Weasel's Luck

The first volume of the Heroes saga, "The Legend of Huma," was exciting, filled with action and great characters. Finally, I got to meet Magius; see the first star-crossed dragon/human lovers and learn about people mentioned in the original Dragonlance books. So, naturally, I expected the subsequent volumes to also find exciting figures from Krynn's "history." Figures that were at least mentioned at some point. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Even more unfortunately, this book sucked. Really bad. The main character is a whiny brat, the dialog not very entertaining and the plot just not all that engaging. I ad to force myself through every chapter and I'm still not certain why I didn't just toss the books aside. Dragonlance volumes show more not written by Weis and/or Hickman tend to soar, or crash and burn. This is the latter. show less

Galen Pathwarder, not so affectionately referred to as Weasel, is the third son of a noble family of Solomnic Knights (think uber honorable and a bit uptight). He isn't the son his father always wanted. Instead he lies, cheats, and occasionally sets something on fire. His older brothers aren't much better. The oldest is rather stupid and is always up to no good, while the middle brother seems to be some sort of a priest or monkish type, always meditating and trying to live among the animals.

One night Galen is approached by an entity of sorts he refers to as the Scorpion. Now the Scorpion is a very foul character that only lead Galen even further astray from the path his father hopes he will someday follow. Little do any of them know show more that the seemingly dark path Galen finds himself now on is far more important than they can imagine.

Galen is faced with a multitude of trials as he travels through satyr and centaur infested swamps, ogres in the mountains, and curses in the castle. He handles each situation with his own version of knightly duty - namely hiding and claiming to be keeping look out. But the journey changes him along the way and he finds himself the unlikely hero several times.

Another DragonLance novel that can be read as a stand alone book. It fills in some of the history and culture of the world without directly relating to any of the other stories.

3.5/5 show less

Weasel's Luck, the third in the Heroes Trilogy tells the Tale of Galen Pathwarden, a youngster to which the term "of questionable morals" would be a gross understatement. He's small minded, groveling, sniveling, lying and completely without honor or remorse. So, of course, he becomes a squire for a Solamnic Knight. This endeavor is, of course, doomed to failure - even before we introduce a mysterious magician intent on dishonoring young Galen's new master.

The story itself is pretty dull with the expected growing up/becoming honorable/proving oneself at the end. Galen's interactions with his brother Alfric are somewhat entertaining when they're not completely over the top. The one thing that's interesting is that Galen's master is Bayard show more Brightblade, Sturm's great-grandfather. He's not quite as stuffy as Sturm.

I recognize Williams' writing style from at least one of the Tales volumes. It's very tongue-in-cheek and sarcastic. The book was also written in the first person - which I'm not a huge fan of for this kind of action-based adventure stories. In all, I was disappointed with this volume and found it hard to work my through.

Read 10/2007 show less

Loved this book! Became a fan of Michael Williams from the first pages!

TBC

Galen Pathwarden, "La Comadreja", procuraba esconderse y evitar la aventura, el peligro o el heroísmo. Pero la suerte le deparó un camino muy distinto y, de la noche a la mañana, se convirtió en escudero de Sir Bayard Brightblade del Alcázar de Vingaard, Caballero de la Espada y defensor de las tres órdenes solámnicas, quien va a tomar parte en un torneo y así aspirar a la mano de la bella heredera del Castillo di Caela. Sir Bayard, Galen y Agion, un centauro que los acompaña se verán involucrados en un sinfín de aventuras y deberán superar las maquinaciones de un siniestro personaje, llamado el Escorpión.