Join me as I review The Lioness by Nancy Varian Berberick live! Share your thoughts on this second novel in The Age of Mortals series, released by Wizards of the Coast on June 1, 2002. You can pick up a copy here: https://amzn.to/4whzgxN
About The Lioness
In the embattled kingdom of Qualinesti, Dark Knights harass the common folk, and the once-proud Elven Senate moves at the will of the green dragon Beryl. Even the elf king walks a tightrope between serving the needs of his people and keeping the dragon’s knights peaceful.
Out of these mired politics a mysterious heroine arises, a Kagonesti woman of the forest glades and rocky eastern reaches. She and her loyal band of resistance fighters swiftly become the terror of the Dark Knights. Known to friend and foe as The Lioness, she is the champion of the people who have been bled by the dragon’s taxes and ground under the steel-shod boots of the hostile knights.
She is Kerianseray, the king’s own outlaw, his secret lover, and his secret weapon.
Review
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Majetag, Fierswelt the 28th. My name is Adam and today I am going to give you my review of The Lioness by Nancy Varian Berberick. I would like to take a moment and thank the DLSaga members and Patreon patrons, and invite you to consider becoming a member or patron. You can even pick up Dragonlance media or get $10 by signing up to StartPlaying.Games 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.
Review
I am trying to reconcile the Kerianseray that we met in so many other short stories and novels with this one. They are quite different. In past tales she was of a mind of her own, secretive, powerful, and knowledgeable. This version of the character has forgotten her Kagonesti ways. She has grown complacent and comfortable with the city life of Qualinost as Gilthas’ consort and the servant of Senator Rashas. It’s hard to read about her ignorance and forgetfulness of her kagonesti ways. On the other side, it is refreshing that she is not an uber powerful force just cleaving through everything. That she can fail and must learn. I just had to get that out of the way because I am quite enjoying the novel, I am just trying to reconcile the character.
We start in Qualinost and get a glimpse of what life is like for Gilthas. His father, Tanis half Elven is Dead. His mother, Lauralanthalasa, the Queen Mother, is secretly still trying to work on an alliance with the peoples of Krynn. Senator Rashas is his slimy old self, working with the Dark Knights to ensure his own gain at the cost of his nation. They are all headed to a celebration as they pass the southern road and find many elven heads on sticks. One is a cousin of Kerian’s which makes her remember her brother Iydahar who formerly worked with Porthios’ rebels in the Chaos War. She feels a sense of urgency to find him and help him if he is in trouble. Clearly Gilthas doesn’t want her to go, but what can he do?
We are introduced to a band of Dark Knights led by Sir Chance Garoll who is taking direct orders from Skull Knight Lord Eamutt Thagol. He is known as the Dreamwalker, and sends his thoughts and directives directly into the minds of his knights. He demands the heads of the elven rebels and has his knights kill them when they step out of line. He is clearly the big bad guy of the novel and is presented as a terrifying threat. In this time the Dark Knights have total control of Qualinesti at the behest of Berylinthranow the Green Dragon Overlord.
Kerian heads to an inn she suspects her brother will frequent and comes across knights on the road. She runs into the woods which look and feel foreign to her, as if there is some strange magic at work in them. This is believed to be the cause of Kagonesti by most people, but it is also inferred that it is Lord Thagol’s doing. So at this point I am not sure. She meets a dwarf who is also hiding off the road, a Hylar named Stanach Hammerfell. The first thing you realise is that tensions are high everywhere outside Qualinoist so everyone is distrustful, curt, and oftentimes outright rude. They travel to the inn together and as she enters, everyone turns to look at her. She is a Kagonesti and like I said, many blame them for the strangeness in the forest.
An interesting point of note is that we get a glimpse into Kerian’s history with her brother in Southern Ergoth, and how a Qualinesti slaver ship frequently caught and sold the Kagonesti in Qualinesti. She and her brother eventually were caught. This reinforces the animosity between the elves and showcases to the reader that there is no such thing as true good guys in Dragonlance. The elves are the creation of Palading, the good of good, and yet they are slavers.
