Join me as I review Amber and Blood by Margaret Weis, live! Share your thoughts on this final novel in The Dark Disciple trilogy. This trilogy is a continuation from the War of Souls trilogy and continues Mina’s tale after Takhisis’ death. You can pick up Amber and Blood here: https://amzn.to/3yIgkeE
About Amber and Blood
In the conclusion to the Dark Disciple trilogy, Mina uncovers the truth she has long denied: she alone can upset the balance of power in heaven
Finally free of the Blood Sea Tower, Mina at last learns the truth about herself. Once a mortal dedicated to the One God and then to Chemosh, she is in fact a god herself—a revelation that sends her and all of heaven into a desperate frenzy.
Rhys, the monk of Majere, is given the dangerous assignment of guarding the crazed god. Accompanied by his dog Atta and the kender Nightshade, he escorts her on a long, strange journey to the mysterious place known as Godshome. Along the way, they seek those Mina can trust—but that list is very short.
Their path is fraught with peril, for the undead Beloved want to make Mina their leader. The fearsome death knight Krell brings fire and death to the town of Solace in an effort to seize her. And her trusted former lieutenant, the minotaur named Galdar, is ordered to try to turn Mina to the side of evil by delivering her to her most hated enemy.
Review
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. It is Bakukal, Frostkolt 31st, my name is Adam and today I am going to give you my Spoiler review of Amber and Blood. I will be spoiling the story, so if you don’t want to know it, stop watching now! I would like to take a moment and thank the members of this YouTube channel, and invite you to consider becoming a member by visiting the link in the description below. You can even pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate link. This is my perspective only, and if you have any thoughts or disagree with mine, I invite you to share them in YouTube chat.
Book One begins with the Gods standing around Mina as she’s lying on the ground, just after having raised the Tower of the Blood Sea to the surface for Chemosh. Majere and Mishakal reveal that Mina was created when the gods created the world. She was a by-product that would have been destroyed by the other gods if Paladine and Mishakal told the other gods about her. They set her into an eternal slumber and placed her in the depths of Krynn’s oceans. When Takhisis stole the world and was locating artifacts and magic to draw energy from, she discovered Mina, and decided to corrupt and use her to her own ends. Gilean forces the gods to swear an oath to let Mina find her own path and role in the pantheon of deities. Everyone reluctantly agrees. Just then, Mina gets up and runs to the edge of the battlements, leaping into the ocean.
Chemosh, refusing to let Mina go, now wanting to bring her to the dark gods side, turns Ausric Krell into a Bone Acolyte and orders him to collect Mina. Rhys Mason and Nightshade are at the shoreline reflecting on what has happened when a young child, crying out for help, washes up on shore. It is Mina but she has reverted to her childlike form. They take her to the grotto temple of Zeboim where they had recently escaped to get her warm, and they are approached by Zeboim who wants Rhys to stay with Mina. Majere also wants him to protect her until she makes a choice about where she will land. Zeboim warms them all up and leaves, and Krell arrives, but Mina is having none of his nonsense, and ties him upside down on the ceiling.
Mina wants to go to Godshome and wants Rhys to guide her, but first she wants to collect a gift from the Solio Febalas beneath the Tower of the Blood Sea. It is now Mina’s tower, and all of the Beloved from across Ansalon have been swarming to it since it was risen. They sail to it only to find that Mina does not recognise or like the Beloved and they eventually make it into the tower with the Beloved being held back somehow. They meet the two black robe wizards and travel to the bottom, discovering the fishbowl destroyed in the raising of the tower. Mina reconstructs it and brings them into the Solio Febalas. Rhys is struck by the holy nature of the area, like Mina was when she first entered it, and the Black Robes sneak in. Mina grabs a necklace and pyramid artifact and gives Nightshade a grasshopper of Majere cloak pin. The wizards try to kill Rhys but are stopped by the artifacts of Mina and they leave. Nuitari, furious, collects his wizards and as Mina and the rest leave the room, Chemosh and Nuitari decide to enter the Solio Febalas. The High God takes the Hall away from them. And furious, they leave.
Mina and the rest are trying to leave the tower but the Beloved are swarming trying to get at Mina. Finally she has enough, and turns into her adult form, burning them all away with her holy flame. The Beloved are no more. Now with her gifts, Mina and the rest leave the island to travel to Godshome, and the tower sinks back under the blood sea.
Book Two picks up with the trio on the road. Mina insists on heading toward Godshome, but no one actually knows where it is. They decide to travel across Ansalon to Solace to ask the priest of Majere if he knows where to look. Mina insists that it should only take a day or so, and they are all visited by Chemosh and Zeboim. Chemosh tries to get Mina back, but she doesn’t recognize him in her child state, and Zeboim tells Mina that she can just fly to her destination.
She tries to fly everyone, and Rhys and Nightshade freak out, yelling at her to stop. Mina ends up speeding them on their way and what would’ve taken a year or more took only a few days walking to Solace. Upon arrival they see a riot in the temple row. It turns out the gods are fighting through their mortals. Chemosh tells his Bone Acolyte Ausric Krell to capture Mina with a magic band and kill Rhys. He plans on starting a diversion and his Bone warriors with a priestess of Chemosh will start a fire in Sargonna’s Temple and then Krell will enter Majere’s temple and claim Mina.
