Welcome back to our reread of the Dragonlance Chronicles!
We hope you enjoyed the brief break—and our excellent guest Highlords—but enough faffing around. There are dragons to slay, lances to find, Gemstone mysteries to solve and love triangles to flatten out as we begin the second book, Dragons of Winter Night. Plus, we missed Raistlin.
We last saw the party at Goldmoon and Riverwind’s wedding (wasn’t her dress fabulous?). Let’s see what they’ve been up to since then.
“The Hammer” and “White winged ships. Hope lies across the Plains of Dust.”
Summary
We begin in a massive underground cavern, the great Hall of Audience of the King of the Mountain Dwarves. 800 refugees from Pax Tharkas, dwarves and our lot. It’s a lot of people underground, and Tanis isn’t liking it too much.
The Hammer of Kharas, used to forge the dragonlances has been returned to the dwarves. Elistan the cleric of Paladine and leader of the refugees have brought the hammer to Hornfel, Thane of the Hylar dwarves who can now unite the dwarves under his leadership. Sturm is unhappy about this. Tanis reminds him that the hammer was given to the dwarves before.
Elistan hands over the hammer, calling it a gift—given in thanks for the space given to the humans to live within the dwarven kingdom. Sturm keeps grumping. Tanis keeps sweating, feeling sick and claustrophobic. He and Sturm make a shifty exit and discuss how, within a month they will probably be taking a ship to Tarsis, once the Council of Highseekers votes to let them go. Without the hammer though, as Sturm again bitterly reminds him; the hammer which was to be brought forth in time of great need. Tanis, annoyed, points out that the hammer has indeed been brought forth as it was meant to, but this does not satisfy Sturm, who would like to take it to Solamnia and forge his own dragonlances. Visions of Huma in his head; riding to glory while 800 refugees are left to die. They fight, Sturm insisting that he would not have left them to die but that Tanis was wrong in letting the hammer be used to secure a new home for the refugees, since it was their first clue to the existence of the dragonlances.
Enter Raistlin with a well timed Shirak. He shows them the shimmering image of a beautiful dragonlance which, to Sturm’s anger, is just an illusion. He stalks off. Tanis berates Raistlin for this ‘joke’. Raistlin points out that he isn’t a jokester and laughs his weird, strange laugh that’s only been heard once before.
At the Council of Highseekers, Tanis and Sturm watch as the humans complain about their living arrangements at the southernmost part of the impregnable dwarf kingdom of Thorbardin, demanding ridiculous things like farmland from those who turned them out (the Dragon Highlords?!). Elistan proposes that a delegation be sent to the city of Tarsis, while the dwarves prepare to battle the evil from the north—one they did not particularly fear.
The problem with Tarsis is that all they have to go on is legend—no one has heard anything about Tarsis for 300 years, when at the time of the Cataclysm, the dwarves had shut off the kingdom of Thorbardin, sealing the only route out. And so Tanis, despite being for the plan, is still gloomy (surprise surprise) when the Council votes unanimously to send a group of people to Tarsis to find what ships come to port, how to secure passage on one, or maybe even to buy a ship of their own.
Tanis is expected to lead this expedition. Enter Raistlin, without a Shirak but with solid advice on how this is a foolish quest, reminding them of the portent of the stars, with two gaping holes where the two constellations have gone missing.
The Council is a bit bored, but Raistlin reminds them that this means both the Queen of Darkness and the ancient God Paladine are on Krynn, waiting to battle it out. Elistan and some others are incensed by this information, considering it total blasphemy. Raistlin doesn’t care, and makes it clear to everyone that there is no peace on Krynn, and that no matter where they go, there will be dragons.
He breaks down into the usual spluttering coughs, is rescued by Caramon and exits, stage left. The Council somehow manage to shake off this warning of impending doom and carry on as if Raistlin is nothing but a paranoid child with nightmares. A war? All over Krynn? Impossible! For Verminaard has been defeated and his dragon armies have been driven back, they think. They also assume easily that Tanis will lead the delegation, never considering to ask the conflicted half-elf what his stance on the matter is.
Tanis heads outside the cavern. We get a tidy paragraph or two of infodump based on his musings about where they currently are, in which we learn more about the strength and safety of the dwarven stronghold. Enter Laurana, Sturm and Elistan, all worried about Tanis and wanting to comfort him about the upcoming journey. Tanis, still finding it hard to hope in Tarsis the way Elistan and the others do, finally agrees to lead the delegation. All but Laurana leave.
