Join me as I review The Doom Brigade by Margaret Weis & Don Perrin, live! Share your thoughts on this first novel in The Chaos War Series. You can pick up The Doom Brigade here: https://amzn.to/3JqokW3
About The Doom Brigade
War can get a fellow killed.
The fearless draconians of the War of the Lance have retired from the field of battle to a pleasant valley in the Kharolis Mountains. Well, it would be pleasant, if it weren’t for some dwarves, whose irritating feuding prevents the draconians from realizing their greatest hope — the ability to continue their doomed race.
When the dwarves discover a map leading to a fortune buried in the dwarven kingdom of Thorbardin, the draconians are swept up in a feverish race for treasure. Little do both sides realize that they are part of the strange and terrible destiny descending upon Krynn during the Summer of Flame.
A destiny that includes the children of Chaos . . . the fire dragons!
The Doom Brigade is the first installment in The Chaos War series, stories set during the war of the Dragons of Summer Flame, the New York Times best-selling novel co-authored by Margaret Weis.
Review
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. It is Misham, Deepkolt the 17th, my name is Adam and today I am going to give you my Spoiler review of The Doom Brigade. 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.
We are introduced to two groups. First is Kang’s Regiment, a Bozak commander of the First Dragonarmy Engineering Brigade. They number around 200. The second is a Neidar dwarf village of Celebundin. We are twenty five years after the War of the Lance, and without females among the Draconian species, they are nearing extinction with every death. This is why Kang decided to only use blunt weapons with the intent of knocking out opponents when raiding Celebundin, and the dwarves followed suit when returning raids to Kang’s village. The two communities go back and forth, the Draconians stealing Dwarven Spirits, sheep and crops, and the dwarves stealing it back.
Among the dwarves are Selquist, a half Daergar-half Neidar dwarf, Auger, Mortar and Pestle. These four do not fit into the Celebundin community as they are thieves, stealing for themselves first in the raid, before the greater community. It is here we see them trying to curry favor with the Thane by gifting his daughter a sheep from the last raid, so he would in turn look the other way when they sold the previous dwarf property back to them for a profit. The warchief, Moorthane, threatened to cast Selquist out of the community for his self-serving actions. Frustrated, but determined, Selquist decides to take his friends to Thorbardin through a secret air vent.
Back at Kang’s regiment, Solinari and Lunitari are going to be a full, so the draconians plan a raid on the dwarves, who made off with a few sheep and personal effects, including Kang’s holy symbol of Takhisis (Selquist has this), and we get to see a lot of Kang’s personality, reasoning and method of leadership which is really interesting. I stayed away from this because I was never interested in Draconians as characters, but I was wrong. This is great so far. Anyway, they make a great plan to raid the dwarves, but the dwarves make an educated guess about the draconians plans and ready their forces to meet them.
This is when Selquist and his friends sneak out, only to be followed by Slith, a Sivak Draconian and Kang’s second in command. He takes a few soldiers with him in pursuit, under the assumption these dwarves would try to raid their home while the draconians were raiding the dwarves. They are followed to the valley before Throbardin and when Slith learns of their plan to sneak into Thorbardin and not raid the draconians, he leaves to return and inform Kang. Back at Celebundin, the Dwarves meet with great resistance, but ultimately fall back to the brewery threatening to pour out all the ale rather than give it up to the draconians. Kang casts a stinking cloud spell, clearing out the brewery and the draconians raid it and escape.
The four dwarves entered the secret tunnel into Thorbardin, disguised themselves as chimney sweeps and entered the vast underground city through old forge tubes. They headed straight to Theiwar territory as Selquist was meeting up with his instructor in the fine arts of acquisitions, otherwise known as thievery. Chronix, Selquists instructor, thanked him for bringing his friends as instructed and they pulled off a big heist. We pick back up with the dwarves returning to Celebundin. Selquist sends Mortar and Pestle to Pax Tharkas to sell their loot, and he reveals a book to Auger that he stole from Chronix. The book details the location to a treasure hoard of the Dragon Highlords in Neraka, containing riches and female draconian eggs! We now see where the story is headed.
