Join me as I review The Magic of Krynn: Dragonlance Tales, Vol. 1 Edited by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, live! Share your thoughts on this first novel in the Tales Trilogy. You can pick up The Magic of Krynn: Dragonlance Tales, Vol. 1: https://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Lance-Tales-Magic-Krynn/dp/0140106944/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1655139352&sr=8-1
About The Magic of Krynn: Dragonlance Tales, Vol. 1
Is Raistlin truly dead?
The answer lies in the new Dragonlance novella by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, which gazes into the future of Caramon and his mage-son, and into the dark nether-past of Raistlin.
Untold tales of Krynn.
Tales of sea monsters, dark elves, ice bears, hideous hydra-headed serpents, and loathsome draconian troops.
Further adventures of the kender Tas; the innkeepr Otic and young Tika; the dwarf Flint and Tanis, leader of the companions; Caramon and Raistlin, twin brothers, one, a genial warrior, the other, a sickly magician and scholar.
Nine short stories by superlative writers, plus an exciting new novella by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
The Dragonlance Saga goes on!
Review
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Palast, Holmswelth the 20th, my name is Adam and today I am going to give you my Spoiler review of The Magic of Krynn: Dragonlance Tales, Vol. 1 Edited by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. 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.
Riverwind and the Crystal Staff by Michel Williams is a long form poem that attempts to convey the beauty of the Que-Shu land, but also the connection they share with the wild. Riverwind on his naming day is chilling with wild cats and birds of prey. The young unmarried women of the tribe are presented and Riverwind falls for Goldmoon, the chieftains daughter. He is sent on a quest destined to fail, and yet he survives. The entire time the wild is telling him to turn back, stop this foolish quest, but he persists. I thought it was an interesting narrative that confuses me at times, as I find it difficult to pull a straight narrative from a poem which is inherently more emotionally driven than factually. That being said, I think Michael Williams did a good job of framing Riverwind as a man of nature that was willing to suffer and even forsake nature for Goldmoon.
The Blood Sea Monster by Barbera Siegel and Scott Siegel is about a young elf who craves power and adventure. He stole a locket as a younger elf and was caught and exiled. Now a dark elf, he steals to live. He just stole a loaf of bread and was hiding in a row boat as the story opens. He is caught by a grizzly old fisherman who is going out to catch the Blood Sea Monster. It took everyone he held dear, either directly or indirectly and now he is sure he will catch it. The elf asks to join him for a percentage of the catch, and they leave during a storm. They catch a talking fish who tells them where to look, the blood sea maelstrom itself, and they run across a bit of wreckage from the Perechon. They ultimately catch the blood sea monster, which seemed to be a sea dragon, and it killed the old man. It told the elf it wasn’t his time, and as he was returning to shore and fantasizing about his new life with this as a story, the monster returned and killed him. It is a strange story but I enjoyed the connections to sea dragons and stories like the old man and the sea.
A Stone’s Throw Away by Roger E. Moore is a wonderful tale about a demon prince making a power hungry magus suffer the consequences of abusing the Demon Lord’s presence. Tasslehoff finds a ring that teleports him all over, randomly. It protects him from harm by teleporting him away from harm, but then he finds himself in a powerful magus’ tower. He is captured by undead automatons and the magus demands to know how and why he is here? Tas explains the ring, and they try to remove it to no avail. Then the Magus summons the Demon Lord, as Tas sneaks into the vents and watches. The demon is pissed and tells the Magus that he will not be bothered by Tas by sundown. What the Magus doesn’t know is that is because he will be dead. Tas inadvertently helps the Demon break out of the protective circle and the demon admits to his play of crafting the ring to help him. Taz tells the story to Kitiara and Sturm who don’t believe him, but Sturm notices a mark on Tas’ ring finger. This was so much fun and a great introduction to Tas, in a solo adventure. I can’t wait to present the comic of this story as a reading episode.
Dreams of Darkness, Dreams of Light by Warren B. Smith is a tale about William Sweetwater of the Pig and Whistle in Port Balifor. He dreams of being more adventurous, but knows his place is here as the proprietor. The draconians in town are enslaving many residents for various and minor infractions, including a friend of Williams. The story is framed around a supposedly magical coin given to William by Raistlin Majere who stayed in the inn performing with his companions during the war. Now, after the way, he held the coin as a revered magic item. When presenting it to his friends, a dwarf and minotaur, they disbelieve it’s magic, but the minotaur believes it is important to stray from your body through imagination. They see their townmates imprisoned and the minotaur suggests William be the town leader, and that they liberate the prisoners. Late one night, prompted by the minotaur, they break out the inmates, and help them escape out of the harbor. William returns to the Pig and Whistle and drinks himself to sleep. He wakes to find the mask he wore on display and a pounding at his door. This story is one that reiterated the idea that everyone has the potential to be heroic, you just have to take action against injustice.
