Dragons Of Autumn Twilight (2000) - Plot & Excerpts
Reviewed for THC Reviews"4.5 stars" Over the years, I've read some fantasy romance, but I can't say that I've read much in the way of straight epic fantasy. This happens to be one of my husband's favorite genres, and Dragonlance, one of his favorite series. He has been trying to talk me into reading them for years, and I finally acquiesced to his prodding when I needed a dragon-themed book for two reading challenges in which I was participating. I had previously tried one of Weis & Hickman's other books which I had a hard time getting into and never finished. I'm happy to say that Dragons of Autumn Twilight was a very enjoyable read for me with a cast of likable characters that were easy to root for. I found quite a number of parallels between this book and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, although my husband tells me that's pretty much par for the course in this type of fantasy since LOTR was the main inspiration for all the books that have followed in this genre. I think the book may have been suffering a wee bit from the first in a series syndrome, where it takes a little while for the world-building to get up to speed. It started off at a pretty fast pace with six long-time friends reuniting after five years apart, only to become almost immediately embroiled in trouble and running for their lives after helping two strangers escape from those who would do them harm. Then, I thought the next 100+ pages were a little slow with the characters traveling from place to place and meeting lots of other characters, but not a lot happening plot-wise. Things really took off when the group began traveling to Xak Tsaroth. From there, it was pretty exciting, almost non-stop adventure that got more and more interesting with each page I turned.Dragons of Autumn Twilight has an ensemble cast of eight main characters, all of whom have their own distinct personalities. Tanis is the leader of the group. He is a skilled warrior but abhors killing. He constantly struggles between his elf and human sides, and his heart is equally torn between a human woman and an elf maid. Flint the dwarf has been friends with Tanis for many, many years (they're both around 150). He can be gruff and grouchy at times, but he can also be incredibly funny, especially when paired with Tas. Tasslehoff was an absolutely hilarious character, a mischievous little creature known as a kender, he was always getting into some kind of trouble. He has no fear and is always the most cheerful member of the group. He's great at finding things, picking locks, and the like. Sturm is a knight who grew up in exile when the knights of his father's order fell into disrespect. He is pretty dark and moody, but very loyal to his friends and perhaps even more so to his knighthood. His chivalry toward the ladies and his extremely strong sense of honor were wonderful qualities. Sturm's childhood friend, Caramon, is a big, hulking guy who's not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, but his loyalty to his twin brother, Raistlin, was quite endearing. Raistlin is an enigma wrapped in a mystery. He isn't the most likable character in the story, but he definitely is one of the most interesting. He was apparently power-hungry enough to sacrifice his health in exchange for his mage's powers. Often he was not particularly sympathetic, as he sometimes treated the others in the group, including his brother, with a condescending attitude, but then the next minute he surprised me by actually seeming to care about the gully dwarves. He claimed not to know the future, yet his advice always seemed to be spot on. Raistlin was a very mysterious character indeed. Goldmoon aka Chieftan's Daughter is the leader of her people and the bearer of the mystical blue crystal staff. She fell in love with Riverwind even though he was considered far beneath her in station. She was a brave and compassionate woman whose faith in the ancient gods was strong and who found her true calling in life during their search for the truth. Riverwind was gifted with the staff during an impossible quest to prove himself worthy of Goldmoon. He nearly died more than once and obviously loved her very much, not only to have gone through all that, but to have waited to marry her for so long.I was beginning to wonder if there were going to be any other strong female characters besides Goldmoon, but later in the quest, the group was joined by several new characters two of whom were women. Tika is a sweet, innocent barmaid who actually appeared in the opening chapters too. She has a huge crush on Caramon, and wants to be a warrior woman like his sister. Laurana is the beautiful elf-maiden who is one of the two women that Tanis loves. She only has eyes for him and wants nothing more than to win his heart all for herself. Then there is Fizban, a doddering old mage who is quite possibly even more hilarious than Tas. He had me laughing and smiling through nearly every scene he was in.I loved the banter between Flint and Tas that never failed to have me in stitches, but nearly all the characters seemed very capable of pulling off one-liners every so often. There are plenty of serious things that happen too. The action scenes, especially those involving the dragons, were quite suspenseful. There is a fair bit of violence, including a few somewhat gory scenes, but other than that, I didn't find anything particularly objectionable which in my opinion, makes the book appropriate for teens and up. In spite of the more intense moments, the overall tone of the book was lighter then I was expecting, making it a fairly easy read, and yet at the same time, rather complex. I was left with many questions, mainly about the character histories, which I hope to find the answers to in future books of the series. I'm so glad I finally picked up Dragons of Autumn Twilight. It may have ended with a resolution to the immediate conflict, but it's obvious there is much more story to tell for these companions which makes me eager to continue the Dragonlance Chronicles series soon.
