| Title | : | Dragons of Autumn Twilight (Dragonlance: Chronicles, #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0786915749 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780786915743 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Mass Market Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 444 |
| Publication | : | First published November 12, 1984 |
Once merely creatures of legend, the dragons have returned to Krynn. But with their arrival comes the departure of the old gods—and all healing magic. As war threatens to engulf the land, lifelong friends reunite for an adventure that will change their lives and shape their world forever . . .
When Tanis, Sturm, Caramon, Raistlin, Flint, and Tasslehoff see a woman use a blue crystal staff to heal a villager, they wonder if it's a sign the gods have not abandoned them after all. Fueled by this glimmer of hope, the Companions band together to uncover the truth behind the gods' absence—though they aren't the only ones with an interest in the staff. The Seekers, a new religious order, wants the artifact for their own ends, believing it will help them replace the gods and overtake the continent of Ansalon. Now, the Companions must assume the unlikely roles of heroes if they hope to prevent the staff from falling into the hands of darkness.
Lifelong 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 of strange monsters, creatures of myth, creatures of legend. They do not speak of their secrets. Not then. Not until a chance encounter with a beautiful, sorrowful woman, who bears a magical crystal staff, draws the companions deeper into the shadows, forever changing their lives and shaping the fate of the world.
No one expected them to be heroes.
Least of all, them.
Dragons of Autumn Twilight (Dragonlance: Chronicles, #1) Reviews
-
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...." -
Hear the sage as his song descends
like heaven's rain or tears,
and washes the years, the dust of the many stories
from 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? -
Wow (not a good wow). I just read some of these reviews and ratings. I have to raise my hand and be the voice of reason. The public deserves this.
Let's get something straight here: these books are unreadable for anyone older than 15. I love fantasy and I don't have an issue with the world building or the story here. In my reviews, I sometimes excuse poor writing, characterization and other literary elements when the author does other things extremely well. Most novels have multiple flaws and their relative importance to each reader will dictate how much enjoyment is sucked out of the read.
I could not excuse the literary flaws in this book. They were repetitive, sharp and massive.
The characters are as flat as pancakes. At least pancakes have two sides. These guys are so utterly simple. I realize that this book was a relative trailblazer in the early 1980s, so it's hard to say that they are stereotypes. But they are stereotypes. The first 200 pages basically consists of gathering members of the Quest. They are picked up like gum stuck to your shoe; there's no subtlety. As every typical fantasy element was gathered for the Quest, I wondered how this was different than LOTR, other than being crappy.
I thought it would be interesting to read the annotated version of this book so I could see what the authors were thinking. Normally this gives you insight into their thought process, how this plot line impacts the overall story or some background information for characters that might be interesting. Somehow the notations made it worse. My eyes almost rolled straight out of my skull several times as the authors' simple thought process was revealed to me like the opening of a pack of Kraft cheese singles.
The writing is simplistic to the Nth degree. I've never encountered so many adverbs in a single tome.
I only got to page 350 or so, with my effort set to maximum. Perhaps pages 351 and beyond are genius but I'll never know. I'll live.
(As a gigantor caveat, I'll add that I would not discourage kids from reading this - it would be accessible and fun for them.) -
Disclaimer: My rating is purely sentimental. Dragons of Autumn Twilight is a read down the memory lane. If I were to rate it on the basis of my current standards and preferences, it would score 3 stars the most. As it is, it has been one of the earliest fantasy books I have ever read and it still engulfs me in the fuzzy warmth of initial wonder that there are other fantasy books beside the Lord of the Rings and that I can read them and love them as much as I like. It’s also one of the three books sporting dragons that I truly like, which I consider a feat in itself.
This book has one saving grace that simultaneously constitutes its greatest pitfall: it’s as classic as classics go. You will find here every existing trope and the novel doesn’t even pretend to deviate off the beaten tracks of the usual fantasy figures and cliches. In 1984 that was quite alright, over 30 years later, while the book passes the test of time, it loses some of its shine and allure. If you are a young reader and relatively new to fantasy, there is a huge chance you will like it, otherwise, it can drive you crazy with predictability and a narrative bordering on a draft movie script.
