Dragons of Eternity marks the end of an absolutely wonderful return to the world of Krynn, and an absolutely delightful reunion with the Heroes of theDragons of Eternity marks the end of an absolutely wonderful return to the world of Krynn, and an absolutely delightful reunion with the Heroes of the Lance. Nostalgia can be a finicky thing, with the magic of our youth often impossible to recapture, but Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman have absolutely nailed it. Reading this final chapter in Dragonlance Destinies, I was transported back to the floor outside my high school cafeteria where I lost myself in the original Dragonlance Chronicles.
If you've been following along with the trilogy, a combination of time travel and alternate realities has conspired to bring together Companions alive, dead, and not yet dead for a pivotal adventure. What began with Tasslehoff and grew to involve Raistlin and Sturm comes full circle here in more ways than one, taking us back to the fateful night that launched the original trilogy and opening up the story to the likes of Tanis, Flint, Laurana, Goldmoon, and more. The twist is that they're converging from different timelines, which means there's reuniting of friends on one side, urgent introductions to strangers on the other, and awkward explanations in between.
Alternate timelines/realities are one of my favorite tropes in fiction, while prequels are probably my least favorite, so I had mixed feelings going into this series, but Weis & Hickman have done a masterful job. Somehow they've managed to navigate things so that the story explores some fascinating what-if scenarios as they work to restore what should happen, but chaos allows for the kind of genuine tension you don't often find in a prequel.
Kitiara and Flint are two notable beneficiaries of the Graygem's chaos (for very different reasons), but it's Raistlin who gets the biggest opportunity to alter his story (which I loved), and Tasslehoff who is presented with the biggest moral dilemma in restoring history (which tugged so hard at my heartstrings). This is a reunion with old friends, a chance to explore old stories in a new light, but it's also a significant addition to the Dragonlance canon, both in terms of story and characters. Speaking of characters, I was not a fan of Destina in the first two books, often resenting how she was forced into a familiar story, but she comes into her own here and ultimately won me over.
A success in terms of nostalgia and storytelling, a triumph of recapturing familiar magic while creating something new, Dragons of Eternity is the kind of epic fantasy that just makes your soul sing.
For the most part, The Fireborne Blade is a very simple, straightforward slice of fantasy. It's the story of a knight, her squire, the quest for a swoFor the most part, The Fireborne Blade is a very simple, straightforward slice of fantasy. It's the story of a knight, her squire, the quest for a sword, and the slaying of a dragon. It embraces all the classic elements, without the weight of prophecy, chosen ones, or the fate of the world hanging in the balance. What makes it stand out is Charlotte Bond's telling of the story, which gives it a freshness I wasn't expecting.
This is a story told in pieces, with the narrative slowly bringing things together as the flashbacks creep closer to the current story, but it's also told in layers, with a series of testimonies and reports of other knights' encounters with dragons. It may sound like too much for a novella that clocks in at under 200 pages, but it's perfectly balanced, and it kept me engaged throughout.
Maddileh is an interesting character, and her seeming simplicity is as deceptive as that of the story. She's a woman in a man's world, an unwanted and unwelcome knight who is unfairly constrained by what patriarchal structures of epic fantasy. And it's not just her - there's a secondary character who plays into this trope as well, a woman with a flair for magic in a world where women can't be mages - and how/why their stories come together is where the hidden heart of this lies.
There is a lot of humor to The Fireborne Blade, but it's the subtle kind that makes you smile rather than laugh out loud. Okay, so perhaps I did laugh aloud at the cowardice of Maddileh's squire in the face of ghosts, but it didn't take me out of the story like the humor of a few recent reads. What Bond does so well is drop the humor in and move on, neither commenting upon it nor dwelling upon it, and while I'm sure some naysayers will protest that it all comes at the expense of men, it's all part of quietly fighting back against that patriarchy.
While I will say nothing more about the plot for fear of even hinting at some of the surprises in store, I will say this is a story that's satisfyingly full of those classic fantasy elements I mentioned earlier. We've got dragons and drakes, ghosts, magical talismans, enchanted swords, and more. It feels so comfortably familiar, and yet it's satisfyingly different in ways that you don't fully appreciate until after it's done. Reading it, I was thinking this was a 3-star tale; upon reaching the climax, I was leaning towards 4 stars; but after thinking about it for a few days, I'm all-in on the 5 stars. Bring on The Bloodless Princes!
Even though I tend to find humorous fantasy . . . well, not hit-or-miss, but perhaps middling-or-miss, I had high hopes for this because I enjoyed theEven though I tend to find humorous fantasy . . . well, not hit-or-miss, but perhaps middling-or-miss, I had high hopes for this because I enjoyed the Burningblade & Silvereye trilogy. I mean, who doesn’t want to read about an oft-defeated hero of legend basically saying “screw it, if you can’t beat him, become them” and switching sides from good to evil.
The problem is that without all the prophecies and chosen-one tropes, moral injustices to rail against, social or political betrayals to avenge, or any of the other staples of the genre, this just feels selfish and insignificant. It’s a fun read, equal parts silly and sordid, crass and clever, but it’s hardly the kind of fantasy you find yourself getting lost in. It relies heavily on the novelty of the premise to carry the story, but that novelty wears thin before the fantasy pays off.
