Hederick the Theocrat

Dragonlance: Villains #4

by Ellen Dodge Severson

Hederick, leader of the Seeker religion in Solace and self-ordained conscience of Krynn, embarks on a terrifying Inquisition that threatens all who follow magic and the true gods and allows the forces of evil into the world

Genres: Dragonlance, Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, Adventure, High Fantasy

310 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

"Freelance Wisconsin writer and editor Ellen Dodge Severson (she lives in La Crosse) keeps her day job supervising the media lab at Winona State University." (http://www.iblist.com/author2403.htm)

Reviews

[Jim C · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel is part of the Dragonlance world. This tells the story of a minor character that was in the original trilogy. In this one, we learn how Hederick discovers the new gods and why he accepts this new religion. We also learn how he intends to stay in power as his foes try to overthrow him and this false religion.

When I started reading this book I was totally invested in the concept. I liked the idea of the spread of a new religion and I understood how a naive character could fall under its thrall. Somewhere in the middle of this novel this book lost its way. The author seemed to become too enamored with fantastical creatures and ideas that took away from the story. It was almost like she had a bunch of ideas and she threw them in a mixer and this was the result. Also, she tried to recapture the magic of the original trilogy with her eclectic group of heroes but it never materialized. My reaction to her ragtag group was "meh" and I was never invested in their cause.

It was a nice attempt by the author to give us a novel about a character that really didn't have much of a role in the original trilogy. Maybe this is what hindered the author. If you skip this novel, you wouldn't be missing much.

[Elaine Reinhard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic adventure fantasy. Lots of exciting travels that keep you guessing.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

To save myself the time already spent reading this book, I'm just going to copy and paste the review from the last book I read in the TSR-series of books. The only edit being that I only had to write this once as opposed to the 3 times referenced below. Yay.

This book was ok. The writing was ok. The story and even the characters were quite ok!

I find it much more frustrating to read an ok book rather than an outright bad book. At least with a bad book you can kvetch and complain and marvel at the horror of what you are, for some reason, reading.

With an ok book, I just feel stuck in a monotonous hell that slowly deadens the soul.

To add to the experience, I had to write this little review 3 times as it kept disappearing. A perfect ending to this book-reading experience!

Ok.

[Ronald Wilcox · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author took a relatively minor villainous character from the original series and gave him an interesting back story. We first meet Hederick as a teenager when he is saved from the attack of a giant lynx by a Seeker priest of the New Gods. He becomes inspired to become a priest himself but his self-serving nature and amorality take precedence as he ascends in the Church, causing him to murder hundreds in the name of the New Gods. The original Seeker priest and Hederick’s sister team up to try to stop him over the decades. Actually a fairly absorbing story but skips too large of segments of his life for my taste.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

This author is also Ellen Porath and it's a good job I didn't know that going in since she wrote Steel and Stone, one of Dragonlance's poorest showings. Well, this isn't nearly so bad and frustratingly it actually starts out rather good with a brooding tale of the cynical Hederick who gives it all up for religious power. The satire is a little too upfront but it's fun and engaging. Then the action time skips, shifts to Solace and starts jumping around characters we never get to grow and love, before we know it we've hit that traditional Dragonlance ending where magic happens and our heroes are done. My biggest complaint perhaps being that this should never have been a story about heroes trying to beat Hederick at all, when there wer so many other direction im which this might have gone.

That's my Dragonlance hot streak broken, alas!

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read it for the insight on the clerics of Gilean. I didn't much like Ancilla's black and white view on good, and her vow confuses me some since she's a wizard. But I imagine she traded some immense useless power fie the vow to not hurt one of the most evil people ever. I hate that she was useless even with grand views of power, and I hate that Hederick was able to abuse a Good aligned artifact with no repercussions or changes in alignment. An evil artifact would have corrupted your soul. A good artifact should have at least rejected an evil host. The only excuse is that it is tied to Ancilla and, therefore, loves Hederick specifically.

3 out of 5 because the Cleric of Gilean parts were very useful to me, and the book was short.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda felt like I was reading about the Kingpriest allover again. Same ideas of purging, cleansing, punishing, and complete control over the people. It was an ok read, just it is a different character with the same story just condensed down.

[Mikaël · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is essentially just the Beldyn arc again, but without the gods, powers or interesting characters

[Jeremy Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hederick The Theocrat is the fourth book in The Villains Series that is set in the Dragonlance world. The Villains series is supposed to provide some background for the most memorable villains from the War of the Lance. Unfortunately, Hederick is neither memorable nor a villain in The Chronicles series. For those of you who don’t remember who Hederick is and where he fits into The Chronicles, Hederick is the seeker priest that was at the Inn of the Last Home when the blue crystal staff was revealed. I believe he is only in the novel for about 3-5 pages.

To check out the rest of the review click on the link to my website.

[http://www.thefantasyreview.com/2007/...]

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just finished reading Hederick the Theocrat today. Honestly, I didn’t enjoy much of it. What I assumed would be the main thrust of the story (Hederick’s youth and joining the Seeker religion) was rushed through in the first two chapters. Then the story zoomed ahead to Solace decades later and revolved around an ever-increasing number of characters whom I never felt invested in. It wasn’t necessarily bad, but it did feel rushed to me. I’m going to try to read Lord Toede next. Hoping that one turns out to be more enjoyable.

[Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun villian tale. Now this is fantasy I can sink my teeth into. Not exactly top-draw, but still a good solid read. I enjoyed this book greatly. =)