Amid the rising tide of evil, dragons return to the world of Krynn led by the powerful Queen of Darkness, Takhisis. The humankind is lost, the gods of light have apparently abandoned men, the wisdom of the old ages is lost and there are no heroes to lead them into the battle. Luckily, in the Inn of the Last Home, a group of people is forced to form a party of unwilling and mistrustful allies forced by the circumstances. Their first quest is to save a powerful artifact from the power of darkness: goblins, draconians and other sycophants of the Lord Verminaard, one of the generals of the evil Queen.
Anybody who ever played the Baldur’s Gate will immediately recognise the standard composition of an adventuring party. You will have Tanis, the half-elf, torn between the two races of his heritage, Flint, the dwarf, Raistlin the frail mage and his twin-brother Caramon, your typical hack-and-slash warrior, the heroic paladin Sturm, Goldmoon and Riverwind, two barbarians, Tika, a buxom tavern girl and Laurana, a beautiful elven maiden.
The most innovative the book has to offer are two characters: Fizban, the wizard and Tasslehoff Bourrfoot, the kender. The first one, while being a derivative of your generic Gandalf-like all-wise and mighty figure, has its own quirks that make him quite unique. Fizban disguises himself as a senile and not quite up-to-date with reality. Plainly speaking, quite crazy. Nobody knows how powerful he is, nobody suspects how vital a character for the forces of Light and nobody takes him seriously. His frequent discussions with trees and heated debates with other inanimate objects might have something to do with it.
Tasllehoff, on the other hand, is your generic derivative of a hobbit. Kenders are, small and annoying like children. This race knows no fear and their definition of property is a little bit skewed. Tas is the main source of humour and comic relief in the book (even though his reflections on how small things make the difference is one of the wisest passages in the book).
The story is undoubtedly character driven. Indeed, forming the adventuring party takes most of the time and individual members need to reconcile with each other or find their way and place in the group. As the plot unfolds, the companions discover their true goals in the coming war and need to come to terms with their personal burdens, backstories, and destinies. Mind you, the story is naive (I have read more mature YA by contemporary authors) and presents an idealised vision of the world, but is fast paced and still able to grasp reader’s attention. You might give it a try.
Also in the series:
2.
Dragons of Winter Night
3.
Dragons of Spring Dawning -
When I was nine years old, I wrote a short story about an elf and a mage traversing an imaginary world and banishing evil back to the depths from whence it came. I was proud of the story. I showed it to my family and they read it, and pretended it was great. They put it on the fridge.
I reread the story years later and it was a difficult decision whether I should laugh or whether the embarrassment was too much even for hysterics. I thought fantasy fiction had a formula that alternated between a short climax and a short resolution like the regular, predictable oscillations of a wave pattern. Like that wave pattern, it seemed to go on and on so that a 20-paged story seemed to take forever to read. At nine years old, I thought this was an exciting, scintillating narrative. I thought it should be published. But it shouldn't have, I know that now.
It's a shame that the whole thing may as well have been plagiarized from this novel. They share the same structure, the same generic character models and the same laughably simplistic moralities that I could have been summarizing a 400-paged novel. And yet, my version didn't take five hours of your life. My version didn't make you sigh and look wistfully out the window as if to say, "since reading this book, time has passed inexorably onward, I have aged terribly, and yet I have learned nothing." The clouds float by and the traffic continues on the street, but a part of you has died. Unlike the novel, however, when pieces of your soul die, they stay dead. The same cannot be said for the major characters in Dragons of Autumn Twilight.
The plot reads as if played through a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Not simply in the sense that it's disorganized and illogical, but also because the reader actually gets the sense that someone is rolling dice to determine the outcome. At various parts of the book that are meant to be exciting, the narrative devolves into explanations of the mechanics of the game. Raistlin is a mage, and thus must memorize his spells every morning if he is to use them throughout the day. Everyone is suddenly struck by fear and must roll 1d20 for a fear check (except the Kender, because he's immune). Tanis, as an elf, is able to see the aura of all living things, except past chapter 5 because it's too hard to keep talking about that ability for too long.
It's an ordeal to read. But I loved it when I was nine. I also had no idea what true hardship was.
