Join me as I review City of the Lost by Mary H. Herbert, live! Share your thoughts on this first novel in the Dragonlance: Linsha Trilogy released on July 1, 2000 by Wizards of the Coast. You can buy a copy here: https://amzn.to/3JL2MVS
About City of the Lost
The first title in a new trilogy that explores the Dragonlance world after the War of Souls.
City of the Lost centers around the character Linsha Majere, the grandchild of one of the central characters of the entire Dragonlance saga. This new title and trilogy advances the story of the world after the events of the best-selling War of Souls trilogy and also introduces a major new villain.
At a lonely outpost on the edge of the world, two dragon overlords threaten to upset the region’s fragile peace. One has entrusted Rose Knight Linsha Majere with a terrible secret. When a magical storm hammers all of Ansalon, the precarious order is shattered, and Linsha must embark on a desperate quest to save the city from the onslaught of an unstoppable enemy.
Review
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Kirinor, Brookgreen the 29th. My name is Adam and today I am going to give you my Spoiler review of City of the Lost by Mary H. Herbert. 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 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.
This novel is starting out similar to The Clandestine Circle, though it does a good job using what happened in that novel to contextualize Linsha Majere. She was charged, spent weeks in prison then the charges were dropped after Lord Bight sent word to the Knights. I am very glad to have read that novel before starting this one. Linshe is working out of a section of the ancient ruined Silvanesti ghost city called Gal Trakalas. This city reminds me of Nandor’s homeland of Al Qolnidar from What wWe Do In The Shadows. I am listening to the audio books, so I am unsure of the spelling or even pronunciation of many of these words, as the narrator is saying a lot of locations and names strangely. The Knights of Solamnia operate out of a portion of that city they rebuilt called Mirage. Linsha is summoned by the Dragon Lord Iesta, a Brass Dragon that reigns in this area, contested by the Blue Dragon Lord Thunder. Iesta wants Linsha to accompany her to Thunder in order to get the feel of the Dragon’s reaction upon questioning. There are triplet Brass Dragons that act as guards for Iesta who are missing and she suspects Thunder killed them. Upon questioning the Blue Dragon lord, they conclude he was lying when he feigned ignorance.
They also noted a small army massing in Thunders realm composed of humans and Tarmak, though no one seems to know what Tarmak are which is strange since you know, the Chaos war saw them used by the Dark Knights. Iesta returned to the city with Linsha and changed into a human form to show Linsha a brood of Gold Dragon Eggs she is watching and to ask Linsha to swear on her honor to protect them. Linsha agrees. Then she is dismissed to report the massing army to her Legion of Steel contact Lanthar and her Knights of Solamnia circle in the city. The second in command, Sir Remmick, hates Linsha for her unorthodox behavior. The first in command, Lord Morick takes her with him and other Solamnic Knights to the Citadel and are ambushed en route. A massive lightning storm destroyed the city and area, obviously from Thunder, and the mysterious attackers are obviously the Dark Knights and Tarmak.
Before Linsha lost consciousness in the battle, her dagger was taken and buried in Lord Morrick’s back, so when Sir Remmick and the other Solamnic troops arrive, they immediately blame Linsha for the murder, you know, as assholes would do. This is completely illogical, and is something not even Derek Crownguard would do in my opinion. Linsha is protected by a centaur named Leonidus who she favored early in the novel, and she is taken into custody to be tried for Lord Morricks death. Her giant owl Veria, when trying to locate Linsha, sees a large number of ships approaching from the east in the ocean, and with the army to the west it seems Thunder has Iesta right where he wants her, with war on the horizon. Naturally the Solamnic Knights are acting like blind idiots. This trope bothers me, as I never saw the knighthood this idiotic after the Crownguard fiasco…. But I suppose stupid is as stupid does.
Veria begins searching for Linsha initially, then Iesta, and as she is unable to find either, she approaches the Legionnaire Lanther that Linsha talks with a lot, telling him about the coming war ships. Then, not knowing what to do, but sure there is trouble on the horizon, she flies to Sanction to ask Lord Bight if Crucible can come help Linsha. Lanther seems to report the information to the Knights of Solamnia, and Linsha is tried and found guilty of murder of the Knight Commander, without any evidence or defense on her behalf. I can’t tell if Sir Remmick is corrupted or just single minded and blind. Before she can be executed, Sir Hue, a friend of Linsha’s, helps her escape the dungeon. Linsha immediately goes to Iesta’s lair searching for her, as no one has seen the Dragon Lord, and many assume she abandoned her territory.
