Join me as I review Brothers Majere by Kevin Stein, live! Share your thoughts on this third novel in the Dragonlance Preludes series, released on January 14, 1990 by TSR Inc. You can buy a copy here: https://amzn.to/3SjXyGc
About Brothers Majere
Twins Raistlin and Caramon investigate a frightening string of disappearances and murders in this prequel novel to the Dragonlance Chronicles
Darkness and unrest are growing. People disappear in the night, and there are rumors of foul forces at work. To this land caught in the grips of a nameless terror come Raistlin and Caramon Majere, two brothers—one a wizard, one a warrior—who are trying to eke out a living on the backroads of Ansalon. Desperate for money, they agree to take on a job in the backwater village of Mereklar, where a series of disappearances has sent everyone into a panic.
A beautiful noblewoman persuades Raistlin, Caramon, and their kender companion, Earwig Lockpicker, to search for the missing. But what starts out as an intriguing mystery turns sinister when the town’s leading citizens are murdered by what appears to be a violent feline beast.
A ball of string, an ancient legend, and three magically glowing lines lead the twins to the truth—and to a confrontation with a deadily foe. On the fabled Night of the Eye, Raistlin will supposedly acquire great magical power . . . and he’ll need it if he is to survive.
Review
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Bakukal, Newkolt the 19th. My name is Adam and today I am going to give you my review of Brothers Majere by Kevin Stein. I would like to take a moment and thank the DLSaga members, 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 links. This is my perspective only, and if you have any thoughts or disagree with mine, I invite you to share them in YouTube chat.
Right off the bat, I have to say it is refreshing to read an author who takes the effort to weave their story into the existing canon. We are introduced to Earwig Lockpicker who was in Raistlin and the Knight of Solamnia short story. They reference the Test of the Twins short story, even with Fistandantilus popping in Raistlin’s dreams a bit. It really showcases Raistlin’s weakness and near-death state after the test, which is great. It references the short story where Raistlin defeated the seeker priest in Lemish, and made a nice connection to the tavern waitress, as her brother was taken in by him. And finally when they get to Mereklar, the walls are plastered with imagery that has yet to happen in the Legends trilogy, which has already happened in this. It’s great!
Earwig is a nice kender stand-in for Tasslehoff Burrfoot, and always wants to brawl, which is really entertaining. And Caramon and Raistlin are doing their best to get away from him initially before resigning themselves to their fate. They travel, looking for work, this is immediately after the first short story I referenced. They are broke and find a signpost with a bounty for work in Mereklar. No one has ever heard of it before, and when they camp for the night they are attacked by masked men. The leader escapes and everyone else is defeated. They loot the corpses and most of it is junk.
They continue onto an inn where the residents are all worried about the cats that have gone missing. The heroes don’t know the backstory yet, but apparently Mereklar existed before anyone lived there, and it’s always been a refuge for cats. The current residents did something to make them disappear, and the residents seem to be led by a woman named Shavas. Now that the heroes are known to be looking for work they can’t be killed without raising suspicion. They stay at the inn for the night and travel to Mereklar in the morning, Raistlin seems to be led by a white line that no one else can see. The guards refuse to let them in until a mysterious person vouches for them at the gate, and they bust into an inn for the night.
The time in Mereklar is odd. They spend a lot of time here before they even get to meet Counselor Shavas, to be presented with the job. The time is infused with Raistlin having odd dreams, and even seemingly getting over his illness from his Test. He finally comes to terms that the magical effects he is experiencing are from the coming Night of the Eye, where the three moons of magic will be in alignment. This happened once when he was a kid and he breathed fire! So, who knows what will happen this time. He is also being led around by this light that is dissecting the massive walled city. He believes again, that it has to do with the coming celestial event and Earwig ‘handles’ a sextant for Raistlin to use, to track the moons I assume.
Earwig is being accosted by men who see his necklace and want to take it violently from him. We even learn that Earwig has been changing in his behavior since finding a magical ring in Shavas’ room. This, I believe, allows Shavas to spy on the heroes, listening in to their conversations. Earwig also gets crazy insistent about being near the twins, till Raistlin casts a sleep spell on him to ditch him. They all are met by Shavas and led to her estate. There is something magical about her, as Raistlin cant see her age like everything else, then he sees the fastest glimpse of her as a rotting corpse. I don’t recall the outcome of this novel, so I hope she is a lich.
She seems to have an aura of charm about her as even Raistlin is attracted to her physically. Caramon is entirely under her spell, and even plans to go on a date with her to create a diversion so Raistlin can read her spellbooks. She offers them an obscene amount of Steel to find the missing cats, as there is a prophecy of the world ending if the cats leave. There is one black cat that hangs around that I will return to shortly. The heroes leave for the night and upon returning the next day to agree to take the case, Shavas has arranged a meeting of the whole council to discuss it with them. The council doesn’t want Raist involved as he’s a wizard and wizards aren’t trusted in this age.