I do now. It gives me a basis of comparison. There are many hardships I'd rather face than reading this novel again. -
I first read this book about the time it came out, when I was about 10 or 11... and recently found an identical, battered paperback copy at a thrift store. Dipping back into it twenty-odd years later, it has many shortcomings. However, it still takes me back to that time when I'd read under the covers at night with a dying flashlight, and fell asleep dreaming of wizards, warriors and strange, forgotten lands.
-
Loved it
🖤🐾🐺 -
La trilogia delle "Cronache di Dragonlance"
e' il racconto di un'avventura epica.
Siamo negli anni ottanta, i giochi di ruolo come Dungeons & Dragons hanno riscosso un enorme successo a livello mondiale e molti scrittori utilizzano le loro avventure al tavolo per poi riportarle in romanzi.
Le basi dell'ambientazione prendono spunto dal fantasy Tolkieniano e dalle caratteristiche di D&D, con nani ed elfi, cavalieri e chierici, draghi e magia, ma ogni elemento, anche se pieno di cliché viene ripresentato a corredo di una storia che raggiunge delle vette eroiche ed epiche. I draghi presenti in questa ambientazione sono probabilmente la migliore rappresentazione di questa razza all'interno del genere fantasy.
I personaggi sono iconici, abbastanza stereotipati, seguono le classi e i ruoli del gioco ma come lettura, anche se semplice, risulta tuttavia piacevole e non si può mancare di partecipare a questa grande avventura dove l'amicizia e il sacrificio sono i temi preponderanti.
Anche se lo stile non è il suo forte e il lavoro di introspezione non troppo sviluppato, la vera forza della saga è la storia che viene narrata e i rapporti tra i protagonisti. Tiene incollati e procede spedita, catapultandoci in un mondo incredibile di avventure e gesta eroiche. Il risultato è una tra le avventure più iconiche del fantasy e ideale porta di entrata al genere.
Come si può dimenticare uno dei personaggi piu' affascinanti e famosi di tutta la letteratura fantasy: il tenebroso mago Raistlin, unico ed irripetibile? -
Great start to an all-time classic fantasy series! I read this as a kid and loved the variety of characters and fast-moving plot based on an interesting story line of reunited friends with secrets and a mysterious (and gorgeous, of course) stranger who drew them into danger and excitement.
-
1.5 stars
I honestly believe that if i had read this book when i was way younger, i would have absolutely loved it.
Now though, PHEW!!!! It's kinda hard to overlook the toxic fragile masculinity, the idiocy, pointless pride and female idiot quota that makes up the companions who are to save the world. Quite frankly the only person who had a lick of sense in this book was Raistlin.
Riverwind aka Masculinity so fragile: How on earth did such a toxic character get written? This guy was supposed to be Goldmoon's le boo but apparently he couldn't handle her being his leader. How the heck do you fall in love with someone you clearly know will lead your people, essentially be your boss and start forming omg i fell in love with Goldmoon and not the chieftan's daughter? is this not madness???...still you are now their ruler- bitterness had crept into his voice - and i will be husband of Chieftain
Goldmoon does the classic spineless female (I feel like this is something authors in this genre loved to do) and tries to comfort him dude goes"I was thinking about it last night. I've been gone so many years. My thoughts were of you as a woman. I did not realize- he swalloed and then drew a deep breath. I left Goldmoon. I returned to find Chieftain's Daughter"
Goldmoon tries to reason with him, telling him she had no choice as her father had fallen ill and couldn't lead and if she hadn't stepped up to the plate so to speak someone else would have taken over.
Know what masculinity so fragile did after this impassioned plea?"Riverwind listened his face stern and unmoving. He stared at a point above her head. We should get started he said coldly. It's nearly dawn".
Dude kept disrespecting her at every turn until she finally asks for forgiveness for being Chieftain's daughter."Oh my beloved. I am sorrier than i can say that you came home to chieftain's daughter and not Goldmoon"
TF?????!!!!!!!
He also apologises but excuses his behaviour on the fact that she didn't tell him all that she had been through.. I'm just here like TF??
