Dragons of Deceit

Loved being back in the world of Dragonlance and had an absolute blast devouring this book - but didn't find myself engaging with the actual story so much this time around.

Our heroine, Destina, frustrated me. She's set up in the first act as a really well fleshed-out protagonist that you can't help but relate to and feel sorry for but by the end of the book it's like her actions don't even stay true to who she was set up to be, and it gets harder and harder to root for her.

Add in the whole time-travel element with Tasslehoff that was already done well multiple times in the original series, and everything just feels a little like a shallow repetition of what I once fell in love with.

In saying all of that however, I love Weis and Hickman's writing style. I loved reading a story set in Krynn again and I loved all of the callbacks and characters from stories of old. I also really dug the tension of the finale and really do hope that we see more from this series because even though this might've been a bit average, it has set up some very very exciting stuff.

Dragonlance was foundational for me, so I was very excited to see this new trilogy. Unfortunately, Destina as a character was boring, her quest (and the main premise of the entire story) was nothing worth rooting for, and the overall plot points of how she goes about doing things were just uninteresting. The 2nd star was earned by the final pages that set up book two, which I'm hopeful may bring some form of redemption to the trilogy, albeit a small amount that is now expected.

I'm not even done reading this book, but I've gotten through enough of it to know that it is just not good.

I guess the point of DoD was to reboot the series and bring in new readers, but the book references a LOT of stuff that you won't know about unless you read all of the previous Dragonlance books so that effort fell completely flat. The first part of the book, where it sets up Destina and her motivations, was fine; as others have said, though, once she leaves Castle Rosethorn the entire plot falls apart. Nothing makes sense, everyone is an absolute dumbass (ESPECIALLY Tas); it really feels more like the book exists solely to bring back the Heroes of the Lance more than it's trying to tell a new story with a new character.

Weis & Hickman needed better editors and sensitivity readers VERY badly. Destina is all at once an Angry Black Woman, naive, incredibly stupid, manipulative, a liar, incredibly polite and respectful - the list goes on. She essentially changes personalities depending on what the plot needs her to do. Also, the way she idolizes her white father while demonizing her Black mother was INCREDIBLY racist. I can't believe this book is put forward as adding diversity to the series without even trying to write Black and mixed race characters as people instead of a string of antiblack stereotypes. I guess I'm not sure what I expected considering these are the two who created Goldmoon and Riverwind but good lord.

On top of the racist caricatures, the narrative doesn't even seem to like Destina. It alternates between exotifying and objectifying her for the white characters around her to having characters randomly hate her (that dwarven landlord calling her a HUSSY?? Are you KIDDING ME??). Every interaction between Caramon and Tika about her drove me absolutely nuts.

Then there's Wolfstone and Saber, two interesting side characters who are literally on the front cover, and yet they are barely there - Wolfstone gets maybe three chapters of screentime, while Saber is basically just her ride. Neither of them stick with her for what is supposed to be the actual journey, unless they magically crop up at the very end, so why put them on the cover? Why mislead us into thinking they'll be important?

And then we have Tas, who has gone from being funny and flighty and gullible to literally the dumbest person in the world. It's mind boggling and I guess? The purpose might have been comedy but it's not funny. The entire plot in the latter 2/3rds of the book is driven by everyone being a moron.

The writing itself is also not good. There's a part where Destina is tricked by someone, and the entire previous chapter is that person's POV going on about how he's going to trick her. Like, why would you do that? It ruins the scene and makes Destina look like a complete idiot because the audience already knows she's being duped. Also, her interactions with a random librarian were some of the most heteronormative nonsense I've read in a while. It's like if you asked someone working at the grocery store where to find the ham and immediately decide they're the most fascinatingly deep person you've ever met in your life.

I might look into the next book to see if they get better at all and if Destina is actually given consistent characterization and care, but overall this just sucks. I know the original trilogy aren't High Art(tm) or anything but this book came out in 2022, you don't get to write like you're in the 1980s anymore.

Edit: Also, the kender and dwarves clearly being antisemitic stereotypes was wild lol. But that's more of an overall Dragonlance issue than something specific to this book. I mean, kenders do the hora? Really? Absolutely ridiculous.