Join me as I review Kaz the Minotaur by Richard A. Knaak, live! Share your thoughts on this sequel to The Legend of Huma. This is the fourth volume of six in the Dragonlance Heroes series. You can pick up Kaz the Minotaur here: https://amzn.to/354lVkX
About Kaz the Minotaur
Old friends become new foes in this follow-up to the New York Times bestseller The Legend of Huma, starring renegade minotaur Kaz
After the defeat of the Dark Queen and the death of Huma Dragonbane, Kaz the minotaur wanders throughout Krynn, telling the tale of the land’s most legendary hero. Already hunted by his own kinsmen, he discovers that he has also been declared an outlaw by the Knights of Solamnia, who once hailed him as a hero. But he has no idea why.
With old comrades now chasing him as a dreaded enemy, Kaz searches for the truth. But when he hears rumors of evil incidents, he returns to warn the Knights of Solamnia—and is plunged into a dark waking nightmare. Magic and treachery assail him from every side, but it is the ghosts of the past that may prove the most dangerous threat.
Review
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. It is Kirinor, Newkolt the 26th, my name is Adam and today I am going to give you my Spoiler review of Kaz the Minotaur. 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.
We open with a band of minotaurs hunting Kaz. They believe he is a coward because of a lie about how he killed the Ogre master he was a slave to. They are led by Molok, an Ogre who is surprisingly skilled at manipulating the individual minotaurs into thinking and acting as he wants them to. They have traveled much of southern Ansalon and decide to travel north, believing Kaz to be returning to Vingaard Keep because of a bounty notice the Knights of Solamnia have been posting about him.
The notice states that Kaz is wanted for crimes against Solamnia and as Kaz saw it, he could not believe it. Many other names that he fought the Dark Queen beside were also on the list. It turns out the Knighthood had somehow gone awry in the years after the war. They turned from helping the displaced to making them serfs under their rule. There is rumor that Lord Oswal is ill and Bennet will take the Knighthood over.
What’s great about this so far is that we get to see into the mind of a veteran who is suffering from PTSD. He tries his best to live up to the expectations of his dead best friend, Huma, and at times struggles against his own nature and societal teachings. He has met up with a kender named Delbin Knotwillow, who is young in his wandering, but has deferred to Kaz for some of his behaviors. There is also a white dreadwolf hunting them, who in a dream asks about Galen Dracos’ citadel.
Outside Xak Tsaroth, which in Prae Cataclius was a massive trade city, Kaz runs into remnants of the Dark Queens army turned mercenaries. They chase him into a wood where Kaz meets them in battle, but then a patrol of Solamnic Knights ride in and chase them both. Kaz gets away by accidentally leading the Knights into even more mercenaries. Once Delbin finds him, they head north, toward Vingaard Keep as suspected by his pursuers. He is obligated to get to the bottom of the bounty notice. He arrives at a small settlement where he is tricked into looking for goblins that turn out to be the minotaur hunters. They capture him, and Kaz realizes he tutored two of them, brother and sister Hecar and Helati. They believe the honorable tales of Kaz, even though the rest don’t. A cleric of Mishakal from the settlement rescues Kaz from the minotaurs and they travel across a river to escape them, but Kaz’s mount is struck by a spear from his pursuers and he succumbs to the power of the river current and passes out, swept downstream.
Kaz wakes in a tree hut owned by Sardal Crystalthorn, a Qualinesti elf wizard. The Elves discovered his dying body and brought him here. Sardal has been healing him for weeks. Kaz tells his story and Sardal gives him a dwarven crafted ax and a message to deliver to Argaen Ravenshadow who is currently residing in Vingaard Keep. They travel to Solamnia together where Kaz is left alone and travels toward the keep. Something casts a great shadow over him, and he comes across a Solamnic Knight party decimated. He discovers one knight alive and being tortured by goblins. Remembering how Huma saved him from the exact predicament, Kaz couldn’t leave this man to die. He overwhelms the goblins and saves the Knight of the Crown Darius. Darius tells him of distrust from the orders out of Vingaard, and of a massive creature that killed his party. Something dragon-like. They both head toward the keep and come to a seemingly deserted inn. Inside is Delbin and Tesela the cleric.
The town is attacked by the flying creature and Kaz tries to attack it but it chips his ax! They leave for Vingaard the next morning. When they arrive, it seems to be abandoned but it is in fact cursed. Those within fall to madness. They find their way to Darius who tells them of the madness. Kaz sees the dreadwolf again, and is questioning whether it’s real or not. Lord Bennard is bringing many knights with him to Vingaard after leaving and being cured of the madness.
Argaen is welcoming to Kas and his fellows, explaining how he came to the keep to catalog the artifacts discovered from Galen Dracos’ destroyed citadel. He was insistent that the knights began losing their minds and hiding more powerful artifacts from him. Delbin discovers a hidden walkway in the walls, and Argaen shares that this is a part of the original construction of the keep by Vinus Solamnus. This was how Rennard escaped the knights after Huma discovered his treachery.