At which point she agrees to rescind her title as Chieftain's daughter when their journey comes to an end. Of course he doesn't argue.
At every point when Goldmoon had an opinion that didn't go with his, this.. this... little turd would shoot her down in the rudest way. like WTF???!!!
I really do not understand how this utterly, despicable chauvanist got hailed as one of the heroes.
Tanis: This was supposedly the leader of the group. I guess they chose him because he was a sturdy fellow but hot damn if there ever was a bland character this would be it. He was just bleh. Take a fucking decision be bloody decisive for crying out loud but nope. Dude couldn't even make up his mind about his love life Ugh!!! I don't know about you guys but when shit happens and the author keeps telling you, your heroes is scared and hands are shaking and they're ready to piss their pants (okay probably overboard there) but yeah, you start looking at them like okayyyyyyyyyyyyyy, can i get another hero please?
Sturm: Another despicable human being who couldn't think for himself. Absolutely did not like this character simply because he was close minded little shit!! I absolutely could not understand why he hated Raistlin (maybe there's history there) and why at every turn he kept shouting that Raistlin had betrayed them.. Dude was dim honestly. Let's not forget the other times he would have gladly put the others in death's way just because his bloody knight oath or some shit like that said don't retreat.. Dude if you want to commit suicide, please go ahead, but don't drag the others into it.
Tasslehoff Burrfoot: Fucking idiot character.
Flint: Now that i think about it. Flint was just there can't say his character got fleshed out so much. Reminded me of the dwarf character in Lord of the Rings though. So maybe you can substitute the two. Apparently dwarves have the same personality across books.
Goldmoon, Laurana and Tika: These were basically the 3 main female characters in the novel, with Laurana and Tika joining the group much later in the adventure. Goldmoon we already know, Tika is presented as a strong opinionated female character so i guess there's hope for her. Laurana is presented as the female who wants to prove to the guy she loves that she's all grown up and can fight. Miss me with that bull shit. but there you have it, the glorious female characters of Dragons of Autumn twilight.
All in all it wasn't a very enjoyable book. I did not like the female characters were presented and there were instances were the continuation of scenes were off. That aside if you can stand the narration coming off like you're watching a kid's programme, chauvinistic characters, dim witted knights, bleh leaders you may enjoy the book. -
Reread January 2023:
This is one of my all time favourite series'.
So many characters feel like friends and the adventures are off the charts amazing!
My partner and I reread this series together every few years, and I find more things I love about this series every single time we read it!
Original Review 2019:
I adore this series and can't wait to get into the next book!
We are adding in The Lost Chronicles during this re-read with my husband.
Next up
Dragons of the Dwarven Depths
Favourite characters:
Raistlin Majere and Tasslehoff Burrfoot -
My daughter is getting older now and asking me for suggestions on books that are "age appropriate" - her term. I purposely haven't read all of the Harry Potter books (nor seen the movies) because I was hoping to read/watch all of them with her. She's 10 and hasn't shown the slightest interest in those books, but she just became interested in Star Wars this summer, so I'm willing to give her time.
I use this anecdote and the "age appropriate" tag because as a young lad in love with reading this series came along at the right time to fill a need. I really liked these pulpy, page-turning fantasy send-ups lacking the creative stones of Tolkien. I was a 16-18 year old boy; Camus would have been lost on me - and if he wasn't, I would have been carving Morrissey lyrics onto my forearm unironically.
I don't know whether I'd recommend these to my 15 year-old daughter in 5 years time, but if she is into light fantasy I'll do it without hesitation. Would I ever read these again? Not while there is still Camus volumes I've yet to read and The Smiths B-sides to discover. -
DNF @ 53%
Ok I gave it my best. I’m not going to sit through another 9.5 hours of this, I literally can’t. The characterization is so wooden, the adventure is derivative, and the dialogue is ridiculous. I don’t care about a single character in this story, and I don’t care how things play out on any level.
