Dragonlance: Dragons of Fate by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman review

Note: I received an Advanced Readers Copy in exchange for an honest review.

    DRAGONLANCE: DRAGONS OF ETERNITY is possibly the final Dragonlance novel. This isn't because there's nowhere left to take the story but because Hasbro is no longer interested in publishing books. It's a shame because it manages to tell a very entertaining story and also sets up a new status quo for the fantasy world of Krynn that I found far more intriguing than the original Fifth Age of the setting established by DRAGONS OF SUMMER FLAME. There's a legend that with them being taken off of their own creation, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman wrapped up all of the plots in that world as a form of creator revolt. While I don't believe that to be the case, I also think the setting was not meant to be what Wizards of the Coast eventually turned it into.

    The premise for the DRAGONLANCE DESTINIES trilogy, of which this is the third, is that a young Solamnic woman named Destina has unwittingly become pawn to the god Chaos in its Graygem of Gargeth form. Basically, it manipulated events and her own petty desire to undo her unfortunate circumstances to rewrite all of history. At the start of the third book, Takhasis has won the Third Dragon War and all of Ansalom is under her control. Tanis Half-Elven heads back in time with the help of Antinus and attempts to join with Sturm, Destina, Brother Kairn, Tasslehoff Burrfoot as well as others to set things back on track. The book has some minor issues that come with time travel, whether fantasy or science fiction.

    For instance, in a world where Takhasis won the Third Dragon War, there would never be a Kingpriest of Istar or Cataclysm. As such, it would be highly unlikely that there would be a Solace or Tanis Half-Elven or Brothers Majere. Indeed, history seems mostly unchanged from the Fourth Dragon War except things are even more dire than they were before (and they were already pretty dire in the original Dragonlance Chronicles).

    This is a fairly minor complaint, however. Really, this book exists for the purposes of allowing us to get the band back together and hang out with old friends who have been with us for forty years. I was four when Dragons of Autumn Twilight came out and I read it when I was twelve. As such, it is an eternal part of mental landscape. A lot of it is revisiting old locations like the Inn of the Last Home, Solace, and dealing with delightfully boo hiss villains like Toede or Henderick.

    My favorite part of the book is definitely the return of Kitiara uth Matar, the Blue Dragon Highlord. I have always considered her my favorite of the Dragonlance characters. Indeed, if I'm going to be honest, she was my first fictional crush. There was just something refreshing for a boy of my fundamentalist background to meet the sexually aggressive take-no-prisoners antiheroine who was out for herself. Sadly, the book doesn't really do much with her character and I was hoping some of the Heroes of the Lance would try to reach out to her across time for a redemption arc. Sadly, it was not to be.

    The book dials back the role of Destina, Kairn, and Tasslehoff a bit. Instead, it focuses a lot more on the greater Dragonlance cast. I think this could have been dialed back a bit. I was much more invested in the changes done to the timeline as well as how they might fix it or not. A lot of people were speculating the ending of this book would undo Dragons of Summer Flame. The answer to that? Well, you'll have to read it but I think it leaves a lot to the imagination.

    In conclusion, I very much enjoyed this book but I will state that it has some flaws. A little too much time is spent reliving Dragons of Autumn Twilight, the time travel elements are a bit more nonsensical than usual, and we could have done more with Kitiara's return. Still, I very much liked visiting with my old friends again. The ending also feels like it does offer the possibility of a better world for our heroes than the one that executive meddling gave us.

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