While she is eating Dark Knights enter with another kagonesti woman, beaten, and clearly abused. Kerian is given a knife by Stanach and kills one of the Dark Knights, running off with the Kagonesti woman. They race into the forest, evading the Dark Knights and she is eventually led by the woman named Ayensha to a secret hideout of wildrunners, rebels and outlaws. In qualinost, Gilthas is informed by people from the inn about what Kerian did, and that lord Thagol has ordered her found and beheaded. The Dark Knights end up burning down the Inn and many other establishments, putting many to the sword in the process. As the informants return to find the inn with a token from Gilthas for Kerian, they find Iydahar. The kagonesti he is with kills the two elves for their rudeness, against his wishes, and he returns to his hideout, which is exactly where Kerian is.
Kerian discovers that Iydahar and Ayensha are married. She stays with them for two weeks and is finally given the token from Gilthas but decides to stay longer. From this point the story does an odd time jump sequence. She stays months with Jeratt, but Iydahar and the rest of the outlaws leave. They try to play it off as if Jeratt is teaching her Kagonesti ways, but he isn’t a Kagonesti, so it comes off as awkward and forced. At one point he is teaching her to make a bow and arrows saying that it is more effective if you make it, which is patently false. You may be more comfortable with it but it’s not inherently more powerful or truer a shot.
She stays with him until they run across a boy and his dog who is fleeing the dark knights. Jeratt wants to kill the boy because he could lead the Dark Knights to them for a reward but Kerian refuses. This endears the boy named Ander to her and he eventually joins the trio. More time passes as they go to a farm and endear themselves to the owners, they get food and bring them aboard her hit and run crew. She spends time building up a team called the Night People where she has a target, she activates them, they make their assault on the Dark Knights, then everyone else returns to their lives.They are wildly effective and harry the Dark Knights constantly.
Eventually they have the farmer act as a turncoat to supposedly turn in Kerian to Lord Thagol, but he ends up killing the elf. They go to capture her and walk into an ambush. Only Thangol lives through the ambush, and he goes into hiding in his own region of the forest for a while. Kerian visits the king Gilthas and they spend time together before she returns to the hit and run war she is driving. They meet back up with the outlaws. It’s clear the Elder is building up Kerian as a leader of this army for the king.
There is a lot of time passing in this third act. Kerian meets up with Gilthas again and is asked to go to Thorbardin to work on the alliance between the elves and dwarves. She agrees and is given a magic necklace that will transport her. She thinks of Stanach hammerfell and teleports to his inn. She asks him to take her before the Thane to discuss the treaty and ask for help. Of course we all know it is to create a tunnel which elves will escape Qualinost through, but they never mention specifics. He reluctantly agrees and she waits outside the council chamber. SHe is met there by the king, Tarn Bellowgranite and they talk for a little before going in to face the council.
All the dwarven Thanes are against her request for alliance and aid, but they continue arguing the point. They ask her to leave and they continue deliberations. The king tells her afterward that only the Hylar are still refusing and wants Stanach to travel with her to see Gilthas and make his recommendation. Stanach agrees and they use the magic to leave. It has been two weeks that she was gone and in those two weeks, Thagol has devastated the elves. Jeratt is gaunt, many have been killed or missing and the night people are scattered. Kerian makes plans of ambush for Tagol again, luring him in hit and run tactics, but he sees into her mind with his magic and turns the ambush to a route.
He devastated her numbers and she fled with the few survivors. They made plans to draw him in again and more elves began rallying to her cause. They began calling her the Lioness and even Stanach was proud to fight by her side. Weeks later they lure Thagol in, and everyone, even Iydahar’s band and the Elder in the form of a giant elemental beast came to fight. They suffered greatly on both sides, but ultimately the Lioness prevailed, beheading Thagol. Iydahar her brother died in the battle, and she mourned him with his wife.
The Lioness brought Stanach to meet Gilthas and he left to return to Thorbardin. They are sure he will agree to help the elves. Gilthas makes an impassioned plea for Kerian to marry him and they do so in secret. The story jumped all over the place throughout and it also featured some strange phrasing in the writing. It made it difficult to understand as I read it, forcing me to slow down and re-read sections. Ultimately I enjoyed seeing the progression of the Kerian character into the Lioness, and I liked that they had an enemy to defeat other than the occupying Dark Knights of Qualinost. It was odd that they were never mentioned though.
If you are a fan of the Age of Mortals, or elves you should give this a read. I don’t consider it mandatory but it does give some background to the character and some explanation about how the treaty was brought about.
Outro
And that’s it for my review of The Lioness by Nancy Varian Berberick. What do you think of the Lioness’ character arc? Do you think they emphasized the slavery aspect of the Qualinesti over the Kagonesti too much? And finally, do you think there is anything special about Elder? 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).
