HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Dragons of Summer Flame by Margaret Weis
Loading...
MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
2,36486,480 (3.59)5
A hot parched summer on Krynn brings with it changes as young mage Palin Majere goes in search of his uncle, the infamous archmage Raistlin, the Dark Queen finds new champions for her cause, and Usha, child of the Irda, arrives in Palanthas claiming to be Raistlin's daughter.
Member:raistlinsshadow
Title:Dragons of Summer Flame
Authors:Margaret Weis
Other authors:Tracy Hickman
Info:Wizards of the Coast (2002), Mass Market Paperback, 608 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:****
Tags:dragonlance, weis & hickman, D&D, fantasy

Work Information

Dragons of Summer Flame by Margaret Weis (Author)

Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 5 mentions

English (7)  Spanish (1)  All languages (8)
Showing 1-5 of 7 (next | show all)
Dragons Of Summer Flame kicks in directly after The Second Generation and thus deals with the new generation of heroes. Those heroes are Palin Majere, Usha Majere and Steel Brightblade, who is a dark knight. Reorx made a graygem, a stone, to capture a bit of Chaos (the father of all and nothing), but in doing so Chaos entirely ended up in there. The stone arrives with the Irda, who are magicians and keep to themselves. There Usha grows up, but she's human, so gets treated as the ugly duckling. The graygem gets cracked by the Irda, but they never realized what it would unleash. And so Chaos, who doesn't like the world of Krynn and its races and all, can now destroy everything.

Usha has to flee to Palanthas, to the Tower Of High Sorcery, to inform Dalamar with a message from the Irda. She doesn't know anything about life, about economics and stuff, about social life. Logical then that she has to flee all the time. The weather is dry and temperatures remain very high, causing drought and alike. Steel and Palin will meet each other on many occasions, as Palin is a captive of Steel. But Steel vowed to return the bodies of Palin's brothers to Caramon and Tika, since Caramon and Tanis saved his life while they visited Sturm's tomb. And so the two cousins then venture towards the High Clerist's Tower to open the portal to the Abyss (ordered by the Nightlord), so Takhisis can come out and play again.

Steel dares not enter the room, gets excluded, has to return to his commander and face death, since he lost his prisoner. Meanwhile Tas and Usha have already has some adventuring, also ending up at Dalamar's place, who learns about Usha and what not. While in the Abyss, Tas and Palin find Raistlin, who has to return to the mortal plains somehow. Or rather, he's not let in again and loses his magical powers as well. Also, the three saw the gods quarrel about the dark happenings on Krynn and how to solve it. A unique experience for mortal beings. The dark knights prepare to attack and conquer the High Clerist's Tower, the best defense of the Solamnic Knights. During that battle, Tanis saves Steel's life (promise to Sturm), but gets lamely killed by a barbarian. Why was this necessary? Sure, Tanis was getting older, but dying like that is just a lame way of getting rid of a character in your story.

Usha is brought to safety by Dougan Redhammer (Reorx) with the Thieves' Guild. During Steel's trial, Tas, Usha and Palin are with Raistlin at the library of Astinus. And there Palin has to choose to go his way for the magic or save Steel's life, which he does. This also allows him to tell Lord Ariakan about the gods. The Nightlord wants Palin and Steel dead, but why? For the betterment of the knighthood, but I wouldn't see why. Because they're not both committed to the dark queen?

In the end, evil and good join forces to destroy/get rid off Chaos, otherwise they will all perish. Tas, Palin and Usha, and Reorx recapture the broken graygem, despite the shadow wights, who turn everyone into nothing and thus out of memory of the others. Steel still has the family battle, mother and father each convincing him to join either side. Meanwhile Chaos has unleashed his daemon warriors (warriors, dragons, ...) via a rift in the Turbidus ocean, which is also his weak point and offers an entry to the Abyss, from where knights are to wound Chaos, so blood can be captured in the graygem. This serves to destroy the artifact and put an end to all doom and gloom. And despite all attacks, it's Tas and his Rabbitslayer knife that deals the crucial blow to Chaos, and so Usha (yes, her) captures the required blood in the graygem. After that, it explodes. Palin and Usha survive, so do Caramon and co, apparently, though that's not explicitly mentioned. It all ends with Flint and Tas coming together again, having an (annoying for Flint) chat, etc...

