Join me as I review Night of the Eye by Mary Kirchoff, live! Share your thoughts on this first novel in the Defenders of Magic trilogy, released on July 1, 1994. You can buy a copy here: https://amzn.to/3NusP5N
About Night of the Eye
Magic at its peak!
It will soon be the Night of the Eye, a rare time when all three moons align in high sanction over the lands of Krynn. On the eve of Guerrand DiThon’s political marriage to a rival family, the young noble is visited by a strange, powerful mage who knows more about him than he does himself. Seduced by promises of wizardly might, Guerrand slips away beneath the triple moons and journeys for the Tower of Wayreth.
No one thinks he will survive the deadly trek to the tower, but he does. It’s only then that Guerrand realizes that he has made many enemies in his journey. One of these foes would not only see Guerrand dead, but the three orders of sorcery destroyed with him.
Review
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Kirinor, Gildember the 23rd. My name is Adam and today I am going to give you my review of Night of the Eye by Mary Kirchoff. 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 year is the 40th Anniversary of Dragonlance, so join in on the celebration by submitting a video, piece of art or writing about Dragonlance to info@dlsaga.com. It will be added to the dlsaga.com/40th-anniversary celebration landing page with all other contributors! This is my perspective only, and if you have any thoughts or disagree with mine, I invite you to share them in YouTube chat.
I cannot express my relief that the first third of this novel is great! Having never read it, and knowing nothing about it, it’s like rolling the dice with Dragonlance novels sometimes. But this, my friends, is good. The author has done a wonderful job of introducing us to the seeming protagonist Guerrand DiThon, and the state of his family in Northern Ergoth. She even goes to great lengths to ingratiate us to some of his family members and force us to dislike others a great deal. The setup is this: Rand was overlooked because he is the second-marriage son of his father, so his brother, a proper dick, was given control of the estate after their fathers death. The dick, Cormac, has a gambling, leadership and drinking problem, so the estate is in a poor, well, state. To make matters worse, he hates magic with a passion, so his brother, Rand, can’t even leave to practice it. Then they discover the good brother was killed by bandits. This forces Rand into a position of marrying his brothers betrothed so the family can regain a parcel of land that the dick sold off.
A mage, who happens to be the current Master of the Order of Red Robes of the Wizards of High Sorcery, Belize, talks with Rand about going to the Tower of High Sorcery in Wayreth for the Test of High Sorcery and apprenticeship. Rand has taught himself quite a lot already, so he is torn between his duty to his family, and his passion for magic. Belize gives Rand a mirror that can lead him to the bandits that killed his brother, so he sneaks out one night to get proof of their actions and his sister Kirah ambushes him, she is an accomplished petty thief herself. Frustrated, Rand allows her to join him and they sneak up on the bandits to find their brother’s medallion, but they end up having to fight them off, and Rand casts Sleep, ties them all up and brings them home for trial.
This is the lynchpin, for as his brother the dick berates him for using magic, Rand finally has had enough and tells him off. In the morning he leaves for Wayreth with his seagull familiar Zagarus. I don’t know what it is about pets and familiars, but I am a fan. Zagazus is a funny, inquisitive and colorful seagull. Again, I’m a fan. They sneak away, finally arrive at Wayreth, wander around for two days before a unicorn directs them, and they enter the tower. He is offered to choose an order and after being explained what they are, he chooses red. Justarius is sitting in for Belize initially and takes him as his apprentice. Talk about having a great master, the future head of the Red Robes!
The second third of the novel reveals Belize as the architect of Quinn, Rand’s good brother’s death, as he wanted access to the runes that were on the property that would return to the DiThon’s if he got married. Elize also tried to buy the property outright and talk to Cormac for access, but both offers were rejected, causing Belize to take the drastic action. He wants power, and he wants access to The Lost Citadel from the founding of the Orders of High Sorcery from the gods after the Second Dragon War. He will stop at nothing to gain access which he believes in in Southern Ergoth.