Love and Ale by Nick O’Donohoe is a wonderful story about Otic and Tika, making a new batch of Ale, and a Kender who delivered the hops, who also stole a bag of love potion from a wandering mage. The potion was ‘accidentally’ dropped into the ale, and it made the ale a love potion. Then customers came in weeks later and Otik opened the cask, sharing it with the room. Everyone who drank it fell in love with someone or something. They fought and loved each other, the room got so bad, Otik sent Tika home to protect her. After the night of debauchery and excess, Otik split the remainder of the love ale with his other ale casks to dilute it. He then drank the final pint himself. If you have ever made beer, the description of Otik making it is spot on. I am a homebrewer and I really appreciated the attention to detail of the beer making process. Then, as a man who loves lovin’, I really appreciated the rest of the tale.
Wayward Children by Richard A. Knack is a wonderful story with a twist at the end. A draconian patrol is passing through a small elf village, where they only want to take care of the draconians. They all begin getting headaches and wonder why there are no children, but in truth, the elven village was constructed by metallic dragons to try and change their draconian children into dragons again. They failed and burned down the village, killing every draconian. It was great because it presented the idea of the good dragons trying to undo the evil the Dark Queen created, the draconians, the good dragon children. It almost makes me sad for the metallic dragons in the story, to see your kids and not have them recognise you and then outright reject you is devastating.
The Test of the Twins by Margaret Weis is the first Dragonlance story ever released. It was first published in Dragon Magazine as a prelude to the coming novel and adventures. It deals with Raistlin being chosen by Par Salien to be the sword in the coming war against the Dark Queen. He planned to have the test teach Raistlin humility and temper his passion, but I believe he failed horribly. There is more lead up to the test than actual test in the story. We know he kills a dark elf, which was the final piece to his test which he succeeded at, but they tacked on Caramon being able to cast magic when a wraith shows up and Raistlin ends up killing Caramon out of jealousy. ne, and it never mentions Fistandantilus, which we all know was integral to Raistlin’s survival and growth. Because this is the earliest story written, or at least presented to the public, I wonder if ‘Ol Fisty was a later development.
Harvests by Nancy Varian Berberick was a struggle for me to get through. It should have drawn me in. Tanis and Flint happen upon a young woman in the forest. They decide to help her and she tells a tale about how her brother and a friend went missing. Flint disbelieves her, but Tanis says he will help locate them. It leads to a Mage who is trying to keep his son alive by harvesting the life essence from strangers. He decides to try to use Tanis’ essence and uses phantoms to abduct him. Before the girl’s lover was killed her brother sacrificed himself. The mage died by Tanis, and the son of the mage was allowed to die by Tanis posing as his father. For whatever reason, my mind kept wandering through this story and I couldn’t focus like I did with the other stories in this anthology.
Finding the Faith by Mary Kirchoff is a wildly different version of the story how Laurana and the companions killed Feal-Thas and claimed the Dragon Orb in Ice Reach. This differs from Dragons of Winter’s Night and Dragons of the Highlord Skies, but based on the fact that it is a retelling of the story from a priest in the Ice Reach barbarian tribe and not Astinus, I am not bothered by it. Though the details differ, the spirit of the tale is the same,a dn the emotions definitely hit me as Sturm was dying and Elistan healing him. Tas’ reaction to how Flint would take it hit me as well. It was a well written and engaging version of the tale.n
The Legacy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman is the primary reason anyone picks up this book, and it does not disappoint. Not only does it confirm Raistlin’s peace in death, but also that he was awakened by Dalamar for Palin’s Test. More so, this finally sets Raistlin even and he can now return to peaceful sleep until the Summer of Chaos that is. Raistlin had one final favor to repay, and though the story didn’t overtly say what that was, I believe it was to the magic itself. He had to pass on the artifact and desire for the magic, and that is how the Staff of Magius was passed on to Palin Majere. I do have to say, that everyone says Palin will be the most powerful wizard on Krynn, it infuriates me that we never got to see that. Similarly, I couldn’t imagine Luke Skywalker dying or giving up his Jedi ways without realizing his full potential. In Palin, that is exactly what we got. He was forced to learn and teach Sorcery then he gave up magic after the gods returned. I can’t help but both respect his path and wish for a different future for him.
But that will do it for this volume. I loved the majority of these tales, especially the last one, and recommend everyone read this volume if you haven’t in a while, or ever before.
Outro
And that’s it for my review of The Magic of Krynn: Dragonlance Tales, Vol. 1 by Margaret Weis. What do you think about the anthology? Did it draw you in further to the world of Dragonlance, or leave you frustrated? 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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