The band of Minotaurs that are returning home from believing Kaz was drowned, comes across the fleeing goblins Kas rescued Darius from. Renewed and some worried, they head to Vingaard Keep to demand Kaz. Bennett and his Solamnic Knights have nearly arrived at the keep and are dealing with the shame of the lifted madness, and confusion as to why they haven’t felt it as they drew closer to the keep.
Back inside, Delbin in the walls sees a spider web and created a giant spider from his imagination, cementing the thought that a magical geas is on the keep. Argean brings everyone food after they rescued the kender and he takes the kender as everyone else eats. The food is poisoned and everyone is saved by the cleric of Mishakal. They head to the High Clerist’s throne room to speak with Lord Oswal and find that the knights guarding him, and the dreadwolves attacking the guards are all illusions. Kaz helps break Oswal out of his illusion and he reveals that the elf Argaen is behind it all. They head to the treasury where the elf brought Delbin to open the many locks the knights put around the artifacts of Galen Dracos’.
They arrive and battle Argean as Delbin opens the locks and the elf enters to reveal Galen’s green orb, nearly together emanating power.
Argean pulls out his figurine and the stone dragon forms, fills up much of the area in the treasure room and the basement, breaking the ceiling and walls. The knights try to fight it to no avail. Kaz is being called, by Argean, to help him merge with the green sphere as he is dying and needs its magic to control his dragon. Kaz, feeling as if he has no choice, helps him, and collects his friends to flee the stone dragon’s destruction. When they get to the surface, the dragon bursts through the building with Argean riding him and they fly away. Lord Oswal, orders the remaining knights to seal up the keep as best they can as Lord Bennett arrives with his two hundred knights. Kaz and Oswal share the story with Bennett and both Kaz and Bennett ride out with their friends and fifty soldiers to give chase to Argean.
Days after they left, the minotaur hunters arrive at Vingaar, share their story with Lord Oswal and give chase to Kaz as Oswal tells them his destination. Kas suddenly remembers the parchment Sardal the elf gave him to deliver to Argean, and opens it only to find himself trapped. If he had delivered it as requested, none of this would have ever happened. Sardal released Kaz from the trap and they are joined by a great wolf (Beast Lord?) Greymir, on behalf of Habbakuk. He delivers them to Argean’s mountain where they sneak up to the keep only to be discovered and Kaz is taken by the Stone Dragon, delivered to Argean and a spirit of Galen Dracos from the orb.
Delbin witnesses Kaz being taken and moves after him as the knights fight their way through Argaen’s forces. Kaz passed out from the pain and woke in a cell, chained. Aegean is clearly not in control as Galen Dracos is still in the orb, albeit in a wraith-like state. Kaz breaks out of his cell and finds Sardal sneaking through the halls looking for him. They are caught by Argean who kills Sardal and transports Kaz to the Orb Room. There Dracos takes possession of Argean’s body who resists him, and Delbin enters to try and rescue Kas. The stone dragon and some guards burst in and it’s an all out battle for survival. Delbin seems to be killed and Kas fights off the dragon and eventually kills it. It falls on the still-fighting Argean-Dracos, crushing them, and Kaz gives into his dire wounds and once again passes out.
He wakes in a Solamnic Knight Tent with Tesela healing him and Bennet and Darius arguing over handing him off to the Minotaur party outside the tent. Kaz gets up and faces his people unafraid. He decides to battle his accusers and only Scurn accepts the opportunity, rather he demands it of his brothers. After a long weary bloody battle, Kaz defeats Scurn but will not kill the great warrior. Molok tries to murder Kaz, but Helati kills him before he can. The Knights offer Kaza a ride to Vingaard in honor but Kaz leads with Helati, Hecar and Delbin to wander Ansalon. Bennet is sad to see him go as he grew very fond of Kaz, and wishes he could travel with him in a small way.
This was a great story about friendship and perception. Everyone has a different idea of what honor is, and how it relates to current vs past deeds. Kas misses his friend but is surrounded by many new ones, the Kender Delbin being his closest. He has a great love of life and experience and if there can be any takeaway from this novel, it is just that. Experience life, be open to friendship when offered it, and take chances. You may fail, you may find yourself in trouble, but that is what living is all about. I found myself reflecting on those friends I have made in my life, and I cherish every one of them.
This is a must read for any Dragonlance fan, or fan of The Legend of Huma. It is flawed in the third act with Argean-Dracos being all powerful and still unable to save themselves. But I can look past it because the rest of the novel was fantastic.
Outro
And that’s it for my review of Kaz the Minotaur by Richard A. Knaak. As a sequel did it live up to The legend of Huma? Do you enjoy the reviews I am putting out there? Feel free to 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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