Join me as I review Temple of the Dragonslayer by Tim Waggoner, live! Share your thoughts on this first novel in The New Adventures series. You can pick up Temple of the Dragonslayer here: https://smile.amazon.com/Temple-Dragonslayer-Dragonlance-Adventures-Vol/dp/0786933216/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1662137717&sr=8-1
About Temple of the Dragonslayer
The first title in an all-new Dragonlance series for young readers!
Temple of the Dragonslayer launches 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 band of young companions who band together for friendship and excitement during the golden age of the Dragonlance world. To ensure the appeal of these titles to the proper age group, young readers will be involved in the development of this novel at the manuscript stage. Author Tim Waggoner has written frequently for young readers, and his novels and short stories have been nominated for numerous writing awards.
Nearra does not know who she is or where she lives, but she does know one thing: someone wants her dead. Her only hope lies leagues away, in an ancient temple, where healing clerics may be able to restore her memory.
A helpful young ranger, a failed warrior, a sneaky elf, and a kender wizard offer to accompany Nearra on her journey. She soon learns her newfound friends have secrets of their own. As goblins, an angry minotaur, and a vicious green dragon attempt to stop them at every turn, friendships are tested and all of if may come to ruin from the one Nearra trusts the most.
Review
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Majetag, Reapember the 6th, my name is Adam and today I am going to give you my Spoiler review of Temple of the Dragonslayer 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.
This is a young adult novel, so the details of the world of Krynn may not be as aggressive or detailed as the Chronicles or Legends. That being said, I am enjoying this beginning. It is an easy read, so don’t expect too convoluted of a story. A female human named Neara wakes with three goblins arguing over what to do with her. She tries to escape, only to run headfirst into a juvenile green dragon named Slean. It threatens to eat her as Davyn, a human ranger and Maddoc, a human wizard in white robes intervene and put the dragon to sleep. Nearra has amnesia and can’t remember anything other than her name, though she feels something inside her, either her own consciousness or another’s. This is a recurring theme in this novel. Davyn and Maddoc offer to take her to the nearby town of Tresvka to seek a healer to see if she could help with the amnesia. This is set after the War of the Lance, though how long after is yet unclear.
They get to the town and Maddoc takes his leave, giving Davyn money to pay the healer. Davyn and Nearra come across a Kender fleeing from a Minotaur who claims the kender stole his money pouch. The kender we learn is named Sindri Suncatcher and claims to be a wizard. When combat occurs, Nearra feels tingling and pressure in her hands and head, so we are led to believe she is the one castin the magic, but the kender believes it’s him. The minotaur, named Jax, has his battle ax ripped from his hand, hovers in the air and hits him in the head knocking him out. Then a young female squire named Catronia intervenes. She is Sindri’s friend. They all flee to the healers together. We learn that Davyn paid the healer to direct Nearra to the Temple of the Holy Orders of the Stars in the forest of the Solamnic Plains, a few days’ ride from this town. But no one else knows. They go to a bar and we learn that the goblins were working for a Thiewar dwarf named Oddvar, and he was waiting at the bar, intending to be their guide, but Jax the minotaur woke and found them while an elf named Ellidor offered to guide them, and they ran outside to help. Again, Sindri thinks he cast a spell that made Jax slip and fall and they all flee again. They end up at an inn where they make plans to leave town for the temple. They have dinner and get to know eachother better. We are told that Oddvar works for Maddoc who is actually a black robed wizard who asked Odvar to do this job, the full extent is still unknown, in exchange for magic for Odvar to defeat a wizard in his home under the mountain. Apparently Nearra has something to do with a sorceress named Asvoria and that is why Maddoc set this whole plan in motion.
The party sets out in the morning to be followed by Jax, still searching to regain his honor from Sindri. They see Slean in the distance and as the green dragon approaches them, Jax charges it. They all battle and fight the dragon off, who as it leaves tells the reader that she was supposed to be playing with them, not killing them and that she regretted it as what they did only annoyed her and she could destroy them if she wanted to. We discover that it is Davyn’s use of his telekinetic ring that is allowing Sindri to appear to be a wizard, but he can only use it three times a day. Oddvar is lying in wait in the forest waiting for them to leave the path, and he sends the three goblins to get help in ambushing them. Now that Jax joined the group, and Sindri apologized to him, they all travel together and are jumped by two dozen goblins. Davyn grabs Nearra and runs through the forest as the others face off against the goblins.
