Join me as I review The Dark Queen by Michael Williams & Teri Williams, live! Share your thoughts on this sixth novel in the Dragonlance Villains series, released on January 1, 1994 by Wizards of the Coast. You can buy a copy here: https://amzn.to/3rcSmsS
About The Dark Queen
The story of Takhisis, Queen of Darkness, follows her as she is worshipped by legions of evil beings and spends her time plotting to escape from the Abyss
Review
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Majetag, Reapember the 19th. My name is Adam and today I am going to give you my review of The Dark Queen by Michael Williams & Teri Williams. 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 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.
My expectations of this novel being the worst in the entire series of Dragonlance novels has been ruined by the first third of the novel. While the writing style of Michael and Teri Williams is more akin to poetry than fiction, the story itself isn’t bad. Takhisis is trying to recover and manifest on Krynn after being banished in the Third Dragon War by Huma. To do this, she had convinced the Kingpriest of Istar that he can marry an elusive red headed woman, if he procures a vast amount of sacred opals from beneath Istar. The Kingpriest being a piece of work himself, has enslaved the now extinct Lucanesti Elves who lived for millennia before Huma, and even made prophecies about the fall of Istar and the coming Cataclysm. These elves are known for being able to easily locate these opals, so they have been enslaved.
There is another prophecy about a band of nomads who can overthrow Istar and place their leader up as the new Kingpriest. This would spoil Takhisis’ plans, so she manifests as well as possible and tries to have him killed. This man is Fordus Firesoul, the Water and War Prophet of the Que-Nara plainsmen and other nomad tribes who have joined them in their war with Istar. Fordus is gifted, and has been touched by Sirrion, but I believe he is being protected by Sargonnas at the moment. Fordus has continually defeated the Istarian armies using guerilla tactics as he slowly makes his way to Istar. In truth, he is being aided by a druid in service to the Kingpriest named Vannanen. Vannanen came to be indentured to the Kingpriest as he was sent to copy all newly declared illegal tomes of knowledge by the kingpriest and spirit them away for future generations. He witnessed a man, enslaved as the Kingpriests weapons master/trainer, and upon his death, the Kingpriest was going to send his son to the mines to pay off the rest of his fathers debt. Vannanen stepped in to pay the remainder of his debt as the new trainer, and the son, Vincus was enslaved to a cleric instead.
Vannaned has been sending Fordus intel in the guise of visions, helping him with troop movements and tactics, even places in the desert to find water and such. Fordus has no idea who it is, assuming he is communing with the gods. That is the basic plot thus far, but there is more development within the rebel camp with personalities that may play larger roles, like the bard Larken or the elf monk Stormlight who Fordus travels with. I am a third of the way through, and it seems the setup is complete, and we will get into the consequences of the characters choices. Fordus travels the desert alone in a vision and is attacked by an agent of Takhisis. He is poisoned but alive and takes a long time getting back to camp. In the meantime, Takhsis takes the guise of a warrior male named Tamex who aids the rebels in defeating an Instarian army raid which kills nearly a hundred and fifty of the rebels. She bends Fordus’ companions’ ears by appealing to their own independence and desires. As Tamex she tries to corrupt Larken, and as her female form of Tanila, she tries to corrupt Stormlight, who is much more receptive. She tells him that he should lead the rebels and that Fordus isn’t worthy.
Then the bandit general Gormian repeats this idea of her own volition when Fordus does return and is healing. Then another attack comes, surprising Takhisis as it comes from Sargonnas who saw how she partially escaped the Abyss through the opals, he does the same, creating a volcanic eruption in the sand and flying in condor form above the rebels. They all turn to attack, and they ultimately defeat the form, which also banishes Takhisis, who then attacks Sargonnas in the Abyss. It turns out that Fordus is the son of a slave attendant to the Kingpriest and it is suggested the Kingpriest as well, and it was Takhisis that is feeding him ambitious goals through dreams.
She wants him to invade Istar and fail, while the Kingpriest continues collecting the opal dust to resurrect her. We travel back to Istar where the slave boy Vincus is watching the city swell with visitors due to the holiday of Shinarian. Only this is a different vibe than past years holidays. He discovers that the elite regiment of Istar, the Sixth Legion, has been recalled to Istar in secret by the Kingpriest to protect it when the rebels attack. Fordus is walking into a trap set by Takhisis.
