Join me as I review Shadow of the Flame by Chris Pierson, live! Share your thoughts on this final novel in the Taladas Trilogy set after the War of Souls. You can pick up Shadow of the Flame here: https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Flame-Dragonlance-Taladas-Trilogy/dp/0786942541
About Shadow of the Flame
Explore the far-off continent of Taladas in the exciting conclusion to The Taladas Chronicles!
As war and devastation spread across the continent of Taladas, a small band of heroes has just suffered a devastating loss in a fight to determine the world’s fate. Barreth Forlo, their leader, has been possessed by the spirit of Maladar the Faceless, a sorcerer-king who seeks to return to power, by whatever means necessary. Now Shedara and Hult, Forlo’s companions, must push on without him, bound for the safety of the distant Rainward Isles. Pitted against their friend, they must find a way to stop Maladar from raising his ancient empire from the ashes of history –and the answer may well lie in Forlo’s own son, who carries a secret even he doesn’t understand.
Review
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Bakukal, Holmswelth the 3rd, my name is Adam and today I am going to give you my Spoiler review of Shadow of the Flame by Chris Pierson. 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 to remind you that you can 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.
Once again we begin with a fantastic first chapter. This is a trend in this trilogy. It starts with Maladar as Emperor, thousands of years before, in the height of the greatest civilization on Krynn, Aurim. He has extended his life for over two hundred years, and is building a secret army. His generals, the Seven Swords, learn of this and confront him about it, when Maladar kills them all. He is convinced he will die from them as he saw it in a vision, and makes plans to survive even as he knows he will be betrayed and die. It ended up being his 8 year old Uigan slave who kills him with poison for having decimated his tribe.
Then we flash forward to the end of the last novel. Maladar is crossing the burning plains to raise Chaldar, the tower of flame at the center of Hith’s Cauldron, only he is stopped by fire minions and an ancient fire dragon. They tell him that if he is the prophesied one, he needs an army. Angry Maladar leaves to raise his army. Forlo realizes that he is alive and trapped in his body under Maladar’s control, but he can share Maladar’s thoughts. Maladar ignores the pain that Forlo is feeling and approaches the city in Old Aurim called Sha Moku. This area has been claimed by hobgoblins and it is here Maladar begins raising his massive Hobgoblin army.
Shadara, Hult, Essana and Azar are leaving the ruins of the Ilithid temple, on their way to the Rainward Isles to warn the nine kings there about Maladar’s return. They are attacked by trolls and only survive because Azar called down lightning. Something he shouldn’t be able to do, and he doesn’t even know how he did it. They drop down into a rift to avoid the majority of monsters and beasts between them and the coast only to be attacked by many mutant scorpions. Again, Azar destroys them all with powerful magic. Shedara and Hult demand answers and Shedara casts a spell to enter Azar’s mind. They go back to when he was a child, being excelerate in age by the faceless ones and he is actually killed by them. So he doesn’t know how he is able to do what he is doing. They suspect a part of Maladar’s essence traveled into him, and the other part is in Forlo, Azar’s father. This brings hope to Essana who appears to have aged dramatically from the whole ordeal.
Maladar continues to conquer Old Aurim and its inhabitants calling all hobgoblin tribes to him for the promise of war on the Rainward Isles. Hult and Shedara sneak into one of the tribes on the way to the coast to find a way around it, and discover the tortured remains of one of the towns conquered inhabitants. Hult grows crazy with rage and kills many of the hobgoblins before leaving. It turns out he killed the chieftain, so when the clan arrives at Maladar’s army, they tell him of the Uigan. Maladar knows who it is and sees them through magic crossing the ocean between Old Aurim and the Rainward Isles. He’s not worried at all about them learning of the coming attack. Shedara and company arrive at the isles and are approached by a mage who learns of the original Azar’s fate from Esana and takes them all to the king’s audience.
King Nakhil is a centaur, the wizard dwarf Roshambur is his advisor. He asks them to join him in a hall which is used to contact all of the 9 Kings of the Rainward isles. They all listen to the tale thus far from Shedara. They prepare for war with the Hobgoblin army after hearing the tale, the kings and their men at arms all assemble on the shores. Maladar tells his hobgoblin leader Ghashai to lead the troops across the sea and sack the kingdom of Suluk. Gleefully he leaves as Maladar travels to his old tomb, where his stone army millenia before awaited him. The army sails across the sea and meets the Rainward armies. They had an all out battle which was wonderful to read. I felt like I was there watching it and the use of magic and tactics was presented masterfully.
As soon as Maladar woke his army, it blew the top off the mountain and sent a shockwave out across the isles, devastating everything, including Suluk and the Hobgoblin army. Azar saved his mother, Shedara, Hult, Roshambur and King Nakhil, but the rest were devastated. They spend a day trying to find survivors, but Suluk was destroyed. Without a kingdom, Nukhil gave up his throne and decided to travel with the companions to th ecenter of the blast to hunt Maladar. They do not know about his new army. First they all want to know exactly why Azar is able to perform the powerful magic. Shedara and Roshambur once more visit the memory of Azar dying and weave the spell to delay its end. This was a really great narrative on magic that reminded me of some of Clive Barker’s work. They describe how Maladar’s Ghost partially entered Azar’s body, which is where he is getting his power from. It seemsMaladar knows it, or part of him knows it, though the Maladar that is in Forlo has yet to acknowledge it at all.