Perhaps the biggest stumbling block for me was that there’s always an ‘out’ or a narrative ‘reset’ to the story, where death doesn’t mean the end of the story, just a chance at a do-over. That robs the story of any tension, and while it lends itself to an air of mystery, wondering when the next reset might occur, the resulting lack of stakes is what kept me at more of a distance than I’d like.
Empire of Silence is a book that only came to my attention because Ashes of Man (book 5 of The Sun Eater) caught my eye when searching for a vacation Empire of Silence is a book that only came to my attention because Ashes of Man (book 5 of The Sun Eater) caught my eye when searching for a vacation read back in February. I was tempted, but this Hadrian Marlowe guy didn't excite me as much as this witch named Valka, and I couldn't see the space opera element I was so desperately craving, so I decided to pass at the time.
A month later, having come home from vacation, I began to see all these book bloggers binging the first 3 books, and suddenly I was curious once again. So I broke down and ordered a copy. The first few chapters were rather cold and sterile, making it hard to get into the story, and the fantasy elements were so oddly intertwined in the story that I found myself once again doubting if it was the story for me. And then, just when it started getting good, promising to take us to the stars, it crashed and burned into another more fantasy settings and tropes, just on a different world.
I paused for a bit, catching up on other reads, but eventually found my way back. It was still more fantasy than sci-fi, but I started to connect with the characters, both on the streets and in the arena, and that kept me going. It was still a secondary read, one I only picked up between other books, but then we got into talk of the strange ruins and my curiosity picked up a notch . . . and then came the heretical talk of the Quiet, and suddenly I was hooked.
That's a rather long-winded way of saying Empire of Silence is a slow-burn of a book, but Christopher Ruocchio has so much history and culture to be established, so many political and religious structures to be established, that he really needs that time - and we need that background to appreciate just how significant Hadrian's thoughts and deeds are. The last hundred or so pages are amazing, exciting, and gut-wrenching at the same time. I was hoping we'd get to "the man who burned every last alien Cielcin from the sky" in this volume, but clearly that's far down the road ahead. Instead, we get a sort of delayed resolution to an earlier plot thread, one that wraps things up on a thoughtful, even happy note.
Now that I know both Hadrian and Valka, I'm 100% invested in where this goes next. It requires patience, but if you're willing to invest the time, it more than pays off in the end.
The incomparable Jenn Lyons has done it again, only this time it's with a standalone fantasy, so if you've been reluctant to immerse yourself in the gThe incomparable Jenn Lyons has done it again, only this time it's with a standalone fantasy, so if you've been reluctant to immerse yourself in the gloriously bewildering saga that is A Chorus of Dragons, The Sky on Fire is your chance to see what you've been missing.
The cover blurb will tell you this is a story about a rescue from a warlord and a heist from a dragon, but don't let that deceive you - nothing about this is that simple. It's also a story about regrets, resentment, and revenge, with personal motives driving the narrative. Nobody is all good or all bad, it's just that their objectives are sometimes violently at odds with one another - so much so that even villains can end up becoming heroes.
The world-building here is simple but nicely detailed and well thought-out. Below, we have the jungles of the Deep, humid lands where air, foliage, and danger all lie thick and heavy. Above hang the cloud cities, home to the ruling classes, merchants, nobility, and dragons. So many dragons! This isn't just a book with dragons, it's very much a book about dragons - their history, their mythology, and their overbearing presence in the lives of tiny humans. While we don't get too deeply into human politics, we do explore a lot of dragon politics, which makes sense because everything in this world is subservient to their whims.
Very much like A Chorus of Dragons, The Sky on Fire is wonderful in its casual, no-big-deal, assumed diversity in gender, sexuality, and relationships. Characters wear garden rings and social that communicate their identity, preferences, and personality, and I loved the way it's done as much as I loved the language around it: a ring to denote "male, both by birth and inclination"; another to show "a committed, monogamous relationship"; and yet another to communicate a preference for "both feminine and masculine partners." Anahrod, our protagonist and POV, is a bisexual woman who begins exploring a polyamorous triad, and all people can say about it is that it's about time they admit their feelings for one another. There are also some casual kink references sprinkled throughout that, again, aren't a big deal for the characters, but refreshing to see as a reader.
If I were to have one complaint about the book it would be that it flounders for direction in the middle, with the pacing suffering as goals, alliances, and agendas are established. However, at this point, I know Lyons never does anything accidentally, never just fills pages for the sake of exposition, so I trusted that it would all come together and that we'd see how and why it all fits together - and we do. Along those lines, there were some questions I had early on about aspects of the story that seemed too simple, too convenient, but they're all satisfyingly explained by the end as well.
The Sky on Fire doesn't feel as grand or as poetic as A Chorus of Dragons, but that may actually play in its favor for new readers. It's a narrative style that fits the urgency of the tale, and had I not read anything else by Lyons, I'd never notice anything missing.
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