Dragonlance: Lost Chronicles [3] Dragons of the Hourglass Mage (2009)

The events in this novel were not something I was particularly curious about, but I've enjoyed the first two entries in this newer Lost Chronicles trilogy, and I wasn't going to quit this, so here I am. This is the last book in the trilogy and in the retrospective (took me a while to get here).

My journey back through Dragonlance ends here. I won't need a conclusion post, and I likely won't read any of these again for many years.

Before You Continue

This blog is part of my Dragonlance Retrospective
See this blog post for an overview of the Retrospective
These blogs are not plot recaps—they are most effective in conjunction with your own re-read of the series
Warning: CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE SERIES

Thoughts

This one covers what Raistlin was doing during Dragons of Spring Dawning. If you remember, towards the beginning of that novel he saved himself and the Dragon Orb when our heroes and the Green Gemstone Man were pulled into the Maelstrom, then didn't reappear until the end as a Black Robe in the temple of Neraka.

As I said, I've never really wondered in depth what Raistlin had been doing off screen. He became a Black Robe and got into a position to gain power, which was what he wanted to do all along. Though in the end (and at the end of Legends) he inadvertently saved the world, which only contributed to the appeal of the character.

I'll be honest, I didn't find this one up to par with the other two, Dwarven Depths and Highlord Skies. It was awesome to get some insight into the Towers of High Sorcery and the leaders of the mages, see more from the perspective of the "bad guys", as well as more Raistlin/Fistandantilus interactions, but in general I thought this book was a little slow. Especially the first half when Raist is bumbling about Neraka. It definitely felt like there wasn't enough material for a full novel and was padded as a result.

Not Raistlin?

All that aside, the thing that stood out the most was Raistlin, and not in a good way. A lot of the time he didn't feel like Raistlin to me. Was that because we were inside his head the whole time? Or because they were trying to make a full novel out of events that don't need a whole novel to tell it?

It could be a little of both. I can't remember how many POVs we've had of Raistlin in previous books, but I don't remember it being that many, or that he thought differently than expected. In this one, almost entirely from his POV, he feels different on occasion. Hesitant and weak (of spirit), when he always felt very strong and disdainful of others in the past.

Maybe part of it is due to him thinking for half the book that Caramon is dead. He doesn't learn of his brother's survival until he meets up with Kitiara at Dargaard Keep (good set of scenes). Maybe he's just different without Caramon there.

The Cover

Matt Stawicki again. Excellent cover. Not my favorite of the series (that goes to Highlord Skies but better than most covers out there.

I'm not sure if this is supposed to be in the Abyss or Neraka. The full image on Stawicki's website is really nice. Probably the coolest version of Takhisis that I've seen.

Rating the covers of this trilogy was a bit odd, though, now that I think about it. I've done this because in a retrospective, I've grown up with the books and read them many times, and the cover of whatever version I happened to get becomes tied with that experience. Later covers are never good enough. But here? There's no nostalgic factor here. Just a few random comments. Probably didn't even need to cover them at all.

All about Raistlin

Anyway. As we already know, Raistlin is all about Raistlin. Everything he does is for his own gain, though most of the time it appears to others that he's doing the right thing. It's just a nice side effect... until the end of Legends when he consigns himself to eternity in the Abyss to save the world from Takhisis.

Here it's reiterated yet again, in the subplot where Raistlin must stop Takhisis from destroying the gods of magic (Solinari, Lunitari, and Nuitari) on the Night of the Eye. He doesn't want to lose his magic, regardless, so he finds a way to use it to his advantage and get free of the Conclave of Wizards. It's at this point that it feels like Raistlin again to me.

This part until the end was my favorite. It was nice to see the climax of Dragons of Spring Dawning from Raistlin's perspective, I always enjoy it when authors do that, and they did it well here. It feels like the whole thing—all 9 books—have come full circle, even though this only lined up with the third book.

No Tas!

The best part of the book, though, in my opinion? No Tasslehoff driving the narrative! As I've mentioned many times before, it drives me a little nuts how much Tas is behind everything, when he's not even trying.

In this one we thankfully get a break from it. But then... there is Marigold Featherwinkle, instead. We can't get away from Kender! Weis and Hickman just have to have a kender in the story somewhere, eh? At least she is actually cool and not totally annoying, unlike Tas. I mean, she does the same things, such as remarking that a character must have dropped something when she is caught stealing, yet it doesn't make me roll my eyes like it did for Tas.

However, remember that I think this is the weakest of this final trilogy. Does that mean I needed Tas to have an interesting book? Gods, no! You don't need Tas if you have a proper plot free of deus ex machina.

Other Thoughts

Ah, my last installment of "Other Thoughts"... just some random observations that don't warrant their own sections.

It was nice to get some more insight into The Conclave of Wizards and see what Par-Salian, Justarius, and Ladonna talk about behind the scenes.
I hate it when an author creates some new characters in the context of something we're already familiar with. I'm taking about the Nightlord, the Adjudicator, and the Spiritor, none of which were ever mentioned before. But suddenly there they are in Neraka in the ninth book of the story, in positions of power alongside the Dragon Highlords. Like, who are these guys?
I was glad to see Iolanthe return in this book, and with a large role. I enjoyed her from Highlord Skies and she's probably my favorite new character in this trilogy (aside from Feal-Thas, who's not really a "new" character, but you know what I mean).
I enjoyed the scenes between Kitiara and Raistlin. We didn't get enough of that in the other books. Makes her ultimate fate that much more sadder.
Ending with Raistlin meeting Caramon under the temple of Neraka was perfect. And I must say that just like Tas, I didn't miss Caramon that much while reading this.

Reading Order

Similar to the previous entries in The Lost Chronicles, it might be worth taking a break in the middle of Dragons of Spring Dawning to read this book. However, like Highlord Skies, some of it overlaps content from Spring Dawning, and it would be too much trouble to try and sync things up.

At the end of the day, it's clear that reading these after Chronicles and Legends (i.e. in publication order) is the only real way to go. They are still enjoyable and there's no real benefit to reading them in between others. No need to make it hard on yourself.

To be honest, I'd only recommend this trilogy if you really, really like the previous trilogies. Individually, they don't stand up, and are strictly supplemental to Chronicles. I probably won't read them again.

Retrospective Conclusion

This is an odd one for me. It took a long time to get here, because life. Five years to read and write about nine books. Five! To be fair the bulk of the gap (three years) was between the first two books. I don't remember what happened there. But I got it done.

You might have also noticed that the entries have been getting shorter as we go along, particularly for this last trilogy. Since I hadn't read them before, there's not as much I that I feel I have to say, and there's no nostalgic element to these last three entries, no reminiscing about high school and friends in Rhode Island.

Ah, I do miss those days sometimes. I do plan on taking a trip back to Newport, Rhode Island some day, to see the old stomping grounds.

Did my opinion of these Weis & Hickman Dragonlance books change from this retrospective? Absolutely not. Unlike my The Apprentice Adept retrospective, I'm not going to get rid of my Dragonlance books. There are issues with them, sure, but they are infinitely better than that other series, and I will be keeping them. I'll likely read Chronicles and Legends again someday. They occupy a spot on the shelves in my family room, and perhaps my daughter will want to read them sometime, when she's older. She likes to read and asks about Daddy's books on occasion.