Join me as I review The Messenger by Douglas Niles live! Share your thoughts on this first novel of Icewall Trilogy, released by Wizards of the Coast on February 1, 2001. You can buy a copy here: https://amzn.to/4miyH2N
About The Messenger
The Icewall
Cold, forbidding, remote, it stands like a dim white cloud on the very edge of sight. There Kerrick, an elf from the golden woods of Silvanesti, has been sent, an exile in disgrace. There too, a band of barbarian villagers make their stand against the remnants of an ogre empire that is determined to once again rule the frozen wastes.
In the first book of this thrilling trilogy, Douglas Niles takes his readers to a land that most in Krynn have heard of only in legen — the legend of the Icewall.
Review
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Bakukal, Yurthgreen the 10th. My name is Adam and today I am going to give you my review of The Messenger by Douglas Niles. I would like to take a moment and thank the DLSaga members and Patreon patrons, and invite you to consider becoming a member or patron. You can even pick up Dragonlance media or get $10 by signing up to StartPlaying.Games 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.
Review
The first third of this novel has a really good setup. A young woman named Moreen is the daughter of the ice barbarian tribal chief of the Arktos. She is a great spearwoman but is forbidden from joining the males as they go hunt. This ends up being fortuitous as ogres sail into the harbor and murder and capture the men as slaves. They come ashore and are led by Grimwar Bane, the prince of the Winterheim ogres and his assistant, a dwarf named Baldruk Dinmaker. They claim this land and the people, then begin questioning them about an elf. No one has seen the elf, and the ogres leave. Moreen and a few of the kids and the shaman of the tribe fled to Hiding Hole, then after witnessing the calamity, they fled toGoosepond toward Tall Cedar Bay.
With no more family, everyone is scarred and terrified. They don’t know how they will survive, as winter is coming and you need a good storage of food. They pick up more survivors as they travel towardBrackenrock. Moreen is a great hunter but she can’t get enough for everyone to survive the winter. They come across a Thanoi tribe cutting up a whale, and they decide to waylay them. They end up being successful and the survivors make Moreen their chief. They are met by Lars Redbeard of Gilderglow, who tells them the Strongwind Whalebone, the king of icereach, would like to see her. She refuses saying if he wants to see her, he can come to her. This leaves the messenger speechless as it has never happened before and they leave.
Separately an elf named Kerrick Fallabrine is planning to meet up with his lover, Gloryian Diradar. Because they are from different classes, it is a secret affair. He is caught trying to meet her that night by her father, brother and betrothed! They ensorceled her, repairing her virginity and wiping him from her mind. Then beat the hell out of him and took him in front of th eSpeaker Nethas. Kerrick was favored by Nethas until this incident. His father is in house mariner and was a bit of a hero. Kerrick lost his parents and was brought in as a scribe for the Speaker. Now he is banished from Silvanesti unless he can return with news of the gold his father claimed to have discovered hidden away. The elves need gold which has been diverted to the Kingpriest of Istar, leaving them to make do with Steel.
With no choice, Kerrick leaves his homeland on his fathers ship, and sails into the ocean. He crashes into something and it is revealed to be a Dragon Turtle. The beast sank a kender’s ship named Coraltop Netfisher, who climbed on board. Kerrick realised the Dragon woke up and went under the surface. Coraltop said this was how it sank his former ship, and then the dragon turtle sank his ship. Kerrick was knocked out.
Back with the ogres, they returned home to Winterheim, and the king was not much pleased to see the slaves all scrawny after nearly starving in the three month ship travel. Grimwar goes to see his wife who is a priestess, and she reiterates that the elf messenger is fated to destroy their kingdom with a human female. This is clearly in reference to Moreen and Kerrick. I assume Kerrick is going to wash up on shore near Moreen and they will work together. We also learn that Kerrick’s father gave him some form of artifact, only to be used in dire circumstances. It will be interesting to see how this plays out! I am really enjoying it thus far.
The second third of this novel focuses primarily on the remaining Arktos tribeswomen and children. Once again the highlander spokesman approaches with food, furs and gold to ask Moreen to speak with their king. This time, knowing they need the furs and food, she agrees. She is led to their city and sees how large and splendid it is. She is frank with the king who seems to not mind it and he walks her through his castle showing her the sights. He shares his desire to have her for his queen and her tribe women to be second wives to his men so they can breed a new generation of warriors and destroy the ogres. Shocked that her people would be bred as second wives or concubines and furious at the insinuation that she would agree to it, she rebukes him. He is angry about it but she leaves unharmed.
They continue to believe in a citadel where they can hold out past the worst of the annual winter storm. The king sends men to follow her, certain that she will change her mind. Back with Kerrick, he wakes to find the dragon turtle didn’t destroy his ship, and the kender is taking care of him. He has been out for nearly a month! It broke part of the ship but it could be repaired. They eventually continue south southwest only to find land! They get closer and enter the bay. They decide to have the kender fish and Kerrick go hunt. This is when the Arktos find Kerrick. They ambush him and capture him. When Moreen discovers the highlanders are following her, she goes to them and tells them to bring their king as she has reconsidered his proposal. This is a stalling tactic of hers and she is sure they will be across the bay on the prisoner’s ship before the king arrives.
