“Destina Rosethorn—as her name implies—believes herself to be a favored child of destiny. But when her father dies in the War of the Lance, she watches her carefully constructed world come crashing down. She loses not only her beloved father but also the legacy he has left the family lands and castle. To save her father, she hatches a bold plan—to go back in time and prevent his death.
First, she has to secure the Device of Time Journeying, last known to be in the possession of the spirited kender Tasslehoff Burrfoot. But to change time, she’ll need another magical artifact—the most powerful and dangerous artifact ever created. Destina’s quest takes her from the dwarven kingdom of Thorbardin to the town of Solace and beyond, setting in motion a chain of disastrous events that threaten to divert the course of the River of Time, alter the past, and forever change the future.”
Title: Dragons of Deceit
Series: Dragonlance: Destinies #1
Author: Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
Page Count: 400
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Date Read: August 8th, 2023
| Dragons of Deceit was my first Dragonlance read in over a year. And my first Weis and Hickman read in a couple of years. I did reread the Chronicles back in 2021 as a buddy read which was a nice trip down memory lane. I mentioned the new books getting released to a coworker I knew also enjoyed this world in years past. He ended up picking up a copy of Dragons of Deceit and getting through it before I even did. One question I had for him was whether he felt I needed to read any previous series beyond the chronicles and he said that shouldn’t be needed. I’d like to confirm this. If a reader hasn’t read any Dragonlance there may be a lot of history and references that go unappreciated, but if you’ve at least read the chronicles, you should pick up on a lot of those moments. I felt the pacing was on par with previous Weis and Hickman Dragonlance novels. There is always the usual good versus evil themes of these books, but I don’t think they are ever intended to be deep philosophical stories. This is the first Dragonlance audiobook I’ve done in quite some time though. I was a bit confused on some of the pronunciations of people and places. I didn’t really question the narration of Kristen Potter and thought she did an excellent job overall. But it got me curious so I did a bit of online research to find out that many of those I questioned were indeed previously mispronounced in my own inner dialogue all these years. This is where I find the perfect reading experience can actually end up being emersion reading where you can visual follow along with a solid audio narration. I don’t get to do that style of reading often but it always a really interesting experience when I get to. The world building was nice for a fan of this world. It was interesting to see the parts of this world and it’s timelines away from what we know from the previously tales. As mentioned earlier I think this book could be enjoyed by a reader whether they are familiar with the Chronicles or not. I felt there was enough information shared along the way to grasp what was going on in this one. The character development was good. As usual with this world I always wish we had more direct involvement from dragons but that’s probably just me. I found myself constantly waiting for Destina to begin acting like a Solamnic Knight. Her arc was ongoing but I’m not sure we really witnessed much development from her beyond what she showed she was capable in defending her people alongside her mother near the beginning. Tas will still do as Tas does. I joked with my friend who read this that I’ve come to realize at times I find Tas hilarious and at other times I just want to throttle his neck with the things he says or does. And honestly, that’s Kender in a nutshell I suppose! It was nice to see so many familiar characters in this one. It makes me excited for more Dragonlance, games and novels being read. Probably the biggest issue that stands out for me is the title of this. Perhaps I missed something glaring but I don’t recall any deceitful dragons in this book. I don’t know if they feel all books have to be “Dragons of X” but I felt it would have been more fitting as something like Solamnic Deceit perhaps. All in all I still felt like it was what I expect from a Dragonlance novel and more specifically from Weis and Hickman. I think at this stage if you’re a fan of this world you’re probably already planning on reading this. If you’re not already entrenched in this world, give it a try. Just be aware there are a lot of books out there at this point and some of the older ones may be hard to come by if you want to try and go back. World Building 4/5 Pacing 4/5 Character Development 4/5 |
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