Join me as I review Return of the Sorceress by Tim Waggoner, live! Share your thoughts on this fourth novel in The New Adventures series. You can pick up Return of the Sorceress here: https://www.amazon.com/Return-Sorceress-Dragonlance-Adventures-Vol/dp/0786933852
About Return of the Sorceress
Secrets and lies…
Armed with new weapons and a newfound confidence, Nearra and her friends plan to confront the wizard Maddoc. But before they can reach Cairngorn Keep, a skeletal griffin kidnaps Nearra and delivers her directly into the wizard’s hands.
As Maddoc prepares the final spell to unleash the Evergence, Davyn and the others struggle to rescue Nearra. But in the confines of Maddoc’s keep, appearances deceive. Friends become enemies. Dark dreams become reality. And naive Nearra may not be as innocent as she seems.
The fourth title in an all-new Dragonlance series for young readers.
Return of the Sorceress continues a new series of Dragonlance adventures written specifically for readers ages 10 and up. Sized to fit the young reader market, the series features a new group of young companions who band together for friendship and excitement during the golden age of the Dragonlance world. Author Tim Waggoner, who wrote the first title in this series, Temple of the Dragonslayer, has written frequently for young readers, and his novels and short stories have been nominated for numerous writing awards.
Review
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Bracha, Gildember the 1st, my name is Adam and today I am going to give you my Spoiler review of Return of the Sorceress by Tim Waggoner. 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.
There is something inherently frustrating when you are teased by the end of one book as to events to come, and it doesn’t pan out in the next book. We have no reference to the ‘loss of a friend’ or to the mystical connection between Asvoria and Nearra, or the outcome of Sindri’s dragon breath kiss or learning of magic. It just IS.
The companions arrived at Ravenscar, a vile bandit town outside Cairngorn Keep. Davyn used to have a friend here that he hopes will help them sneak into the Keep, so they can all confront Maddoc together and end all of this. As soon as they enter the town, two ruffians stop them and begin harassing them, clearly intent on fighting. Elidore offers them money as an entry fee and they take the money purse and leave. We will discover later the money was counterfeit and the ruffians will come looking for them. They enter an arena pit area where Davyn’s friend, a female Centaur named Ayanti is retrieving some animals who were fighting in a pit for the viewers entertainment. The town chieftain, a half-ogre named Bolthor, is overseeing the event with his two Kagonesti bodyguards. Kuruk & Shiriki are cousins.
As Ayanti delivers the next boar-lizard hybrid into the pit, the ruffians find the companions in the crowd and begin fighting with them over the counterfeit coins. This prompts Bolthor and his bodyguards to get in on the action and a massive fight breaks out. Nearra falls into the pit and Asvoria takes control to hurl a massive fireball, killing the creature. The Kagonesti are fought off and Ayanti saves Davyn from Bolthor. Meanwhile Maddoc senses the magic from Asvoria’s massively powerful fireball, and sends an undead Griffon to collect Nearra. It finds her in the pit, so no one can help protect her, and the undead griffon carriers her away to Cairngorm Keep. She banters with Maddoc before refusing to let him take Asvoria or her soul and leaps off the keep’s walls… we do not hear or see her hit anything so her fate is as yet unknown.
Back in Ravenscar, the Kagonesti elves and Bolthor bandage up and seek out the companions to make them pay. Ayanti brought the companions to her animal stable to find out what they were doing in this nasty town and as she is agreeing to help them get Nearra back, the Kagonesti light the barn on fire, and wait for them outside the entrance. The companions let all the animals and creatures out of their cages and they charge down and consume Boltor, while the Kagonesti flee into the woods. The companions with Ayanti decide to flee to a pond deep in the woods. I suspect they will end up working with the two Kagonesti elves to challenge Maddoc, but at this point it’s still up in the air.
They decide at the pond to search for a secret underground path to the keep Davyn discovered as a child. Elidore checks the pond and realizes it’s more of a rain collection than a proper pond, with no fish, but Sindri summons fish from it. This means Sindri IS actually magical, not just using the ring. The two Kagonesti set a trap for the group that Elidore nearly discovers but they all get coated in animal blood and gore after tripping it, and the guard dogs of Cairngorn Keep come after them. They all run to high ground with rocks underneath them and fight off the dogs as the ground collapses beneath their feet, it seems they found the tunnel they were looking for, just further from the keep and on accident. They would all be crushed except Sindri saved them with his newfound magic. As he is holding up the ground so they are not all crushed to death, the Kagonesti call out to them saying they want blood for the murder of their boss. The group immediately runs and Sindri drops the earth, seemingly killing one of the Kagonesti elves.