Essana decides to stay as she is not a warrior and would only be a hindrance, so Shedara, Hult, Azar, Roshambur and Nakhil all leave to the blast site. Upon arriving they see the mountain top is gone, and see signs of thousands of footprints leading to the shore. They believe Maladar has a new army and he is returning to Hith’s Cauldron to raise the flaming tower. If he is successful, all of Taladas will be under his rule. They followed the trail to the shore and even witnessed some of the stone creatures stuck in the sand and mud under the ocean. They decide the fastest route would be to cross the ocean by walking on water. Shedara would take the first half and Roshambur would take the second half of spellcasting. Nearly across they ran into the Shining lands, where the sands of Old Aurim were turned into glass and fractured. Touching one of the innumerable shards would slice a mortal, and then a magical storm came. Roshambur was wounded by the storm and shards and everyone began to fall into the ocean, getting cut up. Death was imminent as a massive ship arrived sailing on metal fins across the glass.
They were picked up and healed except for Roshambur who died. They cremated him and Nakhil scattered his ashes along the way. They are headed to a camp where they can meet some of the minoi who dwell in the mountains around Hith’s Cauldron. The group wants passage aboard one of their magical ships that sails the lava sea. Maladar arrives at the cauldron and sees hith himself. Tells him he doesn’t serve him, but will work on raising the Chaldar and completing his task of bringing back Aurim. This pleases Hith, but the god knows something he is not telling Maladar. Maladar crosses the raised bridge to the center of the cauldron and is stopped by the fire minions and dragon as before, only this time, he has his army and tames the creatures. Forlo tries to kill Maadar, and himself, as they ride the flame dragon, but is rescued by the dragon, and Maladar burns off his hand to spite Forlo. This is felt and damaged Azar’s hand, showing Maladar, Forlo and Azar are all linked. Azar and Forlo share Maladar’s soul.
As Maladar raises the Chaldar, flame erupts from the cauldron, seen by the party and the gnomes. The gnomes agree to take them to their home, Ilmachrutandabrunthabram, via hot air balloons, and they meet the king. They are discussing passage as a massive alarm is sounded and they are alerted that the entire fire minion population has appeared and is moving on the gnomes home. The companions demand access to a ship to travel to the Chaldar, and the gnomes only have one ready, an old ship but one captained by Nosk, a gnome who has seen years of travel in the cauldron. They head out and many of the fire minions marching on the gnome kingdom turn to engage them. They stop in the lava near the tower’s defenses and wait for the battle. The tower throws water on many of the minions and the weapons are coated with white dragon frost bile, which harms the minions.
Maladar raises Old Aurim from his memory, but Hith is tormenting him and Maladar knows he is not entirely himself. He is told it is because Azar has his soul in him, and Maladar demands his Kheten Voi kill the group but leave Azaar to join him in the Chaldar. He sends the majority of his constructs off to assault Taladas and topple the various regions. The party continues on and near the raised Aurim are attacked again by minions, who kill the captain and most of the gnomes. Hult is grievously wounded and everyone leaps for the new city land before the ship sinks. Azar heals Hult as Shedara and Nakhil move to fight the remaining constructs. The battle nearly kills Shedara, who is ultimately saved by Nakhil, who succumbs to the onslaught and is killed. Hult is finally healed which is odd as Maladar is not a priest, he is a sorcerer, so Azar’s magic is from Nuvis, not a healing god so how can he heal? Anyway, they are stopped by the immense flame dragon who sees Maladar in Azar’s eyes and allows them to pass.
They arrive in the audience room and Shedara tries to kill Maladar, but fails. Azar approaches Maladar and Hult charges to kill him, they are all trying to stop the two halves of Maladar from joining. Hult is thrown across the room, breaking bones on impact as Azar caught his blade in mid air. Azar thrusts the blade in his own throat, and slowly dies. Maladar reaches into his body and pulls out his soul, which is tethered by a ghostly chord. Forlo deep inside his body loses his mind at his son’s death and forces Maladar out of his body. So now the soul and essence of Maladar is slowly joining. Shedara throws Hult her sword and Hult cuts the cord connecting them, ironically defeating Maladar like the Uigan the first time, and banishes Maladar to the flame of the Cauldron. Forlo has a mild pulse but is alive, Azar is bleeding out but has the strength to send the three to safety as the tower returns to the flame, and he finally dies.
They all part at the Rainward Isles so Forlo can finally join his wife Essana. Hult tells him about the folklore of the Takhansho, and he and Shedara, a couple now, leave to travel Taladas. Maladar is imprisoned in flame by Hith, much like he was imprisoned in stone before. His constructs have stopped rampaging the land and are returning to the cauldron. And that is where we end the trilogy.
This was an emotional journey that changed the way I thought about Dragonlance. This was as epic as the Chronicles or Legends and set in an unfamiliar continent that still felt very much like Dragonlance. I honestly believe this trilogy should be required reading for every fan of Dragonlance. It’s simply that good.
Outro
And that’s it for my review of Shadow of the Flame by Chris Pierson What do you think of the lands of Taladas? Do you think Maladar an-Desh will return? 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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