Join me as I review The Annotated Legends: Test of the Twins, live! Share your thoughts on the continuation of the best selling trilogy and this new annotated edition. I share the insights I gleaned, how the annotations presented a new perspective and why I still love this novel.
You can pick up The Annotated Legends here: https://amzn.to/3e7YB7C
Review
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. It is Majetag, Palesweltthe 17th, my name is Adam and today I am going to give you my Spoiler review The Annotated Legends: Test of the Twins. 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 my collaborator patrons, the Heroes of the Lance, and invite you to consider becoming a patron or member of this channel by visiting the links 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.
Book One gives us a vision of Raistlin’s success. This is a moment in time that did occur, but can be altered simply because Tasselhoff exists and is traveling with Caramon through time. They arrive near Solace in the future to discover it covered in ash. To their dismay, everything is dead and the raging magical lightning storm is destroying the land. They arrive in Solace and discover a mass grave and Tika’s tombstone. Caramon is torn apart until he sees his own skeletal corpse in front of it. He realized that he built this in the future, that they traveled too far with the time traveling device and that Raistlin’s hourglass constellation is in the sky, destroying the gods and the earth simultaneously.
They decide to try and prevent this future but not knowing how, they use the device to travel to the forest of Wayreth which attacks them Evil Dead style. Caramon shouts out to Par-Salien and the trees lead them to the Tower of Wayreth which is now in shambles and nearly destroyed, something the cataclysm couldn’t even do. When they climb up to the top they see Par-Salien, half turned to stone, forced to witness the end of the gods and time as retribution for what he did to Raistlin in his test. Raistlin is mocking him and cursing him to pain. Astinus is there as well and he chronicles the end of the world, with Paladine’s death at the hands of Raistlin, but not before counseling Raistlin that he destroys everything as he destroys the gods and he will be utterly alone in a void as evil itself cannot create ife. Raistlin will be trapped by his own ambition. For a split second we witness Raistlin’s sorrow and realization of this fact, telling me that he is not in total control, that Fistandantilus’ soul is also urging him on.
Either way, Caramon insists that he can and will change time and enter the abyss, preventing Raistlin from leaving it to fix this future, and the first book is over.
Annotations
- Tracy hopes people will relate real world problems to the fiction he writes. Not to propose answers but to provide context or perspectives
- Chapter 2 was a view of Caramon’s consequences to failure.
- Caramon and Raistlin are addicts. Caramon is a recovering alcoholic and Raistlin is addicted to Magic.
- Tracy doesn’t see the moons of Krynn as gods but rather symbols of the power that magic taps
- Astinus’ Book looks like the Book of Life kept in heaven as well as the seven seals of the book of revelation
Book two picks up with Lord Soth, retelling his history and fate. It also shares his desire for Kitiara upon her death. He is tired of her mortal yearnings and desires her for himself.
Tanis, Astinus, and Elistan are summoned by Dalamar the Dark who shares his knowledge of Raistlin’s machinations with everyone and their inevitable doom if Raistlin succeeds. He shared his plan to stop Raistlin from reentering, but Tanis doesn’t believe a word of it. It is interesting because we get to see Tanis acting impetuously and is actively scolded by Astinus. Traditionally Tanis has been the voice of measured reason, but when he thinks Tasslehoff, Caramon, and Crysania have been led to their deaths by Raistlin, he wants nothing more than to take it out of Raistlin’s apprentice’s hide.
Faced with the news that Kitiara will be moving on to the city of Palanthus to present her army to Raistlin after his success, Tanis leaves to bring the news to Lord Gunthar Uth Wistan. Lord Gunthar doesn’t believe a word of it, but out of respect for Tanis, and seeing the concern in Tanis’ eyes, he relents and sends word for the Knights of Solamnia to man the High Clerist Tower to prevent Kitiara’s army from passing it and entering Palanthus.
We then flash into the Abyss and share multiple experiences of Rastlins, tests so to speak, that he must overcome from his past. He is traveling through the Abyss as if it were a mirror image of Krynn, and eventually recalls Tasslehoff’s comment that if you imagine it, you are brought anywhere within the Abyss. He is also stripped of his magic, and relies on Lady Crysania to protect him, which she does to her ultimate peril. Raistlin realizes that he is the reason his magic isn’t working and figures out the secret of traveling through the Abyss, ultimately facing off against Takhisis who actually bows to Raistlin and shows him the respect of an equal! This is a fundamental affirmation of Raistlin’s power. We were only shown it in relation to other’s perspectives, but to see it come from a God, is something else entirely!
We flash back to Tanis who is mobilized in the High Clerist Tower. He and Lord Guntahr await Kitiara’s Army on the field of battle, but are stunned by her flying over the cloudy sky in a Flying Citadel with her army aboard! The Knights of Solamnia do not have enough dragons to fight it and it passes right over their heads on its way to the city of Palanthus! Tanis scrambles onto a Bronze dragon and flies to Palanthus to warn Amothus to assemble the militia. Dalamar gifts Tanis with a bracelet that will protect him from Lord Soth’s Death Knight power, and they all await the assault from Kitiara’s Army and Lord Soth’s undead army.
Annotations
- Soth’s tragedy has its roots in David and Bathsheba from the bible
- Caramon and Raistlin’s relationship was a mirror of a relationship Tracy had as a young man.
- Fizbans fumbling is an outward parable, forcing those around him to rely on themselves rather than his power. -MW
- Michael Williams provides his thoughts about the poetry he wrote throughout the Legends. It’s refreshing to see a poet critique their work years later, sharing what they intended with it, who their inspirations were, and how they feel it worked out.