I guess this book is a product of its time, but it just isn’t enjoyable. I don’t DNF lightly, but 2020 has been unbearable enough without adding this book on to the shitheap. -
Every so often I do this to myself. I pick up an old, "classic" High Fantasy novel because I think it "will be fun" and a throwback to being in middle-school, and then about 100 pages in I can't do it any more. The prose is wooden, the characters cringe-worthy cliches . . . and I still have 800 pages to go. Dear god, when there are so many good books out there, how can I possibly slavishly force my through one of these? These books also remind me that I shouldn't be such a snob by only having a "weird-fiction" shelf, because this clearly belongs on a "Fantasy" shelf.
-
4.0 stars. I did not go into this book with very high expectations thinking is was going to be a little cheesy. Wrong again. I really enjoyed this and thought it was a ton of fun. Great world-building, excellent characters and a fast-paced, non-stop plot. Call it fantasy comfort food, but call it very good.
-
I absolutely enjoyed this book. I call it an oldie as it’s not from this decade, but for me that means a clean read, less gory and more story…..
In the land of Krynn’s somewhat easygoing world of laborers, the likes of magic wafts around like superstition. But when an evil force stirs things up from the north a group of old friends reunite to face a long journey together. In this character driven story, as most epic fantasy novels hold dear to, I loved being transported into this series of detail around each of their lives, and as well cheer the solid writing that Weis and Hickman produce together. I was especially intrigued to find they were a writing team of both male and female influence. I found it a brilliant balance that some books do not manage well. I’m not a romance enthusiast devouring books of the romantic genre, but I do look forward to the romance that usually tips of a good epic fantasy novel, it doesn’t eat the book alive, it’s just there in the mix. They did it well.. The magic is quite complicated and somewhat fallible making it more interesting, rather than power errrupting out of nowhere.. Anyone who loves a good epic fantasy should enjoy this book.. Cheers -
Ya en las primeras páginas presenciamos el reencuentro de tres amigos: un elfo (bueno, semielfo para ser justos), un enano y un kender (personaje vivaz, de orejas puntiagudas y de no más de un metro veinte de altura). Cualquier amante de la literatura fantástica no podrá dejar de pensar "mmm… esto me parece conocido".
Así, durante todo el libro siguen apareciendo situaciones, escenarios y personajes muy similares a los que se hallan en el universo de Tolkien, con el trasfondo de la permanente lucha entre el bien y el mal absolutos, pero superando esta circunstancia nos encontramos con una aventura fantástica que se lee muy bien, pero que como ya se puede advertir, al menos en esta primera entrega no ofrece nada nuevo. -
-En su propuesta, que engloba muchas cosas, un hito.-
Género. Narrativa Fantástica.
Lo que nos cuenta. Un grupo de aventureros de diferentes razas y orígenes une sus fuerzas contra el mal… sí, bueno, podría ser más preciso en cuanto a las razones, los motivos, pero en realidad para qué… Primer libro de la saga Dragonlance y primer libro de la trilogía Crónicas de la Dragonlance.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/... -
"Why was I different? Sturm wondered. But he knew the answer, even as he listened to the dwarf grumble. It was because of the dwarf, the kender, the mage, the half-elf… They had taught him to see the world through other eyes: slanted eyes, smaller eyes, even hourglass eyes. Knights, like Derek, saw the world in stark black and white. Sturm had seen the world in all its radiant colors, in all its bleak greyness."
*Update: Just re-read this and to my surprise, I still really loved it despite of how cheesy it can be, and how it's clearly an 80s book. In fact, I kind of like the kind of magical, wondrous cheese this sometimes has - it's just perfect for taking you into a completely different and much more magical world. The world they are travelling is wonderful and so full of fascinating things, the characters are memorable, endearing, and often very funny, the pacing is fantastic, and my nostalgia does the rest to make this a 5 star book for my emotional side. My brain sometimes says "but!" and lists its flaws, so it stays at 4 stars, but I still enjoy this series very much. -
DNF Pag. 80
CHE COSA HO APPENA LETTO? Coacervo di cliché, trash, descrizioni imbarazzanti e personaggi fatti con paint. No grazie! -
Me resulta muy difícil escribir una reseña objetiva. Para mí este libro es nostalgia pura. Llegó a mis manos por primera vez en mi adolescencia temprana, me sumergí en él por completo, me hizo olvidarme del mundo real y adentrarme en un mundo de caballeros, magos y dragones en una época en la que aun no conocía demasiado este género, la fantasía épica. Y me hizo amarlo. Fue el principio, el culpable de que después devorase sagas tan maravillosas como el Señor de los Anillos.
