Join me as I review Love and War: Dragonlance Tales, Vol. 3 Edited by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, live! Share your thoughts on this final novel in the Tales Trilogy. You can pick up Love and War: Dragonlance Tales, Vol. 3: https://www.amazon.com/Love-and-War-audiobook/dp/B00BTOSNU0/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1657230764&sr=1-2
About Love and War: Dragonlance Tales, Vol. 3
The legend of Raistlin’s daughter!
A strange story that cannot be confirmed, yet it is whispered among the elves of Silvanesti, gossiped about by the kender of Krynn, and told here for the first time by Caramon, the enigmatic mage’s surviving twin.
A wondrous new novella journeying into secrets of the heart and rumors about the past that have bearing on the future of Krynn.
Plus 10 exciting short stories – untold tales of chivalry and affection, heroic quests and foul villainy, magic in battle and transcendent defeat – featuring all the beloved companions and fantastical creatures of the best-selling Dragonlance Saga.
The story that has enthralled over three million fans worldwide, as created by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
Review
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Bakukal, Fierswelt the 14th, my name is Adam and today I am going to give you my Spoiler review of Love and War: Dragonlance Tales, Vol. 3 Edited by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. 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.
A Good Knight’s Tale by Harold Bakst is a tale about a storyteller who is collecting tales from people all around Krynn after the cataclysm, trying to preserve stories. He comes across a knight who shares a tale of a man who loves his daughter but cannot abide his daughter loving another, so he moves her to Wayreth Forest. There she falls in love with a creature in a pond and sneaks out at night to meet with him. The father follows, trying to catch them, and eventually destroys the dam that keeps the water up. Out of the dam grew two plants, the effigies of his daughter and her lover who sank into the mud to avoid him. The father died of sadness. The knight revealed that he too has a daughter that ran off with a man, and he is searching for her to give his blessing. The tale is a great one that shares the importance of allowing your children room to grow and move on from the parents. That it is important to encourage and support them in their choices, even if you disagree with them.
A Painter’s Vision by Barbera Siegel and Scott Siegel devastated me, and it was completely unexpected and welcomed. I haven’t read this collection since I was a kid. I only remember a few of the stories in this anthology, so when I finished this one, wiping tears from my face and reflecting back on my child self, I cannot imagine that I would have appreciated it the way I do now. The story is about love. Obsessive love, friendly love, passionate and eternal love. A young painter falls in love with a barmaid, who ends up marrying him. They live the life of a starving artist, forever painting and sharing his love of painting with her. Even teaching her how to paint. When war comes to Flotsam, he paints the dragon highlord flying across the sky with the other dragons. They made friends with a precocious brass dragon, and it would stop in from time to time to get painted and share its newest fashion choices. The painter created a portrait of the dragon and they eventually decided to try and have it fly the highlord painting to Palanthas. That night his brother appeared with a terrible offer to sell his paintings. He accidentally lost control of a candle and the home went up in flames. The wife made it out, but the husband did not. This devastated her, so much that she never married again. She spent the remainder of her life trying to capture the image of her husband in paint so she wouldn’t forget it. The dragon visited her through the years, but always asked things of her never giving anything back. When he discovered her body, dead beneath a new painting of her husband, he cast a spell to place her in the painting with him. Completing what was missing from all of her paintings of him throughout her life. The two of them being together. I have been married for 25 years to my high school sweetheart. I would like to think that she or I would move on after one of us dies, but the fact is that we have stayed together because we love each other. I really do believe in true love, and I believe I have found it. I think she just puts up with me. This devastatingly sad story just forced me to reflect on the fact that we will lose each other and I can’t think of anything more painful.
Hunting Destiny by Nick O’Donohoe is a long tale about the Forest Master, the White Stag and the spectral minions that the companions come across in Dragons of Autumn Twilight while traveling through Darken Wood. It reflects on the tale of the Stag and Spectral Minions betrayal in the past, and with the tone of classic fantasy repeats with poem and narrative the betrayal of the Stag after the Forest Master refuses to love him in the manner of his choosing. He lures Draconians to kill the unicorn, and leads them to the Forest Master, who then turns the Stag into one. The draconians hunt the stag, and the spectral minions defend it. All die and the stag and minions finally achieve peace in death. It was a bit tough for me to get through as I expected something else, and never quite gave into the narrative without trying to make the story something it wasn’t. But overall I enjoyed it.
Hide and Go Seek by Nancy Verian Berberick is at its heart a tale about Flint’s parental love for the companions. Tasslehoff was in the wrong place at the wrong time and ended up being abducted as a thief and a goblin kidnapped a Solamnic Knights son to ransom off, and murder in revenge for the thief having his hand cut off. Tas ends up leaving a trail for his friends to follow, as they left to attend a wedding in Flint’s old home. The captives narrowly escaped as the companions located them, and together rescued them after nearly losing Caramon and Tas in the process. The thought of losing them changed Flint’s mind of continuing his summer vacation travel plans, and returned home to Solace. It was a beautiful and salient story now that I am a father and I understand exactly what Flint feels. I never knew being a parent ment constant worrying for the rest of your life. It’s bad enough that all of your hard earned money disappears, but do kids have to take your peace of mind as well?