Meanwhile Rand, apprentice to Justarius and Lyim, apprentice to Belize must travel from Wayreth to Palanthas, and they end up traveling together, becoming friends. They arrive after a ship attack which ends with Lyim casting Web and the sailors throwing them off at port. No one likes mages apparently. As they finally arrive in Palanthas they are met by Justarius’ senior apprentice Esme. She is a beautiful woman who immediately attracts both Lyam and Rand. Time passes as the three become friends and study. Justarius demands a lot of study and Belize is hardly there, giving Lyim access to his spellbooks rather than instructing him.
Finally they get to the Festival and everyone heads out to enjoy the sights and food. Lyim instigates the knights joust with Rand, but Rand was trained to be a Cavalier, even if he wasn’t good, he’s better then Lyim, so he ends up beating him, but something takes over Lyim, I believe it was Belize, and he becomes angry and aggressive. This ends with Lyim being knocked off the ostrich and Belize collecting him, clearly angry. We can see that Belize was just trying to stop the marriage in Southern Ergoth, expecting Rand to die en route to Wayreth rather than actually show up and be a good mage. I can’t wait to see how this final third act ends… will Rand realize what Belize has done? Will there be further attempts on Rand’s life by Belize? Will we ever see Kirah again?
The final third was a proper mage adventure and test. It was so good! It began with Justarius questioning Rand about the jousting and Rand admitting to believing someone was trying to kill him. They considered Belize, but dismissed it initially. Justarius led Rand to a crystal ball to see if it was coming from his family, and they learned that Cormac claimed Stonewall, the territory he sold as the owner was away, and now the owner was building an army to take it back. This led Rand to want to travel to Southern Ergoth to help his family, but Justarius said that if he went, he would not longer be his apprentice. The Magic comes first, always. Torn by the choice, he was overlooking a harbor when Lyim arrived to apologize and they overhear sailors talking about the call for mercenaries. This led Rand to tell Lyim his plight and Lyim offered to go in Rand’s stead and save his family. Rand was reluctant but Lyim insisted.
Lyim ended up doing a great job, as the mercenaries were going to strike the DiThon castle while the army was at Stonecliff. So he devised a subterfuge with Kirah and turned the army away. Then went off to celebrate before his three week journey back to Palanthas. Meanwhile Rand needed to cross Esme off his list of possible murderers and was trapped in her room with a spell. She arrived and he told her everything. They ended up agreeing that it was clearly Belize who is trying to have Rand killed, but not knowing why, they snuck into his residence for proof. They discovered a lot of crazy shit. Belize was dabbling in black magic and acting as a renegade, while he was head of the red robes! He was trying to open the gate which led him to use subjects and deform them horribly.
They fall into a trap and end up breaking out by using the mirror to transport themselves to Justarius’ home. Surprised to find them, and even more bothered by their tale, Justartius travels to Wayreth to consult with the council over Belize, Rand and Esme’s actions. Refusing to accept being kicked out, Esme reenters Belize’s home and is caught by him, then transported to Stonewall for the Night of the Eye to enter The Lost Citadel. Rand travels there with the mirror to his sister’s room and rides to the ruins. He confronts Belize and they have a magical and scrapper fight. Then Lyim comes stumbling across it drunk. He overhears Belize’s monologue, realizes the threat of Belize and joins in the fight.
Ultimately Belize enters the portal and Rand devises a spell to stop him, causing him to be ejected and mutated like his test subjects, and Justarius arrives. The council will judge Belize if he lives long enough, and Esme and Rand are no longer his apprentice as they have proven they are strong and clever enough to be mages of their own. In the battle Lyim had his hand transformed into snakes by Belize from the portal, and will return with Justarius to see if they can fix it.
This was such a great novel. It has mystery, suspense, great magic traps and battles, it kept me guessing the whole time, but explained every motivation and justification perfectly. It didn’t once feel contrived and I felt like there were real characters and real consequences. Truly a masterpiece of Dragonlance fiction. It seems the further away we get from those original stories, the better the writing gets, and I am looking forward to the second novel in this trilogy.
If you love magic and Dragonlance, this is a must read. You will not regret it!
Outro
And that’s it for my review of Night of the Eye by Mary Kirchoff. What did you think of the lost citadel being the macguffin? Did you enjoy the DiThon family? And finally, will Lyim get his hand back in the next novel? Feel free to email me at info@dlsaga.com or leave a comment below.
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