Cuando era adolescente, este libro me parecía perfecto, alucinante. Me enganchó irremediablemente, me hacía querer formar parte de ese mundo. Desde entonces lo he leído varias veces más, y hoy por hoy, mas de una década después, me sigue atrapando. Sin embargo, tras haber devorado cientos de novelas de este género, tengo que aceptar que tiene sus fallos.
En este libro tenemos una partida de Dragones y Mazmorras novelizada. Los autores aprovecharon su experiencia con este juego de rol y la trasladaron a las páginas. Así, tenemos personajes arquetípicos: el semielfo atormentado, el caballero paladín de rectitud moral intachable, el enano gruñón aunque en el fondo entrañable, el mago torturado y siniestro, el guerrero fuerte y poderoso aunque bonachón, el bárbaro silencioso, la sacerdotisa bondadosa, y el kender pícaro (una suerte de mediano aniñado, travieso y revoltoso, al que le gusta demasiado apropiarse de lo ajeno). Con ellos comienza la partida, en la que se sucederán las misiones y aventuras en este mundo invadido por el mal. Ellos serán los elegidos para devolverle la paz y acabar con la oscuridad. Como veis, el argumento no es especialmente original. Y no solo los protagonistas son clichés, también lo son los villanos, los secundarios, las situaciones…
No obstante, también es justo resaltar que esta novela fue publicada a mediados de los años 80. Desde entonces hemos visto multitud de veces este planteamiento, pero en aquella época si que era original, o al menos no estaba tan trillado como lo puede estar ahora.
Además, es el comienzo de una saga inmensa, que poco a poco se desarrolla y evoluciona, y los fallos van disminuyendo. No quiero incidir demasiado en esto porque esta reseña es sobre el primer libro, pero me parece justo darle a esta novela el mérito que merece como el comienzo de algo gigantesco y mítico.
¿Y lo que más me gusta por encima de todo? ¿Recordáis el mago torturado y siniestro que mencioné antes? Raistlin se sale la norma en cuanto a los personajes planos que tenemos al principio de la obra. Desde el principio destaca como alguien con una personalidad inconfundible, a veces retorcida y difícil de entender, que en todo momento te lleva a intentar descifrarla. Sus actos son impredecibles, en su pasado hay piezas que no conocemos. Es un personaje fascinante.
Y su relación con su hermano gemelo (el guerrero bonachón) es compleja, contradictoria, imperecedera a pesar de las adversidades. Para mí, esta relación entre los hermanos Majere es el elemento clave de toda esta inmensa saga.
Poco más que añadir. Puede que el paso de los años no la haya tratado bien, que peque de simplista y tópica, pero yo siempre la veré con mis ojos de adolescente. Su simplicidad me reconforta cada vez que decido volver a leerla, sus personajes son viejos amigos para mi. Aventuras a raudales que me entretuvieron y me siguen entreteniendo. Y un mundo mágico que me abrió las puertas a la literatura fantástica. Es una novela que me hace feliz. Poco más se puede pedir. -
Welcome to the world of Krynn....
It has been 5 years since our characters have last seen one an other, vowing to meet again at the Inn of the Last Home in Solace. All having their own stories and secrets to keep, some seem different, changed. Little did they know that after all this time they would be adventuring together, finding new friendships and enemy's along they way.
Stars are missing, and dragons, children's tales are coming to life. Things that haven't been seen since before the cataclysm.
A magic staff and corrupted clerics.
Has the Queen of Darkness returned?
So if you are dork like myself you will instantly love Dragons of Autumn Twilight.
If you like doing quests, if you like grumpy dwarves, a kender who will make you giggle, but do watch your purse around them. Cheesy songs that are beautiful regardless. You will enjoy this. If you love elves, magic, adventure, mystery, monsters, dragons, friendship and found family, you will enjoy this. D&D, RPG's you will enjoy this. Dragonlance in my mind, was a world that I new I had to visit to someday, it always screamed to me as being a staple in not only the genre of fantasy but in the overall nerd/dork/geekdoms.
