Twisted Kingdom

Completion Date: July, 2007
Pages: 395
Publication Year: 2000
Purchased in 2007
Dragonlance Chronicles Volume II

Now the people know that the dragon minions of Takhisis, Queen of Dragons, have returned. The people of all nations prepare to fight to save their homes, their lives, and their freedom. But the races have long been divided by hatred and prejudice. Elven warriors and human knights fight among themselves. It seems the battle has been lost before it begins.

The companions are separated, torn apart by war. A full season will pass before they meet again--if they meet again. As the darkness deepens, a disgraced knight, a pampered elfmaiden, and a rattle-brained kender stand alone in the pale winter sunlight.

Not much in the way of heroes.

After reading The Dragons of the Autumn Twilight, I was looking forward to reading the next book in Weis and Hickman's Dragonlance Chronicles. Sadly, this book suffered the fate of most second books in trilogies. It was good, but it was not great. It dragged for me, there was not a lot of action, so it was not a captivating read.

In this book, the main characters split up into groups, so the book covers many different scenes as it follows the main characters around. A lot of interesting things are set up in this book, but you have to wait for the third book for them to come to fruitation. So, onward to the pros. The pros of the book were that there was Tas in a large portion of the book. The mood of this book was a bit darker, so Tas was very serious for himself in this book. He had his humourous moments, but for the most part he was serious. I understand why, but I miss my funny Tas. The goblins in Weis and Hickman's world are HILLARIOUS! They are inventors, and they talk a lot, people have never heard them complete a sentence. When they speak it is in a very jumbled mess. I loved the goblins, I hope to see more of them. One of Tas's more humourous scenes was when he met the goblins because they use sling-shots as elevators. Pretty funny!

Tanis surprises in this book. He is the leader of this group and people look up to him for the next step in their adventure, but the pressure is getting to be too much for him it would seem, and when a character from his past returns it will be interesting to see if he remains the leader or takes easy way out. Some of the other characters develop, and some of them were not in the book enough for me. It was not that the book was written badly, it was that I missed action. The book was all about getting reading for the action, and while there was a little bit near the end, it was a long time coming. That being said, I think it really sets up the trilogy for book 3 where all the action happens.

So, while not a great book, it was readable and I think it will be interesting to see what happens in book three. An enjoyable series.