One council member is missing, Lord Manion who is murdered by a large cat seemingly. This causes much fear and concern, and leads to even more questions. The next morning the black cat leads Caramon and Raistlin to the sewers and a secret, ancient room where all the cats seem to be sleeping. Now they need to figure out why and how to reverse it, and they only have three days to do it till the night of the eye festival. They leave to think and Caramon is summoned to Shavas, where they have a night of pleasure. Raistlin is allowed access to Shavas’ library which has a book on Tanis-Half Elven. One of the books speaks of an ancient mage named Ali Azra which reminds me of Lovecraft’s Necronomicon. He speaks of this city being built by three mages as a gate. But leaves more questions than answers in Raistlin’s mind. Then Raist picks up a new book which is a magical trap that tries to contain his mind. He defeats it with Fistandantilus’ aid, and returns home. Meanwhile Earwig is lured to a bar by a barmaid and abducted, left in a dark cell with other skeletons of former prisoners.
Caramon returns home and finds Raistlin who is still confused, but has a vision of a dark figure in a park. He takes Caramon to a cafe where they find Bast, the Lord of the Cats. Bast refuses to answer any questions, and then leaves, only to have Raist and Caramon decide to travel to the old dead wizard cave outside town, and Bast reappears to follow them. They see an ancient lich which touches Raistlin, throwing him back and implanting knowledge of what Mereklar is, an ancient gate to the Abyss. Bast has his cats knock out Caramon, then let them go. Bast’s motivations make no sense, nor do the councils at this point.
So Raist goes to Shavas when he comes to and sends Caramon to the Inn to find Earwig, who he hears has escaped Bast. Raist confronts Shavas who says she used Caramon to make Raistlin jealous and she wants him to help her kill the cat man, as he has killed more of the council. She gives him a wand to do it. Raist leaves her. Caramon finds Earwig who lures him into the sewer and attacks him as he is possessed by Takhisis through the ring he stole from Shavas. Caramon rips the ring from his finger freeing Earwig. Raistlin finds Bast attacking many council members who propositions him to their side. Raistlin refuses and helps Bast kill them all.
Bast leads Raistlin to Caramon and heals Earwig. He then tells them that the Queen of Darkness is being let in through Mereklar tonight, during the Night of the Eye, and the three of them must stop it by entering the Abyss’ mirror of the city. The council members were all killed and replaced by demons. So Caramon and Earwig go to the walls and enter the Abyss city beating on Demons, and Raistlin makes a potion of some sort… I am getting really tired of the Takhisis wanting to enter Krynn trope in every damn novel. Use evil liches or ancient beings, or demons or power hungry Irda, or ANYTHING but the one plot point Dragonlance always uses.
Caramon and Earwig continue to battle demons and meet Bast in the Abyss city. There they are told to find and destroy the altar in the sewers. Bast leaves and they head down, find the altar, open it and pull out a tube, breaking it as Caramon is being choked out by ghost hands. Raistlin visits Shavas who propositions him, even gets nude, and Raistlin rejects her. The poison he made attracted magical power, so when Shavas attempted to destroy Raistlin for not joining Takhisis, she went to cast a lightning bolt at him, but all the magic swells killed her instead.
With the altar destroyed and the demons gone, all returns to normal. The kender Earwig leaves with the barmaid, and Caramon and Raistlin leave for their next adventure. I have to say, it was a satisfying ending, but it presented some odd ideas. Dalamar was the drow/dark elf that Raistlin fought in his Test. It predicted that there would only be five ages to Krynn, and that they were in the fourth age… I wonder if that was a throwaway line or if the editor was seeding possible future game products… Raistlin is weak again, and I wonder if he is relieved of his ailments every night of the eye? Why was he able to breathe fire as a kid? Who is Ali Azra? He is referenced as if he is known to the readers… and that their father chose the last name of Majere to honor his favored god.
That being said, it was a good read, it did fit into the existing canon at the time, and it kept the same old tired trope of defeating the Dark Queen’s machinations, so I would recommend it to fans of Raistlin, the twins, Dragonlance, and fantasy. It’s not required reading for Dragonlance, but it is a good read.
Outro
And that’s it for my review of Brothers Majere by Kevin Stein. What did you think of Bast, the Lord of the Cats? Would you have told Caramon he slept with a lich? Was Earwig a good replacement for Tasslehoff? And finally, do you mind the beating of Takhisis trope in many of these novels? You can email me at info@dlsaga.com or comment below.
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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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