This book has been sitting on my shelf for many a year. And sometime during 2020 I kept on placing on each monthly tbr to only have it collecting more dust, (and no there were no draconian killed on top of it) Then thanks to Twitter and my scrolling I somehow ended in a buddy read with some great folk...
I look forward to my next adventure. To learn more secrets, to see if my thoughts on certain characters are right. Also to see what else Flint complains about. -
Buddy Read over at
Epic Fantasy Books
I remember owning this book when it first came out in 1984. I remember the cover, all the pictures, and even the character names. I didn't remember the story. As I was reading bits and pieces came back to me, and now that I've read it again I can see why I didn't remember it. It's not very memorable.
I can see how Dragons of Autumn Twilight paved a path in the fantasy genre. It does deserves a "hats off" and recognition, but it shouldn't be compared too harshly to today's fantasy genre. We've come along way, baby. -
When I read this D&D was all the rage, and this series gave lovers of high fantasy exactly what they were craving. I thought it very good at the time, not nearly as good as Brooks or Donaldson and naturally not Tolkien, but still an entertaining adventure trilogy.
I think Weis & Hickman's Rose of the Prophet series along with their Darksword books are also better due to their originality.
In this opening novel of the trilogy, friends of different ages and races are reunited after a lengthy absence. They all have their own unspoken mysteries, and the world around them is also darkening. There is talk of monsters and evil beings in far off lands, and even the threat of war. Yet these friends are courageous and powerful, and may be all that can save the world from the pervading darkness.
Look, it's probably dated heaps, but if you're after a good old fantasy adventure with plenty of escapism, then give this a go. -
Definitely enjoyable! I liked the characters and have some major questions about what had happened to them before the beginning of this book. I thought at times, it could be convenient and it seemed like one small problem after another over and over, but I did enjoy the story and the world. I'll definitely continue on and see what is going to happen next.
-
¡Cómo me recuerda este libro a las interminables partidas de D&D de mi juventud! Las escenas de lucha o de batalla no me llaman la atención. No me transmiten el movimiento, la tensión, la pasión de la lucha.
En muchas ocasiones, estoy esperando a que me pidan que tire el dado de 20 o a que saque porcentaje.
Es como una copia que pretende recrear el estilo del Señor de los Anillos pero sin llegar, ni de cerca, a estar a su altura.
¡Si es que son casi los mismos personajes! Un enano, un elfo, un par de guerreros, un mago y, el Hobbit, como no lo puedo llamar así porque tendría sus costes de derechos de autor y no es plan; pues ponemos un kender que es algo parecido.
Al igual que en el Señor de los Anillos, los personajes femeninos son un mero adorno agradable a la vista al que hay que proteger y cuidar. Vamos, que para lo que es el grueso de la aventura, mejor que no hubieran venido, que estorban. Hasta las que son calificadas de antemano como fabulosas guerreras, en el transcurso de la acción, tienen que ser ayudadas por sus compañeros. Curiosamente, al revés no pasa. Recordar que estamos ante una autora: mujer. Escribiendo en femenino pero supongo que con la losa de estar escribiendo en un contexto determinado.
Lectura que no ha aguantado el paso del tiempo. -
I can sympathize why some people think this is campy or simply unlikable.
I remember, sometime in my youth in the early 90's. For entertainment, my friend and I would spend and hour or two in the local B. Dalton bookstore. It was an immense space, the size of a warehouse. There was a food bar and a coffee shop. Open mic nights, guest authors. Culture, or what in our teen naivety, was what constituted culture . We felt like we were seeing the world in a space that had information to rival the fabled library of Alexandria. We happened to be 'wear our heart on our sleeves', unabashed geeks of the highest order. We would spend the majority of time in the Science Fiction and Fantasy section. I remember a wall, a literal wall, of Dragonlance novels. This was pre internet. I had no point of reference of where to begin such an arduous journey. I instead bought Forgotten Realms, a 5 book challnge and Star Trek, of which there were a lot to choose from, but attainable at 50 or so.