Laurana reminds Tanis that Elistan is one of the wisest humans around. Tanis instead defends Raistlin. Laurana goes lateral with the argument and says that he is ashamed about his elven heritage—perhaps because he is love with Kitiara, a human woman. (Ouch.) Tanis throws some shade of his own, saying that Laurana is perhaps a little too obsessed by Elistan. Laurana insists she loves Elistan in a reverential way and that her only true love is Tanis, though she is fast coming to the conclusion that perhaps she has made a mistake (BURN!!!!).
They bicker. She leaves. Tanis thinks of Kitiara’s sexy sexiness but can’t get Laurana out of his head.
The journey starts. All the companions agree to go, not feeling at home with the refugees (the refugees aren’t feeling at home either, but whatever).
At first they are happy enough, good weather and Elistan’s stories of the Disks of Mishakal keep their spirits high. But a few days into the journey, it starts to snow fiercely and they are forced to take shelter from a blizzard in a cave. They are uneasy about the clear trail they’ve left in the snow (though there’s a blizzard but nevermind) and the sense of menace they all feel is growing.
What could it be, given that no one has lived out in the Plains of Dust for 300 years? Oh the tension, the tension.
Monster(s) of the Week
Sadly, none. A mere mention of dragons.
Notable Quotes
‘I never claimed to be perfect, Laurana,’ Tanis said quietly.…
‘You may never claim it,’ she said scornfully, ‘but you certainly enjoy allowing us to think it!’
Oooooh, burn. Well done, Laurana.
Mahvesh’s Take
These chapters are just a set up of what’s to come, of course, just the the little shove they need to get on the move again, having established that this is a Bad Idea. Not much happens, though we are teased by Raistlin conjuring up a dragonlance and by the constant reminder of impending doom. Other than that, we learn that the Council is full of idiots, the humans are ingrates who do not at all seem thankful for the refuge the dwarves have provided and that the companions are itching to get a move on, even though they all know that the stronghold is…well, the strongest ever. And no real adventures can come in the strongest ever stronghold, so we are all grateful when they head out into the wilderness, hoping for some action soon.
Laurana is sensitive but at least seems to have grown a little, calling Tanis out on his childish jealousy and ridiculing him for his indecision between her and Kitiara. Sturm is grumpy and his visions of charging into battle with a dragonlance held aloft like Huma seem appropriate for a Knight of Solamnia, but he keeps forgetting everything that history taught him (basically death). Raistlin is Raistlin—mysterious, bitter and always right. The others are barely around, Caramon doing a little cameo to carry Raistlin away and Riverwind the Plainsman tracker-dude noticing the trail they leave behind in the snow. I have a problem with this because it seems to lack continuity. Isn’t there a blizzard in full swing here? Won’t those tracks be hidden pretty fast? Or has the blizzard ended already? In which case, why are they still hiding in a cave? Perhaps I am nitpicking here, since the danger they feel is what’s important, after all.
Tanis, of course, as the resident king of emo thinking, must dwell on what has happened in the moodiest of ways after the decision to send off a delegation has been made. Staring out into the dark forest, leaning against the secret gate in the mountain that was opened to let in the refugees, dowsing the torches in anger and ultimately after his argument with Laurana, refusing so come back into the safety of the cavern, choosing instead to stay the night in the forest—it’s all very sulky and dramatic. Basically, Tanis sleeps on the couch that night.
Jared’s Take
I already like this book better than Autumn Twilight, although I distinctly remember not doing so as a kid.
I think Winter Night suffers from Empire Strikes Back syndrome: it is the best of the series, but maybe not with the ‘core demographic’ of teen and pre-teen audiences. This is a more nuanced (relatively), more character-focused (relatively), and darker (definitely) book than its predecessor, and, by nature of the middle-book syndrome, it doesn’t ‘conclude’. That’s frustrating as hell for Jared-Aged-10, but, bizarrely, Jared-Aged-So-Much-Older-Oh-God-So-Old is loving it.
But, beyond my own cross-generational feelz, what else is good about this… I like that we’ve ‘skipped’ a whole dungeon crawl/quest thing (where’d the Hammer come from?!), and I like that the characters aren’t being railroaded as explicitly as they were in the previous volume. Certainly the task is being foisted upon Tanis, but for the first time, you feel the pressure is coming more from internal, character-driven factors (‘I am responsible for refugees’) than external, plot-driven one (‘I am running from goblins’). I’m also impressed by the volume of info-dumping, and how much of that info-dumping is actually related to feelings as opposed to events. Again, imagine how annoying that must be to a ten year old—“wait, we’re not going to hear about the quest to retrieve the lost Hammer of Dragonbonking, but we are going to recap every tumblr post shared by Tanis and Laurana?! Argh.”
