I'm just a sucker for punishment, so I'm going to keep going down the Dragonlance rabbit-hole a few more books.

Unlike other recent reviews, this Dragonlance novel was new to me. It represented a return by Weis and Hickman to TSR in 1994, after the fairly successful 'Darksword' and 'Rose of the Prophet' trilogies and the still-in-print 'Death Gate Cycle' for Bantam-Spectra. Sidebar: 'Rose of the Prophet' had queer characters, which, despite other issues, made it ground-breaking and I have really fond memories of that trilogy that I won't ruin with a reread...yet.

Anyway, 'The Second Generation' is my first new Dragonlance in almost twenty years so I was a little too hopeful. My main problems with my other rereads have been the lack of depth to world-building and how the stories didn't seem to merit a second go-round.

Well, this first go-round wasn't that awesome. I had a lot of issues with how women are treated and the lack of depth to the stories in general. I've already read a little ways into 'Dragons of Summer Flame' and I'm not convinced that the insights into the characters provided here are necessary. 

There's a little blurb in the front of the book warning readers that these stories may contradict other books they've read, but don't worry, its because the Heroes of the Lance are so legendary all sorts of things have been written/said about them. This is patent bull-shit. I'm sorry TSR, but you made decisions with those 80-odd books covering every single side character and their histories and you should stick to them. How did it feel to the fans who had bought and enjoyed those novels and discover they're no longer canon? Boooo! 

So, these stories begin the over-writing and ret-conning of Dragonlance, for better or worse depending on your biases. I have strong feelings about it, obviously, but the real deciding factor is that these stories are just not that good. I don't think Weis and Hickman were feeling the characters the way they used to and the two new stories for this book dealing with Steel Brightblade and Gilthas Three-Quarter-Elven make women all the more insignificant in this universe. Where is the Weis that protested Hickman's decision that Laurana would betray millions to save her boyfriend?

We'll see if she turns up again.

Dragonlance

Next: 'Dragons of Summer Flame'

Previous: 'The Test of the Twins'

Reading this over again, it felt like a lot of padding had been added to make these books into a marketable trilogy.

'Test of the Twins' follows Caramon and Tasslehoff's terrible vision of a future where Raistlin succeeds, Tanis teaming up with Dalamar, more Kitiara (urgh), and Raistlin's journey through the Abyss with Crysania. I like mucking around with time-travel, and the angle that events have to be changed to prevent the end of the world was great, however, Raistlin's journeying mostly made no sense. The Abyss and the Dark Queen are attacking his mind, but he keeps behaving completely out of character to these situations. On top of that, the climactic battle scenes didn't have the same element of fun as in the 'Chronicles'.

That said, we have a nice tidy ending - though it is a bit at odds with the subsequent Krynn-shattering events of the novels of the '90s. People keep behaving as if the War of the Lance was this legendary thing and yet it ended only two years previous, and foreshadowing is made about the great future of the Temple of Paladine and...uh....ok. Sure. Never mind. Forget I said anything.

For now, I'll keep going.

Dragonlance Legends

Previous: 'War of the Twins'

Next: 'The Second Generation'

A cliff-hanger ending is a sure way to make me pick up the next book in a series, if only to glance at the opening chapters and see what happens. The Cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins.

Caramon, Crysania and Raistlin emerge in the Tower of High Sorcery in Palanthas but clearly at a time before its re-opening. Tasslehoff, meanwhile, has a very interesting new experience in a new place.

The set-up to this novel was a good one, the brothers and Crysania wind up marching with an army, trapped in Fistandantilus' footsteps, encouraging a civil war among the dwarves in order to get closer to a powerful artifact that will further Raistlin's dark plans. This trilogy spawned a few more prequel novels, but not as many as the 'Chronicles'. 

The ultimate issue I had was that, because this was a reread, I knew what was happening and the action and the characters our primaries meet along the way were not enough of a distraction for me. There wasn't enough here to keep my interest this time around. We know how this is going to end and we know we're going to get another cliff-hanger. This is a good fantasy trilogy, but a reader is better off picking up one of the omnibus editions. That are, er, out of print....

Dragonlance Legends

Next: 'Test of the Twins'

Previous: 'Time of the Twins'

I had fond memories of the Dragonlance 'Chronicles', but it was the 'Legends' trilogy that stuck with me through the years. Time travel, deep lore, and epic battles form a backdrop to a pair of seriously screwed up brothers.

At the end of 'Dragons of Spring Dawning' Raistlin had come into some serious power and had dismissed Caramon from his life. Caramon, having protected and cared for his brother his whole life clearly is not happy about the situation, but goes off into the sunset with Tika. At the true start of 'Time' we see a harried Tika and a Caramon who is, literally, unrecognizable.

The actual start of the novel spends some time with Raistlin enjoying his Dark Sinister Powers, a 'loyal' apprentice, and a plot involving a powerful, but inexperienced, cleric of Paladine. Crystania swoons over Raistlin and his musk of roses, blood, and death, and starts her own plot to win him back over to the side of good. In doing this she get entangled with Tasslehoff and a seriously out of condition Caramon. A jaunt back to just before the Cataclysm seems inevitable.

For the most part the book holds up and, for many reasons, 'Time of the Twins' is a superior book to anything in the 'Chronicles' series, and yet, the luster has worn off and, honestly, I wasn't seeing the world-building here that I was expecting. In previous books whole adventure arcs would be skipped over with a mention, and it worked, but the actual epic scenes on screen here were fun, but not powerful.

I'm going to keep going, but I remember that after this trilogy the Dragonlance universe gets really complicated, insular, and much of it not written by Weis and Hickman gets contradicted and retconned down the line.

Dragonlance Legends

Previous: 'Dragons of Spring Dawning' (Chronicles Trilogy)

Next: 'War of the Twins'

After the defeat of the Dragonarmies at the High Clerist's tower Laurana is named as the General of the armies of Solamnia and, by default, Palanthas. Her leadership and her brother Gilthanas' persuading the good dragons to join the fight against evil means a quick turnaround of the war, the battles mostly being skipped in favor of character development.

Meanwhile, Tanis and the other Companions with him have discovered that the mysterious "gem man" who has been sighted several times through their adventures is the key to defeating the Dark Queen. Tanis must outrace Kitiara, revealed as a Dragon High Lord in the last book, to secure the gem man. There are rifts growing between some of the Companions, however, and they are not destined to stay together.

The Dark is not going to be defeated easily and on top of betrayals and death there are more surprising revelations in store.

This is still a solid fantasy. There are still too many main characters, but Weis and Hickman continue to improve on their skills of separating our heroes and villains into manageable groups. The one sour note in the text is something I'm glad the authors acknowledge as a mistake in the annotated editions of the book: This is Laurana risking her life and, essentially, the world so she can save her boyfriend.

This plot point takes back a lot of character development, and is not only lazy, but stupid. Both authors regret it now (or in 2004 when the commentary was written), which is something, I guess.

That aside, the book has a nice, epic conclusion that suits the tone of the series, eases readers into future Dragonlance titles (see below), and one death in particular still moved me. This was fun, I might have to read more.

Dragonlance Chronicles

Next: 'Dragons of Summer Flame'

Previously: 'Dragons of Winter Night'

or, traditionally, next would be Dragonlance Legends 'The Time of the Twins'

or, Any of a dozen prequels, midquels and story collections. A lot branches off from here depending on which character you like best.