The Eve of the Maelstrom

I am happy to report that this series turned out much better than my comments above for the first book would have led me to believe. The romance novel stuff was put on hold for a final gush at the end. That sounded dirty. The characters were a bit TOO heroic, but looking back, that's often the case with D&D novels and is part of the reason why many fantasy readers dislike them. You have to be at least part gamer to fully enjoy them. Rig the mariner especially was a tad over the top. He always seemed to have more daggers to throw and only missed four throws in the entire series. Three were at dragons and his dagwoods bounced off (that's local game parlance). My biggest complaint is that I have never read a book of any genre where the show more characters were as constantly concerned with their clothes. Constantly ruining their shirts and trying to find new ones. Oh yeah, getting mauled and stung by a wyvern is pretty bad in the D&D Monster Manual rules, but apparently in this book you can be stung and it's no big deal. "I'm hot, I'm cold, I'm hot again, I'm unconscious, I'm awake and cutting my bonds right in front of my captors as I talk to him (or it)." No way. Wyverns are pseudo-dragons that have a huge scorpion stinger on their tail, by the way. Also, the dragons are very passive throughout the book and pass up a few opportunities to slay the characters in the book, which I suppose would make for a pretty short trilogy, but there has to be a reason why a dragon would pass over their enemy other than apathy.

The other issue is that there is really no dramatic conclusion. I had previously started the Weis & Hickman trilogy that follows this one and was thoroughly confused after chapter one. If I had continued on to chapter two, I would have been much less confused as there is a nice summary, cleverly disguised as a short chapter recapping the results of a massive magical storm that wracked Krynn. This Fifth Age trilogy by Jean Rabe basically fills the thirty some year gap between the end of Dragons of Summer Flame and W&H's final DragonLance trilogy. It basically sets the stage for the dragon overlords and their decision to stop feuding with each other and be happy each ruling their corner of a thoroughly dominated world, which leads up to W&H's War of Souls Trilogy. All in all, Rabe did a fair job with these books, not great, but OK. show less

Crap. AND, after finishing these three miserable books I had NO resolution. Basically, if you want to know what happens you have to read the next three! I don't want to know that bad.

Crap. AND, after finishing these three miserable books I had NO resolution. Basically, if you want to know what happens you have to read the next three! I don't want to know that bad.

Malystryx y Khellendros, los más poderosos de entre los dragones, se desviven cada uno a su manera por obtener el control definitivo sobre Ansalon. El Dragón Azul conspira contra Malys, en un intento de obtener el suficiente poder para acceder a El Griseo y la furia de la hembra Roja ante esa traición resulta gigantesca y abrasadora. La Roja pretende convertirse en diosa agrupando todos los objetos mágicos y sustituir a la Reina Oscura. La pugna entre los malignos dragones y el intento por instaurar el Bien por parte de la nueva generación de héroes configuran el desenlace de la primera trilogia épica sobre la Quinta Era.