Dragonlance: Dragons of A New Age Volume 2: The Day of the Tempest

by Jean Rabe

I had little hope that Volume 2 would be better than Volume 1 so I was pleasantly surprised that it indeed was better. The only problem, is that anything would have been better and this just cleared that low bar of expectations.

The characters are slightly better, if only because their motivations are made a bit clearer. Well with the exception of Rabe’s invention, Dhamon Grimwulf. As her supposed central character he makes very little advancement until the very end and even that was pretty ridiculous.

The death of a major character in Dragonlance lore came off very poorly. It just reeked of shock value and did little to advance the overall story. But it was the climactic high point.

One of the positives was the inclusion of an older Dragonlance character for familiarity if nothing else. Gilthanas was always a character who was underdeveloped in the Weis/Hickman years, so his choice was even better as it gave Rabe free reign to truly develop him. However, again Rabe didn’t seem to do much more with him than include him and rehash his tale with Silvara.

The mystery Rabe tried to introduce was boring and unsubtle. The action was generic and boring and the dragons were more annoying than fear inspiring.

In truth, I think the only reason I may have liked it even a little bit better was that I had gotten used to the style.

Overall, part 2 is an exact continuation of part 1.

In other words…it’s crap.

D+

(even though I said it was better than part 1 which received the same grade, I could not justify having it enter the C range.)