Kang is woken the morning after the raid which ended with a massive party, and an equally massive hangover. He is told there are dragons flying over the Plains of Dust, not far south from his home. He takes a crew which reveals two red dragons with riders, Knights of Takhisis. Talon Leader Huzzud, Knight of the Lily tells him of the Knights and that there is an army headed this way. Kang suggests a meeting with the commander. When the army arrives, Kang is impressed with them, as they are so disciplined and driven. He offers his regiment to join the mission and guesses that they are headed to Thorbardin. Lord Knight of the Skull Robert Sykes accepts the unit and tells him to meet them south of the south gate of Thorbardin.
Kang returns and informs his troops they will be leaving in two days. The dwarves, afraid of an invasion, ready for an assault, only to discover the draconians have abandoned their home. The regiment arrives on time to be met by Huzzud who leads them to the main force. Mortar and Pestle arrive at Pax Tharkas which is ironically ripe with racial distrust. The alliance between humans, elves and dwarves that Laurana and Tanis have been workin on has failed. Palanthas and the High Clerist’s Tower are occupied by the Dark Knights, and Pax Tharkas fears that it is next. The dwarves eventually get in and are unable to sell the stolen goods. After being overwhelmed by a mass of kender, they flee Pax Tharkas only to be captured by Dark Knights as they are returning home.
Kang is brought to the Logistics Commander who informs him to turn over their weapons and armor as they are going to be on latrine digging duty for the invasion of Qualinesti. Kang argues his unit’s effectiveness and experience, but the human doesn’t care. Kang leaves furious and after speaking with his officers they decide to leave the Dark Knights. They figure since they agreed to sign on with them as engineers, since they aren’t wanted as such, they can leave. They run into the dwarves Mortar and Pestle who have escaped their captors and use them as leverage to get past the Dark Knight patrol. Once they are in view of their home mountain, they release the dwarves, thanking them for their help.
The regiment returns to Mount Dashinak, their home to find it on fire, and dwarven soldiers still present. In a berzerk fury they rush into the flames and murder every dwarf, butchering them. They decide to invade Celebundin for intel on the attack with the sivaks, and Slith gets caught by his illusion form’s wife! He flees into a dark home which ends up being Selquist with the three other dwarves talking over the book with the treasure map. Slith immediately sees its importance and tries to steal it, as the town’s militia is being raised. He runs into the door frame as he is now a draconian form, and Kang who was invisibly following him pulls him free and they start running away. Selquist stabs Kang in the leg, and wrestles the book from him, the cover rips off and the dwarf and draconians run separate ways.
Selquist is interrogated by Moorthane who doesn’t believe his story, so he eavesdrops on the four in Selquist’s home. He discovers they have a map to treasure, even though the map itself was in the cover taken by the draconians. The dwarves recreated it from memory, and tell Moorthane about the treasure and eggs. Moorthane wants nothing more than to crush the female draconian eggs, so he demands they take soldiers and go after the treasure. Kang and Slith are recovering from the escape and they look at the map, speculating about the icons on it. Selquist walks into the camp and is caught by the guards and brought to Kang. He gives him back his holy medallion he stole in an earlier raid, and asks Kang to remove the curse the Dark Queen put on him. In exchange for removing the non existent curse, Kang demands info about the map. Selquist tells him everything, hoping the draconians would go after the eggs, thereby leading him to the treasure.
He is correct and as the dwarves expedition leaves, the draconians small group sneaks after them. As they get to Thorbardin, Kang leaves to pray to Takhisis for his daily spells and finds Huzzud, only now she is spelled as Huzzad and Huzzard! Come on editors… Anyway, she reveals the Dark Knight vision has changed due to Chaos attacking the High Clerist’s Tower and that Takhisis wants Kangs’ help. She will aid him with a wand to open the female Draconian eggs if he defeats the Chaos Minions below Thorbardin. Knowing the fate of Krynn is in the balance, Kang is pleased to help his queen. He follows the dwarves into the air vent who all know they have been followed. The dwarves discover all of Thorbardin is warring with itself!