Nearra wakes as if from a dream with her mother tickling her. She can’t believe where she is, or that she remembers it at all, but she does. She is in her family cottage with her mother. Her father and sister drove a pile of wood to the nearby town of Ravenscar to sell. When they returned they were sitting down for dinner and a blue dragon began attacking their home. Nearra remembered that she had power within her, and reached for it, then suddenly recalled Maddoc, and realized that this was all a dream. She refused to allow the Emergence to happen, and Maddoc woke her up. He took her to his underground labyrinth. Maddoc isn’t sure who is in the body controlling it, Asvoria or Nearra and Nearra will not let him know, so he explains to Asvoria that all he wants from her are two artifacts in her tapestry, the Aegis, a necklace, and Daystar a sword. If he gets them he will let Asvoria free. He believes that the artifacts will give him immense power. He locks her in a room in the labyrinth, and Nearra notices a mouse with blue intelligent eyes watching. Note as I edit my initial narration, the Aegis, which was the necklace is no longer mentioned in the story, only Daystar which was the sword but is now the necklace. The Editing of this book is awful!
Maddoc goes to rest and prepare for a ritual as Oddvar enters, telling him about the guard dogs chasing something down and two of the dogs are missing, while two others have cut marks. There was a tunnel collapse and whoever attacked the dogs was probably crushed in the collapse. Maddoc no longer underestimates the heroes so he sends Oddvar to collect the corpses or kill them if they are alive, but to bring Davyn to him. The three goblins guarding Nearra’s room saw Maddoc approach with bright blue glowing eyes. He demanded that they go help Oddvar with the cave in and to give their room key to him. They questioned him about needing the key if he already had one and about his incredibly blue eyes, but Maddoc made excuses and demanded they leave, so they did. At the cave in they uncovered Kuruk, the Kagonesti elf, crushed but barely alive. They questioned what happened. When he told them everything, and then they left him to die as they began uncovering the tunnel to enter it.
The companions, now with Shiriki tied up, were continuing down the tunnel to find the cavern collapsed with a drop off before them. Elidore inspected the drop off and found another tunnel beneath it. They all go into the new tunnel which leads to a dead end, but Sindri, still exhausted on Ayanti’s back sees different colors on the wall. Elidore inspects it further and opes a secret door. They enter and the room is ice cold, and a Dracolich appears above them and attacks!
Nearra hears the door open and sees Maddoc transform into her sister Jirah, but her eyes are bright blue. Jirah plays off the blue eyes, and says that she started working with Maddoc after Nearra went missing to find her, and they leave through the tunnels, as Jirah claims to know a way out. Nearra is getting a strange sensation from Jirah, and begins to distrust her. They arrive at massive doors which Jirah opens and Nearra realizes it is a shape changer, not her sister or Maddoc. It is pulling Nearra into the cavern as they hear a battle and see the Dracolich fighting her friends. She summons Asvoria’s power to call out to Tarkemelhion, the copper Dragon Radion from Book one, and demands he come help. The shapeshifter pulls Nearra further in saying the companions might get to Daystar first. Sindri feels something calling out to him as the companions evade the dragon’s breath weapon, and runs up to a shiny amulet. He pockets it and Catriona takes his lantern and throws it at the Dracolich which catches fire.
Raedon answers the call and has a mental image of where to go, but no real idea where they all are. He is pulled in two directions. One is the keep and the other is a grove of trees. As the trees appear below him, he chooses them first. He notices silver tendrils between the trees, and as he flies down for a closer look, he feels imminent danger and tries to fly back up as hundreds of small silver spiders throw their webs at him. With so many, he breathes acid on the thread and the spiders climb up the thread. More swarm the threads as the acid eats it away and he flies up breaking the web, but carrying with him many spiders. He does his best to kill them all, only one bites him in the tender part of his wing, injecting a bunch of venom before he kills it. His wing starts to paralyze and he plummets to the forest below.