- Tracy Hickman notes the untested Palanthian Army could be a parallel to the United States Military in the mid 1980’s.
- Tracy reflects on Amothus’ concern for Palanthus and how it is mirrored in the September 11th attack on the United States
Book Three is the battle of Palanthus, but before the Flying Citadel and Lord Soth storm the city, Caramon and Tasslehoff appear and enter. Caramon is intent on entering the Tower of High Sorcery somehow, and he sends Tasslehoff to help Tanis Half-Elven, as in the future Tanis is killed by Lord Soth. Tasslehoff ends up stealing the bracelet of protection from Tanis, who then chases him down as Lord Soth demands the city surrender but Lord Amothus refuses. He then attacks. The flying citadel unleashes the dragons and draconian army which battles the Palanthus militia, Knights of Solamnia and the available good dragons.
Caramon actually enters Shoikan Grove, and as it is consuming him, Tanis pulls him out, stunned by how far he went in. It was only due to Tanis’ bracelet that he was able to save him. They decide to use the Flying Citadel to enter the tower, and after they leave, Tasslehoff prays to Fizban for help getting into the tower as he was left behind. Just then Flamestrike crashed, wounded near him, and eventually agreed to transport him to the flying citadel.
Inside, Tasslehodd rescues Tanis and Caramon who are pinned down battling Draconians, and they meet a Gully Dwarf who they tricked into telling them where the control room is. Tas and the Gully Dwarf pilot the flying citadel to the tower, crashing into the top of it as Tanis and Caramon jump onto the tower. Inside, Dalamar was anxiously preparing to attack Raistlin when he exits the Abyss to defeat the Dark Queen and Kitiara fights her way through Shoikan Grove, and up the tower. Once Dalamar lets her in the portal room, she attacks him! They battle to near death as he tells her that Lord Soth misled her into attacking Palanthus as he just wants her to die so he can claim her in the afterlife. Kitiara is terrified of that idea but refuses to believe him. That is when Caramon and Tanis come in. Kitiara throws a dagger at Dalamar as a last ditch effort and it bounces off Tanis’ armor. He goes to her as she is dying and she realises that Lord Soth is coming for her in her death. She pleads for Tanis to save her.
Lord Soth enters and Tanis finally lets go of Kitiara, realising he has everything he needs in Laurana. Lord Soth takes Kitiara’s corpse and his skeletal minions leave palanthus with him. Cardamom enters the Abyss and discovers Crysania, blind and dying. He then sees Raistlin and they face off. Raistlin is on the even of victory, and when he sees Caramon looking upon him with Pity, he cannot stand it and must learn why. Caramon relays the truth of Raistlin’s future, who disbelieves it until looking into Caramon’s mind, discovering the truth, and realising he was wrong all along in his desires and expected outcomes. He tells Caramon to take the Staff of Magius, and Crysania through the portal and close it, as Takhisis attacks Raistlin. Raistlin retreats to his memories of being with Caramon in his youth and is redeemed, and granted sleep, as the portal closes.
Crysania is made the Revered Daughter, the head of the church and presides over Elistan’s Funeral. Tasslehoff dumps the Flying citadel off in the country leaving it with the Gully Dwarf. Caramon, Tanis and Tasslehoff leave for Solanthus, then Tas and Caramon return to Solace, where Caramon reunites with Tika.
The entire later half of this novel had my eyes shrouded in mist and happiness. I find that I love the character Tasslehoff more and more with every reading and seeing Caramon finally becoming whole fills me with great joy. I love Tanis at the end of this novel but it’s really the tragedy of Kitiara and Lord Soth that steals the show. Fans of the Lord Soth, Ravenloft novels know the role she plays.
Ultimately, I don’t understand how Raistlin was redeemed and granded sleep, then returned in the future books as if she wasn’t. It is an inconsistency that I will have to look into more, as I admit my memory may be faulty after 30 some odd years. Truthfully, this was a perfect cap to the Legends AND Chronicles trilogy. I really appreciate how it joined more characters to the story rather than just Tas, Caist, Caramon and Crysania. It felt like a creative and entertaining conclusion to characters I have loved for decades and revisiting the story with these annotations provides entirely new insights.
Annotations
- Margaret Weis notes that it is tradition to provide the hero with a means of protection against insurmountable odds. She thought it would be funny to give it, then to take it away.
- Dalamar and Kitiara could defeat Raistlin together, but evil always turns on itself, and it isn’t in their natures to work together.
- Margaret Weis says Tanis Half-Elven and Dalamar the Dark are mirror images of each other. One acts selflessly and the other altruistically
- Caramon is a savior figure. He came from a young naive man to a bold general with determined will.
- Crysania had to go blind to truly see.
- Crysanias words mirror christs words on the cross
- Dalamar is right about Kitiara. She uses others because she is addicted like her brothers, but for her its power, control.
- Raistlin redeemed himself and was granted peace in sleep.
- Raistlin did not sacrifice himself for the world or Caramon or Crysania, but because he realized that he was wrong in the end, and his death was the only thing that could make things right.
- The end of Test of the Twins feeds into the War of Souls in that the gods are not omniscient or omnipor=tent, but subservient to the high god and fallible in themselves.
I loved this concluding novel and though the annotations added context, after the previous books annotations, I didn’t find any egregious. I would recommend this version of the novel to any fan of Dragonlance or fantasy in general.
Outro
And that’s it for my review of The Annotated Legends: Test of the Twins. Have you read the Annotated version? Do you enjoy the reviews I am putting out there? Feel free to email me at info@dragonlance-saga.com or comment below.
I would like to once again invite you to consider becoming a patron or member of this channel, and you can pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate link, all of which are in the description below.
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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