Join me as I review Sister of the Sword by Paul B. Thompson and Tonya C. Cook live! Share your thoughts on this final novel in the Dragonlance Barbarians series, released by Wizards of the Coast on May 1, 2002. You can buy a copy here: https://amzn.to/4m3QY3O
About Sister of the Sword
The final book in a historical Dragonlance trilogy.
On the battle plains of Ansalon, all barbarians must band together.
Raiders, nomads, and villagers. Ogres and elves. Dragons of good and evil. These are the forces that have joined battle to decide the fate of the first primitive civilization of Krynn. At the center of this whirlwind, the long-separated siblings Amero and Nianki are reunited. But foes long gone and presumed dead also join together, seeking vengeance and destruction once and for all.
Best-selling writing team Thompson and Cook return again to the world of Dragonlance in this sweeping conclusion to the epic Barbarians trilogy.
Review
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Majetag, Brookgreen the 31st. My name is Adam and today I am going to give you my review of Sister of the Sword by Paul B. Thompson and Tonya C. Cook. 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
This novel began with the Jade Men sneaking into Yala-tene, hunting down Amero and killing him. They were defeated and driven out themselves, but the sudden death of a character that has been at the heart of two novels and suffered an unceremonious death seems shocking. Not even the citizens seem to mourn him, making me suspect he’s not dead, but still, a third way through the novel, he hasn’t reappeared. The raiders are struggling with overcoming the village and all their hopes seem to rest on Harak bringing back the ogres that Naris sent him to find.
WWe pick up with Harak who tricks one ogre chief to direct him to Ungra-de. He goes through a drinking ritual with him in order to gain his trust and promises him human slaves from the city he is being asked to sack. Ungra-de agrees and they begin their long track back. Cut to Karada and Beramun returning to Yala-tene, they learn that Balif is nearby on a hunt and raid his camp. They take him captive and send ransom demands to Silvanos as they bring him with them. They end up running into children who escaped yala-tene due to the ogres, and we have a bit of a time jump here.
Duranix is still chasing Sthen across Ansalon. They end up fighting over a ship battleground and the ships turn on the dragons. They capture Duranix and strand him on an island that is only populated by one other female Bronze Dragon named Blusidar. Duranix tells her that Sthenn is on her island and he is a monster and will kill her, but she is naive and young and disbelieves him. She shares that these beings left the dragons on the island and stranded them there. Some left never to return but she is the last. She is later captured and gravely wounded by Sthenn, as Duranix runs him off and stays to heal her. He is clearly growing fond of her, and she is eventually growing fond of him as well. He teaches her to capture lightning in her body so that she can control fire. There is so much about the dragons that is out of left field in this series but this might be the most crazy. Even more than the auto regeneration of eyes and limbs.
The ogres return to yala-tene and Zannian isn’t happy at all. They demand the humans watch them take the city and the ogres are actually repelled by the residents. Nacris is upset till she learns Zannian had a flanking force assault from the opposite side of the city and she and her mate Hoten go to witness the battle. The second third of this novel brings much of my suspicions to the forefront and even seems like an end to the novel. I wonder where the final act will take the story. The battle of yala-tene is great. Not only are the ogres repelled time and time again, so are the raiders. Then it is revealed that Amero was not dead, it was a different nomad the Jade Men killed. They have been evacuating the young and old through the mountain during the assault, and there is a bet on the raiders side about who will break through into the village first. The ogre chieftain or the raiders’.
Kianki’s nomads arrive in the valley and see the incredible numbers of raiders and Balif offers to help them with the attack. It takes some convincing but they agree. What follows is a wonderful number of chapters all about the battle. How it [pitches from one side to the other. Eventually Kianki and Amero reconnect and Beramun once again returns to the town only to want to leave. The ogre chief Ungre-de wants to fight karamun one on one and they decide to meet in the battle the following day. Nacris leads the Jade Men against Karadas nomads and are all killed and Nacris is taken captive. She claims to want this end, and Karada goes to kill her and Nacri says she knows about her brother. This confirms my early suspicion about Zannien beingMenni, Nianki and Amero’s little brother.
Karada leaves, keeping Nacris captive and everyone returns to the battle. Karada faced Ungra-de, charging with her cavalry into the remaining ogres and Sthenn and Duranix appeared in the sky overhead. They are battling and Duranix tells Amero through their telepathic, still not explained, connection that he has to deal with something before he comes to the village. Lightning strikes between Karada and Ungra-de and the dragons fall to the ground in each other’s claws. Duranix finishes Sthenn off and stands over him waiting for him to die slowly. Sthenn tells Amero that Zannian is his little brother that he took him as a child for a pet and gave him to Nacris.
