Join me as I review Dragon Knight by Dan Willis, live! Share your thoughts on this seventh novel in The New Adventures series, and the third novel in the Dragon Quartet. You can pick up Dragon Knight here: https://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Knight-Dragonlance-Adventures-Vol/dp/0786937351
About Dragon Knight
The seventh title in the new Dragonlance adventure series for young readers.
Dragon Knights continues a new series of Dragonlance fantasy adventures written specifically for readers ages 10 and up. Sized to fit the young reader market, the series features a group of young companions who band together for friendship and excitement during the golden age of the Dragonlance world.
Review
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Bakukal, Darkember the 4th, my name is Adam and today I am going to give you my Spoiler review of Dragon Knight by Dan Willis. 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.
This novel seems to be exclusively dealing with Davyn from the companions. He is wrestling with his failure of saving Nearra from Asvoria, and the supposed death of Elidore. He has taken Elidor’s flute and is practicing using it as an honor to his blood brother’s memory. He is drinking himself into a funk, and when returning to his room at an inn, is attacked and knocked out before realizing who it is. It turned out to be Nearra’s sister, Jirah. We learn that Jirah is looking for Nearra to have her end her family’s curse. Their ancestor Anselm was the last of a long line of potent wizards but they were cursed somehow, and a dragon statue called Trinistyr has something to do with it. The problem is, that if they drop the curse when Asvoria is still in control of Nearra then she will have access to their ancestral diving arcane power.
Jirah insists on Davyn helping her find Nearra and Davyn is taken aback by Jirah’s resemblance to Nearra. He agrees to take her to the town of Potters Mill to talk with the Seer Shemnara. They head into the Vingaard Mountains with proper provisions, and stop at Dog’s Trading Post to equip up and visit his old friend. They finally get to the town and meet all their old friends from a few books back. I was excited to see Set-ai is still alive and the same great father figure that Davyn needs.
Shemnara tells Davyn the only way to defeat Asvoria and separate her from the connection they made in the dragon well, which is the only reason Nearra is still alive, is to get the aid of Oddvar the Thiewar Dwarf that worked with Maddoc, and have him guide this new group of companions into Viranesh Keep to seek the aid of the Dragon Knight. Reluctantly Davyn agrees to approach Oddvar about help, and he finds him in a town called Arnal working as a blacksmith. Oddvar reluctantly agrees to take them with the promise of keeping any treasure they find, when an elf accosts Davyn as he’s playing the elven flute, questioning him where he got it, and a bunch of men watching Oddvar decide to draw their swords presumably to attack.
Splitting the party is something that made sense in Chronicles because there were a ton of people in the group, but in this story, it doesn’t make sense. I do like the pain that Davyn is feeling, as it is real, and feels like Davyn is a real person with real regret and pain. So far, I am enjoying this story, and I am not missing Catriona or Sindri at all. The battle that ensued was all about Oddvar owing money to the ruffians. The attackers abandoned their quarry after being overwhelmed by Davyn, Set-ai, Mudd and a newcomer elf archer called Rina. Oddvar showed back up after the fight and Set-ai told him that if he left during a brawl again, Set-ai would be the one attacking Oddvar. The addition of the elf was really out of left field, it almost feels like they are setting her up to be Elidore’s half sister, which would be lame. Editing note: They did, and it was.
They all get on a barge to go down river and stop at a town just before Viranesh Keep. The town also has it out for Oddvar, as the only people who go there are treasure hunters, but none but Oddvar ever made it out of Viranesh Keep, so they blamed him for their loved ones deaths. They wake them early in the morning pounding on the door and the companions leave out of the side window. The townspeople realize they snuck out and begin to form a posse to hunt them down. The companions get to the cursed keep and Oddvar says he got out through the sewer system that collapsed behind him. So he begins digging just before the collapse, and everyone notices the posse coming up to them.
They all rush to get the tunnel opened and enter it, just as it collapses behind them, saving them from the mob but trapping them in the sewer system of the keep. Crawling deeper into the building they discover they have to crawl into more pipes for entry. They eventually make it into what appears to be a tomb. There are two sarcophagi and a dragon statue. Davyn looks at the statue and it has a tiny unbalanced sword and shield, but nothing of value. They see an outline of a door, but plaster is caked in from the edges, leading them to believe it was sealed up from the inside. They begin to break through the wall when a group of wild men wander into the room on the other side of the hole, and like berzerkers, scream and attack them. The fighting causes the ceiling to collapse and not everyone got through the hole. Hector the gnome and Mudd the thief were apparently buried.
