5. 1985 (Oct.) - Dragonlance (D&D) - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - Dragons of Spring Dawning (Dragonlance #3)

Series: Dragonlance Chronicles Vol. 3

So we come to the end of the Dragonclance Chronicles trilogy, I have to admit that I am reading this series with some rose-tinted glasses, as they have nostalgic value for me. I remember them being some of the first fantasy books I ever read, the first being Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber. Frankly, when you are 12 years old, Dragonlance is an easier and more exciting read. Having read both Zelazny and this recently, and not being 12 anymore, it is easy to dismiss this as "easy-reading". And so it is, but that isn't necessarily bad. 

This third volume suffers slightly from the problems that plague the last book in a series, it is not as focused as the previous one, tries to tie up too many loose ends and at times feels a bit rushed. This is not helped by the fact that the heroes are kind of scattered all around the place, so there are something like 4 different story-lines going on at the same time. You would think that they would come together at the end, but not even that, although this is slightly frustrating, it does seem to be on purpose, in order to keep the series open for further stories. The finale with Raistlin is particularly intriguing and I sure want to know more about him (I know we will). 

So a competent third installment but probably the worse of the series, there is not the world-building of the first volume or the adventure of the second, it just takes a turn for the dark and leaves loads of questions. Again, these questions are part and parcel of what will be a vast universe of novels, that's how they make you buy the next volume.

TL;DR: 6/10 Competent, but the worst of the series.

3. 1985 (Jul.) - Dragonlance (D&D) - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - Dragons of Winter Night (Dragonlance #2)

Series: Dragonlance Chronicles Vol. 2

This is quite a good sequel to the first book in the series, and it actually addresses some of the problems I pointed out in my review for Dragons of Autumn Twilight. Not in a completely satisfactory way but at least we have a secondary character which is not white, and is a good guy: the blacksmith who creates the dragonlances Theros. The part of the women here is also enhanced, Laurana comes into her own as a warrior and a leader of people and we finally get the very foreshadowed Kitiara who is very much in control of her situation. 

Kitiara is an interesting character and even if she is in the part of a villain she comes across as a woman who is sexually liberated, who get what she wants when she wants it, and who is the equal or superior to any man she meets. Her story will surely be more developed in the conclusion to this, but she is a three-dimensional female villain, which is actually a rare thing in any kind of fiction. She is working for the wrong side but it is hard to tell if she is truly evil, she comes across as self-serving but not unnecessarily cruel, and unlike most other female villains in fiction none of her evil comes from being too emotional or hysterical, and that is actually quite refreshing. That being said there was little of Kitiara in this volume, but it bodes well for the series as a whole.

In terms of the more general story, now that the characters have mostly been introduced in the first volume we can get down to brass-tacks and into the action, and this volume is packed with it, leading to a final confrontation with a real emotional punch when one of the leading characters bites it. In the long tradition of second installments in a trilogy, it ends in a downbeat, everyone is sad, things look bleak and the third volume will have to solve that, very much an Empire Strikes Back ending here. 

TL;DR: 8/10 Really Fun

2. 1984 (Nov.) - Dragonlance (D&D) - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - Dragons of Autumn Twilight (Dragonlance #1)

Series: Dragonlance Chronicles Vol. 1

And so we jump 5 years into the future into one of the most popular series of books in the history of RPG related fiction. The popularity of this book and its follow-ups is quite easy to understand. They are written in a clear and attractive style, managing to attract both young adults and adults (I first read them at about the age of 12), and they appear at a time when there was not much else in terms of popular high-fantasy fiction going on, with the exception of Tolkien and the Shannara series by Terry Brooks. This is an easier read than Tolkien and a better read than Brooks so... it's success is no surprise.

This is not to say that there are no issues with these books, and even though in my case they are  tainted with nostalgia, my older self can spot a lot of problems here. The first problem is related to diversity, there is no character here which isn't white, the majority of characters are either blond or red haired, and the excuse "oh but it's like medieval Europe, there were no black people there" doesn't fly. Not only is it untrue, there were indeed black and brown people in medieval Europe, but if you can have spells and dragons and gods walking among humans, you can also have people of a different color.  Well I'm not being fair here, Raistlin is golden-skinned, but that's due to a spell or curse, we'll find out later. Diversity problems also arise when we mention the female characters, yes there are 3 of them, Tika, Goldmoon and Laurana and they can defend themselves in a fight, but they are all connected, defined and protected by male characters (respectively Caramon, Riverwind and Tanis), they are not self-sufficient. There is a mention of a character which will appear later, Kitiara, who seems to be tough as nails, but is not in this book at all. All the characters are also straight as an arrow, of course.

That being said, and this is a problem that will appear in many other books in the following years, it is an enjoyable read, the heroes have well defined characters, more so than the villains who are a bit one-dimensional with the exception of Matafleur, and if you can turn off all the diversity problems which our 21st century brains are attuned to you will have a great time reading this. It's not a masterpiece but it's a rollicking adventure in high-fantasy style, and quite original in itself, unlike the Shannara books it's not openly stealing from Tolkien, although there are songs and meetings and a party of heroes in it of course. There are a few moments you can almost hear the dice rolling, but it's fun and that keeps an element of surprise in the story. It ends leaving itself open to the inevitable sequel, which is the next book on this list!

Tl;DR: 7/10 Marred by problems of lack of diversity which were common at the time, it's a fun adventure story for all ages.