By the Measure by Richard A. Knaack Is a tale about a Knight of Solamnia who is trying to bring honor back to his order through his actions, confronts the Dragonarmy in an effort to stop or stall them from sweeping through the region. He is captured and tortured for four days before being granted death, and ultimately dies in battle against the commander. He is then buried with a holy medallion which causes a plague and decimates the army. I thought it would’ve been a homage to Huma as was referenced if he slew the commander and died in the process, then the plague could take care of the rest of the army. His death was expected and anticlimactic. It did remind me of the brotherhood one finds in the military, echoed by the Knights succumbing to Paladines will. Soldiers regularly put their health and welfare in the hands of the soldier next to them. The trust that they will have their back is echoed in all soldiers and echoes the faith the Knights have in their gods.
The Exiles by Paul B. Thompson and Tonya R. Carter is the tale of Sturm Brightblade and his mother fleeing to Solace, but they are captured by pirates as they sail to Abanasinia. They are taken to an evil wizard island who wants to use Sturm as an ingredient in a potion of vitality. Sturm was given a magical cord that sailors use like a scroll to create wind for sailing, and as the wizard struck it, it blew him away, and saved Sturm. The pirates native to the isle, now free of the wizards rule, agree to take Sturm and his mother to Solace. This was all about how noble men and women see the world and interact with it. It actually bothers me. I can’t stand anyone who puts on airs, regardless of their income or perceived class. The only person that is tolerable is Sturm himself. I also really liked the female pirate that captured them. She was a strong mercenary that had echoes of Kitiara in my mind. It was a nice foreshadow of what Sturm would deal with on his way back to Solamnia years later.
Heart of Goldmoon by Laura Hickman and Kate Novak is a fantastic tale about how Goldmoon and Riverwind fell in love, and Goldmoon coming to realize the gods of her tribe the Que-Shu worship, her ancestors, are false. And that the old gods, the true gods are out there. It sets up the treachery of the tribesmen of the Que-Shu, the stubborn blindness of tradition and the power of love! Heuey Lewis would be proud. Goldmoon learns that her would-be courtier sabotages Riverwind, and his father wants to be chieftain so badly that he is willing to resort to the murder of Goldmoon to see it done. His son chooses to instead try and force Goldmoon to marry him so he can be chieftain, then attacks her when she refuses only to be saved by Riverwind. They both enter an ancient temple of Mishakal, where their ancestors are buried and Goldmoons mother’s spirit appears before her to tell her the truth of the gods. We know what comes after, and it is wonderful to see the beginning of their connection together. I also felt like I was basking in the afterglow of their love as I read their passionate embrace and kisses. It reminded me of my wife and I in our youth. It was beautiful.
Raistlin’s Daughter by Margaret Weis and Dezra Despain is a great tale that I wish was true. I find comments even recently that some do still believe this is cannon. I like that idea. Keep it a myth, a question, a possibility among the fans. A mysterious woman arrives at an inn in the middle of a blizzard and is rescued from brutal would-be rapists by Caramon and Raistlin Majere. Raistlin removes the scarf from the woman’s face and is struck by her beauty and that she doesn’t age. She is an Irda ogre, the most long lived and beautiful of the races and they are both overcome by a magical force known to the Irda. They must mate to remove it. Raistlin and Caramon flee into the night to take refuge in a cave, and the woman sends Caramon off chasing a magical light and she enters the cave. She reveals all to Raist and they have sex, sleeping into the early morning. She leaves and returns to the inn, asking for work. She dies in childbirth and the child is collected by the woman’s brother and father, but her body is left. I am not a fan of forced copulation, which is… I also got a bit teared up when they shared the reaction of the inn workers of her death. Dying in childbirth was all too common in our pretty recent history. Which is all the more reason to celebrate medical advancement.
Silver and Steel by Kevin Randall is yet another tale of Huma defeating the Dark Queen. Now that The Legend of Huma is out, it completely reneged this entire story. It centered around the final battle. The dark queen was being given power on Krynn by an obelisk, and after decimating Huma’s army, raising the dead to continue fighting him, out of desperation he flung the Dragonlance at the obelisk, and wouldn’t you know it, it destroyed it. The description of the gory details of a vicious battle were great, but Huma has a Silver Dragon he never once rode. In fact, she fought in human form next to him throughout the battle. It makes no sense. He could’ve mounted her, used her breath weapons to decimate the other army, then fly to the obelisk or Takhisis who was in human female form and attacked her directly. I am beginning to think there is no way to tell Huma’s story without feeling like you are using some kind of cheat codes or filling in gaps because we know how it ends. Ultimately it is a fine story, the novel The Legend of Huma is fine. But I think the poem about Huma may be the best version of the tale.
From the Yearning for War and the War’s Ending by Michael Williams is a wonderful story framed around a blinded soldier who fought at the Battle of the High Clerist’s Tower. He is writing by telling his nurse what to write to his younger brother, who is excited to enter the Knighthood himself. It gives a ground-level view of the war and the gritty reality of life with the footsoldiers and cavalry. It also provides a view of the crumbling High Clerist’s Tower. This was a beautiful treatise on what it means to be a soldier. For as he is describing the mission, he is also describing the downtime of storytelling and games. It reminded me of my time in the Army, in a good way, and of all those war stories you watch or read about from the perspective of the soldier. It closes with the idea that no matter how sad or horrid the conditions of war are, if called upon, they will stand up again. That is the truth of the soldier. They sacrifice their freedom for yours. I cannot think of anything more noble.
All in all this was a wonderful way to close out the first Tales trilogy, and I am glad that I revisited it. If you are a Dragonlance fan, or just a fantasy fan of short stories, I think you will be pleasantly surprised by most of these. I highly recommend the collection.
Outro
And that’s it for my review of Love and War: Dragonlance Tales, Vol. 3. What do you think about the anthology? Did you have a favorite story in the collection? 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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