TL;DR: Short children's story, with the main cast of the Star Wars franchise (Luke Skywalker, C3PO, R2D2, Han Solo etc.), with several beautiful illustrations, about wildlife protection.
Story: The story is about protecting whales ... and finding Darth Vaders Glove. You see after the destruction of the second Death Star the imperium united behind the Grand Moff council, who elected Trioculus (a tree eyed human = tri & oculus) to be the next emperor. To secure his seat, he needs a symbol of power. The right hand of Darth Vader was cut off during the Battle of Endor, but luckily exactly this one glove was made out of an indestructible material. Whoever finds it, will have a much greater claim on the emperor's throne. And thus the search for the Glove begins.
On Admiral Ackbar's home planet (Mon Calamar) evil imperial whalers are hunting the last whales to extinction, admiral Ackbar contacts Luke Skywalker and his faithful droids (C3PO & R2D2) to help against this great injustice. When our heroes arrive, they realise that the Emperor is on the planet too, searching for the glove.
Can our heroes save the whales?
Does Trioculus find Darth Vaders Glove?
You have to read it for yourself to find out!
Characters: Since we know all of the characters from the movies (or the previous books) there is no real need to linger on their characters, none the less the authors managed to capture the main characteristics of each of the main characters. C3PO complains all the time, R2D2 is helpful show more and silent, Luke is stoic etc.
Overall Conclusion: I enjoyed it. I haven't read it in decades, but I still remembered pretty much everything. The illustrations are great. The story feels like an episode of Captain Planet (which was a childrens animated television show about environmentalism and wildlife protection). It is short, to the point, with nice characterisations and action.
Rating: For adults: 2/5
For boys age 6-9 who like Star Wars 5/5 excellent children's book.
For me: 4/5 I enjoyed it. 😄 only 4/5 since I remembered almost everything. show less
Story: The story is about protecting whales ... and finding Darth Vaders Glove. You see after the destruction of the second Death Star the imperium united behind the Grand Moff council, who elected Trioculus (a tree eyed human = tri & oculus) to be the next emperor. To secure his seat, he needs a symbol of power. The right hand of Darth Vader was cut off during the Battle of Endor, but luckily exactly this one glove was made out of an indestructible material. Whoever finds it, will have a much greater claim on the emperor's throne. And thus the search for the Glove begins.
On Admiral Ackbar's home planet (Mon Calamar) evil imperial whalers are hunting the last whales to extinction, admiral Ackbar contacts Luke Skywalker and his faithful droids (C3PO & R2D2) to help against this great injustice. When our heroes arrive, they realise that the Emperor is on the planet too, searching for the glove.
Can our heroes save the whales?
Does Trioculus find Darth Vaders Glove?
You have to read it for yourself to find out!
Characters: Since we know all of the characters from the movies (or the previous books) there is no real need to linger on their characters, none the less the authors managed to capture the main characteristics of each of the main characters. C3PO complains all the time, R2D2 is helpful show more and silent, Luke is stoic etc.
Overall Conclusion: I enjoyed it. I haven't read it in decades, but I still remembered pretty much everything. The illustrations are great. The story feels like an episode of Captain Planet (which was a childrens animated television show about environmentalism and wildlife protection). It is short, to the point, with nice characterisations and action.
Rating: For adults: 2/5
For boys age 6-9 who like Star Wars 5/5 excellent children's book.
For me: 4/5 I enjoyed it. 😄 only 4/5 since I remembered almost everything. show less
Dungeons & Dragons is a tabletop boardgame (a roleplaying game to be precise). It became very successful in the 80s, so much so that the publisher decided to publish tie-in novels to supplement and accompany the game.
Dragons of Autumn Twilight is the very first of these books (there are several hundred nowadays).
Story: The story is basically one small little adventure after another, building one larger storyline, where the heroes have to save the world.
The story is railroady, with several unnecessary deus ex machina moments. Quite often we learn something almost unbelievable and the heroes just roll with it, without any real explanation.
It definitely feels like this is a retelling of an actual real life gameplay. Each chapter feels like it's a small, closed and compartmentalized 4-8 hour game session, with combat and roleplaying elements.
Characters: The characters are extremely cliché, paper thin, sometimes non-sensical even, but if you are familiar with roleplaying games, they are extremely familiar (and even logical).
We have a fragile but powerful wizard, a Conan the barbarian style strongman, a grumpy dwarf (like Gimli from the Lord of the Rings), a Bilbo Baggins like thief (also from the Lord of the Rings) and a snooty knight. There are several other side characters who join the party.
Conclusion: In my humble opinion, if you like Dungeons & Dragons and if you like the Dragonlance setting, you probably already read this book, if not you are probably going to enjoy it. show more For everyone else, I would advise to stay away.
For boys between 6-11, this might be a 4/5. It is easy to read, it could even be a bedtime story (there is nothing scary in the book), but it is surprisingly long, not to speak of the fact that it is the first part of a trilogy.
For adult men it is a 2/5.
For girls/women it is a 1/5.
I was originally planning on reading the other two books in the trilogy, but decided against it. show less
Dragons of Autumn Twilight is the very first of these books (there are several hundred nowadays).
Story: The story is basically one small little adventure after another, building one larger storyline, where the heroes have to save the world.
The story is railroady, with several unnecessary deus ex machina moments. Quite often we learn something almost unbelievable and the heroes just roll with it, without any real explanation.
It definitely feels like this is a retelling of an actual real life gameplay. Each chapter feels like it's a small, closed and compartmentalized 4-8 hour game session, with combat and roleplaying elements.
Characters: The characters are extremely cliché, paper thin, sometimes non-sensical even, but if you are familiar with roleplaying games, they are extremely familiar (and even logical).
We have a fragile but powerful wizard, a Conan the barbarian style strongman, a grumpy dwarf (like Gimli from the Lord of the Rings), a Bilbo Baggins like thief (also from the Lord of the Rings) and a snooty knight. There are several other side characters who join the party.
Conclusion: In my humble opinion, if you like Dungeons & Dragons and if you like the Dragonlance setting, you probably already read this book, if not you are probably going to enjoy it. show more For everyone else, I would advise to stay away.
For boys between 6-11, this might be a 4/5. It is easy to read, it could even be a bedtime story (there is nothing scary in the book), but it is surprisingly long, not to speak of the fact that it is the first part of a trilogy.
For adult men it is a 2/5.
For girls/women it is a 1/5.
I was originally planning on reading the other two books in the trilogy, but decided against it. show less