It’s been a long while since I’ve last touched a Dragonlance novel. When I first learned of this magical fantasy world, I was surprised at how many books there were in the series. As with many other people, I tried to find the best way to read the series in the manner that made the most sense. Technically, I should have been reading the Dragons of a New Age trilogy but forsaken it due to a lot of people ranting about the horrible writing from the new authors who took over for Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, who pretty much gave life to the Dragonlance world. So, I skipped that series and followed up with the War of the Souls trilogy. The original Dragonlance authors make a triumphant return and the trilogy starts of with Dragons of a Fallen Sun.

After reading many other fantasy books during the interim, I finally can see why many readers desperately wanted the original authors of the Dragonlance novels to write the next trilogy of books and hopefully, beyond that as well. It’s definitely not the case that I think the other fantasy authors are not good. It’s just that every good author(s) should have a distinctive writing style to make their book unique and both Margaret and Tracy have done an excellent job in reminding me of why I started reading fantasy novels in the first place.

For the most part, the authors have done a pretty good job of filling in the readers of what happened during the Dragons of a New Age trilogy (the one I skipped over). This is very important because events do carry over. In this fifth age, the occupants of Krynn find themselves without magic power for their Gods have abandoned them in order to save them. One of the main focuses in Dragons of the Fallen Sun consists of the elven nations of Qualinesti and Silvanesti. We get to meet new characters such as Mina, Galdar and Gerard (he might have made an appearance in earlier series but I can’t remember). Other more familiar characters such as Tas, Palin, Goldmoon and Caramon return as well. It’s hard to imagine a world where dragons rule over humans and non-humans as well but yet that is exactly what becomes of Krynn in Dragons of the Fallen Sun.

It’s always hard for me to write a review of a book because I always fear of spoiling it. With Dragon’s of a Fallen Sun, this is even more so because there are many plot lines and things can get complicated very fast. Suffice it to say, this book is very plot-driven. However, it doesn’t get boring at all in my opinion. The one minor gripe I have is with some of the dislikeable characters. At certain times, I feel like wringing the necks of Mina, Gilthas and Silvan. They are not necessarily bad characters, but there’s just something irritating about them at times. Mina is a young girl who came out of nowhere one stormy night and quickly awed and shocked an entire army due to her healing powers. Throughout the book, not much information is given about her other than the fact that she’s young, has magical healing abilities, is beautiful, and is on some secret mission. Good or evil, you can’t really make her out yet you’re suppose to think of her as some sort of divine being sent down by some nameless God. Yes, it does get irritating.

The story in Dragons of a Fallen Sun is complicated like I have mentioned above. It’s very hard to summarize it in a simple paragraph because there is so many back history to the world of Krynn. Although you technically can choose Dragons of a Fallen Sun as the very first Dragonlance novel you read, I really don’t recommend it. The ending definitely sets up a cliff hanger of some sort and many questions are left unanswered until the next book comes around. I’ve read other reviews stating that the authors did a much better job with some of the dislikable characters I mentioned above so that’s definitely a good sign. While I do feel that Dragons of a Fallen Sun is a pretty long book, I don’t consider it a drag or bore. I never found myself even having the urge to skip any pages. This I attribute of course, to the awesome authors of this book/series. Long live the Dragonlance chronicles!