Dungeons & Dragons & Novels: Revisiting Dragons of Winter Night

Upon ending Dragons of Winter Night, the second ebook in Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman’s beloved first Dragonlance sequence, I spotted I had an issue: I didn’t know what it was about. Or relatively, I don’t know what it isn’t about. So many characters are added, so many new plots are begun, and large detours are taken from the story I believed the trilogy was telling, that it’s a large number. So why is Dragons of Winter Night nonetheless good?

If you haven’t learn the primary Dragonlance trilogy shortly, you may keep in mind the second quantity as persevering with the adventures of the Dragons of Autumn Twilight celebration of Tanis Half-Elven, the moody knight Sturm, the elven princess Laurana, the barbarian cleric Goldmoon, her guardian and husband Riverwind, the always-presumed-evil mage Raistlin and his beefy twin brother Caramon, Flint the Dwarf, Tika the ex-barmaid, and Tasslehoff Burrfoot. You could be technically right! But the ebook is additionally about Laurana’s brother Gilthanas, the cleric Elistan, and an asshole knight named Derek who hates the hell out of Sturm for some cause. Oh, after which there’s a wild elf named Sylvana after which Raistlin and Caramon’s older sister Kitiara. And many of those new characters have extra “screentime” than a few of the first ebook’s heroes.

It was confounding at first after which confounding for some time longer as new storylines stored piling up round them. But finally, I spotted it was amplifying the standard that I’d discovered so compelling in Autumn Twilight. Weis and Hickman make Krynn really feel like a residing world. While Tanis and Raistlin are battling nightmare dragons within the twisted land of Silvanesti, Laurana and her crew discover a legendary Dragon Orb, the 2 races of elves are attempting to resolve if the return of the dragons is in some way humanity’s fault and ought to be deserted to their destiny, whereas the Knights of Solamnia are diminished to political bickering, rendered impotent to combat the best menace to Krynn since… effectively, the final time the goddess Queen Takhisis and her minions arrived. It’s actually messy, however the setting and the story are each far richer for it.

All these individuals and occasions have an effect on the characters’ journeys in methods each fascinating and stunning. Additionally, the authors cut up the celebration very early, downsizing the teams to permit for extra character interactions and enriching their relationships higher than the primary novel did. Weis and Hickman’s potential to maintain juggling their myriad storylines jogged my memory of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire sequence. It’s not accomplished as skillfully as Martin, however we will reduce Weis and Hickman some slack given Winter Night was their second novel ever, revealed in 1985.

The character finest served by Winter Night is unequivocally Laurana, who arrived within the first ebook as a very naïve, lovestruck elf princess chasing after Tanis. Over the course of the second quantity, she turns into the chief of her half of the celebration, kicking ass, taking names, giving genuinely rousing battle speeches, and never fainting lifeless away when Tanis’ ex-girlfriend Kitiara exhibits up as a Dragon Highlord and taunts her that Tanis has joined the unhealthy guys. It’s all very satisfying. It’s additionally satisfying for Sturm to have issues to do along with brooding, equivalent to when he’s unwillingly caught within the political machinations of the Knights and compelled to observe Derek lead most of them away in a failed suicide cost towards the armies of Takhisis. Then he has to steer his few remaining troopers to carry a tower towards three blue dragons and a High Lord. Those who keep in mind the novel most likely additionally keep in mind how stunning this battle is and the way it ends, and damned if that didn’t maintain up, even if nearly none of it was arrange within the first ebook.

But that’s true of quite a lot of issues! The Dragon Orbs, which are actually launched on this novel as highly effective magical artifacts nobody’s bothered to inform us about beforehand, are the main target of a lot of the story. Yet after a wild, shared nightmare of horrors—dreamed by all the “main” celebration—that includes nearly all of their horrific deaths, Raistlin defeats a inexperienced dragon in some completely opaque scene the place he bargains with a factor to realize… one thing, which nets him an Orb. Then Laurana actually will get one other one, in addition to defeats a Dragon Highlord, in-between chapters! Then Tasslehoff breaks one throughout a world council to make a degree and unite the elves, people, dwarves, and gnomes towards the forces of Takhisis. The Orbs are mere MacGuffins to seemingly be thrown away after Winter Night, however they nonetheless all serve such a transparent function within the story I can’t discover myself unhappy.

The Dragonlances, which additionally make their first look on this quantity, are a distinct story. Somehow, they’re bestowed on the heroes much more randomly and haphazardly than in The Legend of Huma, the place they already felt like an afterthought. But at the very least within the prequel in regards to the legendary hero, he and his military used them for aerial dragon jousting, the hallmark of Dragonlance—right here they’re simply used to poke at trapped dragons as soon as they’re summoned by one of many orbs. Only the unhealthy guys have dragons to trip on. (At the second, at the very least.)

There are so many plot threads that not all of them tie off neatly, and even when they’re continued within the sequel Dragons of Spring Dawning, it’s laborious to think about they’ll all be well-woven. And the Dragonlances have to turn out to be even marginally cool if the trilogy’s going to work as an entire. But damned if Winter Night doesn’t nonetheless transcend so a lot of its flaws, I can’t assist however rank it solely barely under Dragons of Autumn Twilight. It’s messier however much more formidable, and even when character development suffers (minus Laurana) the character growth feels richer, even when it’s simply because they aren’t sitting round hating one another all time. That means Dragons of Winter Night rolls a 17 on its 1d20—however because it doesn’t have the -2 penalty for focusing a lot on gully dwarves, this implies it’s a degree larger than its predecessor. I truthfully can’t think about how or even when Dragons of Spring Dawning manages to tie this all collectively however I’m keen to seek out out. When D&D&N returns, we’ll conclude the trilogy!

Assorted Musings:

• I completed this ebook final evening and I can’t keep in mind something Goldmoon, Riverwind, or Tika did. The solely factor I keep in mind Caramon doing is taking good care of Raistlin and refusing to have intercourse with Tika.
• Lest you assume the self-hatred was all gone, right here’s a little bit of Tanis’ inside monologue: “The sight of their faith in him infuriated the half-elf.” For the report, Laurana has self-doubts, however no self-loathing, and it’s way more endearing.
• Just as after I was a baby, I actually have no idea what occurred when Raistlin made his pact throughout the inexperienced dragon’s dream assault, nor do I perceive what occurred when he received his fingers on the Dragon Orb. I have to imagine this might be paid off in Spring Dawning.
• Laurana’s dad almost calls her a “human whore” for chasing after Tanis in Autumn Twilight and that’s the purpose she says fuck ‘em and takes full charge of the mission to save the world.
• The Dragon Ball manga (and later its hit anime) was created in 1984, the same year as Dragons of Autumn Twilight, but a year before Winter Night. Given the total lack of Dragon Ball presence in the U.S. at the time, I feel safe saying the Dragon Orbs are the result of concurrent thinking.
• I won’t go into particulars, however The Legend of Huma feels a lot, a lot, a lot much less unique in case you learn this trilogy earlier than the prequel.
• Fizban, the fully bonkers however extraordinarily highly effective wizard who died in Autumn Twilight, is again and expresses his hopes that he had a “21-gun salute” at his funeral. Everyone round him: “Uh, what are guns?”
• Speaking of confusion, I’d completely forgotten the person with the inexperienced gem in his chest existed as a result of he exhibits up so late in Autumn Twilight and does nearly nothing. Then he pops up for like half a web page in Winter Night and later Kitiara says he’s the important thing to permitting Takhisis to take over the world. I do not know what they’re speaking about or why he’s essential or why we nonetheless know completely nothing about him after 66% of the story had been instructed. We’ll see, I suppose…?

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