The Annotated Legends

Here is one of the best fantasy series I have read over the years. When they first came out in the mid 80's I wasn't that impressed, but as a more mature reader now, these moved way, way up on my list. The first in the trilogy, Time of the Twins, tells the tale of Caramon and Raistlin Majere after the War of the Lance (the Chronicles). Caramon has descended into alcoholism since nobody seems to need him anymore, or maybe just because his twin, Raistlin, is the master of the Tower of Sorcery in Palanthas and no longer needs Caramon to aid him every day. The third character is Crysania, a cleric of the holy Paladine. She is from Palanthas and believes she can save Raistlin from himself through her love. This forms a rather important show more triangle reflected throughout the trilogy. Caramon addicted to dwarven spirits out of pity for himself and addicted to caring for others (mostly his mentally abusive brother), Raistlin addicted to his magic and power, and Crysania blindly addicted to her faith. In an effort to keep this reasonably brief, Caramon, Crysania and (inadvertently) Tasslehoff the kender are sent back in time by the Council of the Mages. They arrive in Istar before the Cataclysm, caused by the hubris of the Kingpriest in demanding that the gods grant him more power to fight evil in the world. The people are given many signs of the disfavor of the gods (one of many biblical parallels in these books) but, of course, they are ignored. Raistlin has also gone back in time to challenge the mage Fistandantilus in an effort to complete his knowledge of magic so he can challenge Takhisis the Queen of Darkness and become a God. Which he later does.
I don't want to give away too much of the story of the rest of the series but in War of the Twins and Test of the Twins Caramon and Tas return to a future where all of Krynn is dead and Raistlin rules over a world of nothingness, Raistlin's use of Crysania for his own benefit reaches a climax in the Abyss where he leaves her to die (she is later rescued by Caramon in an attempt to stop his brother from basically destroying the world through his attempt for ultimate power) and Raistlin faces a choice between eternal torment by Takhisis but Krynn goes on existing or destroying everything, including himself, in his attempt to become a god. In the end, Crysania realizes the errors of her blind faith and love for Raistlin only after she is blinded in the Abyss. She returns with Caramon to Palanthas and reforms the church of Paladine to a much more sensible and less sefish mode, since she has witnessed the errors of the Kingpriest leading up to the Cataclysm.
These books are more of a sci-fi time travel story wrapped up in mage's robes. There are many parables taken directly from the bible and the overriding theme of Good redeeming itself, Evil feeding on itself, and the balance between the two causing all motion in the world. Extreme Good is just as detrimental to society as extremes of Evil. Both breed complacency and discontent, selfishness and self-righteousness.
Anyways, these are outstanding, well written and impressive works of psychological fiction. The action quotient is a bit lower than alot of fantasy but the characters and events that transpire are great.
Again, the annotated omnibus is the way to go, even more so than the Chronicles. show less

With one very obvious exception, I haven't read a Dragonlance novel since 2 weeks in 7th grade when I devoured them in quick succession. My favorite character, however, admittedly was Raistlin - a fact which has had somewhat troublesome consequences for almost any character I myself attempt to make up. They all come up somewhat slimy and double-crossing: but I can't help it, I don't find a righteous anger as interesting as someone with a nasty dark secret and something to atone for.That said, when I saw this come up on Bookmooch, I couldn't resist. I could remember most of the plot reasonably well, but I was looking forward to the annotations to help speed things along. Yes, the trilogy was about as good as I remember (and pretty good show more fantasy at that). The characters are lively - even the ones I didn't really remember. And, to do them credit, the plot wasn't as immensely obvious (or I may still retain a certain sense of obliviousness). Concerning the annotations themselves, I found that most of them were helpful. There were sometimes too many references to other books (really, you can find more about Dalamar in a book called [book:Dalamar the Dark]? I never knew!) but I think the cross-references back to the [book: Dragonlance Chronicles] would be helpful (that's up next when my annotated edition arrives). What I found particularly interesting were all of the Biblical references pointed out [author:Tracey Hickman] is a Mormon, and it shows. One thing which was patently obvious to me as someone who read this book over a day was that the notes weren't read as a whole work: some stories about writing were mentioned multiple times while at least one footnote could have easily been resolved by looking at the previous book! But, while not, say the [book: Annotated Hobbit] these notes were helpful and a good addition - even if, yes, they did give away the plot. show less

It has been 13 years since I read the Legends series. Wow. It was great reading this story again. The annotation in this one shed light on the authors religious views a lot more than in Chronicles. It's also enticed me to read the Chaos Wars and War of the Souls books. But it might be awhile before I get to them..

This annotated version of Time of the Twins, War of the Twins, and Test of the Twins contains extensive notes by The New York Times best-selling authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. The three titles deal with all of the Heroes of the Lance, but primarily with the most popular character in all of Dragonlance, Raistlin Majere.