Dragons of Autumn Twilight (Dragonlance: Chronicles, #1) by Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 444
Goodreads
Life-long friends, they went their separate ways. Now they are together again, though each holds secrets from the others in his heart. They speak of a world shadowed with rumors of war. They speak of tales with strange monsters, creatures of myth, creatures of legend. They do not speak of their secrets. Not then. Not until a chanced encounter with a beautiful, sorrowful woman who bears a magical crystal staff draws the companions deeper into the shadow forever changing their lives and shaping the fate of the world.
No one expected them to be heroes.
Least of all themselves.
This is one of the first books I read outside of my comfort zone in a while. I went in kind of skeptical because, besides Lord of The Rings, high fantasy can get boring to me. But this one was a pleasant surprise.
My husband and I actually read this one together, so I’m going to share some of his thoughts or observations in comparison to mine in this review.
The story was up and down for me. Nothing really comes together until about 25% of the way through the book. When it does come together it is kind of the generic fantasy story — ragtag group comes together to travel across the land to discover the power to defeat the darkness in an attempt at saving their homeland.
With that said, I still enjoyed it. There’s always something happening. It definitely read like The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings — one adventure after another, with very few lulls in the plot.
The best thing about this book is the characters. There is a big cast of them all with varying personalities.
My two favorite were Fizban and Tasslehoff. They were the ones that brought the most comedy. Tasslehoff is a care-free kender, which is kind of like a hobbit. He has a knack for stealing things because he just finds them fascinating. He’s sort of innocent, sort of not. Fizban is an old wizard who acts like a senile grandpa. Then, when Tass and Fizban are brought together, it’s just fun. They bring a certain light heartedness to the story.
On the other hand, my husband loves Tanis and Sturm. Tanis is a half-elf, half-human who is sort of the main character since he is the leader of the group. He has some internal struggles because of him being a half-elf, half-man — he doesn’t exactly feel like belongs in either world. He also brings a bit of the romantic tension to the story. Sturm is the honorable knight of the group and his entire character is built around that honor.
(Fun fact: When I asked my husband to guess what my favorite character was, his first answer was Tass. Also, can you tell the difference in the type of characters we each like? xD )
And we both like Raistlin. Raistlin is a mage who is shrouded in mystery. He always seems to be on the cusp of good and evil. His character is by far the most intriguing in the story.
Along with those four characters, there is also Flint (the dwarf), Goldmoon & Riverwind (the barbarians) and Caramon (warrior, brother to Raistlin). Like I said, there’s a large cast. You’ll have your own favorites by the end of the book. However, there is more focus on some rather than others, leaving a few a little underdeveloped. This is a trilogy, though, so some may be more developed as the story continues.
For me, the writing was just like any other fantasy. The beginning was a bit slow, but then it picks up with lots and lots of things happening. However, my husband said he could tell which author wrote which scenes. Clearly, he was more observant about that than me. So, if you noticed, let me know!
As I said, though, it was a little slow going. It didn’t really start to connect the dots to the story until a while in. However, it wasn’t boring per se. There was a lot happening — one adventure after another after another, they just didn’t form a story right away.
Also, the world building was fair. Sometimes I felt immersed in the world, other times I had a hard time picturing it (I wonder if that has to do with the different authors 😉 ) Overall, though, I did like the world this book took place in, especially Solace.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I really did not expect to like this as much as I did. While it wasn’t flawless, I was able to look past those flaws and ended up loving it. My husband and I spent a lot of time theorizing how the next books will progress the story. There were some great characters (even if some left me wanting a bit more), the world it takes place in seems beautiful and interesting, and there wasn’t any overly bombarding love story. I definitely recommend this to high fantasy lovers, and those of you who love Tolkien (it’s not Tolkien, but you can definitely see the inspiration).
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| Overall: | 4 / 5 |
4 Comments
I read this years ago, so probably remember very little, but it’s nice to see a review of it. Some of these older fantasies don’t get reviewed much. Tanis was one of my favorite characters as well, and I was always intrigued by Riverwind and Goldmoon. And Laurana- I think (I may be remembering her name wrong)? I also liked the worldbuilding (sometimes)- the treehouse inn and the wilds of Ergoth were kinda cool.
Glad you liked it. Cool that you guys read it together.
I didn’t like Riverwind, Goldmoon or Laurana haha. I just found their characters to be annoying and whiny. But the world building was pretty good. There were times I got lost, like when they were in the ruins with the first dragon — I’m blanking on the locations name.
Also, we’re planning on reading the next book together as well so there should be a review for that one…eventually!
This is definitely not something I would have picked up on my own, but I’m almost certain it’ll find it’s way onto my shelf now! This sounds really good, and as you know, anything Tolkien related or inspired is worth a try lol. I also think it’s really cute that you and Matt read this together! Did you literally sit there and read the same pages at the same time, or did you read some, and then he read some, and then you read some? LOL sorry if that was a stupid question.
You should! I really liked it 🙂 & no, we only had one copy. So he read it first then wanted me to because he wanted to have someone to talk about it with. So, I read it haha