The revelation is shocking to Amero, but Karada already knows and doesn’t care. Bailiff ended up defeating and nearly killing Zannian in battle but Amero saved him. Not soon enough for his sight as Balif sliced his face blinding him. The battle ended and the remaining raiders were captured. Duranix tells Amero that he may leave Yala-tene forever. This shocks Amero, and he leaves to tell Beramun that he loves Lyopi and Beramun is happy for him. She felt Sthenn’s presence but nothing was made of the green mark on her. At least not yet. I really hope there is something that comes of that otherwise what was the point? Amero starts talking to the elves about blacksmithing and using Bronze and Amero and Karada have dinner deciding to split captives. Karada will take Nacris to kill, and Amero will take their bling brother Zannizan to try to bring back from being Sthenn’s war chief.
This final act doesn’t seem to have much but an extended afterword to wrap up, as I believe Duranix will leave, well get a big ol city out of this, I have secretly been wanting yala-tene to be Xak Tsaroth, but it’s not in the correct geographical area, so who knows. The final act was surprisingly cathartic or not completely expected. There is a whole Mara, former Sensarku who was captured by the elves and then rescued by karada who is absolutely devoted to Karada and hates Ameru. She is convinced the elves are in league with Ameru, and when she is scorned by Karada for lying about Harak raping Beramun, she is cast out. This directs her to take drastic action in an effort to get back in the good graces of Kerada.
Meanwhile Harak cuts the mark off of Beramun’s chest and cauterizes the wound. Karada witnesses it and begrudgingly accepts that he is not a worthless raider and may be the true partner for Beramun. Beramun has a dream about the mark. Apparently it was abortion of Sthenn’s life force and he is trying to take control of her body. She fights him off in her mind and frees herself. She is not sworn to Harak. Amero decides to marry Lyopi and there is a great feast between Karada and Ameru’s people for the victory and he has the ceremony then. I am a romantic so I absolutely loved it. It also puts the next scenes in starker juxtaposition. Duranix flies off to hunt, Karada leaves to talk to Zannien, her brother, and Loypi goes to her home to await Amero, who goes to talk with Karada.
Earlier Zannien asked to see Nacris and when he was taken to her, Nacris tried to kill Karada who ended up cutting her head off. Zannian is told that he will live in yala-tene for the rest of his days with Amero, and is resigned to his fate seemingly. As Amero returns home, Mara stabs him in the gut, killing him. She saw the elves had bought some bows and arrows from Karada’s tribe, thinking Amero traded knowledge of forbing bronze for them. She saw him as a genuine traitor. So she killed him. Duranix, Karada and Zannien all felt the knife go into Amero indicating some sort of connection but it is never paid off or explained. They rush to find Mara and put her into custody.
A council is held to determine the fate of the captives now that Ameru is dead. Mara will be banished forever. Zannian will be taken and looked after by the village, a long torture to his pride. The elves will be freed after the bows and arrows are taken from them. Karada’s band leaves to the open plains and many of the town leaves with her. The rest stay and thrive. Duranix leaves and returns to the bronze dragon female Blusidar and they have hatchlings of their own in time. We get the passage of time where Karada’s band splits into many and they all thrive on different parts of the land. At the very end there is some mention of the loss of something that is never explained by Duranix. I am not sure what it is. Perhaps the spirit power that infused him, or something else.
Upon reflection I truly loved this novel because of the emotional impact of Amero’s death and the impact it had on everyone. I genuinely believe that we can live forever through the memories of those we touched in life and I hope to have a fraction of the impact as some of these fictional characters. As a parent I am hyper focused on my children and wanting them to reflect fondly and overlook my many failures as a father and man. I took them into nature nearly every weekend as children and I hope that when they return to it they will feel like I am with them. That is the impact this had, it reminds me of our impact on each other, and that is a great thought, at least for me.
If you would love to read how plainsmen began this is a great series. If you want to have some emotional catharsis, this third novel certainly gave it to me. But if you want consistency with dragons or magic or explanations about either, you will not get it here.
Outro
And that’s it for my review of Sister of the Sword by Paul B. Thompson and Tonya C. Cook. Would you have preferred more immediate closure with Sthenn? Are you okay not knowing why Amero had such a psychic and physical connection with his siblings and Duranix? And finally, did the story feel sufficiently Dragonlance to you? 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).
