It's been a while since I was in the world of Krynn... I'm about 60 pages in right now, and so far, so good. Hanging out with good old friends:-)

I'll write a review when I've read all the pages;-)

JUNE 4:

Done:-)

It was wonderful to be back--back with old friends in a cozy old world one remembers with fondness.

This book is the first in a proposed new series filling out the "missing blanks" in the original Chronicles Trilogy. It deals with what happened when the Heroes of the (not yet) Lance arrived to Thorbardin. Mapping out what happened right before and what happened when they were there.

Written by the original Dragonlance authors Weis & Hickman, this is mostly a successful mapping. They know the characters so well, and are so intimate with land, world, background etc., that they can comfortably write just about anything they like. Perhaps too comfortably? On one hand it helps garner the feeling of "being back in the world" again very fast--on the other the two writers don't seem to really try to do that "something special" that makes a story great--and that I think a fair number of their earlier stories do.

Also, it wasn't until 1/3 into the story that things started to really happen, I think. And then it evened out for a while again--till the last 1/3 took on a pace similar to the "good old days" of the original publications. That was wonderful and worth everything:-)

For some time, the cast of characters seemed a little flat--as if the authors didn't really work at going truly "into characters"... But that changed, and hee hee... Who doesn't love Raistlin, Flint, Tasslehoff, Tanis, Caramon, Sturm, Riverwind etc.? And it is funny cathing the hints to other books sprinkled throughout the story.

As the rating shows: When it comes down to it, this book was entertaining and well worth my time:-)