Customer Reviews

Riverwind the Plainsman: Preludes, Volume Four

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is not a good book. The plot was simple and unexciting. I never once found myself eager to find out what happened next. The way things unraveled were horrible. The climax was boring, there was no mystery, and a lot of filler. The characters were uninspired. I did not connect with any of the characters and did not care what happened to them. This book is not written well. It seemed rushed. I will think twice about reading anything by Paul Thompson. Dragonlance was looking for a way to sell a book...instead they sold me crap.....

Well I think the title really says it all. The second half of the book was fantastic! But it was really hard for me to get through the fist part of the book. It was just really long and dry. But still very worth a read.

This starts when Riverwind is still in the village, and he is trying to win the hand of the Chieftains Daughter, Goldmoon, in marriage. But as Riverwind believes in the old gods, and that religion is frowned upon, Riverwind is sent on a quest to find proof of the old gods so he can marry Goldmoon.
On this quest Riverwind finds an underground city of elves, ruled by a powerful female elf. He spends most of his adventure here, and learns much about the secrets and plots of the city.

The authors did a good job in this book, though Riverwind isn't a very likeable character. The story is good, and if you have read other Dragonlance books involving Riverwind, it's nice to know what's happened to him in the beginning.

If you haven't read any D.L. books yet, I recommend starting with Dragons of an Autumn Twilight.

Your beloved needs you to go on a quest to claim her. You take the village idiot. You fall down a big hole into an underground kingdom of elves. You have an elf fall in love with you and you eventually take on a black dragon. All in a days work for Riverwind.

Riverwind is forced to go on a courting quest to claim Goldmoon. The quest involves finding proof of the old gods. Catchflea, the town idiot, joins Riverwind and they end up falling down the entrance to a city of underground elves. After an epic battle to free them from their oppressive ruler, the companions blunder into a city of draconians and a cleric making horrible lizard warriors. Only one person makes it out of this whole mess alive and sane.

The plot is implausible so it's up to the characters to make the read interesting. And they do. Riverwind is an interesting very sweet character. Catchflea gets annoying, but Di An is a nice character and Li El is truly creepy.

If you're looking for a good, light read from Dragonlance, you might want to check out this book.

Riverwind was not exactly the most compelling character that Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman came up with. While he plays an important part in the Dragonlance Chronicles, he does not exactly do much once his major task has finished. Indeed, by the time Weis and Hickman usher him off the stage in the last volume of the Chronicles trilogy, the reader can be forgiven if he had forgotten that Riverwind was still there.

Like too many of the Dragonlance books written by someone other than Weis and Hickman, "Riverwind the Plainsman" by Paul Thompson and Tonya Cook is not very good. While the work is not as bad as some of the other books in the series, "Riverwind" is simply not a compelling read. Continuity purists will have a field day in the mistakes Thompson and Cook make but this is not what undermines the book. The book starts slowly and the plot does not pick up till much later in the story. That's fine if you want to make a point--Neal Stephenson does exactly that in "Anathem." But there is no logic to it in "Riverwind the Plainsman" and many readers will give up on the book before part of it become tolerable. While conceding that Thompson and Cook were forced to work with one of the weaker leads in the Dragonlance series, this book could have been saved by more focus, better editing and a quicker hook to catch the reader's attention. While the ending is solid, that can only go so far in redeeming the book.

This was much better than I expected! While this book had a great plot and really filled in some details about Que-Shu customs, and Riverwind and Goldmoon's relationship, the authors really screwed up some details. Hollow Sky was NOT Loreman's eldest child, Hawker was. Also, Wanderer was not supposed to be Riverwinds father, he was actually his 'adoptive grandfather' as explained in the book 'Love and War'. Also, while 'Dragons of Autumn twilight' states that Goldmoon and Riverwind are in their late twenties, in this book it says that Riverwind is barely 20 years (Goldmoon is younger than Riverwind) and was gone 11 months before he returned to Que-shu, making him at most 21, so unless they traveled to the inn of the last home over a span of 9 years (which I doubt) There are some problems here. These details probably won't bother anyone, but just in case...

When I bought this book, my first thought was that it would be a story of Riverwind's journey to Xak Tsaroth and would probably not fit into the Chronicles timeline. I was wrong on both thoughts. The book is very well written and the characters are good. (although I wasn't much impressed by Catchflea, and there is a long draggy point of walking through endless tunnels.) The story is like two books in one: first Riverwind journies to an undergound city of lost elves and participates in their rebellion against an evil elven sorceres, (Li El has to be one of the most evil villians I have ever read about) and then he journies to Xak Tsaroth to battle draconians and Khisanth the black dragon. It tied in very well with the series and explained why Riverwind couldn't remember the adventure. I know most people say that the preludes stink, but this one doesn't. Pick it up if you were as curious as me about Riverwind's lost quest that was wiped from his memory.

This book shows aspects of dragonlance new to us, like more detailed information about the que-shu tribe and the refugees of the kinslayer war. I find it the best book of the preludes sextet. The book is very detailed and fascinated me in such a way that I couldn't stop reading it until I finished the book.

This book surprised me intensly and was very exciting, in my point of view. The truth was that my first intent was to learn more about Riverwind and Goldmoon. I liked Catchflea, he was very amusing and funny at times of great sorrow. Mishakal was already one of my favorite goddess's of good so I am glad that thy integrated her into the story.

I was very surprised at this book. I thought it was going to be dull and boring, because I didn't really like Riverwind in the Chronicles. I was very surprised. Catchflea reminded me a bit of the bumbling Fizban, and I enjoyed that aspect of it. The only thing I didn't like that much was Di An. She was too dull. The book also had gully dwarves, which makes any DragonLance book worth reading, in my opinion. If you liked Riverwind only a little, this is a book to read.