Elidor steals Jax’s money pouch and pours it out, distracting the goblins, while they all run after Nearra. Davyn and Nearra run into an ogre named Ugo, who seems as if he is meant to play with the group rather than kill them outright, which is a theme of all of these encounters. As if they are being filtered into a specific location or encounter. Davyn tries to use his ring and pases out, as Nearra allows the voice inside her to call out the name Tarkemelhion, which is the true name of a copper dragon named Raedon nearby. Raedon answers the call and fights the ogre that the others were facing off against together after catching up to Nearra.
After the dragon slows the ogre, it addresses the group, asking who the wizard was that called his true name, and Sindri claimed to be the only wizard, so Raedon said he would play along with the ruse, though no one seemed to react. We discover that Elidor is also lying to the group about being a guide, and the more we uncover, the more convoluted this story is getting. Elidore planned on robbing the temple or the party but became friends with them, so he came clean. They were given directions by Raedon on how to get to the temple, and Raedon left to go check on his lair. Slean was contacted by Maddoc to take care of Raedon, who went flying and attacked him in mid-flight. He hurt Raedon’s wing, and then left. Raedon landed in the forest unconscious.
The group arrived at the path to the temple, but were ambushed by goblins. As Jax attacked the army of goblins head on, Davyn and Nearra fled into the pass, followed by everyone else. Ugo lassoed Nearra and pulled her up, and was knocked out by a sleeping potion by Oddvar. They took her into the Underfell, an old pre-cataclysm sunken village. The party discovered the secret lair, after the goblins fled, and snuck into the Underfell, and rescued Nearra. On the way out, Ugo discovered the party and chased after them, breaking some pillars and causing a cave in. The party continued to the temple and were ultimately welcomed and let inside by Feandon, a priest of Paladine. We did get a flash of Asvoria who is waiting till Nuitari is at its zenith to return as a god to Krynn. It seems her soul is in Nearra like Fistandantilus was in Raistlin. We will see how that all pans out. The party requests aid for Nearra and the clerics pray over her, but are unable to resolve the amnesia. Nearra has a nightmare about where she came from without any specific details. That night Davyn is visited outside the magic gate barrier by a raven from Maddoc who we learn is Davyn’s father! Davyn is growing to truly care about Nearra so when Maddoc gives him a scroll to sneak into the temple to inform the priests about a town of spellcasters called Arngrim, Davyn refuses to deliver it. But a goblin snuck into the gate while they were talking and Elidor was eavesdropping the entire conversation.
The party notes a mosaic of an ancient hero called Alethia who slew Kiernan the crimson dragon with a holy arrow, and they see the arrow in the artifact room. This comes in handy the next morning when Slean rips the gate open after the goblin on the inside unlocks it, and demands Nearra. The four priests in the temple and the entire party battle Slean, and it is a great, challenging battle, where Slean is about to kill everyone, and Raedon finally wakes from being attacked days earlier and flies to help. Even then Slean is winning and so Nearra goes to the mosaic and pulls the arrow from it and kills Slean with the holy artifact.
The next day Sinri is chasing a butterfly and finds another scroll talking about Arngrim. Davyn doesn’t dare tell the truth about it as he is afraid they will never trust him again, so he agrees to go there with them. Jax stays after nearly dying from Slean, to guard the tower. Maddoc nearly made Asvoria emerge from within Nearra but will continue to try to make it happen in the next book. It turns out that Davyn has been helping his father for much longer than previously believed but he no longer wants to, so there will be a great tense moment eventually when it all comes out.
I really enjoyed this quick read, and I look forward to continuing the story. I think the covers of these books suck, and actually made me not want to read them, but the story is fun. It feels like a great home game session. If you are a fan of gaming D&D or of Dragonlance, I would suggest checking this book out.
Outro
And that’s it for my review of Temple of the Dragonslayer by Tim Waggoner. What do you think about the first 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.
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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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