What do You think about Dragons Of The Highlord Skies (2007)?
Although its probably not fair to lump together a second-rate Dragonlance and A Song of Ice and Fire, I can't help but compare Dragons of the Highlord Skies to A Feast for Crows. Like AFFC, Highlord Skies focuses on a significantly less interesting batch of characters: the group that traveled south to Icereach when the companions were separated in Tarsis. That means no Tanis or Raistlin. And even though Sturm, Flint, and Tas are around, the authors choose to focus more on Derek Crownguard and his Solamnic cronies. Laurana gets a little attention towards the end of the book, but she is never presented as a particularly interesting character. She's pretty much just getting dragged along, ostensibly to fulfill her 'destiny'.The decent parts of this book are the chapters that focus on Kitiara. Like the Jaime chapters of AFFC, the Kit chapters give us insight into a sometimes misunderstood antihero. I wish there had been more focus on her interactions with Lord Soth, but that plot line stopped abruptly at the end, giving way to the dreadful frame story being told by a character who doesn't really matter.
—Shawn Towner
Set after the events of book one of this trilogy (The Lost Chronicles), this books covers a number of adventures that were untold or just hinted at in book two of the original trilogy (Chronicles).The first third of the book covers the initial story of Kitiara and her time in the evil army, after that until about half way through the book we here about the story of three Solamnic knights and their quest to recover the Dragon Orb in hopes of winning the war. The remainder of the book switches between to two groups at regular intervals.Kit's story is very interesting she is sent on various missions by the Emperor. All the time she is sent dreams my her evil Goddess, who is trying to get Kit to spend one night in the castle of the Death Knight Lord Soth, so he will join them in the war. It was great to see Kit's character developed and to see she is not as evil or heartless as we once thought (she is still a bad ass though!) She has genuine thoughts and feelings. She is an interesting characters with a strong personality, the various twists she goes through keep her story interesting and you want to see her do well.The other storyline is also interesting. Of the three knights one is very serious, traditional and follows "the Measure" to the letter, the other two are more fun loving and realistic. They are old friends but they do sometimes squabble and argue and at times their friendship seems threatened but they always come through for each other in the end.The knights eventually team up with Flint, Tas, Sturm, Laurana and Giltnanas from the original books. The personalities of Flint and Tas are as fun and exciting as ever, and the dynamic between the two is fantastic. Sturm has a good showing too as he is plunged back into a Solamic life he thought he had lost and his secrets are revealed to his friends. Laurana's story is also interesting as she is in the process of changing from the childish, somewhat weak character she started of as in the original book and moving towards the adult, strong leader she eventually becomes.Overall this was a great book and it was great to see some of the story that we missed out on. The characters are all excellent and the interactions they have is fantastic.
—Richard
The Lost Chronicles continue to provide fill-in stories that didn't really need to be told and the authors half-heartedness continues to show in the laziness of their plotting and prose writing. Everyone's lost interest in Dragonlance at this point and all that's left really is to squeeze a few more pennies out of a dying franchise.Nevertheless, despite the lack of real commitment here, this one, once the dust settles, falls out on the right side of entertaining Dragonlance romp. THat's mostly thanks to the fact that Kitiara is my favourite character in the series, in a series that isn't afraid to showcase a multitude of villains as much as its heroes (and has mostly become famous for them. She struts around being kinda cool and even when the plot seems trite and her dialogue stupid, I'm still thinking inside "go kick some ass Kitiara". The tale of how Kitiara is betrayed by Feal-Thas is a little clunky and an overextended prelude to her ultimately under-cooked meeting with Lord Soth. Hardly edge-of-the-seat stuff but it diverted me pleasantly on a Sunday afternoon. As a side story we also finally get to see Laurana, Sturm, Derek and some other Solamnic Knights retrieving the Dragon orb from Icewall. The story jars alongside Kitiara's, but it was necessary padding and again, it's entertaining enough.If you love the Dragonlance Chronicles don't be fooled into thinking you *have* to read this. Weis and Hickman have written non-essential fill-in stories for those that want them and can tolerate - or even enjoy - these books as a wistful looking back to greater days, when Dragonlance was cool. Read this if you love Kitiara and wanted to have her babies.
—Alex