When Rhys enters the temple he talks with his priest who directs him to Valthonis, the once god paladine. He visited Godshome with Tanis and his companions, so it stands to reason he could direct Rhys to it. The only problem is that Mina swore to kill Paladine at the end of the War of Souls, so if she recognises him, it could spell trouble. Rhys agrees and as Nightshade and Mina arrive, Krell’s plan is put into action. The priests of Majere leave to defend innocents in the riots and the temple row becomes a battleground.
Krell binds Rhys and Mina as Nightshade casts a sleep spell on Krell. Mina escapes and heals Rhys who is still bound, and runs away, as she is the cause of all of this. Nightshade pursues and runs across Jenna the Red Robe Wizard . He directs her to help Rhys and runs after Mina with Atta. Jenna frees Rhys, who faces off against Krell, and a Bone Warrior is summoned and attacks Jennna. Jenna recognizes these beings from legends of the days before the Cataclysm, and ends up killing the Bone Warrior, and Rhys eventually kills Ausric Krell.
Rhys leaves to see the battle winding down and finds Gerard wounded. He tells Gerard the whole story and is told that the Kender and Mina were seen leaving town. Book two ends with Rhys leaving after them.
Book Three continues with Atta, Nightshade and Mina as they travel north and come upon a cottage made by Mishakal to help wayward travelers. This is clearly just another God coming to influence Mina, in Mishakal’s case it’s caring for her fellow lost god and her companions. Eventually Rhys arrives and Mishakal tells him that she can help them get to Valthonis, but that Sargonnas is sending Minotaurs and it may end up in battle. If Rhys wants to continue, it may mean his death. He accepts the responsibility and after a couple of days, they magically awake in Neraka where Mina arrived at the beginning of the War of Souls.
Galdar and a squad of minotaurs find Valthonis and his followers, and they attack, intending to subdue and abduct Valthonis, but Valthonis demands everyone to stop fighting and willingly leaves with Galdar. The companions of the walking god follow the minotaurs as they all travel to Neraka. Galdar and Valthonis come upon Rhys and Mina, and Mina turns into the War of Souls Mina, commanding Galdar. Galdar realizes she is not completely all there in the head, and tries to explain that he is there on behalf of Sargonnas to deliver Valthonis to her, so that she will kill him and become the new Queen of Darkness. Mina changes to her post War of Souls self, and demands Galdar’s sword so she can murder Valthonis.
Rhys councils her against it and Galdar actually ends up siding with Rhys, saying that he wants nothing to do with the murder. Galdar cuts Valthonis free, turns and walks away. Mina loses her mind. She knocks Valthonis down to attack Galdar. She takes his sword and beats him nearly to death as Rhys jumps in to stop her. She breaks Rhys jaw and knocks the wind out of him, so he is lying on the ground, starting to suffocate on his own blood. Atta comes to her master’s aid and attacks Mina, who knocks the dog down, cutting Atta deep to the bone with the sword, and now Nightshade uses the grasshopper artifact of Majere to leap to their aid and Mina grabs him by the topknot and snaps his neck! Mina actually killed the kender and it pained me more than I recall the first time I read it. Realizing what she has done, she comes to herself and starts weeping.
Valthonis gets up and seeing the devastation, he begins to care for the wounded and covers the dead. Mina knows that she cannot be a god of light with all this evil she has done and doesn’t want to be a god of darkness. Valthonis and Mina head out to Godshome. Rhys wakes to Galdar and other minotaurs tending to him and Atta. They lead them out of the valley and meet the wanderers of Valthonis. The mute elf picks up Nightshade’s corpse and they all leave Neraka.
Mina and Valthonis arrive at Godshome and Mina gives up the artifacts to the pool and ultimately chooses to be the goddess of tears, open to anyone who needs her, taking the position of neutrality thereby maintaining balance. This is a crazy notion now that neutrality has the majority of gods now. It was the desire of neutrality over the world that led to the creation of the Graygem. I can only imagine the hell that will come from this if ever the novels address it. Ultimately Mina’s journey would have been so much more satisfying if she hadn’t been a whiny child through this last novel. She was so attractive in the first novel, mysterious and wavering in the second and now disappointing as a character to have regressed to nothing. We watched her grow through the War of Souls, why take all of that growth away? For what real purpose did it serve? It was just annoying to read. And why did Nightshade die? Because someone had to? I am not against sacrifices in a story but I don’t understand why Mina was acting the way she was through the novel, as it never explained it to any semblance of satisfaction. Then to murder the heart and soul of the trilogy thus far? No. It felt more like dramatic shock value than anything else. In fact, this whole novel was frustrating to get through and that is terrible because I loved the first novel and liked the second.
It reminds me of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. How there was no real plan, and it was just made up film by film. This probably was not the case with this trilogy, but the fact that I feel that way is frustrating as I really enjoy this author’s work and I love this campaign world. For this to be the last novel written in it is… well, depressing.
I would not recommend this book to anyone who likes the character of Mina, the author Margaret Weis or the Dragonlance world. If you are a completionist, then definitely read it, but it will not satisfy you otherwise. It left me feeling hollow, and even with the little postscript of Nightshade returning as a ghost, I was unsatisfied.
Outro
And that’s it for my review of Amber and Blood by Margaret Weis. What do you think of the end of the trilogy? Do you enjoy the reviews I am putting out there? Feel free to email me at info@dlsaga.com or comment below.
I would like to once again invite you to consider becoming a member of this channel, and remind you that you can pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate link, all of which are in the description below.
This channel is all about celebrating the wonderful world of the Dragonlance Saga, and I hope you will join me in the celebration. Thank you for watching, this has been Adam with DragonLance Saga and until next time Slàinte mhath (slan-ge-var).
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