The changeling pulls Nearra out of the chamber turning into Oddvar and reveals it’s a creature Asvoria created and it’s trying to help Asvoria get out of Nearra. The real Oddvar and the goblins find them in the tunnels and the shapeshifter flees, as Oddvar takes Nearra to Maddoc, who is magically put to sleep. The companions chase her down, but are unable to catch her. As they stumble around the keep, they come into an enchanted room, and are trapped in a shared vision of a battle with a massive monstrosity. Maddoc pulls Davyn out of the vision and offers him forgiveness, sharing his version of events with Davyn’s father and what he is trying to do, trying to make it look not evil at all. He offers Davyn the opportunity of helping him or going back into the room. Davyn, knowing he has a chance of helping out here, agrees and Maddoc tells him that he has to plunge a spirit dagger into Nearras heart during the Ritual to come.
The companions defeat the abomination and evil clones climb out of the creature. They are almost defeated as Elidore turns the tide of the battle. Sindri figures out the trick to the spell, and tells Elidore to just close his eyes. Elidore, not sure if he can trust the Kender, realizes he has no other option, and everyone closes their eyes, hoping they aren’t about to be cut down. In the Dracoliches lair, before it is defeated its essence leaps into the dead body of Kuruk who stumbled in and died at Shiriki’s feet. Kuruk rises again and leads them to the enchanted room, as it hunts down the Daystar. Kuruk pounds on the door as the companions are released from the spell and they open the doors and the Kagonesti elves become trapped by the enchantment as the Companions leave.
Maddoc and Davyn go to the ritual chamber and Oddvar and the goblins collect Nearra. They bring her sleeping body to the ritual chamber and Ophian the shapeshifter hides in Nearras hair as a mite. Maddoc begins the ritual and triggers Davyn to plunge the spirit dagger into Nearra as the companions all bust into the room. Davyn throws it at Maddoc, but the dagger was an illusion, and now Maddoc knows Davyn is still with his friends. He begins the ritual and the undead griffons, Oddvar and goblins begin attacking the companions. Ophian grows to her full size in the chaos and takes the Daystar from Sindri as the Kagonesti who were released from the enchanted room by Takhisis or Asvoria, it’s unclear which, burst into the room as well.
Maddoc is trying to concentrate as the Daystar is being fought over by Asvorias servants, Maddocs servants and the companions. Finally Ophian places it on Nearras chest and Asvoria takes full control. She stands and with magic blasts Maddoc to the ground, throws Oddvar over the keep’s walls, and ultimately kills Shiriki as she realizes her cousin Kuruk is the dracolich. Elidore tried to save her but Shiriki saved him as Asvoria killed her. Raedon finally climbed the keeps walls and Davyn tells everyone to get the Daystar so they can push Asvoria out of Nearras body, but Asvoria is too powerful. They bandy about tossing it back and forth and the Dracolich is released to death by Asvoria for reclaiming it, and Asvoria takes off on an undead griffon.
Catriona and Raedon chase them, and Davyn fires an arrow, striking the Daystar, so it falls and Catriona catches it, but Raedon crashes into the keep, unable to maintain his gliding with his wounded wing. Asvoria flees and the companions cannot follow. They have failed. It ends with them all hopeful Maddoc will help them get revenge if he survives, Sindri becoming a better wizard and Ayanti leaving the group to tend to Raedon. This was a convoluted end as the writing made little sense at times, like the editor was missing and the author was trying to wrap it up as fast as possible. At one point when Oddvar was thrown over the walls to his death, the writing said Catriona was facing off against him. When Kuruk entered, there’s a whole cut up block of text where it seems like there was some explanation about Kuruk being the Dracolich, but it just stopped mid sentence and picked up at a later point. I had to re-read the entire section over again because they were in a ritual chamber then suddenly, inexplicably on the roof.
The fault with this book more than anything was that it dropped Nearra from being magical as was suggested in the previous novel, and made Maddoc, the most powerful wizard at the time, supposedly, a wimp without his familiar. It was very odd, but besides all the inconsistencies and editing nightmares, I did enjoy it. I like how this group has bonded and works together, for the most part I enjoy the combat sequences too. I would suggest this to people who have read the preceding books, but if you have never read the New Adventures before, you can pass on it and not miss out on anything.
Outro
And that’s it for my review of Return of the Sorceress by Tim Waggoner. What do you think about the third of The New Adventures novels? Did you have a favorite part of the novel? You can email me at info@dlsaga.com or comment below.
I would like to take a moment and remind you to subscribe to this YouTube channel, ring the bell to get notified about upcoming videos and click the like button. This all goes to help other Dragonlance fans learn about this channel and its content.
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).
Subscribe to the podcast today! Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Pandora | Youtube Music | RSS | More