The dwarves make a plan and Kang and his men slide through the tunnels easily, until they cannot smell the dwarves any longer. They do find remains of ancient dwarves who were torn apart by something. They head into the secret tunnel and travel as long as possible until they need rest. Scouts discover a bridge spanning a chasm, but if they are to bring eggs back over it, they will need to fill the bridge gap. Good thing they are all engineers! They build the bridge and the dwarves fly by them in minecarts riding the rails in the tunnels to the bridge then hit the edge and flip over the gap. They laugh at the draconians, thanking them and run to the treasure. The race is on! The dwarves run down the tunnel and see draconian scouts running back toward them, followed by a Grell. The Grell attacks the dwarves with its tentacles and a magic wand, obliterating Moorthane and hurting many of the dwarves. Kang is looking for that wand to hatch the draconian eggs. The dwarves are trying to fight the aberration then the draconians come rushing up, kill it, and laugh at the dwarves, taking the wand, running down the hall.
The draconians come to a massive cavern with a lava pit, and the treasure room is on the other side. Kang orders his men to take an alternate tunnel to see if they can get to the other side without getting near the pit. They all feel dragonfear like they have never experienced before. Kang walks into the room and a massive, ancient Chaos Dragon begins to climb out. The dwarves come to the room and enter, fighting all instincts to run; the draconians emerge from the tunnel on the other side of this room, and they all battle the dragon. It retreats under a barrage of water and mud from the wand, then the dwarves and draconians kill it as its hindered. Then more dragons begin emerging and they all realize there is no way to survive. The dwarves sneak to the treasure exit in the madness as the draconians fight for their Queen. These are the beasts she wanted the draconians to kill for her. Believing he will die, Kang orders his men to leave and brings the room down onto the pit. He is dragged out by the dwarves who take the wand, as more of the ceiling continues to fall, killing the Chaos Wyrms and burying Kang alive.
The dwarves get to the treasure room and break down the secret wall, revealing more wealth than they ever expected. They find the eggs and suddenly realize they are trapped with no way out. They will die in this cavern! The brewmaster decides to destroy the eggs but there is some magic protecting them, keeping all away. Selquist tries to use the wand to blast an exit out of the rock to no avail, and throws the wand at the brewer, who ducks; and the wand hits the eggs. Now the eggs, glowing, begin to hatch.
Kang is trying to dig his way out and is near defeat when he hears his men digging for him. They pull him out and tell him about a path to the treasure room. They burst in as the dwarves start to move on the newly hatched baby draconians. They all make a deal that the draconians will show the dwarves the way out if the dwarves hand over the hatchlings. The dwarves insist that the draconians move further north east, out of their valley and the draconians agree. As they collect the hatchlings, the dwarves can’t help but get sentimental and tell the draconians if they ever want dwarven spirits they will give them a good price. As they leave Selquist tells them that he has a map to the perfect abandoned city.
This was a very funny, and surprisingly heartwarming story. I am ashamed it took me this long to read it, as I genuinely love it. I can’t wait to read the next in the series, as Kang’s Regiment have turned my opinion of Draconians completely around. I also really enjoyed seeing the Summer of Chaos through Southern Ansalon’s filter. I was always upset that the Dark Knights took over everything off camera, as it were, and I wanted to know more about it. This helps fill that need, and gives the Draconian race the opportunity of a future! It does present some uncomfortable conversations like, who gets to breed with the females? Do they get a say? How many hatchlings will each have, and then are they just breeding machines for a generation?
I would recommend this novel to anyone who loves Dragonlance, Draconians, or the authors. It is one of Margaret’s better works.
Outro
And that’s it for my review of The Doom Brigade by Margaret Weis & Don Perrin. What do you think about Draconians changing from a mindless monster to characters? What did you think about this novel? Feel free to email me at info@dlsaga.com or comment below.
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