Fast forward 10 years.
I read this for the 1st time in my twenties and didn't think much of it. I was going through a period of self reflection and discovery. I used reading as a tool for building MY story. I read the beatnick era, classics, religion and philosophy. I was trying to find meaning for myself. What was my place and purpose in life? I had no time for amateurish fantasy.
Fast forward 10 years.
I read this for the second time in my thirties and didn't think much of it. I was using reading as a tool for recovery. I read history books, Updike and self help/healing. What need do I have for this fluff when I need to build myself up and become whole again?
Fast forward 10 years.
Life calmed down and I eventually got my itch back for fantasy. I tend to have a soft spot for world building and there's more than enough tseries of books to go around. I started browsing Dragonlance Wiki, just kind of marveling at the wealth of minutia and detailed history on display. I get so lost in the moment of seeing an authors world come alive. I often set unattainable reading goals of lengthy series just to see if I can perservere. I came back to this book and I loved it.
The Good
Is it a take on Lord of the Rings? Maybe. I kind of hate this argument though. One could logically argue that every play and book written in the last 2000+ years is a take on Greek comedy/tragedy. Every play and book written in the last 400 is a take on Shakespeare. Every person who makes an attempt to tell a story has a personalized vision of what that story should be and I'm okay with that notion.
I think the most appealing part for me, aside from the setting of Krynn and the classic battle of good and evil, was the range of characters. Every one was memorable in their own way to me. Every side character, even the barely mentioned would later be expounded upon in separate full length novels, filling in every detail in this first volumes introduction.
I like the turmoil and uncertainty of their inner monologue. Self doubts, suspicion, anger and angst all on display. These are just outsiders against incredible odds without a clue how to pull it off.
I never felt lost or bored with the pacing. It's a world where we just get thrown into with very little explanation and it's so easy to fall into the rhythm.
The love stories never felt forced or cheesy. I connected with the ideas of sacrifice for passion. I connected with the missed opportunities and the rejections.
The races of Krynn are fantastic. I liked the dwarven caste system. The Kenders are unique and fun.
Magic is handled very well.
Religion is multi layered and if you look deep enough, a jab at modern Christianity.
The Draconians are very varied, physiologically. There's smart ones and stupid ones, magic users and fighters, but all vicious. Some are pervs.
Dragons are terrifying.
The Bad
I'm never comfortable with unicorns, Pegasi or Centaurs. They may be your thing but I'm seriously over that trope.
The 'who's the spy'? game at the end was tedious and annoying. Sturm lost serious respect points with me.
The Ugly
I have nothing. Ask me this in another 10 years. -
💥 May 17, 2020: only $1.99 today!
-
Autumn, 1984, my junior year in high school. I finished collecting for my paper route, then walked down to Main Street to the Hobby Shop (the only source at that point for D&D materials in my hometown). There on the rack, in front of a bunch of random adventure modules, was a red paperback book with a lovely Larry Elmore cover (not that I knew who he was by name, but I'm sure I recognized his art style from previous issues of Dragon magazine, or work in other D&D supplements and the like) called Dragons of Autumn Twilight. It was, as far as I'm aware, the first RPG tie-in novel. (Unless you want to count
Quag Keep by
Andre Norton, which was a very odd duck, or maybe
The Man of Gold by
M.A.R. Barker, but Barker had been building his world and writing fiction before he got pulled into the original D&D guys' crowd. But I digress.)
I probably knew that it was coming out sooner or later -- I'm sure it had been advertised in the aforementioned Dragon magazine -- but in those dim and distant days there was no such thing as a "release date" -- you just showed up at the store periodically to see if anything new was on the shelf.
So I took it home, vanished downstairs into my room and for some number of hours spread across the next several days I was transported to the Inn of the Last Home, the ruins of Xak Tsaroth, the great fortress of Pax Tharkas ...
All of which is a very long way of saying that even though I could see flaws back in the day (the prose was serviceable at best; some of the dungeon crawl sequences felt a little too close to a tabletop session; Kender and gully dwarves are just irritating), on this, my first return to the Dragonlance books in probably 25 years, there's no way in heck I'm going to be objective about them.
