Join me as I review The Lost Chronicles: Dragons of the Hourglass Mage, live! Share your thoughts on this return to the War of the Lance, as the authors fill in the gaps of the original Chronicles trilogy. You can buy a copy of the book here: https://amzn.to/3zKhgj2
Review
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today I am going to give you my Spoiler review The Lost Chronicles: Dragons of the Hourglass Mage. 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.
The book begins with a healthy forward explaining Berem and his sister Jasla’s story, again. In addition to a slightly expanded Canticle of the Dragon. If you are reading the Lost Chronicles as a consistent trilogy, you would have stopped at the beginning of Dragons of the Highlord Skies, as that is not the intention. This is very much a collection of novels that fill in gaps in the original Chronicles books. I suppose you could read them isolated unto themselves, but I do not think they would make a satisfying read without the context of the Chronicles.
Book One picks up with Raistlin Majere in Palanthus. It is revealed that he teleported onto the Library of Palanthas’ steps, nearly dead and was taken in by the Aesthetics. Upon recovery he reveals his plan that he is taking the Black Robes, without the permission of Ladonna, effectively making him a renegade wizard according to a cut scene with Justarius, Par-Salian and Ladonna in the Tower of High Sorcery. In that scene it is also revealed that Takhisis is granting the magic to her black robed wizards, having fooled Nuitari and Ladonna, and is forsaking them to see her will be done.
Back with Raistlin, he desires to rid himself of Fistandantilus before traveling to Neraka to present himself to the Queen of Darkness, in order to enter into her service. He travels to the Wizards Hat, an abandoned tavern next to the Tower of High Sorcery in Palanthus, and battles Fistandantilus with the Dragon Orb, effectively trapping him in it. Then he says goodbye to Astinus and Bertrem and teleports to Neraka. I skipped over an encounter with Flint and a near encounter with Tas as I felt it offered nothing to the book. We know they don’t see eye to eye. It was used as a nod to those who know Flint’s ultimate fate, which was done in every book that preceded it, so at this point it’s tiring. We get it. We know what’s coming. Stop leaning into it already!
The real power of this first book is to see Raistlin go from the weak youth in Dragons of Autumn Twilight to a true powerhouse as he leaves Palanthus. Once he was dependent on Caramon, his twin brother for everything, and now, he is standing on his own two feet. However, if it weren’t for the Dragon Orb, he would not have been able to become powerful so the question is, do the clothes make the man or the man make the clothes here?
Book Two deals with Raistlin’s time in Neraka. He arrives in the middle of the Temple which alarms everyone, and is discovered by Iolanth after being called by the Nightlord. Raistlin is seemingly protected by Takhisis from the Nightlords torture and convinces him of his mistake and desire to work for the Queen of Darkness. Iolanth and Raistlin leave and their connection is cemented. Iolanth looks favorably on Raistlin because he is Kitiara’s half-sister, and she is trying to stay ingratiated with Kit in case she advances in power over Ariakas. Raistlin however does not trust Iolanth even though she helps him to survive in Neraka.
Raistlin confronts the Adjudicator, the man who tried to torture him, as Raistlin hates bullies and the Adjudicator is murdered by a kender. Raistlin learns that her name is Mari and ultimately that she works for The Hidden Light, a resistance cell in Neraka. Raistlin tries and eventually meets with them and they offer him a job to spy on his sister Kitiara in Dargaard keep, to find out what she is planning with Lord Soth, the Death Knight. He leaves thinking about it, then is summoned by Lord Ariakan and tasked with the same mission on his behalf. The end of book two concludes with Raistlin agreeing to both parties, unsure of who he is truly working for.
Raistlin is hiding the Dragon Orb from everyone, but ultimately reveals it to Takhisis who demands it, but after he refuses to turn it over and is not destroyed, he realizes Takhisis isn’t fully in the world yet, and as such, is not all powerful. He is dejected at the state of the Tower of High Sorcery, more like a shack than a tower, and is disillusioned by the other black robes in it. They ultimately are killed by the ‘Black Ghost’ sent by the Nightlord after Iolanth suggested they were the cause of the Adjudicator’s death. She did it to protect Raistlin, again, to ingratiate Kitiara to her.
This book sees Raistlin washing the rose tint from his eyes about the evil empire at the Queen’s command, and the sad state of affairs they are truly in. He is working on a way to rise to power and is struck by the ignorance of, ironically, the self-serving nature of Evil–all the while only looking after his own self interest. This is the Raistlin I enjoy. We see his ambition plainly, his need to wade through the mediocre to rise, and his constant sense of loss of his twin Caramon.
Book three packs far too much into it in my opinion. Not only is the convoluted machinations of The Hidden Light, Lord Ariakan, Takhisis, Kitiara, Iolanth, and Raistlin seeming always to either line up or st in stark opposition, it feels rushed so we can find our way to connect with Dragons of Spring Dawning.
Raistlin is taken to Dargaard Keep to spy on Kitiara, but it turns out that Iolanth meant to take him there so Kitiara could present Takhisis’ plan to Raistlin. She is bringing in three grey gods to replace Solinari, Lunitari and Nuitari, gods that will be loyal through an hourglass artifact. This turns out to be a lie and is meant to trick Raistlin into telling the three gods and when they come to confront the grey, they become trapped by the Hourglass. Lord Soth will then attack the Tower of High Sorcery in Wayreth when the gods of magic are gone so the wizards gathered there for the Night of the Eye are helpless.
Raistlin still has a few tricks up his sleeve it seems as he summons Cyan Bloodbane, the green dragon to attack Lord Soth, thereby protecting the wizard and tower and in return they agree to let him be free to follow his own path in magic, unmolested by the rules of the wizards of high Sorcery. In order for Raistlin to summon Cyan he had to relent to allow Fistandantilus to reenter his body, so we get that constant aid and struggle of them in every scene. Raistlin returns to Dargaard to find his sister tricked him and he barely escapes with his life. He warned the Hidden Light that they would all be assasinated by Lord Ariakan, and it turns out Iolanthe is a member after she attacks Lord Ariakan, nearly killing him, when she was supposed to murder Raistlin.
Like I said, unnecessarily complex. Ultimately it ends with Rastlin escaping Neraka to Godshome so he wan witness the death of Flint Fireforge, who he helps ease the passing of with some opium, and sees that the companions have Berem and that they are headed to Neraka to trade him for Laurana who was captured by Kitiara to be sacrificed for Takhisis.
Raistlin returns to Neraka and the Temple to Takhisis with the intent of assisting his friends, preventing the Queen of Darkness from entering the world, and seeking revenge on Lord Ariakan who it turns out is alive! This is an alternate viewpoint of Dragons of Spring Dawning, which reveals Raistlin’s love of Caramon, affection for his friends and his final battle with Fistandantilus, in this future. He ultimately wins and Takhisis believes it is Fistandantilus who took over Raistlin. We get a glimpse at Raistlin’s godlike power and the book is over.
As much as I would have loved to live in the third book longer, because of the essence of Raistlin therein, it was packed with so many events that it could easily have made up a new book in itself. This is a fantastic peek behind the curtain of the madness and chaos of the Queen of Darkness’ army and branches of followers. The Priests dislike the battle commanders. Neither trust the black robed wizards, and every tangential organization distrusts them all. It’s amazing they conquered so much of Ansalon. This novel is a celebration of Raistlin as a character. Sometimes hero, sometimes villain, an dalways the self-interested complet and agonizing character we have grown to love and respect.
I highly recommend this novel if you like Raistlin as a character.
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