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So, apparently I waited too long between finishing Dragons of Winter Night and beginning this book. Unlike that one, this book picks up almost immediately where the last one left off-- with the companions separated and almost all of them in trouble. It took me a while to remember what everyone had been up to, and to remember not to pay so much attention to the writing-- but once I did, I actually got pretty caught up in the story and was interested to see how things would end. To the red dragons of the first book and the blue dragons of the second, this one finally adds the gold, bronze, and other metal-colored good dragons who help fight the war-- along with the fabled dragonlances that were discovered in the last volume.

While the story was engaging and the conclusion fairly satisfying, I found the characterization inconsistent and troubling. For instance: Tanis, the half-elf and leader of the group, makes many bad decisions and acts out of character-- he's rash and easily angered, yelling at people and alienating them-- all things that he wouldn't normally do. It's supposed to be this big struggle between his human side and his elven side, which is exemplified in his love for a human woman and an elf maiden. But the human woman he loves is evil and selfish-- even her passionate love is really quite selfish; if Tanis still loved her now because of the woman he'd known in the past, still the reader never gets a glimpse of a woman that Tanis could believably fall in love with. Another inconsistent one is the kender, Tasslehoff. Kender are supposed to be fearless, and see even death as an adventure, but Tas is inconsistently brave and fearful. He does certainly encounter some pretty extreme situations, but in most cases his reactions aren't handled with the subtlety that would make his usual fearlessness believable (his delight at flying on the dragons was one enjoyable exception).

It's strange that sometimes it's very pleasing and satisfying to have correctly guessed certain outcomes in a story, but other times it's boring. For instance, I knew that Raistlin was pretty evil (for all that he wore the red robes of a neutral magician through most of the trilogy), and that there was some connection with the ancient wizard Fistandantilus-- so I wasn't that surprised or even that interested when he finally showed his true colors (literally). It worked well with the resolution of the plot, but it just wasn't that exciting. In contrast, from the first time I encountered the fumbling, forgetful old wizard Fizban, I knew there was much more to him than that (and there were plenty of hints for the reader as the stories went on)-- but I didn't guess who he really was, and it was quite a bit better than what I had thought of myself. Maybe that is why the one surprise was disappointing and the other delightful.

Title:	Dragons of Spring Dawning
Author:	Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Date published:	1985
Genre:	Fantasy
Series:	Dragonlance Chronicles
Number of pages:	381

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This sequel to The Dragons of Autumn Twilight finds the same group of companions continuing their adventures, trying to defend their land from the encroaching armies of the DragonLords and the Dark Queen. This time, the friends end up getting split into two groups, both looking for two of the remaining "dragon orbs". I found myself enjoying this book more than the first-- maybe because I was able to just enjoy the adventure and not pay too much attention to the language and phrasing (since the authors apparently didn't).

It's hard to have much drama when the characters nearly die all the time-- and you know they are pretty much all going to survive, because of the kind of book it is. This time there was a bit more drama, since at least some of the characters thought that their friends were dead (even though, as the reader, you know better). It also bothers me a bit that each female character is seemingly more gorgeous than the last. How can all of them be the most beautiful woman the other characters have ever seen? It doesn't make sense. Another annoyance-- the characters didn't seem to behave consistently. For instance, the careful and cautious leader Tanis, suddenly unable to control his passion? Or the light-hearted kender Tasslehoff, who was previously described as unafraid of death, now piteous and fearful? If it was written carefully, showing a fearful kender could be used to demonstrate how dire their situation really is, but it was not handled that way.

There were some fun twists to this story, though-- some of which I was able to guess ahead of time (for instance, a silver dragon masquerading as a "wilder elf" and falling in love with one of the companions-- given away to the reader by her inability to see in the dark). The living nightmare caused by an elflord's failure to control one of the dragon orbs was also an interesting episode.

One final nitpick: the title isn't really justified here. While this book introduces three new kinds of dragons, it is unclear which is the wintry, nocturnal breed. In addition to the red and black dragons we met before (I suppose the reds are supposed to be autumnal), in this book there are blues (which seem to breathe lightning) and whites (the most wintry of the dragons, they breathe ice and fog instead of fire). Also, we meet one silver dragon-- the kind that helped save the world from evil dragons in the past. I think titles should matter, and in this series they seem to have simply chosen seasons and times of day to mark their books, and they march forward with them, without really justifying the title in the book itself.

Title:	Dragons of Winter Night
Author:	Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Date published:	1985
Genre:	Fantasy
Series:	Dragonlance Chronicles
Number of pages:	399
Notes:	One of G's books.

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This book was written as part of the Dungeons & Dragons universe, and the story was apparently developed as a new role-playing module when it was written. The story feels a bit like a rip-off of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, with a strange group of different kinds of people going through various lands on a desperate quest. The group is led by a half-elf, Tanis, and includes a dwarf, a knight, a pair of twins--one a burly warrior and the other a sickly, but powerful and mysterious, mage-- and even a kleptomaniac kender, a halfling a bit like a hobbit-- but more playful and immune to fear. Along the way, the group picks up a barbarian pair, Romeo and Juliet type lovers from their tribe, with a mysterious blue crystal staff, and discover that the presumed-mythical dragons actually do exist, and that they are part of an army poised to overrun their land.

The story is fairly interesting, although not as tight as I would like-- there are a lot of threads left hanging at the end, and I hope at least some of them will be resolved in the books that follow in this trilogy (an unfortunate tendency of authors who can't seem to trust to the quality of their writing and characters to make readers want to find and read any sequels). The writing and descriptions tend to be a bit overblown, and sometimes don't quite make sense if you pay too much attention to the writing. In other places, things seem to be needlessly complicated -- for instance, the dragons all have two names, a human name and a dragon name. Their names are interesting, but the complication of having to remember and relate two different names seems unnecessary. The heroes quest doesn't seem to be very direct; it almost seems as if they are wandering all over the land of Krynn, first here, then there, back and forth, and that makes it harder to engage with the book. I suppose, though, that it would be more fitting for a role-playing game, because it would allow you to revisit the same lands and territories.

Some of the plot points seem to hinge on certain religious questions of these lands (the old gods are missing, the priests are 'Seekers' of new gods), and that-- among other things-- made it harder for me to engage with the story. The characters are all fairly interesting (and each, of course, has their own backstory and struggles)-- although they still seem a bit clichéd, perhaps because they are the character types you would play in a game. The book definitely picks up in the last third, when the action gets more dramatic and exciting, and while in some cases it is not quite believable, and in others it is a bit predictable, it still makes for a fun ride.

Title:	Dragons of Autumn Twilight
Author:	Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Date published:	1984
Genre:	Fantasy
Series:	Dragonlance Chronicles
Number of pages:	447
Notes:	Recommended by G.

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