Davyn is freaking out, but Oddvar tells him that it will collapse on them if they try to dig it out without bracing the ceiling. They resign themselves to the reality that their friends are dead, and move into the keep further. We have been here before and that time, Elidore wasn’t dead, so I don’t believe Hector or Mudd are either. They are caught by knights who take them to Gurgut Viranesh, the heir to the Dragon Knight. He just needs the sword to lift the curse of the keep. Davyn shows him the sword he had from the statue, but it wasn’t the right one. Telling them about the two tombs, Gurgut demands they dig it out. They knights and Gurgut act completely mad, and have been trapped in the keep for twenty years! So it’s understandable. He also acts like the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland when he doesn’t get his way.
Gurgut insists they are punished for not giving him his sword immediately and make them sleep in a well that’s filled with brackish water. It’s here we discover that Rina is Elidore’s half sister and she hired Oddvar to find Davyn so she could kill him. She has learned that Davyn was Elidores blood brother and loved him as family, so she decided to stay and help. Meanwhile, Mudd and Hector had gone back into the pipe when the ceiling collapsed and made their way into the kitchen area, where they discovered the keep magically prepared food for those trapped. They wander into the dining hall and are seemingly caught.
The next morning the companions are taken from the well to dig out the tomb. They uncover one casket but it doesn’t have the Dragon Knight’s sword. They don’t have the energy to uncover the second one today, so they are returned to the well. That is where Mudd and Hector find them, saying they will let them out. It turns out the group they ran into were called the Freeholders. There are three groups fighting for control of the keep. The Looters who live on the upper level, which the keep doesn’t provide enough food for. Gurgut’s group who has more than enough food, and pays off Looters for gear and info on newcomers, and the Freeholders who have the right amount of food for their numbers. All have given up hope of ever leaving until now. Davyn explains the sword situation and Oddvar reveals himself to the leader. It turns out that Oddvar was a part of the Freeholders when they first entered the keep. He was the only one to leave, so they moved to attack him.
Odvar and Davyn explain how they can end the curse if they get the sword. They devise a plan to set the upper levels on fire to draw Gurgut and the looters, then the Freeholders will go to the tomb and tunnel up and out. Oddvar is positive it can be done. Mudd and Hector go to set the fire, but in the chaos, Hector gives Mudd an escape route, sacrificing himself. The Freeholders with the companions enter the tomb to see they already opened the second grave and nothing was there. Then Gurgut and his forces arrive. The ceiling caves in as Ooddvar planned, but he sacrificed himself to do it, and Gurgut is fighting Davyn as everyone else escapes.
During their fight, Gurgut opens the secret tomb to the Dragon Knight and Davyn leaves. He realizes he needs to finish the quest and goes back in to get the sword. The Dragon Knight is awakened in the fight between Gurgut and Davyn, and it salutes Davyn, as the whole complex collapses. Davyn flees without the sword and believes he has failed, again. This time it cost Oddvar, who Davyn had grown to respect and Hector their lives. As everyone is leaving the keep collapses and they are stopped by the townspeople who saw the burning keep and came to investigate. They see their lost loved ones and party as they are reunited. However, Set-ai’s wounded arm is infected and he will die if it is not removed, so Davyn orders the amputation.
They return to the town and book passage back to Potters Mill to report their failure, hoping Shannara had some insight on what to do next. They arrive and Shemnara tells them that they succeeded. They removed the curse, the Dragon Knight chose Davyn as his successor, and She took the worthless blade Davyn had from the Keep, and plunged it into the dragon’s blood pool she has been scrying out of, and it turns it into a keen blade of the Dragon Knight. With it, Davyn can now sever Nearra from Asvoria. It did cost Shemnara her powers however.
She tells Davyn he needs to go into the service of Asvoria and when the time is right, strike her with the sword. His new companions need to unite with his old companions in Palanthas and come to aid him in Asvorias’ defeat. So this all happened simultaneously as the last novel, which I really liked story wise. I also loved the factions in the cursed Viranesh Keep and that we saw actual consequences, with the deaths of Oddvar and Hector, and the loss of Setai’s arm. With one final novel to go in this series, I am actually hopeful that it can be pulled off in an entertaining way. It’s also fun to watch Jirak and Rina mildly fight over Davyn. Seeing him squirm is a lot of fun.
So, I know these reviews have been erratic, but so has the quality of this series. I did like this book, and if you have read everything before it, I would suggest reading it. About half way through I realized I was enjoying something that didn’t happen in the last two novels, so hey, give it a go, why not.
Outro
And that’s it for my review of Dragon Knight by Dan Willis. What do you think about the seventh of The New Adventures novels? Did you have a favorite part of the novel? 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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