Dragons of Deceit

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.