Join me as I review Land of the Minotaurs by Richard A. Knaak, live! Share your thoughts on this fourth volume in the Dragonlance Lost Histories sextet, released by TSR, INC. on October 1, 1995. You can buy a copy here: https://amzn.to/4jiRrNP
About Land of the Minotaurs
Children of Destiny . . .
Throughout the time of Krynn, one race has remained strong in its pride and beliefs. The minotaurs envision themselves as the children of destiny, the future masters of the world. Despite adversity, defeat, and enslavement, that belief has never wavered.
If there is a foe capable of destroying the minotaurs, it is their own arrogance. Here is told the tale of clan against clan, and of how the exiled champion Kaz must discover the terrible secret of the empire before he and his entire race suffer the disastrous consequences.
Land of the Minotaurs
The Lost Histories Series probes the historical roots and epic struggles of the heretofore little-known peoples of Krynn. Author Richard A. Knaak explores the land and history of the horned race of minotaurs.
Review
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Kirinor, Newkolt the 22nd. My name is Adam and today I am going to give you my review of Land of the Minotaurs by Richard A. Knaak. 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.
The story begins with Hecar entering Nethosac. We are not given a reason that I can recall. He is captured for some reason by clerics and Captain Scurn from Hecar’s own House of Orlig. Then we cut to Kaz, who is married to Hecar’s sister Helati. They have two children, Kyris and Secra. Kaz has been expecting Hecar for a while, and since he hasn’t returned, he sets out to collect him and bring him home. They all live in a settlement away from the larger cities as the Minotaur Empire has been turbulent in the aftermath of the Third Dragon War. Kaz meets up with the kender Delbin Knotwillow, who insists on joining him, and presents him with a thought, long lost medallion celebrating Kaz’s Supreme Championship of the Minotaur Circus. Delbin insists it was given to him in a dream by a Gray Man who gave him a vision of Kaz fighting in the Circus against himself and a dragon appears overhead.
Kaz takes the medallion, disbelieving the entire story, until he has a dream about the Gray Man, and sees the same scene. They run into ogres who they eventually defeat, but the ogres used a charm to animate trees which continued attacking Kaz. Delbin took Kaz’s axe and broke the charm, and he sent Delbin to watch his wife, so that he could enter Nethosak easier and collect Hecar. Before he gets there, he sees the Gray Man in a storm which turns into Delbin on the ground bleeding. Delbin was hurt and followed Kaz into Nethosac. They meet Kaz’ father, believed to be dead and they all go to collect their belongings before searching for Hecar. They are arrested by priests and guards, and Kaz is offered to be a soldier for Nethosac, he refuses and is arrested to be killed in the Arena.
As Kaz and his father Ganith are chained up with Hecar, Delbin sneaks in telling them to look for a sign in the arena, as he’s going to rescue them. The priests are looking for the kender but can’t seem to find him. In the arena the emperor is clearly influenced by the priests and orders Kaz’ death via monsters and gladiators. After defeating a massive beast, Delbin lets loose creatures and starts fires in the arena. As the creatures race to the arena, minotaurs flee. Kaz tries to escape but is caught by house Orlig and brought before the lord. Ganith joins him and they argue for leaving the house without help, thus saving the house from any responsibility. It turns out Kaz’s sister Fliara is there and joins them as they leave.
Delbin was caught in the arena and brought to the priest. He learned about a human girl being held by the priest for some reason and gully dwarves being used as slaves. Then we cut to Kazelati Clan and Helati, Kaz’s wife is told that their closest confidant is a traitor. As Helati confronts him, he admits to having been one, but he changed his ways. He is led to the town square but assassins, the people who told Helati about him, try to kill them both, as they are agents of the priests as well, trying to punish the defector. The priests do not like that Kaz has a rival settlement and fears not having everyone under the religious thumb, so they are trying to kill Kaz to stop the inevitable.
I am really enjoying the first two thirds of this novel and I hope it ends with a bang. I love the questioning of individualism over nationalism, and how minotaurs without honor cannot stand as a nation, and will fall. It makes me think of the Age of Mortals when the minotaurs seem to have lost their hoor and are just spreading their nation. Are they also destined to fail?
Okay the final third of this novel went out with a real bang! Kaz captures Scurn and uses him to break into the temple, going into the cell level and finds Delbin with the human girl. Scurn breaks free and warns the clerics. They are all overrun and taken to the High Priest. Kaz looks at him through his axe and sees he is a red dragon! The priest sentenced them all to death in the arena and were sent back to it! Back at home Helati plans to leave to help Kaz but the former spy lets her use a communication magic item to confront the Orlig clan and convince them to help liberate Kaz. Kaz is confronted by this grey mage, who it is never clearly described. I think it may be Paladine, but he says he is allowed to maintain balance, and says he is neutral, so I have no idea who he is. He lets Kaz out and takes his place. Kaz confronts the human who is being tormented by the high priest, who is currently at the arena to watch the current emperor fake fight a challenger to cement his reign.
This is all set up through the dragons monologue where he shaped the minotaur race for centuries by culling the weak, so the minotaurs can invade Ansalon and win, and the dragon will be in charge. He says that he is allowed to be here since the young girl is actually a silver dragon so the balance is still maintained. But the human girl doesn’t realize what she is. The mage told Kaz that the girl was one of the eggs that he liberated from the wizard in a short story who was trying to make proto draconians. Kaz stopped him and returned the eggs to the father. Apparently this one was lost and the red dragon found it. A bunch of contrived nonsense in my opinion. In any case Kaz tells the human girl that she needs to transform and fight the dragon, then hits the spell shield with the mages staff which explodes.
The dragon returns after feeling the burst and it leads to a massive red dragon on silver dragon on Kaz fight. Kaz’s axe turns into a dragonlance which is more contrived nonsense. And he rides the silver dragon attacking the red. They eventually defeat the red who lands in the arena on top of the faux emperor, killing him. Then the minotaurs all cheer for Kaz, wanting him to be their new emperor. Kaz clearly doesn’t want to be it, so the mage takes the silver dragon to the dragon isles, and many minotaurs defect to Kaz’ settlement.
The end battle was great, and there were a lot of sacrifices and deaths, so it felt earned. The whole axe/ dragonlance was just too much for me to swallow, but everything else felt true to the world and situations. I wish I knew who this grey mage was supposed to be, but I feel like it just escaped me or refused to admit who it was. Just say it at the end already! Anyway, I would highly recommend this, as it’s a great look into minotaur society just after the Third Dragon War, and completely recontextualizes minotaurs as being the result of a red dragon’s eugenics program.
If you like Minotaurs, Kaz or Richard A Knaak, I would highly recommend reading this very Dragonlance feeling story.
Outro
And that’s it for my review of Land of the Minotaurs by Richard A. Knaak. What did you think of the minotaurs being controlled for centuries by a red dragon? Do you like Kaz’s axe turning into a dragonlance? And finally, who do you think the grey mage was? Feel free to email me at info@dlsaga.com or leave a 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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