Dragons of Summer Flame

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.

I would agree with a lot of the reviewers here, this is a book that did choke me up and led to me reviewing my nostalgia for some favourite characters. Although this is labelled as the Dragon Chronicles really it is a sequel to the second generation. The main character is a children of the original heroes of the Lance. Some of the original heroes also return. There is some difficulties at times with pacing. However, it is such a compelling narrative that even these are very minor quibbles. But anyone interested in dragonlance or a really good fantasy saga, you’ll get the most out of this if you’ve read some of the other books beforehand preferably the Chronicles, the Legends and second generation. It does however Mark a significant show more change in the history of Krynn and this may not be to some peoples liking. show less

I had a lot of problems with this novel, and I'm not entirely sure why. Does it spend too much time with the characters from the original trilogies, or not enough? I think the book wants to have it both ways....it wants to keep going back to the old favorites, while also introducing new characters, and as a result, the book's focus is scattered. There's a little too much going on and I wish it had been a little more streamlined.

My love affair with fantasy fiction started with my first reading of the original dragonlance books back in the eighties. By the early nineties I had abandoned the dragonlance world, so when I started reading this book, almost twenty years afterwards, I got a real kick out of the nostalgia factor.

This feeling only lasted for about the first 100 pages, then the shortcomings of the novel start to stand out. Its not a bad effort by any means, but the pacing is uneven, most of the new characters uninspiring, and the inclusion of some of the older ones an unnecessary burden on the narrative. Still, it was an enjoyable romp through the dragonlance world, well worth taking for those who, like me, fell in love with it the first time round.

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, show more 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. show less

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, show more 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. show less

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.