This bodes well for Winter, as, although these chapters may be very staid (in Dragonlance terms), the focus is now less on explicitly setting-up-and-following the quest as dictated by the RPG, and more on developing the characters. Or, so I hope…
Also, and I feel this should be saved in autotext—but speaking of character development, Raistlin is awesome. His teasing is rather amazing, as it puts Sturm’s idea of ‘Good-’ness into context. And Sturm: kinda racist, right? I mean, he had the whole ‘I don’t trust elves’ thing at the end of the previous book—maybe he just doesn’t like anyone.
In the real world, refugees don’t have Tanis and Raistlin to bail them out. But authors, publishers and—most importantly, readers like us—have all been banding together to raise money to help. You can learn more about the efforts here, and, if you can, please chip in.
Mahvesh loves dystopian fiction & appropriately lives in Karachi, Pakistan. She writes about stories & interviews writers the Tor.com podcast Midnight in Karachi when not wasting much too much time on Twitter.
Jared Shurin is an editor for Pornokitsch and the non-profit publisher Jurassic London.
Mahvesh Murad
The poem! You didn’t mention the poem! (That sits at the beginning of the book, and bridges the gap between Autumn and Winter.) (At least, it did until they went back and wrote an entire interstitial book.)
@1: That poem has always annoyed me. Why did it include a stanza about Kitiara? She wasn’t even in Thorbardin, so how would the dwarven bard who wrote the poem even know about her much less think she needed to be included? And why were Laurana and Tika delegated to the “and the rest” part of the poem with each of them only getting a single line dedicated to them? (Though at least they made out better than Gilthanas and Elistan, both of whom get left out of the poem altogether.)
(… I’m not saying it was a good poem …)
The dungeon crawl we missed is called DL4: Dragons of Desolation.
The DA modules that are not covered in the books are some of the best of the DA series (though that is damning with faint praise). The ones that are tied to the trilogy feel like you are pantomiming the book. On the other hand, you have a lot more flexibility in Dragons of Desolation.
Does DL4 actually have a good dragon in it – a Gold Dragon or something? Which is really weird, because otherwise those aren’t ‘revealed’ to the party later in the Chronicles? I only remember this from notes in the Atlas (of all things) so I might be totally incorrect.
@5: I believe that it does. The gold dragon shows up in Dragons of the Dwarven Depths as well.
Anyway aside from that darn poem, good chapters here. I loved Laurana verbally skewering Tanis (and based on Tanis’s reaction he seems to have been impressed with her as well.)
And interesting commentary from the two of you though I think you were just a little hard on Sturm. His position may be cold hearted, but it is basically correct. It really doesn’t do much good to save these 800 refugees if the price is the rest of the world getting conquered by the Dragonarmies.
It’s also interesting that Raistlin sided with Tanis in this argument. Wasn’t Raist just moaning at the end of the last book that things were hopeless because they were going to have to fight hordes of evil dragons and had no way to defeat them? If Raistlin believes that you would think he would agree with Sturm that finding a way to start producing a weapon that can kill dragons is their most important priority.
At any rate, it’s an interesting moral dilemma the party faced here, though the novel ends up chickening out on this question since later on the Heroes are able to create dragonlances without the Hammer. (Thus letting the Heroes eat their cake and have it too.) That rather robs this question of its power since it’s easy to make a sacrifice if the plot then makes sure that sacrifice doesn’t actually end up costing you anything. I think the novel might have been stronger if the Heroes weren’t able to create new dragonlances later on because of their decision here. That would have shown that there was a genuine sacrifice in what they had to do in trading away the Hammer and would leave it in question on if Tanis did the right thing or not.
2: “That poem has always annoyed me. Why did it include a stanza about Kitiara? She wasn’t even in Thorbardin, so how would the dwarven bard who wrote the poem even know about her much less think she needed to be included?”
Obviously, because Tanis wouldn’t shut up about her and his love-life issues! Probably got drunk with the bard one day.
6: “If Raistlin believes that you would think he would agree with Sturm that finding a way to start producing a weapon that can kill dragons is their most important priority.”