The highlanders send a runner and wait for their king as Moreen returns and demands the elf take them across the bay. He refuses. He clearly has leverage as they have never sailed a sailboat. They barter the gold which is worthless to them, but Karrick prizes for passage and he agrees. He takes them one group at a time across the bay and when there is only one group left, their scout reports the king has already arrived! This is much faster than anticipated so Moreen sends the scout and her people to get on the boat as quickly as it arrives and she will find a way to join them. She meets with the king who is angry that she lied to him as they left their supposed meeting place. He also doesn’t trust her now, and she leads them to where her group is. At the last minute she flees from them and leaps aboard the boat from above. It sets sail with the king furious on shore watching.
Moreen tells Karrick about the coming storm, and it will trap and destroy his ship if he doesn’t get away soon. He drops them off and flees as fast as he can, hooping to outrun the storm. The Arktos travel in the morning to the citadel only to discover it is populated by Thanoi who kills many of them and chases them off. With the coming storm, the pissed off highlander King, and the Ogres looking to squash them all, this is proving to be a wild and interesting book! What a third act! The ogres have their annual Sturmfrost ceremony which is meant as an honor to their god, and also heralds in the massive stormfront which freezes Icewall for months. This year, Prince Grimwar could no longer handle being under the rule of his father, king Grimtooth.
He kills him to end the ceremony and becomes king, as the Sturmfrost sweeps across Icewall. Kerrick and the kender are trying to sail out of the bay as the storm closes the gap. They turn back and see a sign, directing them to Moreen’s cave. This is where we have to address this kender. It is not actually there, I believe he is a manifestation of Chislev, the god of the human barbarians. I believe he saved Kerrick so Kerrick could help save his people. This is also the omen of doom to the ogres. As Kerrick returns to Moreen, they get trapped by the storm. They are living in a cave. As the storm freezes over the bay, the Barbarian KingStrongwind orders his army across the frozen water to assault the Arktos who dared mock him. Simultaneously, the Thanoi king Urgas returns to the ogres to report the humans who tried to attack the Brackenrock keep they were staying in.
As the human highlanders capture the Arktos by surprise the ogres are rushing to the cave to kill the Arktos. The highlanders are truly brutal and their king all but becomes a rapist. He traps Kerrick onto a piece of ice to drown, and the Arktos shaman casts a spell of protection on him. This saves him as he escapes, with the help of the kender, and is recaptured by the ogres. As the king is preparing to rape Moreen the ogres attack. The highlanders and Arktos all work together to fight the ogre army. The Arktos learn about a small tunnel that leads to Brackenrock and they decide to split their forces. Moreen leads half to Brackenrock and attacks the thanoi in surprise, as the other half led by Strongwind holds the ogres. The shaman and cleric work together to collapse the cave, blocking the ogres, but the highlander king is trapped with the ogres.
Kerrick escapes the ogres and captures the dwarf who happens to be the second mate from his dads voyage that led him to his doom. He ends up killing the dwarf and the kender reappears as they sail away on their ship, only to see the highlander king nearly being caught by the ogres. He waves him down and rescues him, surprised to find it’s the man who tried to have him killed. They work together to get to Brackenrock before the remaining ogre army, and the king uses Kerrick’s ring of strength to beat them there. Once there, they start an avalanche from the massive snow buildup on top of the keep, washing most of the army into the bay. The ogre king and his shaman wife are wounded and flee into the bay, swearing to return in the summer with reinforcements.
The end of the novel is nice. I was worried the two human tribes would just gloss over the whole rape thing, but while they are not actively at eachothers throats, its clearly not forgotten. The king is truly sorry and willing to hear Moreen’s judgement as the human tribes try to move forward in a positive way. Kerrick decides to stay for a while and sees the kender briefly on his ship, waving at him. And that is the story. It was so refreshing to get such a diverse array of cultures and races, all pitted against each other, but still feeling earned and true to Dragonlance.
If you are a fan of Icewall, or barbarians, or even ogres, you should really read this novel. It is great!
Outro
And that’s it for my review of The Messenger by Douglas Niles. What do you think of the kender Coraltop netfisher? Was the scene of attempted rape to working together against the ogres too quick for you? And finally, will the humans be able to stand against the coming ogre army? Feel free to email me at info@dlsaga.com or leave a comment below.
I would like to thank Creator Patrons Aaron Hardy & D. Robert Handy, Developer Patrons Chris Androu & Sam Ruiz, and all of the YouTube Members! I would also like to take a moment and remind you to subscribe to this YouTube channel, ring the bell to get notified about upcoming videos and click the like button. This all goes to help other Dragonlance fans learn about this channel and its content.
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).
