Dragonlance: Dark Disciple Trilogy Volume 1: Amber and Ashes

by Margaret Weis

I was interested immediately due to the fact that it was 1/2 of THE Dragonlance team. I was also interested to read Weis on her own after having read a novel of Tracy Hickman that was done with his wife, Laura. That particular book never took off with me and I never finished it. I may try again one day, but I didn’t feel the same magic. With Margaret, it may have helped being set in a familiar universe, but it definitely flowed a bit better.

But it still didn’t reach the previous highs of the Hickman/Weis teams. Like Lennon/McCartney, Jagger/Richards, Mercury/May/Taylor/Deacon, it seems the sum of the team is greater than the individual collaborations.

It is certainly an interesting concept. It basically takes a staple of fantasy and places it in a world that until now was bereft of it…Vampires. It is really more of a combination Vampire/Zombie though given that the undead would slowly begin losing their minds and personalities.

Chemosh, Lord of the Dead, tries to fill the gaping void left by the fallen Takhisis and he’s not alone. Sargonnas and Nuitari to a degree have grander designs, but none like Chemosh. Chemosh finds Mina, who is still fawning over her fallen goddess adn convince her to join him. Mina goes out and recruits new followers for Chemosh who up until now had only the dead and decayed. Now they would get living followers, and grant them immortality, health, all in exchange for their soul. The spread starts slowly and builds realistically allowing the horror of the situation to shine through.

The leading hero role is taken on by Rhys, a monk of Majere whose brother gets infected. After his fellow monks of the monostary are slaughtered by his brother, Rhys has a crisis of faith and knows only that he must stop his brother. He joins with Zeboim, dark ruler of the sea who has her own grudges against Chemosh.

Every Dragonlance story needs a kender and instead of trying to find yet another way to resurrect Tas, we are left with a new kender, Nightshade. And for the first time that I’ve seen in Dragonlance tales, the kender works. Nightshade can talk to the dead, and doesn’t act very much like a kender overall but it is certainly not a bad addition to the everexpanding Dragonlance roster.

The story is a bit slow at times and plodding, and sometimes the roles just are a bit muddied. The interaction between gods and mortals is of high importance now but this cheapens the once awe inspiring immortals.

Also less inspiring was Ausic Krell, a death knight and basically a replacement for Lord Soth. Krell was an embarassment and not fear inducing like Soth was..at least to the reader.

But, it isn’t a total disaster. Far from it. At the end I definitely wanted to continue to further the Dragonlance mythology. And I really liked Rhys and Nightshade.

Overall, while not a home run, it certainly was an entertaining read that kept me engaged.

B