewhere before, and it won't take too long to notice that readers get a better picture of what motivates Gilthas in a short story like Weis and Hickman's "The Sacrifice," than from the entire novel of The Puppet King. Also, the Puppet King is the first time Porthios has been given so much limelight in any book, but Niles hardly offers any new and interesting insight on the character. The antagonists like Rashas and Konnal were also two-dimensional, even maddeningly so, because most of the book describes their evil machinations without revealing enough of why they should be that evil and unwise.

All in all, the Puppet King does do a good job of describing the events in Qualinesti and Silvanesti before and during Dragons of Summer Flame. Readers who were wondering how these two areas of Krynn weathered the Chaos War will have their questions answered here.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very good, well written book, December 15, 1999

By 

Charles Nesbitt "Scooter" (Santiago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Puppet King (Dragonlance Chaos Wars, Vol. 3) (Mass Market Paperback)

Niles brings you right into action at the start of the book. I was immediately interested. Niles also made the bad guys so bad and annoying you wish you could just enter the book and slap them around. It is very well written. Lots of detail. The only semi-bad thing I notcied was how Porthios seemed to always defeat impossible odds. Douglas Niles wrote about Porthios and made him into a good charecter, when before he always seemed kind of mean and grouchy. I would have liked to hear more at the ending about what the elven nation was like after they won the war. The way that Niles wrote the battles make them intense and they seem to flow. He wrote the battles especially well.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly Good..., November 21, 2000

By 

Richard Raley "The King Henry Tapes" (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Puppet King (Dragonlance Chaos Wars, Vol. 3) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is easily the best written dragonlance book I've read in a long time, and even more easily the best book of the Chaos War Series. I mean it was just greatly done, excellent job by Douglas Niles. The action scenes were well put together, good word flow, description, everything was great! Very surprising for a Chaos War book, but I'm not complaining about that.

My only complaint is that things died too easy, but hey I can live with that.

Three of my favorite things were: the way it was set up, most DL books are chaotic but this one was well ordered with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Great Information on the elves, tons of things on how the Senate is held, how Qualinost is set up, good job there. And last, Niles was able to keep the characters (Gilthas, Alhana, Porthios, etc.) true to the way Weis and Hickman wrote them. He didn't advance the characters much, but he did keep them true, and that's more than I can say for most DL authors.

Final Thought: If you only buy one of the Chaos War Series Books then buy this one. Just make sure that you read "The Second Generation" by Weis and Hickman first, there's a short story in there that goes hand in hand with this one.