The rebels begin to fall apart through Takhisis machinations within camp, and Fordus declares it time to invade Istar as he believes the visions he has been given that he will be the next Kingpriest. This is so much better than I was led to believe. Who doesn’t like a story about Takhisis messing with those who would otherwise mess up her plans? They also spend a decent amount of time explaining who the Lucanesti Elves are, which I appreciated. The short story is they are a faction of Dimernesti that evolved on land and underground. With only a third of the book left, I am intrigued about how this will all end.
Now that I have finished the book, I can see why people didn’t resonate with it. The final battle is a mish mash of cutscenes. Before we get there, Vananen sends Vincus to find Fordus with a Lucanesti prophecy book. He finally arrives to have Stormlight take the book and not tell Fordus, who we are led to believe is just as single minded and blind as the Kingpriest. He is told the dead will rise and fight with him when he invades. Knowing that the Sixth Legion is waiting for them, Stormlight tries to reason with Fordus, but Fordus is intent on becoming Kingpriest, keeping his knowledge of the army of the dead to himself.
They finally invade Istar and Takhisis is running the military offensive. That’s right. She is telling Fordus to invade Istar and in command of the army he will be crushed under, as she is working for the Kingpriest so he will make her a body from the crushed gems from underneath Istar that the Lucanesti elves are mining. Whew, well the Lucanesti elves finally recall where the gems are from, the Spirit Naga have been feeding off the corpses of the ancient Lucanesti that were buried in the mines, turning them to the opals the current Lucanesti are farming. So the Kingpriest will create a body for Takhisis from the dust of ancient Lucanesti elves. This is a very, very convoluted story that relies more on mystical imagery than logical storytelling.
So the Lucanesti slaves stop mining the opals after re-learning about them, and this infuriates Takhisis as they create a cave in to prevent others from mining them. But it doesn’t matter because apparently the Kingpriest already has enough. Takhisis let’s Fordus enter the Kingpriests chambers to show them both that they have been manipulated and that the Kingpriest is Fordus’ father. None of this changes anyone, so why do it? Fordus is killed, the armies are slaughtered. The Kingpriest starts making her a body, which evolves into a dust whirlwind version of her Tiamat form.
Takhisis goes to start destroying all of Istar and the armies but the voiceless bard begins casting a spell she invents that banishes Takhisis and stops the gods from being able to ever manifest through geology again. How? Dunno, magic? Apparently the spell is so powerful it affects all of Krynn’s geography. I had no idea bards were so bad ass! So Takhisis is banished to the Abyss again, but she doesn’t care because in a couple years she causes the Cataclysm. Yea you heard that right. In this story, Takhisis caused the cataclysm, then just reentered Krynn anyway…. How? Dunno… Magic?
Finally, the Bard Larken, hooks up with the Lucanesti Stormlight, and generations later their ancestor is Goldmoon. Yep, you heard that right too. This is such a horrid final act to the story that I can’t help but feel like we are being trolled as readers. It doesn’t line up with any information we have ever been presented about the Kingpriest, or Elves, or Goldmoon. It showcases the evil gods all trapped in the Abyss, which doesn’t make much sense as they still can manifest on Krynn, even without the Opals, before they were prevented from using them thanks to a bard.
It’s all so nonsensical, I finally understand why this book has its reputation. The worst part about it, is that it didn’t have to be this way. Make the Kingpriest one of the earlier ones. And most of the problems vanish. Get rid of the nonsense opal mining storyline, as it was pointless. Focus on the bloodline of the Kingpriest and Fordus and the gods’ machinations, and it is infinitely more interesting and doesn’t break cannon. This seems to be a case of shoving far too much into a story hoping that it would make it compelling. It’s a hit and a miss.
Outro
And that’s it for my review of The Dark Queen by Michael Williams & Teri Williams. What did you think of the new version of the Kingpriest? Do you like it when new subraces are presented in stories? And finally, how do you feel about the new version of Goldmoons heritage? 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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