Dragons of a Vanished Moon

Well now. That was fun. Like an unforseen surprise new season of Cheers. Plenty of action, and a renewal of a devastated land, with the defeat of the ultimate villain of Krynn. The series even ends as it should, at the Inn of the Last Home in lovely Solace, where the whole DragonLance epic begins. Spiced potatoes and the best ale in all of Ansalon for the heroes, who return to their families. Is it truly great fantasy fiction? Maybe not, but it is fun and fulfilling. Weis & Hickman are great storytellers with incredible plots and the most imaginative worlds to set them in, be it Krynn or one of their other (and there are several) fantastic realms. There are even some cameos by longstanding heroes thanks to Tasslehoff's journeys with the show more time travel device. To me, the most touching part of the whole thing, other than the ending, was the redemption of Lord Soth. He was a Solamnic Knight given divine knowledge to prevent The Cataclysm (with capitals, it's the watershed moment in Krynn's history where the gods abandon the realm, or did they?, which sets up the original DL Chronicles from way back in the 80's). He throws it away because he is told by conniving elf maids that his elven wife has been unfaithful, returning to Dargaard Keep, slaying his beloved wife. For his treachery, he is turned into a Death Knight, similar in tone to the classic despairing vampire, longing for rest. Lord Soth has long been a favorite villain in DL fan circles and has spawned at least two novels about him that I can think of, and has been used as a supporting character in several others. The sad thing is that I have finally finished the core storyline books an all that is left are the ancillary stories, some of which either suck or are superseded by later writings. Some are really good, however and I'll reread the Legend of Huma before too long and I have a few collections of Fifth Age short stories lying around. Oh, and almost all of the many Lost Histories volumes, some of which are by long standing favorite authors of mine, like Douglas Niles (always a well done story, even if you don't like it) and J.R. King (master of atmosphere and should be more well known outside of gamer circles). show less

Vanished Moon could almost be read standalone rather than a tumultuous end to a trilogy. New ideas blossom in to central themes with strands from the previous two entries becoming almost background story and plausibility is stretched somewhat with the time-travelling McGuffin, which removes any predictability at the cost of suspension of disbelief. Such weaknesses are absorbed by the strengths of the narrative, it's engaging characters and the epic scale of the trilogy. Entertaining from start to finish, the story of Mina and her One God is riveting stuff. It could have been great, however it is still good enough.

They wrapped the story up nicely. The time traveling stuff got a bit funky and might have been unnecassary but didn't distract from the story too much. It was great to be back on Krynn. Maybe I won't wait so many years to return next time.

This is the final book in the War of Souls trilogy. I enjoyed it, but it has not stuck in my memory.

A fairly decent ending to the saga. Everyone fights against Takhisis and her attempt to control the world. Pretty action-packed. I wish the ending would have ended a little differently. The authors definitely left a lot of issues open so future books could be written.

This was the last book in the series I have read. I have more, but they begin to be written by other people and I feel lose something. I started the next book, but just couldn't get into it.

TBC