Maybe Raistlin was experimenting with reverse psychology. “Everything I suggest they think I’ve got an angle on and I’m creepy and evil, so, you know what, I’m just going to act like the Dragonlance isn’t important so Sturm can’t can’t stop thinking about it.”
Actually, it’s interesting that Raistlin’s line has an interesting double meaning:
“There is your dragonlance, knight,” Raistlin hissed, “without benefit of the Hammer
or the Silver Arm.”
Could be read as:
“There is your Dragonalnce, Knight, which I have produced for you without the benefit of the Hammer or the Silver Arm” (tee hee I am fooling you and making you think I have one!)
or
“There is your Dragonlance, as it would be without the benefit of the Hammer and Silver Arm! (that is, until we have everything needed, it’s just an illusion, and we need to focus on more practical things.)
Autumn Twilight, when you think about it, was a small story. The entire story, despite the scope, really took place in a very small geographic corner of the world and, for such an epic story, really wasn’t all that epic, the elves leaving withstanding, as we know it. For the first time in the series we’re starting to get into a bigger world and it feels more epic right off the bat. We see the way two separate societies work in a short space, the human refugees and the dwarves. The politics of the Highseekers is fascinating, even after all that’s happened. It’s something I wish there was a little more of in this story. It makes me wonder if the Lost Chronicles books are worth it. (I can tell you I bought Highlord Skies because it looks like a vastly interesting story than the other LC books, but I’ll let you know.) Let me address that though….
The gap in the story bothered me as a kid and it bothers me more now. I get that they were probably under pressure to write a trilogy, but come on. Oh well, maybe I’ll read that Lost Chronicle some day. Oh, well, we all makes choices when we write.
It feels like Sturm and Tanis have become bigger dicks than they already were, but thinking about it, it’s actually not bad characterization. The cheap observation is that it’s all representative of the conflict they are both feeling inside. But there’s more going on. Sturm is desperate to be a hero, the bit with the dragonlance shows that and restore glory to his people in his family name. I get that and that’s kind of interesting, but we don’t get to see a lot of that yet. He’s also lied to his closest companions about what he is and still hasn’t come clean to them….AND STILL wants them to go north to fight in the war. That’s some stones. Sturm becomes a much more fascinating character in this book and this is the first insight into it.
I’ve also commented before on these reread posts about how fascinated I am my Solamnia and the Knights. One of my favorite parts is the kingfisher. I love that it is a symbol of the knighthood and the nation. Such a strange thing and I love it.
Tanis continues to be cool because he was emo before emo was cool. I’ll bet he listened to a lot of Smiths and Morrissey (I have a funny Morrissey story, but that’s not for here!). Anyway, he’s another one that is annoying because all of a sudden he has severe claustrophobia. Again, I know that this can be explained away, but it’s still sort of convenient for the story. He had no problem every other time they had to go underground, now all of a sudden he’d losing his shit over it. The cheap explanation is that he’s underground longer than those other times and the conditions are cramped, but as an supposedly experienced adventurer and sometimes sellsword, he’s not acting like one. This has been one of my complaints about the series reread as a whole. Now the more complex explanation might be that it isn’t the dwarven complex but the fact he is in a confined space with Laurana and he might be suffocating because of it.
The whole Tanis/Laurana relationship comes across as that couple in high school that was constantly fighting over stupid things. Actually, they remind me of some adult couples I know.
Let me also, quickly, talk about Raistlin. I get why he’s so popular. He’s the guy that all the nerds think they are/could be. (I loved me some Tanis when I read it, but good googly moogly, I’d kill to be Caramon.) Most aren’t. Raistlin’s a dick. I don’t care why, he’s just a jerk. I have no patience for it. I hated Catcher In The Rye because I always felt that Holden Caufield was just an asshole. Raistlin’s being a jackass to his FRIENDS. No wonder they thought he would betray them multiple times (and he kind of did, when you think about it, with the whole Xak Tsaroth affair).
By the end, we’re on the move again. And this time, there is something foreboding about it.
@8: Well Laurana at least has legitimate reason to be upset at Tanis. I have no idea what Tanis’s problem is. He has a sweet, smart, staggeringly gorgeous young woman in love with him, and his response is … to become a total grouch?!? Seriously Tanis, what is wrong with you?
And I fully agree with you about Raistlin (and Holden Caufield).
