Join me as I review The Lost Chronicles: Dragons of the Highlord Skies, live! Share your thoughts on this return to the War of the Lance, as the authors fill in the gaps of the original Chronicles trilogy. You can buy a copy of the book here: https://amzn.to/3ySaMOt
Review
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today I am going to give you my Spoiler review The Lost Chronicles: Dragons of the Highlord Skies. I will be spoiling the story, so if you don’t want to know it, stop watching now! Don’t forget to like and subscribe to this channel, ring the bell, and you can support this channel by becoming a Patron on Patreon, a Member of this YouTube channel, and you can pick up Dragonlance Gaming materials, using my affiliate link. All links are in the description below. This is my perspective only, and if you have any thoughts or disagree with mine, I invite you to share them in YouTube chat.
Dragons of the Highlord Skies is broken into four books. One half of this novel can be summed up as Kitiara’s political maneuverings. She is obsessed with the memory of Tanis Half-Elven after she discovers he was reported in the company of his old flame Laurana. Kitiara cannot handle being lied to and not having the full desire and attention of a man on her, she goes seeking the truth of Tanis and Laurana and in turn, puts herself in a position that will define her future. Meanwhile the other half of this novel is primarily about Laurana finding and embracing her destiny as a leader and warrior, Sturm realizing his destiny as a Knight of Solamnia, and the Dragon Orb being taken from the Castle in Ice Reach to Solamnia.
Book one consists of Takhisis wanting Lord Soth to enter the war and Soth saying that he will IF a highlord can survive a night in Dargaard keep. Takhisis sends a vision to her highlords, and as yet none have taken the bait. Lord Ariakas is gettin the Dark Queens armies ready for winter, pausing all campaigns till spring but his new consort, a human female wizard named Iolanth wants him to send her to Solamnia to corrupt the Knights of Solamnia by tricking them into collect the Dragon Orb from Icereach and trapping them with its power like they did with Lorac in Silvanesti. Ariakas sends Kitiara instead, as he wants to keep her busy after refusing to entertain her plan to capture The High Clerist Tower, and then the city of Palanthus.
Kitiara is successful, then travels to Pax Tharkas to find a replacement highlord in Verminaards stead. She meets Fewmaster Toede and gathers information about her old friends, the heroes of the lance. Ariakas suspects she may have had something to do with verminaards death and her friends being the murderers would look bad.
She learns that Laurana is with Tanis and grows jealous as she still loves Tanis, or at the very least, the idea of him loving her. She travels to Icereach and delivers Ariakas orders to Feal-Thas, the dark elf from Silvanesti who has placed a guardian over the dragon orb. Kitiara ends up killing the guardian, nearly dying in the process and receives dispatches from Airakas and Toade. She learns the heroes have left Thorbardin and are en route to Tarsis. She leaves Icereach to head to Tarsis, which connects with book 1 of Dragons of Winter Night.
In book two, Knights of Solamnia, Derek, Aaron and Brian travel to Tarsis looking for a secret library which is said to have information about the dragon orb kitiara tricked them into searching for. They run into an Aesthetic named Lillith who Brian falls in love with. She asks them to find a Kender that is on a bounty list with the other heroes of the lance for killing Verminaard. They agree so that she will help them. They search the library to no avail. Then they hear the heroes are arrested and find them being brought to justice as they kidnap Tasselhoff. Tasslehof reveals the glasses he was given in Thorbardin by the dragon and Lillith asks that he helps Derek translate books. They find the Dragon Orb information and run into Tanis, Flint, Sturm and Alahna. This is the same conversation and events from Dragons of Winter Night as the city is attacked by the Red Dragon Army. Tanis, Flint and Tas run to their friends in the inn and Derek Brian and Aaron chase after them. Afterward Derek outs Sturm for not being a knight to his friends for not helping him take Tas to Icereach with them. This was primarily about Sturm, his reputation in Solamnia, and how the other Knights see him. Gunther Uth Wistan sponsored Sturm and Derek Crownguard rejected him. It reveals Sturm as being the true Knight through his actions, rather than the desire for positions of power that Derek is motivated by. Even while sharing the tragic information of his family and land to explain his demeanor.
Book three deals with both Kitiara and Laurana primarily. Kitiara is summoned after the sacking of Tarsis to Neraka for a highlord meeting that Skie refuses to take her to. The meeting turned out to be a trap of Ariakas’ to capture and charge Kitiara with treason for killing lord Verminaard. Feal-Thas sent a letter accusing her of it, and with Ariakas existing suspicions that was all he needed to convict her. They put her in a holding cell. She was to be executed in the morning. In a desperate plea she called out to Takhisis to save her and in return she would travel to Dargaard keep to bring Lord Soth into the war. Laurana heads to Icewall with Elistan, Flint, Gilthanas, Brian, Aaron, Derek and Sturm. Derek grows more obsessed with the dragon orb the closer they get. They run across an ice bear being killed by draconians that the knights run off, and Elistan heals the bear, garnering its favor so the Ice folk take the companions in and join their cause. Brian sees how much of a true personification of the knights of Solamnia Sturm is and makes him his squire. This infuriates Derek, but the Dragon orb is more important to him. Feal-Thas sets a trap for the companions and the dragon orb sends alluring dreams to Derek. When they assault the ice castle, Derek and the companions hunt for the dragon orb, fall into the trap, and are attacked by a large pack of wolves led by Feal-Thas in wolf form. Brian and Aaron fall, and Laurana kills Feal-Thas with the Frostreaver gifted to her. Derek collects the dragon orb and they abandon his companion knight corpses to escape with his prize.
Book four is a short finale and fitting bookend to the novel, dealing with Kitiara’s difficult journey to Dargaard Keep. She nearly gives up after long hardships trying to find food and deal with the elements, and is at last confronted by the Dark Queen herself, who calls her dragon Skie to her. Kitiara then flies to Dargaard Keep and confronts Lord Soth, fighting to the bitter end. However Lord Soth sees her courage and sheer will, and bends his knee to enter her service.
There is enough action and worldbuilding in this novel to make it worth a read, but to get the insight into the Dragon Armies political scheming, the reality of the knights in the Knights of Solamnia, and the Elves and Humans distrust and biases that prevent them from working together make this a must read for any fan of the War of the Lance era. This gives an immeasurable amount of character growth for Laurana, context for sturm and introduction to Kitiara that reminds me as a reader why I love these characters.
I teared up when Brian acknowledged Sturm for the knight he is. When the Ice Chieftain presented Frostreaver to Laurana, foreshadowing her destiny and that awful moment on the High Clerists tower, when Tas flies into a frenzy to protect Flint from an attacking wolf and the final outcome of that battle. I have always been drawn to heroic last stands and as a veteran I can’t help but reflect on our real world heroes that do the same things in conflict around our world even today. The darkness that is ever present in the world is constantly being fought at the cost of our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, even fathers and mothers. They serve so that we can find indulgence in small things like this novel. I for one and thankful for that service and sacrifice and celebrate it whenever I see the harsh reality echoed in fictional characters. Like I have always said, the best fiction is an echo of realty in my opinion.
This novel can feel disjointed at times as it bounces back and forth, but in the context of the original Chronicles trilogy, it is a welcomed addition. I highly recommend Dragons of the Highlord Skies to any fan of Dragonlance.
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