Dragons of Autumn Twilight

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Dragons of Autumn Twilight

DragonLance - Chronicles - Volume 1 - Dragons of Autumn Twilight - Mass Market - USA - 1st Edition.jpg

Mass market - USA - 1st edition.

Author Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman
Published 1984-11-??
Type Fiction
Genre Adventure
Themes Adventure, Fantasy
Age Group Teen

DragonLance Chronicles, Volume 1: Dragons of Autumn Twilight is a fantasy novel written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman and first published in November 1984. It is the first book in the DragonLance series and based on two Advanced Dungeons & Dragons modules created by Tracy Hickman and a couple other people.

Personal

Own?No.
Read?Audiobook read by Peter Johnson.
FinishedMarch 2015.

Many of my high school friends were big fans of this series, but I was always intimidated by the huge number of books, so I only read the collection of short stories. Finally, in my 30s, I decided to read the series. I wasn't very impressed with this book, but, because it was so important to my old friends, I kept reading the trilogy.

Review

Overall:

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— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

  • The story itself is exciting and maintains an epic scope while still focusing on the characters.
  • I really enjoyed most of the characters, and the authors did a good job at making them seem like real people with strengths and weaknesses. Their interaction really made the book for me
  • The unique races like the kender and draconians are quite creative.

Bad

  • I found Riverwind to be particularly dull. I hope he gets fleshed out more in the next book.
  • Tas was a fun character, but the slapstick humor felt pretty juvenile.
  • Fizban too seemed more like a running gag that wouldn't end.
  • The book was clearly based on D&D, and I often found myself thinking of RPG rules rather than the story. The way spells were described was particularly disappointing.

Ugly

  • I never really felt like the characters were in any real danger. Even when they seemed to be in completely hopeless situations, I had no real concern for them.
  • Most of the evil races were bumbling idiots. Even the deadly draconians are easily defeated by unskilled civilians on multiple occasions. I had to suspend my disbelief quite a bit.
  • The entire party returning to the destroyed and occupied Solace without so much as a disguise was very hard to believe.

Links

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