Linsha goes to her lair and discovers her body with a missing head. The Dragon Lords and Overlords use the heads to make Skull Totems. Knowing that a massive naval army, and the land army Thunder has, and operating off the assumption that Thunder is behind both the storm that devastated Gal Trakalas and Mirage, Linsha seeks out the Legion of Steel leadership. She was accompanied by the city militia on discovery of the corpse of Iesta, so she now has to inform the Legion about Iesta and the ships. It turns out they already know from Veria, and Thunders’ army strikes.
It takes hours before the majority of Gal Trakalas falls, and then Thunder turns her sight to the Solamnic Knights Citadel, and raises it to the ground, killing the entire circle that we know of thus far. Devastated, Linsha and the Legionnaires flee to their area in the city and the invading army of Tarmak Brutes provides a respite in the heat of the day. Linsha is offerend membership in the Legion, but politely refuses, and decides to go rest. She sleeps and has a dream about the Dark Knight traitor from the last novel telling her to not trust the man. She doesn’t understand the omen but we readers immediately are presented with her old friend Lanther, who asks her about the secret Dragon Eggs Iesta was hiding. It turns out that Thunder knows about them and wants them. Linsha feigns ignorance, but it seems like Lanther knows better, and as she stalks off to fight the invading army, he smiles to himself, assuming she will lead him to them, at least that is my assumption thus far.
As Linsha regroups with the militia and bodyguards she is intent upon finding the eggs, but hears Veria call to her. She leaves the area and finds Veria who tells her Crucible has come. Crucible demands to see Iesta’s remains, and the eggs. They enter the secret area below the palace and find the guardian dead as well, just like Iesta, without a head or signs of dragon battle. They return to the surface to be met with the remaining Legionnaires, guards, militia and surprisingly some Knights of Solamnia from the Citadel. It turns out a handful made it out of a hidden tunnel before the citadel was destroyed. Sir Remmic attempts to reclaim Linsha as a prisoner but everyone refuses to let him, and Crucible throws him across the room.
The Brutes begin their assault anew, and completely retake the city forcing its defenders out or captures and enslaves them. Thunder is moving her totem into the palace and having claimed the bronze eggs adds them to her totem as well. The Tarmak general wants to claim the city, and destroy the remaining militia, but Thunder couldn’t care less, and the general knows that soon Thunder will no longer need them. They however want to keep this city as they won it in battle.
Linsha decides to try and retake the eggs, sneaks into the palace only to be captured by the Tarmak. The general reveals that he killed the dragons for Thunder with an Abyssal Lance he got from Ariakan in the Chaos War, and then leaves Linsha tied up only with the Lance only to be rescued, and the Lance is taken with them. This is clearly a ploy by the Tarmak to have Linsha and the militants kill Thunder. As Linsha and Crucible plan on doing just that, she mounts that stolen Abyssal Lance on him, and they fly to draw Thunder into Iestas treasure room and beyond to kill him. Once in the Skull Totem room, they take an egg from it to draw Thunder deeper into the labyrinth, and while they are doing this, the Tarmak enter the palace and destroy the totem and claim the eggs.
After a heavy battle, Thunder is killed with the lance, and Linsha carries Crucible out in the form of a cat. They meet up with the militants and flee the overrun city. They realize they were used by the Tarmak, and that they have the eggs, but everyone is too beaten down to continue at the moment and the novel ends. I skipped over a lot of events, and I believe this was a great story, but as I was listening to it, rather than reading it, I feel like I didn’t absorb it as well. Unfortunately this whole trilogy is in audiobook form for me, so I will have to focus even harder on the second book.
I really appreciate how Mary Herbert the author focuses on each order and its members, and calls back to The Clandestine Circle for added context. I am looking forward to seeing where the story leads as the Tarmak are as brutal and efficient as ever. I do not hold out hope for the Legionnaires or the Solamnics in retrieving the eggs. If you enjoy Dragonlance Fifth Age stories or Linsha Majere, you will love this book. Otherwise, I am not sure I would call it a must read, as it is even more hyper specific to the Fifth Age and Dragon Lords than The Clandestine Circle was, and less genre specific as well.
Outro
But that’s it for my review of City of the Lost by Mary H. Herbert. Did you enjoy the setting of Gal Trakalas? Do you wish they would have explained more about Thunder and his relationship with the Tarmak? You can email me at info@dlsaga.com or comment below.
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