The Survivors

Dragonlance: The Anvil of Time #2

by Dan Willis

There are many stories in Krynn--and history is watching.

The Journeyman is charged to use the ancient Anvil of Time to travel back along the river of time and find the lost stories that fell between the pages of the history books.

He finds Bradok Axeblade. A chance meeting in a pub turns into a dire warning of impending apocalypse, and Bradok and a determined band of dwarves must brave the dark of the underworld, facing strange new dangers and horrors long hidden from the light. Hunger, fatigue, betrayal, and death await them, all in their quest to find safety in an alien environment - the surface world.

Tracy Hickman Presents the Anvil of Time is the series title for the stand-alone biographies of several of the most important characters in the Dragonlance world.

Genres: Dragonlance, Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, Fiction

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 4, 2008

About the author

Dan is an award-winning, best-selling author who has been writing for most of his life. He wrote for the long running DragonLance series and has worked in the board game and video game industries as well. His current work is the Arcane Casebook series, a fantasy twist on the 1930’s noir detective story.

Reviews

[Ronnie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is this the worst Dragonlance book I've ever read? No, definitely not. But man, I just could *not* get into it. An absolute slough.

I'm also super confused about how there are so many dwarves that didn't believe in the gods that the entire first third of the book is about religious persecution when the story took place before the Cataclysm. When the gods communicated directly with people, and when they were at their most prominent across the land. Like, in pre-Cataclysm Krynn, knowing the gods existed wasn't a matter of belief, it was a matter of fact. They even had clerics/priests?

Just a really weird disregard of established lore to set up the plot of half the book.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story where the heroes barely get out alive after losing so much. Mostly dark with some great core fantasy adventure elements, specifically, a nebulous tunnel with challenge after challenge (after fleeing a city that is washed away -- possibly at the hands of an angry god). A good mix of suspense, action, mystery and romance.
Looking forward to the rest of the books in the series to see how the other stories connect to this one via the Anvil of Time.

[Mikaël · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the first 25% of the book, it's quite literally just the Bible but with dwarves, which is admittedly kind of amusing but once the story finally start, boy does it take a turn; I haven't seen a darker and more desperate tale in any of the Ravenloft, and things just get bleaker and more hopeless as the book progresses

I was on the edge of my seat for the entire time, it's actually quite brilliant

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has been one of my favorite books in the Dragon Lance saga that I've read so far. All the troubles and obstacles the characters have to go through to survive, will keep you turning page after page. This book was hard for me to put down to go to sleep.

[Tom Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was a bit monotonous, but that’s also part of it. Seemed a bit underwhelming as well. Rage boy made me cry.

[Jim C · Rating 3 out of 5]

My actual rating is 3.5 stars.

This takes place in the world of Dragonlance and is set during the Cataclysm. This tells the story of a group of dwarfs who are united in their quest for survival during a world altering event.

I enjoyed this book as it shows the effects of a major event on a smaller scale. The Cataclysm has been described in other books and how it has changed the world's landscape and its effect on a grand scope. But in this novel, we get an inside look during the actual event and what people do to survive. I liked how not everyone survives and shows the hardship of this ordeal. My gripe with this book and the reason I did not give it a higher rating was it was basically a linear story. For most of this novel one event led into another and there was no choice in the story arc.

That being sad, this was a nice addition to this universe. Fans of this universe have read on numerous occasions about the Cataclysm and this book provides a nice insight to that major event and is a decent novel for the world building plot line.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I definitely liked The Survivors better than the first book. In this one, the dwarf Bradok leads survivors of the Cataclysm through underground perils in an attempt at finding safety and a new home. Though I found the story and setting quite dark and somber, it never felt repetitive or overly depressing. I’m not always a huge fan of underground journeys (as in what felt like 1,000 pages of Galen Beknighted), but this felt fresh and fairly energetic. The connection to the Anvil of Time only came at the very end. So far, this series seems like an excuse to revisit different time periods on Krynn, which does not bother me in the least.