Hear the sage as his song descendslike heaven's rain or tears,and washes the years, the dust of the many storiesfrom the High Tale of the Dragonlance. Three centuries have passed since the Cataclysm, where burning mountains fell from the sky and the gods of old abandoned their mortal worshippers. When a group of adventurers come together at the Inn of the Last Home after five long years on their own, they endeavour to begin a search for what has been lost. But darkness awaits them on their journey, and like lightning from a cloudless sky, the horrors of war return to the magical world of Krynn.It's a wonderful feeling when you're able to get immersed in a fantasy story and after a while realise that you started reading the exact right book at the exact right time. Dragons of Autumn Twilight was such a book for me. After reading several huge bricks containing complex tales, all the while also reading tons of historical texts, I needed something light and easy. I picked this book, after having considered it for more than a year, and I couldn't have been happier with that choice.The Dragonlance series is one of the pillars of modern fantasy, and even though it contains any number of overused tropes, it also produces new ones; tropes that have been used by numerous newer fantasy series since the publication of this book back in 1984.There are, of course, quite a few downsides to the book. Most of them are in some way connected to the fact that it is really simple. The story is very straightforward, the world is not as developed as most other fantasy worlds, and the writing is not impressive in any way. This could in many ways be considered a YA fantasy, but even so, it was a whole lot better than every single YA book I've ever read before.I also should mention that I found the book to be a lot funnier than even what seemed to be the authors' intention. Some characters, like Fizban the senile mage, were obviously just introduced as comic relief (and it worked perfectly), whereas others had hilarious sides to them, like the dwarf Flint Fireforge and his extreme aquaphobia. Perhaps it went a bit too far with the immeasureable stupidity of gully dwarves and the evil goblins' utter uselessness in combat, but hey, it made me smile, so I'm not complaining!One aspect of the book I enjoyed quite a bit more than I had expected, was characterisation. According to most of the reviews I read before starting this, the characters were generic, shallow and one-dimensional. I could agree with the first of those to some extent, but certainly not with the latter two. Some of these characters, like Tanis Half-Elven and Raistlin Majere, were really interesting (though not on the level of my favourite Fizban). They were not among the best fantasy characters I've ever encountered, but I liked them, and that's all that matters. The only complaint I can come up with is that the book is too short for the reader to really get to know them, but with so many other books to read from this world, I suspect that won't be a problem for very long.This was not a brilliant book and it had lots of flaws. But what matters to me is that I really enjoyed reading it. To be honest, this rating would be way too high if I was considering the objective quality of the book. But who cares about objectivity?
What do You think about Dragons Of Autumn Twilight (2000)?
This book is like a patchwork quilt where many of the squares (certain characters, Raistlyn in particular) are beautiful, intriguing, and appear to have been sewn with great talent and attention to detail. They are held together by mediocre stitching and interspersed with squares that are flat and unimaginative.I'm sure I'm blurring this book with Winter Night because I have all three books on my ipod and binge-listened about eighteen hours worth over the weekend in question while I was on a series of buses from Houston to St. Louis.Anyway, as an aspiring fantasy author I'm glad I'm reading this series to see and digest the good parts and draw some cautionary lessons from the bad parts. As a straight reader, this may not be worth your time.It is absolutely no surprise that this is a novelization of a D&D campaign; it shows frequently, especially in the completely idiosyncratic grouping of characters and the very strange gaps in the narrative where whole arcs of the campaign have been skipped in order to get the series down to a manageable length and probably to skip some extremely pedestrian dungeon-crawling that may have played well but would perhaps not read well. (Although the dungeon-crawls in and around Pax Tharcus [audiobook!] are some of the best parts, so I dunno.)
—Paul
The first Fantasy novel I read. I'm archiving it on my Goodreads shelf as I write my review for a book I'm comparing in terms of fantastic adventure and wonder: Rough Magick by Kenny Soward. From my review: My life was changed when at the age of thirteen and a friend showed me Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis. My first adventure into living dragons, half elven heroes, knights, princesses, and more captivated my imagination with the joy of discovery and wonder. Some of the characters, like the mage, Raistlin, had dark pasts, but the overall feeling was hopeful. Sad things happened, but you never gave up hope.
—Timothy Ward
Someone played a dungeons and dragons game (which is based heavily on Tolkien's books) and then decided to write down what their characters did and publish it. And while dungeons and dragons is great fun for those playing it, everyone has had to suffer through players who labor under the mistaken impression that their adventures are just as interesting to everyone else as they are to the player..."So then, like, you know, this Orc came out of the weapons room but I rolled a 20 and I threw my +5 sword and it went right through his shield and practically killed him. And so then, like, Arabella threw a level 23 fireball spell at him while Tantros cast an ice spell at the Orc's feet, and so he was, you know, frozen to the floor, like, when the fireball hit him...."
—CJ