Final, general words:
It was nice returning to Krynn, see the old heroes again, see how the new ones fit in. But the happenings themselves were far worse than what happened during the Cataclysm and War Of The Lance, which was already very bloody and awful. In addition, several of the old ones die and not even an honourable death at that. What the hell? The book itself is thick (a good 580 pages). It seems this was meant to be a trilogy, but TSR decided otherwise, so the story got truncated to be fit into one volume. And while the writing itself is well done, it does feel like a drag sometimes to read on. And you can indeed feel there is stuff left out just to quicken up the pace. Characterwise, Tas is himself, annoying and curious as ever. But also dies, while striking Chaos the fatal blow with Rabbitslayer. Palin is a good lad, though spoiled and thus never really been through hard times, despite the death of his two brothers. Still, you can sympathize with him. Usha is a nag, a tart. Damn, how she acts like a 15 year old teenager. She's so annoying. And she sort of saves the world. Seriously, what kind of ending is this? Oh yes, Steel also goes to the afterlife after being struck by Chaos.

So, all in all, a very dark story. Nothing much to look forward to. Thread with caution if you liked Chronicles and Legends. The gods are gone (or are they?), it's all up to the mortals now. ( )
  TechThing | Jan 22, 2021 |
I enjoyed this book well enough, but the ending literally choked me up and had me getting a bit misty-eyed, and any book that can do that deserves five stars. Although this is technically "Book 4" of Dragonlance Chronicles, you really should read "Second Generation" before reading this. The main characters are primarily the children of the Heroes of the Lance, but some old friends figure prominently as well. ( )
  jgranger221 | Dec 21, 2020 |
Back to Krynn again. This story introduces the Knights of Takhisis, a lawful but evil order of knights modeled after the Solamnic Knights by their founder, Ariakan. His father was the head Dragon Highlord in the Chronicles and spent many years as prisoner of the Solamnic knights. As Ariakan invades Krynn with is own dragonarmies, the creator of the gods (Chaos) is released from a magical prison. He is obviously angry at his children and decides to destroy their cherished creation-Krynn. Raistlin makes a reappearance and assists Palin, his nephew, in a battle in the Abyss with Chaos. "I only have one spell, but it's a good one!" Yeah, a classic gamer line! To me, that's the funnest part about these books. Eventually a band of knights, both Dark and Light unite with Palin and save Krynn... for now. Until the War of Souls series set a bit into the future and the trilogy W&H are writing right now. ( )
  DirtPriest | Sep 13, 2010 |
For fans of Dragonlance this is a good book. The later books are not so good but this nicely follows on from time of the twins etc. It is worth a read. ( )
  DavidBurrows | Jan 1, 2010 |
Showing 1-5 of 7 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review

» Add other authors (15 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Weis, MargaretAuthorprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Hickman, TracyAuthormain authorall editionsconfirmed
Williams, MichaelPoetrysecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
Elmore, LarryInterior artsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Stawicki, MattCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
TO SOJOURNERS IN KRYNN

May your Sword never break.
May your Armor never rust.
May the Three Moons guide your Magic.
May your Prayers be heard.
May your Beard grow long.
May your Life Quest never blow up in your face.
May your Hoopak sing.
May your Homeland prosper.
May Dragons fly ever in your Dreams.

—Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
First words
In southernmost country where the Icewall rises / in pale and seasonal sun,
where the legends freeze in remembered dew / and the downed mercury,
they ready the long vats in memory's custom / pouring gold, pouring amber,
the old distillations of grain, of bardic blood / and ice and remembrance.
It was hot that morning, damnably hot.
Book 1 - Chapter 1
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
The German version of Dragons of Summer Flame is in two volumes: Drachensommer and Drachenfeuer. Please do not combine these.
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC
A hot parched summer on Krynn brings with it changes as young mage Palin Majere goes in search of his uncle, the infamous archmage Raistlin, the Dark Queen finds new champions for her cause, and Usha, child of the Irda, arrives in Palanthas claiming to be Raistlin's daughter.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.59)
0.5 2
1 7
1.5 2
2 53
2.5 9
3 107
3.5 20
4 128
4.5 12
5 89

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 204,438,092 books! | Top bar: Always visible