Weis and Hickman wrote a new trilogy recently called Dragonlance: The Lost Chronicles, that covers the gaps between the books of the original trilogy. The first, Dragons of the Dwarven Depths, covers the journey of the refugees to Thorbardin and the quest for the hammer. The second, Dragons of the Highlord Skies, follows Kitiara trying to find a dragon orb and the companions actually finding one and taking it to Solamnia. The third, Dragons of the Hourglass Mage, covers Raistlin’s battle with the Dark Queen, Kitiara, and Fistandantilus in Neraka.
Maybe it’s just because I haven’t read the original trilogy last since I started college, and I have a rosier view of them, but I didn’t find this trilogy particularly good. If you’re a quest completist and want to know everything that happened in the gaps of the original trilogy, then by all means, check these books out. If not, I say skip them.
The time jump between this and what came before really irked me the first time I read the series (in high school), enough that IIRC I put the book down until enough time had passed that I felt I should start from the beginning the next time around and give it another chance. I’m pretty sure the time jump irked me a lot then too.
I really wasn’t at all happy with it until the Lost Chronicles came along to fill in the gap.
I’m not really inclined to try re-reading the books to see whether it would irk me this time as well, and I don’t really think it would be an objective experience now that I’ve read the Lost Chronicles in any case.
I appreciate the point made as to why another dungeon crawl wasn’t necessarily needed or desirable, but it felt like significant stuff must have happened and the reader was being left out of the loop.
And of course, the Hammer will be retconned in the next trilogy anyways, with the Hammer of Kharas being forged by a dwarf centuries after Huma.
@10: I thought Dragons of Highlord Skies at least was decent. (The Lord Soth parts were disappointing, but the rest was good.) And while I didn’t care for Dragons of the Hourglass Mage that much, I did appreciate that it at least had Kitiara more or less admit that Laurana did genuinely beat her during the Vingaard Campaign. (Thus helping to settle that particular debate.)
@11: The time skips are probably the biggest problem with the Chronicles. I don’t really mind the Hammer of Kharas time skip too much since the Hammer, the Dwarves, and the Refugees play no further role in the novels anyway, but skipping over the Icewall Quest and Gilthanas and Silvara’s mission to Sanction were both really odd decisions that left huge holes in the story.
I just spent a little time looking around to see if there ever was a reason given for the gaps. I couldn’t find one with just a brief search.
My best guess? You don’t split the party, and they did. It’s hard to depict the story when you are denying the readers(and in this case the authors) the relationships they’ve come to enjoy in the story, so I think they tried to go for brevity, and just include what was necessary.
Eventually Laurana/Sturm/Flint/Tas work well as a separate unit with great chemistry, but Tanis/Raistlin/Caramon/Tika/Goldmoon/Riverwind never really gel in that way. Yet it’s the story that Weis & Hickman chose to present to us, because Silvanesti had more bearing on the story than Icewall. But I absolutely believe they played that adventure, even if we didn’t read it.
Also, since we’re at the start, what’s the opinion on the original cover? I got the books from the guy I was dating and he couldn’t keep the Blue Highlord’s identity a secret. Did the cover conceal it well or was it a giveaway?
For my money, the only covers are the original red, blue & green paperbacks with the Elmore paintings. I don’t recall the Blue Highlord being spoiled by the cover, but I probably wasn’t paying that much attention at the time.
@13: I was miffed about Icewall as well, that always seemed like something really interesting, especially in the flashbacks.
@16/17: Not spoiled. I remember being SO confused when I first read the books, and was trying to hard to match the characters to the covers. It took a while for it to click. Which is pretty cool, really.
One of the awful reissued covers (seriously, WHY did they do it, they were perfect?) of Dragons of Winter Night did spoil the Highlord by showing her in the armor with the mask off. Luckily, I’d already read the trilogy several times over by then (my major annoyance was that I’d lost, loaned-forever, or actually WORN out my copies a couple times, and, in those pre-ebay days, I was freaked that if it happened again, I couldn’t buy any of books again with the old, awesome, covers).
I have the DoWN cover with the Blue Highlord’s mask off, thereby spoiling the reveal, but then my dog came along and ate the top 2/3s of the cover, so problem solved, I guess…
@13: I guess this is another place where the order you come to the books makes a big difference – I read the Tales trilogy before I ready anything else Dragonlance, and there’s a short story in one of them (the second, I think…) that covers Icewall. So I barely noticed that particular time skip because… well, I knew that story. If anything, small-me was probably grateful not to have to have it rehashed again. :)
I have mixed feelings about reading the new fill-the-gaps books, though. Could be good fun, but could also mess with my appreciation for the older books.